Jeonju Here I Come!

The farthest I got away from Hwacheon during the winter vacation is Jeonju. I really wanted to visit another ETA during my vacation as it was quite a distance and she made the trip all the way up here during festival.

Saturday morning, I set out on my 4 hour journey from Chuncheon to Jeonju. I was so happy to finally arrive and to get off the bus. The nice part about the Korean public bus system is that they do take a break at one point during the trip, but it's still a really long time to spend on the bus.

When I finally arrive, I meet up with my friend and we walk to her apartment. Afterwards we make our way to the Hanok Village. This is a traditional are of Jeonju that has traditional houses and is a really famous place to rent hambok and take pictures. We didn't do that, but there were a lot of people there that did. The place was beautiful and I really enjoyed looking in all of the little shops. We taste tested some treats and teas that these stands were selling and had a really good lunch. On our way out, we stopped in a shop that is known for its Mandu (dumplings) and a little cafe that is famous for its chocopies. I had some great food while I was there.

Because of some obligations at school the next day, I had to leave and make the long trip back on Sunday afternoon, so I didn't actually get to spend a lot of time there. I would love to go back and get to try some more food. We ended up walking around the shopping area for a bit, stopping in a Vietnamese place for brunch and a bakery to buy some sweets. We finally settled in a cafe for a bit to talk before having to go back to the apartment to grab my bag and head back to the bus station, where I had to spend another 4 hours on the bus to go home.

I loved going to Jeonju and visiting my friend. I really want to go back before the grant year is up. I just hope I get to stay longer next time.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. I was so caught up, I forgot to take any.

Solo Adventures to Yongpyeong Ski Resort.

My winter break wasn't as adventurous as I had hoped it would be. When my plans to visit Japan fell through, I found myself staying close to home for the majority of the break. Between the festival in January and getting ready for my black belt test at the end of February, I found it hard to convince myself to leave and visit other places. Upon realizing that my vacation was soon ending, I was determined to go out and visit somewhere. On Facebook, a travel company that plans short trips around the country aimed towards foreigners was advertising a day trip to Yongpyeong Ski Resort. Unfortunately, there was no skiing on the schedule, but it still looked interesting, and it wasn't too expensive. The only downside was that it left out of Seoul early Sunday morning and came home very late Sunday night. This meant that I needed to find a place to stay for Saturday and Sunday nights. That was alright, however, because it gave me the perfect excuse to get out and visit Seoul a bit.

So I rode the train into Seoul on Saturday and checked into the place I was staying. When I travel and don't have something specific I want to do, I am perfectly happy just walking around and seeing things. I decided that I wanted to go to Namdaemun Market and Myeongdong. Namdaemun is the largest market in Seoul and is a massive expansion of shops, restaurants, and street vendors. There were so many people and many things. I ended up buying a few rings for really cheap and a present for my friend, I was going to see the following weekend. Not far from Namdaemun is Myeongdong. This is the shopping district in Seoul. This area has lots of chain stores with clothing, beauty, and jewelry. There are also a lot of street vendors here as well. I didn't spend as much time here, but it was cool to get to. From there, I was tired of walking, and I was ready to get back. I spent my evening getting ready for my long trip the next day.

Yongpyeong is actually located at the bottom of Gangwon Provance. About three hours away from Seoul. When we got there, though, the mountains were beautiful and covered in snow. Something that was missing up on my mountain in Hwacheon. As soon as we got there, we went right to putting on the rented snow pants and jacket. They gave me a bright orange jacket. I was very sad, but at least I didn't look quite as bright as some of the other people. We then took the gondola up to the top of the mountain. I found out when I was there that two very famous Kdramas, Goblin and Winter Sinota, were partially filmed there. I found that really interesting because Nami Island (in Chuncheon, near where I live) also had Winter Sinota filmed there. I should really get around to watching those shows. The view from the top of the mountain was very beautiful, and we got to spend about 15 minutes just enjoying it and taking pictures.

When we returned to the bottom, it was time to go snow tubing. I was disappointed that it wasn't free sledding, but actually, a competition that we were participating in, so I only got to go down twice, but it was neat that there was an escalator belt on the ground, so we didn't have to climb up the mountain. I did come down so fast though both times, that I had trouble stopping. The first time, I ran right into the inflated wall in the back, and the second, I ran into another person. I felt terrible because it hurt. I didn't get a chance to apologize though. The girl just disappeared afterward.

After that, we returned our ski clothes and moved to the indoor portion of the trip. This included dressing in hanbok and having dinner. It was a lot of fun. The whole trip was part of the Asia Snow Festival that was being held that week, so we also got to play some new years games as well as enjoy a taekwondo demonstration. It was a really nice way to end the trip.

I actually got to meet a lot of really nice people while I was there. There were foreigners from all over: Netherlands, Philippines, Thailand, Pakistan, India, Egypt, etc. It was really cool to get out of my comfort zone for the day and experience something. I took the initiative and it paid off. Yay!!!

New Year... New Me? My Year of Korean

10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...Happy New Year!

Why is it that once you reach '1' you are suddenly supposed to become a brand new person? I've never really understood "New Years Resolutions" simply because what is the point of making a resolution if you don't keep it? Why do you have to make it in January? Why can't you make these resolutions any time of year? Why is it that once you break your resolution, you suddenly can never pick it up again? Oops, forgot to workout for the past week (month), guess I'll try again next year. 

Don't get me wrong. I still make them every year. I also make a specific effort not to tell anyone my resolution. I guess that way they can't be mad at me or make me feel guilty when I inevitably break.

Usually, though, my goals are the typical ones that aren't too important to me at the time. They are things that are important and I really want to do, but not doing them won't exactly 'hurt' my day to day life.

This year is different. Maybe, because it isn't exactly a resolution, but just simply a start date. Or maybe because this was something I was already doing, but just needed to be better at.

This year. My resolution is to study Korean every day. I have been in this country since July. I still can't talk to people. I feel terrible about it. I want to be able to talk to people so much. I feel bad when I finally do get around native English speakers because I just let go. I talk so much and so fast. I don't check my speech or word choice. It's a bit of a problem. That won't go away, but I'm hoping to get better at actually talking to people.

So here's the deal. I WILL do this. Every day I WILL write in Korean in a journal. Each month, I will write one paragraph in Korean. Every day, I will study one or more of several study options. These are the 'Talk To Me In Korean' resources, 'Basic Korean Grammar' textbook, apps on my phone or other resources.

To keep me on track, I bought a small planner from Daiso (a Korean under 5 dollars store) that has monthly and weekly spreads, as well as lined and gridded paper in the back. This is where I keep track of my daily practice, trackers for my lessons, as well as all of my writing. I take my Korean notes in other notebooks, but this journal is my buddy. I am writing this now because I am well into February and I am still going. I want to hold myself accountable this year.

Please ignore my Korean (if you can read it), I'm still learning. 

Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Fishing Festival

During the majority of January, my beautiful town held a fantastic festival. From the name of the festival, many would think that there wasn't much to it. They would ask what there even was to do beyond ice fishing. But this three-week festival was so much more than just ice fishing (though that was a huge part of it).

I first read about this festival way back in July when I first learned I was being placed here. I was so excited. Festivals are a huge part of Korean culture, and to have one that belongs to my placement was such a great thing to me. 

Now, this isn't a small thing in Hwacheon. The county government goes all out. They started putting lights and fish decorations up in the trees and along streets way back in December. And these weren't small decorations. It was almost excessive. But it was so beautiful. As a girl who absolutely loves lights, I was in heaven looking at them. During the festival, they even closed down the main street (which was covered in lights), and you could walk down the street and listen to the entertainment and eat food from vendors. 

The first thing I got to experience was the Indoor Ice Sculpture Plaza. It advertised that it was the largest indoor ice sculpture plaza in the world. And it was pretty grand. I actually got to go early. Afterschool one day, just before the festival started, all the teachers at my school were given tickets to go visit the plaza. It was so cool, not only because it was so beautiful, and it was awesome to see the art, but it was just the teachers from my school (it wasn't open to the public), so I was able to get good pictures of the castles and the sculptures without a bunch of people in the way. The entire place was made of ice. Looking at it, it looked fake but once you are up close you realize it's all real. It's all ice. Amazing. You could actually go up in the buildings and everything. There was even a slide. 

The festival itself took place on the frozen river that goes through my town. Probably about three-quarters of it was used for ice fishing (as that is what the festival was all about) but there was a portion for other activities. What was neat about the ice fishing, is that since the festival was foreigner friendly, there was one section of the river portioned off just for foreigners. It was really nice because the Korean part was really crowded all the time. I actually went fishing on three separate occasions, and I didn't catch a fish a single time. I did, however, get the fish my friends caught off their hooks. A few of them were really squeamish. I felt really bad for the fish. I knew I was hurting it, but it had to be done. 

The other activities were a lot more fun, and a lot less violent. It's near impossible to write everything that I did, but here are a few highlights. There was a giant snow tubing slide that slid onto the frozen river and a 500-meter long zip line over the fishing areas. They had ice skating, traditional ice sleds, ice soccer, and curling courts. Even barehanded ice fishing (where you get into a pool in shorts and a t-shirt and try and grab as many fish as you can with your bare hands, I didn't do that). There was delicious food lined up along either side of the river and even little tent restaurants where you could take your freshly caught fish and cook them up and eat them. There were some activities for kids that I couldn't do. One section beside the river was Ethiopian themed. I didn't know this, but apparently, some Ethiopian soldiers fought in the Korean War actually in Hwacheon, so now they do an exchange scholarship program with the country to this day. They served Ethiopian coffee and had mock buildings that were created to look like they were from the time of the war. You could even dress up in costumes. 

It was such a wonderful experience and I am so lucky to have had this festival in the place that I am living in.