Jeon Dong Catholic Church and Bibimbap Festival

Two weekends ago I went with a group of people from Church to Jeonju to see one of the most famous Catholic churches in South Korea. It was built starting in 1907 which wasn’t very long ago at all, showing how recently Catholics were accepted in Korea. The church was built on the place where the first martyrs of the Korean Catholic church were killed in 1791.

The church was very simple, yet beautiful. However, there was a wedding in progress while we were there, but it was no problem! People were wandering in the back of check to look at the church, right in the middle of the wedding! I must admit I was intrigued and stood in the back of the church for a while to watch the ceremony. The aisle had gorgeous flowers on the pews and there was an amazing singer!

After checking out the church we made our way to the Bibimbap Festival. Basically the bibimbap is a combination of a bunch of scary looking food all piled together with rice, but I figured “when in Korea… “ Apparently you can’t call any combination a Jeonju Bibimbap, it has to be made in a certain way by the master, so as to reflect the spirits of Jeonju. There was also some kind of egg/potatoe dish that wouldn’t have been that bad if it weren’t for the octopus/squid legs on top! When I pulled them off, there were still indentions from their suckers!! That reminds me, my friend ate a live octopus the other day not too far from here! Disgusting!! But I think it’s a delicacy around here.

There were a bunch of street vendors in Jeonju, even someone selling insect larvae… again, gross!! But people were buying them by the cupful and looking about as excited as Amy and I at the gyro stand back in Ames! We also saw some Korean Boy Band sensation… the Korean equivalent of the Back Street Boys!

Finally we wandered through the Hanok Village which is the only authentic traditional Korean village in Korea. It has about 700 Korean traditional houses and has many cultural facilities including Gyeonggi-jeon where King Lee Seonggye’s portrait is kept, we checked that out too but weren’t allowed to take pictures. It was very different walking through this village since you could see right into people’s backyard, you could even walk right into most of them.

English Lessons

Hello! Nothing exciting to report today so I'll share another story from the weekend. On Friday one of my friends asked me if I wanted to teach English with her on Saturday, I said sure since I didn't have any plans. So on Saturday morning, my friend Janice and I, along w/ 3 others, jumped in a van and headed for an unknown destination to teach English. One of the civilians Janice works with set it all up and they love having personnel from the base come teach.

First, they took us to a hole in the wall local restaurant that is famous for their food trays of pork and tofu. Needless to say, I didn't eat much. They had some really bean sprouts though! There were even baby shrimp--the smallest shrimp I've ever seen! Also notice that we sat on the floor while eating which is tradition in Korea.

We arrived at the school and met the principal. We still didn't have very much direction as to what we should be teaching the students! Basically they just wanted us to talk to the students so they could practice their English skills. Poor kids, they were in school on Saturday! Apparently four years ago they started going to school every other Saturday, but next yeat they will go every Saturday!

I "taught" six fifteen-year old girls English for about an hour and a half. It was pretty cool and very interesting. They can speak English fairly well but still have a hard time understanding some things, especially when I start talking too fast! Most girls told me they got 91, 87, 92 on their English test, but one girl got an 8!! They also showed me their musical instruments, mostly drums which made a lot of noise! It was a great experience and I'll be a lot more prepared if I'm able to go back again!

Flamingos

Friends, I've been inspired by Holly and Ryan's South African blog and I also decided it was time I shared my adventure! And it's a lot of fun to look back at old blogs, I revisted our trip to Espana today! Promise I'll do a better job of updating this one than I did while I was deployed!

First, let me explain the flamingos! A fews weeks ago some of us took a day trip north to visit the other South Korean base. There base is a lot bigger than ours and people are also allowed to bring their families, so it's a completely different atmosphere. They also have a Chili's on Base and their grocery store is 10 times bigger than ours! So my friend Brandon decided we should buy pink flamingos to put out front of our building. However, people figured they would be stolen so we posted them outside our room doors instead and they've become our mascots!

My friend Brandon is back in the states visiting his family, so we decided to take Frank the Flamingo out on the town. Five of us set out for a park downtown that we've heard good things about. Fifteen minutes later we arrived and were impressed from the start! There is a HUGE lake right in the middle of the city! It was georgeous! There were shops, restaurants and even cotten candy vendors all around the lake. We walked around for awhile and tried riding the giant swan paddle boats but they were closed. Finally we ate at a nice Italian restaurant right next to the water. It was really pretty at night too!

I hope you enjoy this blog and are able to check out my adventures! I'll keep posting more and hope to become a better blogger :)

Lisa