Cultural Exposure and Weekend Tourism - Daegu & Goryeong

After a week of study, lecture, and learning my first weekend since training began finally had come.

View from Haany University, Daegu.

During my initial arrival to orientation prior to training our group had participated in one cultural experience day. During this time we toured the campus in which we were staying, Daegu Haany University or 대구한의대학교. My first experience was during personal exploration prior to our planned events, where a group of my fellow classmates and I discovered this bell tower at the highest point on campus. It had a beautiful view of the surrounding countryside, and with the sun shining the bell tower itself was quite nice to look at. The sun shone on the tower and made the colors of the paint really stand out. Since it is still winter the grass was all yellow and dead, but it was warm out nevertheless and it was enjoyable.

Loving the view of the mountains in this area

 Following my exploring our group went to the cultural center of the campus and this is where we painted traditional fans, followed through with our very own tea ceremony, and were able to try on Korean traditional dress, also known as Hanbok ( 한복 ). I thought that these were fun experiences for the first day. The fan painting went well. I learned that it only takes the slightest drop of water to make your colors bold once painted. Some of the people I sat near were real artists with their fans and I think they turned out very impressive. Mine I figured was about average. There were two choices of fans to decorate. The first was one of a tiger, which is considered a guardian that keeps away evil spirits and brings good fortune. The second fan, which I chose, depicted a magpie and lotus flowers. The magpie is believed to be the deliverer of good luck.

 The tea ceremony was very historical in feel. We were all dressed to traditional custom, learned how to sit, to bow properly (which for females is the right hand over the left, hands in your lap), and how to make tea the traditional way. We prepared green tea during our lesson and it tasted fairly good once we had finished even though my partner and I spilled a little by accident.








For the following weekend we went on a cultural trip to Goryeong and saw the Daegaya Museum and Tourist Park. We also were able to take part in the activities of making our own traditional taffy, bracelet making, and rice cake production. The museum, which we visited first, was filled with historical artifacts discovered nearby from the tombs of long since passed rulers and noblemen from the Baekje period ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baekje -for more information). In the tombs, the deceased ruler would be buried along with their belongings, including livestock and living servants for the journey to the afterlife. Among the relics unearthed in this area were shoes, jewelry, armor, horse tack, tools and pottery, and crowns. It was impressive the substantial amount of pottery that seems to have survived from this period, and the craftsmanship that went into creating it.

Ancient Pottery

Chicken Shaped Pottery

Solider Uniform

Gilt-Bronze shoes

Kayagum 가야금
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gayageum

Earrings

Crown

These tombs can be recognized as large dome shaped mounds most often up in the mountains in this area. Just the vast number of mounds visible spotting the mountainside goes to provide an impressive view, along with a powerful message of loyalty, power, and the influence those people must have held.

A look on the inside of a typical tomb

All the round domes across the landscape are tombs.

Following the tomb exhibit I was able to eat some great food, see some fun exhibits at the tourist park, interact with some locals, and do more traditional activities. The theme park, which was located across the street from the tomb exhibit, held a large supply of interesting exhibits on Korean culture and history. At one point a friend of mine and I were able to take a nice family photo for a Korean family who was also visiting the park that day. It made me feel great to be able to do something for them, regardless of the language barrier between us. We also had a touch and go conversation with one of the elderly women working at the park when she saw the group I was in swooning over the cardboard cut out of Kim Soo-Hyun which was in the park. She seemed to be surprised that people from the USA knew and recognized the famous actor and asked us about where we were from and what brought us to Korea.

Lunch :)

 This is the process of making Korean taffy...first it is a very sticky substance that you must pull with a partner and stretch. It will eventually become thicker and change to a lighter color. Once it reaches this lighter, smooth color and becomes long when pulled it is then laid out on a sheet like seen here. Then after several minutes it will harden, and when struck, will then break  into small bite-sized pieces of taffy. Now personally, I think that taffy is tasty, but at the same time I find it to have a fairly plain taste. It certainly isn't like any taffy you would find being made where I am from. It is less sweet, less flavor-filled, but still good in the traditional hand-made sense.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeot

 This here is the traditional style bracelet that I tied. It took a very patient woman to teach me the correct way to knot it, but I eventually caught on. Then when she returned I understood most of her remarks of... "Oooh, I like it. Very good. Pretty~" as she tied the final knot for me and fastened it to my wrist, even though she spoke in Korean. I was the first at my table to finish, so I was proud of myself.

Here is the process of preparing the rice cakes we made. The glutinous rice mixture is placed on a moistened wooden platform, where it is beaten with a mallet until it reaches the appropriate consistency. Then it is cut into strips, rolled in soy powder and eaten. It is tasty, but can be considered somewhat plain compared to other foods that I have tried. Watching my group members compete to beat the dough was very entertaining also.

Following the field trip, I went back into downtown Daegu later that evening with a large group of people to sight see. I also managed two firsts that night. My first Korean club and my first overnight Jimjilbang ( 찜질방  ). The club was fun indeed. I had never been to a club before, even in the USA, so seeing one in Korea was exciting with all the lights, dancing, and napkins being thrown in the air like confetti. I didn't even need to drink to have a blast. We ended up being out until nearly 5 am that morning.

Second Hotel - Daegu

That's when we practically crawled into the Jimjilbang, changed into the provided clothing, got out mats and went to the communal sleeping room. We were so exhausted we skipped the spa part, all of us not ready to embrace the naked policy of the spa quite yet, even if genders are separated. We crashed on our mats on the floor and passed out within minutes, only to be up three and a half hours later to get breakfast, shop, and wander the town for the remainder of the day.

Sleepy People