To The Field!

On Monday my school had its Spring trip. I don't recall exactly how Il-kyu referred to said trip, but I soon derived that we would be going on a field trip. Class usually starts at 9am. Instead we all met out and abouts on the soccer field. Then we all walked to the waiting luxury buses...

OMG! These were some nice buses! They were quite comfy and carried me happily through the Korean countryside for the next 45 minutes to an hour.


We rolled up on the destination. I saw a couple buildings and a covered pavilion, housing a bunch of picnic tables. The purpose of the day's trip was still a mystery to me. At that time we lined up all the kids into their classes. We lined them up and counted them all before getting on the bus. I guess counting them once they got off again was just to make sure none of the comfy bus seats had actually ate any of the children....

Oh! A short aside... We rode with the 1st and 3rd graders. One of the 3rd graders, who happens to be one of my biggest fans, was placed directly in front of Il-kyu and I. She then proceeded to share all kinds of tasty Korean treats with us. I thought it was rather sweet. :)

So, the kids were milling about and forming lines and such. Having no actual attention span, I set about finding interesting things to photograph. Here's a close-up of a flowering bush. It has nice, pretty flowers. Me Mum likes to see such things, so you all get to see as well.

When we hopped out of the bus, I immediately noticed these flowers. They were all along the roadside and made me think of the formation of dandelions in the US. Now, there are dandelions here in SK, but these little purple flowers are much prettier.

Eventually, the day's activities began to reveal themselves. We would busy the children with the educational tasks of making our damned lunch!

The 4th -6th graders were stationed in the pavilion. They were spread out in groups along the picnic tables. A big bowl was in front of each group. In each bowl was placed a bunch of (what looked like) flour and a little water.

And the kids mixed it together crazily to form a dough....

But, whatever could they be making?

Ugh! It's sooooooo messy! The dough is for a food called Man-do. Man-do. Not, Man-dough. Man-do!

Have you ever had Chinese dumplings? Gyoza? Boiled? Fried? Whatever? Well, in Korea it's called Man-do. That's what they're making.

For the uninitiated, they made a dough. Then they roll it and make it nice and flat. They cut out a round bit of dough (about 5 or 6 inches in diameter). In the center goes a blot of filling. The filling is usually veggies and seasonings. Pork and chicken are also usually ground into the veggies. You fold the dough over and pinch it shut.

Sometimes the dumplings are just boiled until the dough is cooked and the innards are warm. Other times they are boiled as above and then fried for a crispy exterior. They are best when fried. Either way, they are usually yummy.... we'll come back to Man-do soon...

After a while, I inquired as to what the younglings were up to...

They were making jello....

Brown jello, green jello, white jello, orange jello, and others! Wee! Fun stuff? What could it be?

Kiwi? Apricot? What wonderful flavors? I was not to know for a while yet. The jello takes time to set. As I had to wait to partake of said jello, so too must you wait to hear of my experience with said jello. Have patience!

So, it is nice to not be the only one with a short attention span. After a while of watching the kids piddle around Il-kyu and Eun-Gi (5th grade teacher) decided to take a walk about the area. I, lacking any other form of stimulation, decided to follow...

Here above is the sign for the local village. More purple flowers too.

Some water. A well. Click the picture for a more up close view of the murky water! Ooooooooo pretty!

A funky birdhouse I saw on the walk. Thought you might find it interesting. If you actually find it interesting then it was you I was referring to when I said "you might find it interesting". If you think it's absolute rubbish, then I was referring to all the other readers (who have much better taste and more interesting definitions of interesting) when I said "you might find it interesting".

Those hills are alive. With the sound of music. Seriously. I could hear them breathing. If you do the click thing, you can see some tombs on the hills. Graveyards are for losers. Real men get buried on hillsides in the country.

They don't appear to have graveyards here. Or at least I haven't seen any... Much better to get put on a hill over looking some nice country.

Look! Aren't they pretty? That's another flowering tree/bush-thing. I put it in the foreground of the picture to provoke interest.

It's annoying, you know? Spending so much time taking pictures, I find my brain retraining itself to look at things as if always measuring the potential of interest they might generate if photographed. I don't pretend for a second that I'm becoming a good (or even mildly decent) photographer. Instead, I'm just always seeing things through an omnipresent, yet invisible, camera lens. Thanks overly demanding reading public...

Here's some more tombs!

Here's even more tombs! I may have posted this picture twice. It may be remotely different though, what do you think? I can't tell, and I'm too lazy to rectify the situation.

There's that pesky pavilion! Look at it, being all pesky like that!

Here is a really good pic of a tomb. That center mound would be the burial spot. Surrounding the burial mound is a 'u' shaped hill. This is representative of early Korean villages. In front you wanted a straight and easy view. Best if there was a lake there too. To your back and sides you wanted a hill or mountain to protect from invasion. That's the honorable way to bury folk too...

I think this method is only for those with money though. Land is at a premium so I don't think most are interned whole. I think it's more common to be cremated now-a-days.

Ah, back to the pavilion! There's some of the Man-do fully formed and ready to boil!

It was boiled. We ate some. The kids are not perfect at the art of crafting Man-Do. Yet, they are mostly good. The jello? OMG! That was not good. Jello that looked like it should be kiwi, apricot, and pineapple, was instead, ack, yuk, and OMG! PUKE! YUCK!!!!!!!!!! NOT GOOD!

Okay, what do you see here? A really low volleyball net? Yeah, that's what I saw. In fact, it is a really low volleyball net. Why, you ask? Well, that's because they play a volleyball like game using only the hips down. Yep, no hands, feet instead. Weird, but a lot of fun!

After a while, some people in costume showed up. Il-kyu said they were traditional Korean circus folk. While they may have been Carnies, I did not discern a scent of cabbage....

They started off with this lady tight rope walking. Cool, tightrope. Neato.

Then she jumped across the damned rope. Next she jumped backwards. Then on one foot. Then on one foot backwards. Lady was crazy. If that rope had been 50 feet up, I'd have questioned her sanity.

Oh, Korea has many fun products. Lots of things I would normally like to take photos of. However, I mostly see these in stores where I am not feeling the photo bug. While Mel is always embarrassed to photo stuff, I usually am only feeling said embarrassment in super crowded places.

Anyways, said "crunky" candy can be found in stores. Yes, Crunky. Not, crunchy. "Crunky". LOL!

So, eventually we set out for the return trip. Along the way I made some photos of the Korean countryside....

Here's some hills, and a lake.

More lake.

A little more lake.

Damn, that was a big lake!

Look at the left of the pic. I have no idea what it is. Maybe an over flow for the lake

A bridge over the lake that might actually be a river.

Well, looks like this is the last picture I took. That's okay, I'm tired of blogging. Hope you enjoyed the show.

-Aaron