September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006
February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006
July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006
December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007


Weigh In Time!
11/01/06
Andong Trip
11/05/06
Spicy Smoked Pork!
11/14/06
To Cambodia!
11/27/06
       

It's hot here!
11/28/06
Cambodia Deux
11/29/06
Angkor Wat
11/30/06		  
       
       

Andong Trip
November 05, 2006

Today I went on a trip with a high school class and handful of other foreigners.  The trip was designed so the foreigners could visit the historical city Andong and the high school students could practice their English with us.  I've been to Andong twice before (Andong & Mask Festival) and it's my favorite city to visit.

I didn't take any pictures from one of our stops because we were told that pictures weren't allowed.  This was at the Andong Mask Museum, but I did take a ton of pictures when I was there before.  You can check them out here - Andong.  I guess I was a law breaker the last time I visited!

The bus ride begins!

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Besides a busload of high school kids, there were also Korean English teachers and foreign English teachers.  It began to rain pretty hard on our way to Andong, but the rain stopped before we got there and didn't rain again the whole day.  Lucky us!

Our first stop was a traditional Korean paper (Hanji) making place.  We toured the whole place and got to see how the paper is made start to finish.  At the end of the tour, we got to make our own piece of paper.  It was very cool.  I should've told them to make some paper towels.  I can never find enough in the bathrooms here!

Byeongsan Seowon
(Confucian School)

Our next stop was a beautiful Confucian school nestled in a mountain covered with colorful trees near a peaceful river.  It was very interesting to visit what is essentially a school that is over 450 years old.

Sleeping Time!

I think the students were tired so most of them took a nap.  I, of course, respecting their silent slumber snapped pictures of them in their sleepy poses.  The last one is my favorite.

Flower Time!

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I'm not sure if this stop was part of our schedule or not, but we drove up to a field of flowers, and literally "stopped and smelled the flowers."

Bongjeongsa Temple

Next was a Buddhist Temple that is home to the oldest wooden Korean building (Geuknakjeon).  After touring the beautiful temple we found a frog who eagerly posed for some pictures.  I'll let you know in a few days if the frog was poisonous or not.

5 story pagoda

Our final stop was visiting the Jotap-dong 5-story Brick Pagoda.  It was built in the Unified Silla Period (668-935).  Now that's some old bricks!

 

 

What I learned today about Korea:  1)  I'm still alive so I guess that frog wasn't poisonous.