Squid Ink, North Korea and Halloween

Well, I know everyone is probably anxious to hear what is being said in South Korea about the recent North Korea underground nuclear testing. I'm sorry I haven't written about it, but the overall reaction of the citizens of South Korea is that they seem relatively unnafected by it, in other words: they don't see North Korea as a threat to them. To an American living in America it would seem that South Korea is right in the middle of what is going on; however, to a South Korean the whole issue is an issue between the United States and North Korea. They do not believe that North Korea would ever harm them, so the average citizen has little reason to care what is going on, because they don't realize the direct impact that it could have on them. For the most part, South Koreans truly believe that North Korea will never do them harm, whether or not this is true is something that only Kim Jong Il really knows, but let's hope their right! Also, in many ways the conflict between North and South Korea was never their conflict. The Korean War happened after Korea was already divided, and Korea never chose to divide itself in the first place; the decision was made by foreign nations. South Korea seems to dream of re-unification, when in reality if the two countries were to re-unify anytime soon, it would have a terrible effect on the South Korean economy. The South Korean government knows that the only way to re-unify the two Koreas is to help North Korea build up their economy from within, which is why South Korea has had a "Sunshine policy" towards North Korea in the past. The only problem is that now, with North Korea's nuclear testing, it is no longer socially acceptable in the international community to be kind and patient with North Korea. South Koreans do not seem to realize the effect that a successful North Korean nuclear weapons program could have on them, they only seem to see one ultimate goal in regards to North Korea: re-unification.

On a lighter note, last night I tried abilone and boiled squid with squid ink, a very interesting meal. It was me, my co-teacher and three other Korean teachers, all men and about 30 years my senior. First we went and bought the abilone and the squid at a fish market, where they bargained with the vendors and I stared at the wide variety of live fish swimming around in tanks and bowls. They spent $100 on abilone and squid and then we took it to a restaurant where we were charged another $30 for them to prepare the fish for us and for the soju that was consumed. We ate most of the abilone raw, but there was also a sort of chowder with rice in it that we ate at the end which was made with abilone and they boiled the squid, so it turned purple and was covered in its own black ink... abilone is a delicacy here and they believe that it is very nutritious, which it probably is, but it's not soft like the sashimi, rather it's as if you are chewing on a muscle or something. There are parts of the abilone that are very tough and almost hard. The squid was interesting, and I wish I had my camera, because it was quite a sight, the purple squid cut up and covered in black ink. I'm not a huge fan of squid, but it's sort of like rice, hard not to like because it's quite bland. We ate a wonderful meal, complete with plenty of soju (Korean liquor made from rice, similar to sake). From there we went to a nore bang, or "singing room" as it translates to English where I was asked to sing songs like "Let It Be" by the Beatles and "My Way" by Frank Sinatra, songs that I did not listen to in my youth.
Halloween is on Tuesday, so I have been teaching a lesson on Halloween all week, very fun. I start off with a slideshow of jack-o-lanterns, witches, and Americans in costumes, then we play pictionary with Halloween images and finally, I make all the girls say trick or treat on their way out of class, and give them all a piece of candy! It's has been really fun to share such a fun holiday with them!

Purple Orchids

Well, Tonight we went to dinner and we had a great time with some of my parents' friends. It was just my Korean parents, another couple and me. We ate Kalbi, which is the pork meat that is grilled right at your table, a very common dish for eating out in Korea. When we finished our meal, we got up to leave and went outside. The friend smoked and my Korean mother and I drank coffee in the parking lot while everyone chatted with the owner and his wife. (Usually when you go out to eat in Korea you go to a friend or family member's restaurant; this could have to do with the fact that there are soooo many restaurants, it's good to support a friend. Also, Koreans are big on connections and loyalty.) Anyways, as they finished up their conversation all of a sudden I watch my host father go into the restaurant and emerge with a four foot tall plant in a ceramic pot. It most definitely looks like an orchid to me, but I still haven't gotten used to seeing them everywhere I go. The friend is saying, "for Jennifer; in her room" and I'm thinking oh my gosh; it's beautiful, but will it really fit in my room? Where am I going to sleep? That is a slight exaggeration, but my room really is tiny. In my head I thought it was some sort of a joke, because it just seemed weird that they would give me this huge plant; I had still not even met the owner of the restaurant and the plant clearly came from the restaurant. I thought that they had just given it to my host parents and it was the friend's idea that the plant go in my room. I only had one option at this point, the most common option, which is to wait and see what happens. Sure enough, when we got home my host father marched right into the house, into my room and placed the enormous house plant on my desk! He told me to water it three times a day, and I still feel as though I'm a little over my head in that regard, because it's such a beautiful plant that if it dies under my watch I will be devestated. Anyways, as you can see from the picture it really is beautiful and it will be a treat to wake up to it every morning. As for my weekend, it was really nice. I am growing increasingly busy with social engagements with teachers/friends that I work with, my family and co-teacher from school, not to mention the other Fulbright ETAs on the island that I rarely see anymore. I find myself booked up almost every weekend which is really nice, because I enjoy spending time with Koreans more than any aspect of my time here. In school I have had some small discipline problems to deal with; the main problem is talking while I'm trying to teach, which can get way out of hand really quickly with forty students in a classroom. On Wednesday I will start my Halloween lesson which should be fun, because the students work so hard, so we can play games and I will pass out candy!

More Photos of Japan...

Here I am on my first morning in Japan, having a 7 am breakfast after a 6 hour overnight bus ride...

The shrine on Miyajima Island right before we swam out to it...

As we got off the ferry at the ferry station on Miyajima Island we were greeted by deer that were roaming around the terminal. Apparently all the tourists feed the deer too much and now they are more like varments than deer; they roam around eating people's food and getting into trash, etc.

In Hiroshima at the Peace Memorial Park, following the 7am breakfast, which followed the 6 hour overnight bus ride.

The oysters on the island were amazing; they grilled them inside their shells then popped them open and we ate them; they were really good...

The shrine on Miyajima Island at dusk; it really was beautiful...

Osaka, Hiroshima, Miyajima, and Kyoto - JAPAN

I've returned from a whirl-wind tour of Osaka, Hiroshima, Miyajima and Kyoto, Japan. I left last Friday night and returned late Wednesday; since returning, I've been very busy with school work and law school applications, so I have not had time to write on my blog, but I'm making time now, because I want to report on some of the beautiful sites I was able to see over the past week. I landed on Friday night around eight o'clock and took a bus directly from the airport in Osaka to Kyoto, Japan. I was immediately struck by two things, on being high prices of Japan from a bottle of water to a 45 minute bus ride, everything was very expensive (it's the most expensive country in the world.) I was also struck by how efficient Japan is compared to Korea or the United States. The country was incredibly clean and everything was very structured and maneagable; I guess it has to be that way considering all of the people. So when I arrived in Osaka, I waited in the "B"-line beneath a blinking light that said exactly when the next bus would be arriving to take me to Kyoto and exactly when we would be arriving in Japanese, Chinese, Korean and English. When I arrived in Kyoto I met my friend Sara, who is a Fulbright English teacher in Gwongju in southwest Korea. We waited to board an 11:30 pm overnight bus to Hiroshima (we took two night buses during the five days in Japan in order to save money on night accomodations.) At 6 am we arrived in Hiroshima and went to get some food. We found a 24 hour restaurant which seemed to be the Japanese version of a Furr's Cafeteria. We had a great breakfast, complete with an Asahi beer, and started our day in the Peace Memorial Park, which looked beautiful in the early morning. We had already been walking around for a couple hours when the museum finally opened at 8:30 and we were some of the first visitors to enter for the day. The museum was sad and intriguing at the same time, especially in light of the current news surrounding North Korea's nuclear weapons testing. The aftermath and effects of the Atomic bomb on Hiroshima were horrific, and the Japanese did a great job of talking about the tragedy in a non-biased way, including the role that they played in World War II. In the afternoon we stumbled upon a food festival at a nearby palace and headed to an island about an hour's train ride and a 30 minute ferry ride form Hiroshima; the island was called Miyajima and is the site of a famous Itsukushima shrine that stands in the water near the shore of the island (apparently one of the most photographed sites in Japan.) Upon arrival we swam out into the water around the shrine, it was a fall day, but the water was quite warm. I think we were fulfilling the stereotype of the "crazy American tourists" as we were the only ones swimming; however, we know it was allowed, because we had seen pictures of people swimming in the summertime around the shrine. That night we had a picnic dinner of foods that we had picked up from a local 7-11 (it really was a 7-11) and beer from a vending machine next to the water, and the village was lit along with the shrine; we felt like the only ones on the island. The next morning we set out to climb the tallest mountain on the island, about 600 meters high and see the shrine at the top. When we got back down the mountain we took the next ferry to the mainland and caught a bus to a nearby hot springs. It was a refreshing way to end a great day and just in time before we boarded another night bus, headed back to Kyoto. We arrived in Kyoto the following morning at 5:30am and curled up on the floor of the bus station for a few more hours of much needed sleep. The day in Kyoto was packed with site-seeing, but the sites were great. We ended the day on the famous geisha street where we saw a few real live geishas. We decided to move onto Osaka that night and checked into an inexpensive hotel. Osaka was an incredibly modern city where just the fashion alone was a sight to see. I could've spent hours people watching, but we didn't have the time. We saw the Osaka Castle, went to the Peace Center, a huge electronics street that sold everything you could imagine, did some shopping in the famous shopping/entertainment district, and went to a huge spa called Spaworld where each tub was named and themed like a different country. I returned to Jeju Island late Wednesday night feeling very refreshed despite the fast pace of my trip to Japan!

Photos from Japan

A view from the top of a mountain on Miyajima Island where we spent the night and got up early to hike on Sunday morning.

The view of the town where we stayed the night on Miyajima Island. They turned on the lights and we sat near the water and had dinner; it was beautiful, most of the tourists had left on the ferry, so the island felt deserted.

A photo of our hotel room on Miyajima Island; we stayed in a woman's house, sort of a bed and breakfast and the cheapest accomodations on the island, but still about $40 per person.

The picture seen through the glass is made out of tiny little paper cranes that people leave in memory of the victims of the Atomic Bomb in the Peace Memorial Park.

This is the museum clock in Hiroshima that keeps track of the number of days since the last nuclear test. Before the North Korean testing, the last test was in 1992.

Here is a photo of what is referred to as the "Atomic Bomb Dome," the only remnants left standing after the Atomic Bomb; it has been converted into a memorial.

A picture of some traditional Japanese drummers that we saw at a festival in Hiroshima; they certainly seemed to be getting a good workout, sort of like dancing and drumming at the same time.

The Climb...

As usual my day began about fifteen minutes ahead of schedule. I was told last night that we would have a birthday breakfast for my 73 year old Korean grandfather and then we would leave to hike Halla Mountain at 8 am. We had breakfast at 7:15am, and afterwards my father handed me a pair of thick flourescent purple knee highs that I was supposed to wear. As I put them on he was saying something to me in Korean and my host sister looked over and said, "He says you must put your pants under the socks." So I tucked my pants into the bright purple acrylic knee highs and wanted to ask why I was the only one wearing them; however, I decided to be the alien foreigner that I am and just go for it. It wasn't until I tried to put my hiking shoes on that I changed my mind; they were way too snug and I knew I'd get blisters. I decided that being uncomfortable on a 7 hr. hike was too big a price to pay for the sake of being flexible and took them off, asking my host sister to relay that fact to my host father. When we got to the base of Halla Mountain I saw that wearing pants tucked into bright colored knee highs was definitely a trend; however, a trend that only seemed to be true for men who were over fifty, making it hard to regret my decision to take them off. The base of the mountain was swarming with people, including some of my students from school. Of course, I can never recognize my students when they're not wearing their uniforms, because I teach 700 of them weekly, but I know it's a student when a teenage Korean girl stops dead in her tracks, wide-eyed and gasps at the sight of me (this happened again at the restaurant; it's as though they cannot believe that I actually live and breathe outside of school.) I still had no idea what to expect, but it turned out that the hike was very long in distance, even by Korean standards, but gradual in incline. It was really a wonderful hike. It was about 12 kilometers to the summit which was 1900 meters high (the tallest mountain in South Korea) and then another 9 kilometers to go down the backside. The hike would've taken about 6 hours, because my host dad and I were hiking pretty fast, but my host cousin was having a hard time, so we waited often and slowed down the pace at times. In the end we were hiking for 7.5 hours. It was a beautiful day and the mountain was covered with maple trees and their autumn leaves were changing colors! When we finally got down the mountain, my host mother picked us up and we went to a great Kalbi dinner with another couple who are good friends of theirs. In the car on the way to the Kalbi restaurant I was asked if I would do the same hike in two weeks with my host mother. I said "of course" which to me signified that I had truly enjoyed the hike, because I was exhausted when she asked. For those of you who don't know, Kalbi is pork that is grilled at your table; you eat it in small pieces that you take from the grill with your chopsticks, wrap in a piece of lettuce, add some hot soybean paste and eat. It was really delicious. We had some mekju and noodles as well (mekju is beer). Halfway through the meal the friend and his wife were talking in Korean when they suddenly nudged me. I just smiled, because that's what I do in those situations, but then the wife took out her cell phone, after speaking on it for a minute she told me it was her younger brother, and hands me the phone. I put it to my ear, and the conversation that ensued went something like this:
"Hello, nice to meet you," Man's voice on the other end of the cell phone
"Hello, it's nice to meet you too," I say.
"You must recycle; they are saying that you must take paper, plastic and bottles and reuse them."
"I must recycle?" My confused voice.
"Yes, you must recycle; take paper, plastic and bottles and reuse them."
"O.K. I will." My response after making a snap decision NOT to ask for clarification on why we were having this conversation in the first place.
"O.K., goodbye."
"Goodbye."

I was so totally confused, but after the phone conversation I realized exactly why they had called the woman's younger brother; they wanted to introduce us. When I got off the husband said: "Her younger brother (pointing to his wife). He single. He teacher in elementary school. He single." Clearly they had wanted to call and ask him how to translate something as an excuse to have him talk to me, but what is unclear in my mind is why they decided to ask him how to translate the word "recycle". The only thing I can think of is that the empty mekju bottles on the table reminded them of recycling. I was very gracious about it, saying that I have a boyfriend in Migook (the United States). This of course was not what they wanted to hear, so they persisted until my host mother saved me and said it was time to go. All in all the hike was great and I'm really excited to go again!

Photos from the climb

Here I am on my way down the mountain; let me briefly explain my outfit: the hat was a gift from my host father for Chuesok and he insisted I wear it (Koreans are deathly afraid of being tan; they think it's really un-becoming) and the orange towel was on loan from my host family so that I could wipe my face while I hiked; I must say, it came in handy!

Me, my host cousin and host father at the top of the mountain. The sign says Halla mountain east peak; my father is wearing the New Mexico t-shirt that I gave him when I got here, and I am wearing his jacket which he insisted I wear so I wouldn't be cold!

"Peace! Peace!" or "Kimchi! Kimchi!" I still don't know what making this symbol with the hands really means, but EVERYONE does it from grandmas to children, and I recently realized that the cool way is to make the symbol with BOTH hands...that's what the girls at my school do.

It was a crowded day on the mountain; sort of the same as shopping malls in the U.S.A. the day after Thanksgiving, only Koreans go hiking instead of shopping because it's "good for your health!"

At the top of the mountain was a crater that used to be filled with water. Jeju island has over 360 small mountains (Halla is the only one that is not small) and each one has a small crater at the top. Halla mountain is 1900 meters, so basically 6,000 ft high.

My host dad and I taking a short rest; I found out today that he will run a half marathon next weekend. My host mother and father are both really into fitness and in great shape!

My Chuseok Day...

I had heard about Chuseok. Everyone described it as the "Korean Thanksgiving" and that it falls in relation to the lunar calendar, but if there's one thing I've learned since arriving in Korea it's that you should never have expectations about what may or may not happen. Chuseok was no exception to this rule. I woke up at 6:30 am and even though I was told that we would leave the house around 7:30/8 am, when I emerged from my room at quarter to 7, my entire Korean family was ready to go. I was walking towards the bathroom with my towel and told them that I was going to take a shower. Usually I would've asked them if I had time to take a shower, but in this case I was worried the answer might be "no" and there really was no hope for me without a shower. By 7:15 am we were over at the cousins' house. I later learned that these five cousins' parents died about 5 years ago from "disease". The five cousins are really nice, two boys and three girls between the ages of 20 and 29 or so. My sisters and I sat with the girl cousins, while the men performed the Chuseok ceremony for the ancestors in their living room. Next we headed to our house to do the same, and after the ceremony at our house we all sat down for a meal (which was a good thing, because at this point I'd been up for two hours and was beginning to wonder if we would eat any of the food that we had cooked, or if it just all went to the ancestors.) The Chuseok food that we cooked yesterday really was good; however, it is all served at room temperature after sitting out uncovered all night long, so it's not exactly fresh. The only explanation I can come up with for this is that it is simply too much food to cook in one day and because it must be ready in the morning, there is no other choice but to cook it the day before. After the meal we cleaned up and headed to the countryside. Another thing that I have learned in Korea is that when your host family says: "Let's go" you should grab everything that you may need for the next 10-12 hours, because you never know where you're going or when you'll be back. We loaded up in the car with presents and food for relatives. Our next stop was the father's cousin's house in the town of Pyeoson, which is on the eastern side of the island. In each house we visited the women stayed separate from the men, usually in the kitchen while the men perform the ceremony to feed the ancestors; it is the women's responsibility to make sure that the food is ready for the ceremony, but other than that they seem to prefer gender segregation. At this house there happened to be an English San Seng Neem (teacher) and she spoke well enough that we could communicate enough to put everyone at ease including my host mother. After another "Let's go," we were off to the tombs of my host father's parents and grandparents where we poured soju (Korean alcohol) and orange soda on their graves and insaed them in unison. (Insa means to greet which entails a bow and saying hello.) Next we headed to an herb and flower garden tourist attraction. You can see some pictures below. There were many plants and flowers that exist in the United States and we had fun snapping photos at every corner. Afterwards we headed to the mother's family's house in Seogwipo and had yet another meal (third for the day) with her family. When we left their house I assumed we were headed home, but I really couldn't have been more wrong, in fact we were only halfway through our outing. It was about 4 o'clock when we left and we stopped first at a green tea farm where you can sit and sip fresh green tea for free. When we left there I assumed we were headed home, but I couldn't have been more wrong, instead we went to a "motorcycle show" or so it was described to me. It turned out to be a sort of Chinese circus. The only reason I say Chinese is that the people who performed were all Chinese. The place or auditorium where the show was held was called Happy Town, and I should've realized that a name like that is obviously trying to make up for something. The show was great, but it was also a little depressing in the same way that the Nazi prison horse camp was depressing. These poor Chinese performers and acrobats reminded me of those tired horses. They performed acrobatics with the youngest girl looking around the age of 8 years old. First came the acrobatics and then the last show was a motorcycle show where they drive around in vertical circles inside a cage with as many as 7 motorcycles in the cage at a time; it looked VERY dangerous. At the end of the show the Chinese performers lined up as the crowd walked out past them; they all smiled and waved in the hopes of getting a tip. Their costumes were really ragged, and they looked very tired. Later my host dad told me that they do four shows EVERY day! I couldn't believe it! Suddenly I had a vision of them sleeping in cages with some sort of mean old Korean boss who had brought them over from China and wouldn't let them go back. Aside from the civil rights abuses involved, it really was a lovely show. When we left I assumed we were headed home, but of course I was wrong again (I think it's time I gave up assumptions along with expectations.) We went my host mom's sister's house in Jeju City at about 8pm and had a dinner of Ramen noodles, kimchi, and ice cream; not a bad ending to a busy but VERY interesting Chuseok! Tomorrow morning we will get up early and climb Halla Mountain which is the huge volcanic mountain in the middle of the island. It's supposed to be a 7 hour hike, but I'm expecting it to take about 5 hours roundtrip, because things are never as big as they seem in this country (there I go again with expectations...)

Happy Chuseok!

The Chinese acrobats could do amazing things; perhaps in part because they perform 4 times a day.

The green tea fields where we drank green tea and listened to soothing music.

Here I am posing in front of some rocks at the herb and flower garden.

The flower and herb garden that is apparently a hotel as well...

My family's tangerine farm; we searched for some ripe tangerines to no avail, but I was assured that in a few weeks I could come and help them pick the tangerines, because they will definitely be ripe!

My Korean mother and father. We stopped at these family tombs in order to pay our respects.

Chuseok Morning

This morning I woke at 6:30 am, showered, put on nice clothes and we headed over to my Korean father's cousin's home. Once there the men performed a ceremony with food layed out like you seea above. At about 8 am we came back to our house and the men repeated the same ceremony.

Above is a picture of the ceremony taking place. It is a ceremony for their ancestors and the idea is to share food with the ancestors to eat. The younger men serve the ancestors and they stand a spoon straight up in the rice, then they take a small amount of each type of food and put it in a small bowl with alcohol and rice. The man in the left of the picture is kneeling and bowing to the ancestors; all the men do this.

Here is a close-up picture of the traditional food that we serve to the ancestors on Chueseok; the same food that we made yesterday. From the left are apples, tomatoes, a melon, beef and pork, tofu, mushrooms, bean sprouts, fish, the dumplings I made yesterday, more fruit and in the back right corner are the dok cookies and other types of dok (rice cakes) for dessert.

The whole thing took place in the living room; the same place where we did the cooking yesterday. It is a lot of work to prepare for this holiday. Afterwards, we all sat down and had a feast.

Chuseok Preparations

Today we prepared for Chuseok, which is like the Korean Thanksgiving. Tomorrow family will come over and share this meal with us, and we will go to a few relatives' homes who live on other parts of the island. Above you can see my host sister Eunnae grilling pork (we also grilled skewers of beef and fish) My host mother and younger sister, Sujeon are frying pieces of tofu.

My first job consisted of stuffing sesame leaves and eggplant with a soft ground meat substance that had onions and garlic in it.

Here is a close-up action shot of me stuffing eggplant with ground meat...I'm still not sure what kind of meat it was, probably SPAM or some sort of pork.

This is the finished product after my labor-intensive work; the next step was dipping them in egg and frying them in the fryer.

Eunnae with her meat; we did all of this cooking in the living room of our home.

This is one of the desserts that will be served. These are fryed dok patties. "Dok" is made from white rice and flour. After the patties were formed (that was also my job) my sister Sujeon stuck a raisin in the middle of each one and we fryed them. At the end we dipped each one in white sugar; they are very good.

My Weekend on the Mainland

I left Jeju Island last Friday to fly to Pusan, Korea's second largest city, and travel the following day to a Fulbright Workshop in Gyeongju, which is a historical Korean town. Gyeongju is famous because it was the location of the 7th Century Silla Dynasty, that existed between 650 AD and 900 AD. We spent the weekend touring ruins and talking with each other about teaching. The weekend was very productive for the most part, and it was great to see the rest of the Fulbright ETAs; I hadn't seen anyone other than the 10 who live on the island with me since we left each other in August. I feel very lucky to have a successful homestay and school, as some of them are not very happy or have encountered some obstacles in their placements. It was really neat to see how well everyone gets along and works together to be supportive and help people with whatever difficulties they're having. If feels like I have sixty brothers and sisters in this country. After we left the workshop I traveled back to Pusan to spend one more night there before coming back to Jeju. I stayed with two of my good friends Kate and Janaki. We shopped a little, ate a wonderful meal and today we spent a few hours at a contemporary art exhibit at the Modern Museum of Art, which was really great! This morning when Janaki and I were on the subway saw a man in a suit board our subway car, pick up a black plastic bag that was sitting on the shelf above some passengers, and then get back off at the same stop. Immediately I was struck with curiosity and even slight accusation about his motives; however, on second thought, I realized how bizarre my reaction was. I mean, his motives were pretty obvious: Someone else had placed the bag on the subway and told the man in the suit which car it was in so he could pick it up. It is only because we live in a post 9/11 world that it looked so bizarre to me. I almost resented my own reaction, because other Koreans didn't seem to find it odd. It occurred to me that I could've embarrassed myself if I had been the one to see the first man leave the bag and de-board. I couldn't help but picture how the Koreans in my subway car would've perceived me, had I jumped from my seat, grabbed the bag, and hurdled it out the door before the subway moved on, all the while yelling to everyone that it was a bomb. I couldn't help but smile when I pictured the bag hitting the ground and doughnuts or books flying out of it. This sort of thing really reminds me of the state of national security in America. Of course, the reasons for such open paranoia in our country are obvious; however, I couldn't help but feel a little jealous about the fact that I don't get to use the convenience of the subway or a public bus to send things to my friends, rather I'm limited to either accompanying the item to its destination or using the traditional postal service; it's just not fair!

Gyeongju Fulbright ETA Workshop 2006

Here I am striking poses, using a buddhist temple as the backdrop...my friend Janaki's idea.

Me, Janaki, Rohit, and Jy taking a short rest... it was great to see all my friends.

A view of the valley below the temple...

This man gave us a demonstration of the traditional pottery that was made during the Silla Dynasty which reigned from approximately 650 AD to 900 AD.

A Korean water fountain... everything is communal in this country.

The Gyeongju tombs from the Silla Dynasty; people were buried beneath the large mounds.

When I got back to Jeju tonight, my host father and sisters took me out to a great seafood dinner. It was a little messy, but really good. The dinner consisted of many different kinds of seafood served on one plate with red hot sauce which you can see in the middle of the picture. We had to wear one plastic glove in order to hold the crab and scoop the insides out with a small fork. There was shrimp, squid, sea snails, crab, and mussels. At the end of the meal they bring white rice and cook it in a skillet at the table (there's a grill on the table), they mix in what is left of the sauce and seafood too. It was delicious!