Saturday, August 8, 2009

This morning we met at the subway stop to head over to the Korean Folklife Village. On the way I got a pastry at Tous le Jour, a chain pastry/coffee shop around here. While it has a french name, it mostly has Korean pastries, which are often flaky breads with something sweet inside - cream cheese, ricotta, bean paste, etc. My pastry was a cranberry bread filled with a sweet cheese that seemed to be a mixture between cream cheese and ricotta.

It took about 2 hours to get to the Folklike Village via subway and bus. It was on the outskirts of town. It's like Sturbridge Villiage, except they have replicas of all different types of Korean buildings - those of farmers, government buildings, palaces for the wealthy, etc. Many of the buildings were actual buildings that were moved there, rather than being built for the exhibit. As you walk around you can see many people doing traditional Korean crafts and can buy the things they make.

In addition to strolling around, we saw a traditional farmers dance done by a bunch of young men, a tightrope walker, and a traditional, Korean wedding. We ate lunch at the Korean food court which served traditional Korean food. I had Festive Noodle Soup, which was ramen noodles in a mild broth with a bunch of vegetables and a side of mixed veggie kimche. After lunch we did some shopping at the village and then headed back into downtown Seoul.

Before heading back to campus some of us stopped at the Insadong shopping area. It is filled with hundreds of crafters and is on a pedestrian-only street, which makes it easy to shop. There were a bunch of stores that sold dishes and jewelry. I spent a few hours looking around a bought a t-shirt for myself.

Back on campus I did laundry and ate in the cafeteria. Tonight's dinner was potato kimche, rice, things that looked like sticks (I couldn't tell if they were hard noodles or a julienned vegetable, but they were in a sweet soy-type sauce and tasted good), sauteed zuchini, spicy noodle and veggie soup, and some sort of egg dish. At first I thought it was a block of tofu, which they have served before, but after tasting it I realized it was egg cut into squares with a few vegetables cooked in it. In addition to soy products, eggs are really big over here as well. Really most foods are common - chicken, beef, pork, fish, veggies, tofu, soy, grains, etc. I haven't seen tomatoes or peaches, but I think the grocery store had every other food we have in the US - and more.