Only the cute survive and other updates from July

A couple days ago I was reading an article about Korea which said, quite accurately, that in Korea only the cute survive. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is about being cute. Just as America over focuses on hot/sexy and uses sex-appeal to sell just about anything, Korea does the same with cute. It has taken me all these months to really see this, but now that I have, I see it everywhere! Clothes, phones, restaurants, food packaging, vacation attractions, car accessories… cute is the main selling point. I remember on one of our first trips, to Gokseong, I was left feeling a little disappointed, because the attraction seemed so staged, so fake. Over the last few months, I’ve realized that this is true of many, if not most, attractions, including some of the ones we have visited the last few weeks, but now we know what to expect.

Two weeks ago Andy and I went to Suncheon with our friend Emily. Suncheon is a twenty minute train ride from Yeosu and is home to a beautiful bay conservation area and garden expo. As with most nature attractions, the bay was off the beaten path, which meant it was free from overwhelming cute-aspects. The garden, however, was not, but I’ll get to that later.

The bay, Suncheon Bay Conservation Area, is huge and brimming with wildlife, particularly crabs, goggle-eyed gobis (crazy looking fish!) and birds (supposedly). On the day we went it was fairly overcast, which helped to keep the heat from melting us, but perhaps also kept the birds away. Nonetheless, we had a fantastic time watching the various kinds of crabs scuttle around in the mud, wage epic battle with one another and co-exist semi peacefully with the gobis. Gobis are simply super weird. When we first saw them we thought they were tadpoles because they have tails, legs and arms. But then, we realized that they also have a fin on their backs which they flare out periodically, especially when a crab gets too close. And, not only do they look weird, but they also have this fantastic way of hop-soaring around. They sort of leap and flop about, rather than swimming or crawling. It was pretty hilarious watching them shoot out of the water and ever so slowly infringe on the crabs’ territory.

After the conservation area we went to the garden expo, which we had been hearing about since we first arrived in Yeosu. The garden expo is a giant park featuring flora from dozens of countries around the world. Like many Korean tourist destinations, the expo was a prime spot for cutesiness. It was a magnet for young couples in their matching couples clothes and gaggles of teenage girls, waiting ever so impatiently to fall in love. All of this meant pictures, pictures, pictures! The pictures part was true for us too, but we sort of failed on the whole matching outfits part (ooops :P).

Along with flowers, the park features cultural symbols from around the world, including a telephone booth from England, wooden shoes and a windmill from the Netherlands, as well as multiple picture taking stations in the shape of hearts. A horse drawn wagon pulls visitors along the wide paths and a mini train full of families chugs by periodically. While we did not partake in these, we enjoyed wandering through the various gardens and getting slightly lost along the intertwined paths. The park is really quite large, so we couldn’t see it all, but we managed to walk through Japan, Thailand, Spain, Netherlands, America, Italy and England before our visit was cut a bit short by the arrival of ominous clouds threatening to dump on us.

In the two weeks following our trip to Suncheon, Yeosu had a long stint of rain. Sigh. How I hate rain. Unlike Wyoming, where the rain lasts a few hours, maximum, it can and does rain for days here. Heavy, grey clouds roll in off the ocean and stay for eternity (or so it seems to me). Fortunately, the rain does cool things down for a little while and we get to stop sweating profusely for a few days, as when it is not raining, Yeosu in summer is hot, humid and sticky. Towards the end of last week the rain disappeared, bring the return of muggy summer days.

Luckily for us, last weekend we got to escape the heat by going to the Boryeong mud festival, three hours from Yeosu by train. We went with a big group of teachers from Yeosu and stayed together (all twenty-five of us) in a pension two blocks from the beach, which was fantastic. It dumped rain the whole way there, but by the time we arrived, the rain stopped and after a few hours the sun came out enough to give us all amazing sunburns.

The mud festival is held every year and is exactly what you would expect- people come simply to get covered in mud. Now, I know what most of you are thinking. You went and got covered in mud?? WHY?!?!

Well, why not?? This is one festival that simply seems contrary to Korean cutesy culture (mud does not equal cute, right?), yet it manages to simultaneously appeal to the cute side of things and deviate from it. As we discovered upon arrival, the festival revolves around a series of slides and obstacle courses coated in mud. Stationed all around these are buckets with various colored mud, and this is where cutesy comes in. While regular, old grey mud may not be pretty, pink mud applied in the shape of a heart sure is! We got to see some pretty awesome mud body art and I have so say, some people really can make mud look cute.

The festival is so popular that when we arrived, all the tickets to the slides and such were sold out. So, instead we hung out on the beach, rolled around in random puddles of mud on the sidewalk and wandered through the streets barefoot and carefree. Overall, the festival felt like one giant party and we had a blast.

So, now, here we are at the end of July. Time is slipping by so quickly now. After this week we will have a mere 10 weeks left in Korea. Ten weeks! Yikes! It feels like we have so much we want to do still, yet our weeks and weekends seem to be packed full. Next week we will have our first real, non-holiday vacation. Woot woot!! Andy and I are going to Jeju island, a famous vacation destination south of Yeosu. We’ll be going for three days and we are totally psyched!

Our next post will come at the beginning of August, after we return from our adventure. Until then, we hope you are well and enjoying your summer. We love and miss you all. We are daydreaming of home and can’t wait to see you all again.

Love,

Kali and Andy

 

~Kali

Everyday Trifles: Suncheon Bay Garden

And some shots from Suncheon Bay Garden Expo

Everyday Trifles: Suncheon Bay

Some shots from Suncheon Bay Conservation area

Jeonju Cultural Village

In the past I have mentioned that Korea is a country in the midst of great societal change. The way of life as lived in the past is quickly disappearing. Smartphones, k-pop music, high-rise apartments and fast-pace, high stress existences are taking over. These changes are not bad (well, maybe the stress part is), but in many ways if feels like historical Korea will vanish with the older generation, for it is the one that runs the open air markets, works in the fields,  inhabits small one-story homes, and lives outside of materialistic culture. Our neighbors, most of whom are elderly women and men, live in sparse apartments, go to the market each day, dry fish outside rather than buy it pre-packaged from E-mart, forage along the mountain trails and maintain the patterns they grew up with. Korea is aware of how much of its past culture is being and will be lost, it seems, for in an attempt to preserve traditional life there are ‘cultural villages’ throughout the country. One of the very first trips we took was to Nagan traditional village with Headmaster last fall. While the villages are incredibly commercialized, the essence of traditional culture can still be found in old buildings, famous food spots, the remains of fortresses, temples and maintained shrines.

Last weekend we went to our third cultural village (the second one was in Seoul over the lunar new year), this time in a city called Jeonju. Jeonju is about two hours from Yeosu. Our friends recently bought a car and graciously offered to drive us all up there for the day. Jeonju is a bustling city similar to many cities in Korea. The cultural village is in the center of town, but unlike the one in Seoul that was overshadowed by skyscrapers, this one felt removed from the city.

By the time we got there at 11, it was already hot and humid. The sun was shining and promised that it would only get hotter. As such and because we had left Yeosu before we had time to drink coffee, a cafe was our first stop (I know, that isn’t traditional at all, but caffeine was necessary!). Just past the cafe we came across a candy store full of all kinds of candy. Despite our goal to explore Korea’s more traditional side, we just had to go inside and emerged several minutes later with all sorts of deliciousness. From there we wandered down the cobblestoned streets, stopping here and there at trinket stores to admire fans, pottery and other crafts. The streets were quite beautiful, lined with wood framed shops, artfully decorated walls, gates and fountains here and there. Most of the day we walked the streets, tried some of the food the village is well known for and explored an old palace.

We enjoyed the time wandering without an exact purpose except to see new things. Even though I am not a huge fan of the over commercialization, I really enjoy the cultural villages. The houses and streets are so different from everyday life in Yeosu and offer a glimpse into the past that I can only imagine.

 

 

Happy (late) fourth of July!

Love,

Kali and Andy

 

~Kali

Everyday Trifles: Jeonju Traditional Village

Some pictures from our trip last weekend to Jeonju.

Daily Journey Journal #40: mud crabs

Here is a blip from our latest trip! This week I will write more about our time at Suncheon Bay, but in the mean time I’ll be posting about last weekend’s voyage to Jeonju.