Field trip

Had my first field trip this weekend – we took a tour bus from KU to a "Traditional Korean Folk Village" in Suwon. It was cool, but I found the whole page a little strange because everything's been either purposefully built or relocated at this single place for touristy purposes... So even if it looked authentic, it quite obviously wasn't. We had about four hours to stroll around, which was about an hour too long.

The place was literally swarming with children. There were hundreds and hundreds of little people in various school uniforms all around the place, and the reactions they had when they saw me ranged from wide-eyed stares to waving and shouting "Hello! My name is ... !" (in English) to going "WHOA!!!" (One of the boys was a bit cheeky, too, demonstrating a big belly and going "Whoa!" but I couldn't help but laugh.) Some of them were taking pictures of me as well. (But the two (German?) girls with long, blonde hair each were probably an even bigger attraction.) Daniel was having fun – he looks Korean, so he didn't get any reactions, but he was walking around the kids and turning around to stare and point at me while giggling like a girl.

Apparently, we also saw some Korean TV celebrities, but I didn't know that. I saw a guy in some sort of a traditional costume who received the same "Whoa!!" reaction from the kids as I did.

Well, after the Folk Village experience was over, we piled back into the buses and drove again through Seoul and out the other side. It took about two hours from the Village to the place of accommodation. I have no idea, actually, where we went. I'm guessing somewhere Northeast of Seoul... Anyway, it was a traditional style place with a jimjil-bang and swimming pools and floor sleeping arrangements at a mountain. I need to find out where it was exactly. I wish they'd tell us these things. :P

For the beginning of the evening, I was bored out of my mind, tired, hungry and cranky as hell. I don't really feel like I belong into any group of people with the exchangeys. (Although everyone from Singapore seems to be super-nice.) I felt so out of place for most of the time that I'm not sure I want to do these social field trip type of events. Anyway, eventually they fed us and then they made us play games (I didn't understand half of it, and the second half I couldn't hear)... Rosa said I looked like I was ready to kill someone.

Koreans practice a lot of drinking games, and some of them are so confusing! It was kind of funny anyway, and funnier the more you drink I suppose. We ended up sitting outside for most of the night with a few people. Korean people tend to quit drinking and go to sleep well before the exchangeys are done, but I dared Minsub to uphold the Korean honour by staying up all night with us. Poor guy. My companions finally piled on top of each other to sleep at around 7 AM, while I picked up my camera and sketchbook and just bided my time until it was time to leave. I think I slept most of the way back, and when I got back to the dorm, I slept more until we went out for a dinner & a walk. I've also caught a cold. Crap. I was going to put some photos in before I posted this, but there's so many to go through, and I'm feeling pretty shit, so it'll have to wait.

Mum's parcel arrived! She sent me my own bed linen (yay!), some art supplies and shoes and stuff. Happiness abounds.