Teaching in South Korea: End of May: Folk Village

Since the last post spring seems to have gone and summer taken over. It is already pretty hot here day and night. Today it we are to have a high of 28 degrees Celsius without the humidity. We are trying to stay cool without the air conditioner as much as possible to save on our electric bill but I don't think that this will last long, since it will only get hotter until we leave to go home in 84 days.

So a few weeks ago we had a long weekend for Buddha's birthday, this fell on the same weekend as May 24 back home but we had the Friday off, not the Monday. We decided to take a day trip down to Suwon, the provincial capital of Gyeonggi-do, a province about 30 Kilometers south of Seoul. The subway system took us all the way there, but it took around an hour to get there. Once there we were able to jump on a free shuttle bus to get to the Korean Folk Village, our destination. The ride on the bus should have been about 30 minutes but it ended up being and hour due to traffic.

The Korean Folk Village was great, the best place we have visited so far. It was so nice to get out of the city and to see some vegetation for a change. The entry fee was pricier than most tourist places here, but still cheap by western standards. It cost around $13, and this also got you into a museum. The area is set up to look like old Korean villages from different parks of Korea. The employees dress in traditional clothing and there are shows going on all day. We were surprised to find a South American band performing at the main performing area while we were there. They were great and they even sang a Korean song. We spent four hours there and didn't have time to see everything. We had a great Korean lunch in their outdoor cafeteria area and were also pleasantly surprised to find that the things for sale in the market (souvenirs) were decently priced, another difference from traveling at home.