Mixin' It Up With The Folk

After the rousing success of the "authentic" demo lesson on monday, and the subsiquent lunch afterward where I got down to some serious drinking, we had a holiday yesterday (tuesday) due to Korean Memorial Day.

For memorial day, I went to the Korean Folk Village. I went with a man that reads my blog, a Korean, who wants to show me around Korea when he has free time. He's a univeristy professor, teaches pathology, did research in the U.S. for three years at the N.I.H. So, his English is very good. It was nice to have a native person show you around.

The Korean Folk Village is a lot like Greenfield Village, only much older. You walk around a large sprawling area, looking at farm houses and mansions from long ago. People are in native dress doing their native things, like weaving silk or carving wood. It was very interresting, although, all of the houses looked the same so I found myself saying "did I see this one already?"

They have lots of shows at the Village too. We saw an acrobatic horseback riding exhibit. I think they call it rozenback riding. It was entertaining.

I think that my favorite aspect of the Village is that there is a nice river running through the park, so there are lots and lots of beautiful old gazebos along the river. It's the perfect place to stop, rest, and have lunch. There are also nice boats to take on the river, and several old style bridges. One bridge was just a half-log, looked a bit too treacherous for me. I especially liked the stepping-stone bridge that acted as a damn. You had to be careful where you stepped so you don't slip.

The thing that is amazing here is that there are no guard rails, no hand rails. In the U.S. anything remotely dangerous is roped off so the place doesn't get sued. Nope. Not in Korea. They just post a sign saying "be careful, don't die" and that's it. But, it was nice to see everything without the safety bars and unobstructed.

So, next time you're in Young-In, check out the Korean Folk Village. Don't forget to pick up a handmade fan or wittled chopsticks.