PACIFIC RIM PARKS

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

DAY 3 (July 13 2010): Folklore & Natural History Museum and Jeju Stone Park

Today was all about getting ideas and inspirations by visiting two museums: Folklore & Natural History Museum and Jeju Stone Museum.

Folklore & Natural History Museum showed the historical and traditional living conditions and customs in Jeju, as well as plants and animals unique to this region. It is quite striking that Jeju has its own culture apart from the mainland Korea. After the tour of the museum, we chose our own subjects or objects to draw sketches of.








Having the tour










Sketching...

















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For lunch, we each had “chicken soup,” which had one whole baby chicken in a bowl with rice and Ginseng stuffed inside. It was very delicious, though quite big.









That is for one person! A whole chicken!









In the afternoon, we visited Jeju Stone Museum/Park. Jeju Stone Park showed Jeju’s stone culture in the context of the formation process of Jeju Island and the life of Jeju citizens. What is mesmerizing is how active volcano has been under the Jeju Island. This volcano not only forms the island itself, but also produces stones and rocks with unique shapes and characters. Some of them looked like faces, some like worms, and some even as a mother holding up an infant. The mother nature could be the greatest artist of all...

While the indoor part of the museum can be characterized as “educational” with videos and displays, the outdoor part was purely spiritual. Staring at 20-foot high stone pyramids in the fog made the scene look like a segment from a film. There was also a magnificent water fountain in which the edge was so smooth that the water running down looked like glass.

As soon as we got there, we acted individually to pick our objects to draw sketches of.










The stone pyramids.















The water looked like glass.










The nature's art: stone face.







Mysteriously mystic


















Another nature's art. The shadow looks as if a woman is holding an infant.


For dinner, we had “Bibimbab.” By this time, I think we all got used to eating Kimchi and other foods dipped with red peppers for every meal of the day.





















Bibimbab!

Tomo

Day 1 (July 10, 2010)

So right before our plane took off for Jeju one of the lead architects Kyle, told me that ithe island was known for three things: wind, stone, and women ( they are supposed to be very independent). Well he got at least one thing right! As soon as I stepped off the plane I was blown over by the wind. After we got in I met up with two other students from my trip. Our personal driver (hehe yes we have one for the entire trip) took us to the hotel. On the way we think he told us that today we are going to try Korean fried poodle. I’m hoping we misunderstood his English! Later that afternoon we went for lunch. It was yummy but not for the faint of heart. We had whole fish and octopus soup. Then we went back and got our rooms and roommates. We are living very traditionally. Shoes off at the door and no beds. We sleep on the bamboo floor so it makes sense to take our shoes off in our room! We then had a ceremony welcoming us to South Korea. We have Americans,a mexican, a filipinos, Koreans, Chinese,a japanese, and Russian students. We then had a feast! Literally. We had a buffet of at least 30 different choices of seafood, veggies, rice, and fruit. I wasn’t quite sure what I ate but it was pretty good! After dinner the students all hung out. Although the language barrier is difficult we are becoming fast friends. Korean girls are big fans of twillight and they are team jacob all the way. I also am teaching them flip cup and beer pong today! Speaking of which Today we are going to visit politicians. We are acting as diplomats from our countries so its pretty cool! That’s about it and cross your fingers for me that I don’t have to eat fried poodle. Much love.

- Jordan