Hello, Hong Seong

April 11th:

This morning we bid goodbye to our host mom.  She played the song "Goodbye" on her XM radio.  When we laughed at her joke,  she said, "I'm a very interesting woman." And she was.  We'll miss her and her bangin' house. 

It's time to move on to Hong Seong.  We started with a visit to a traditional market.  I was completely unprepared and disturbed by we saw dog being sold in the market...  I couldn't wrap my head around that for a while.  Then I was taken aback by a fish in the open air trying to breathe.  After that, I decided to look at only inanimate objects.

I was bummed out and then I tried this desert shaped like a fish and I felt a little bit better. 

And then..

And then...

We had this thing that tasted like a cross between a pancake with syrup in the middle, a funnel cake, and a Krispy Kreme donut...basically it tasted like manna from Heaven.  Once again, all was right with my world. 

We stopped for a bit to watch a blacksmith in action.

Then I stopped to buy snacks from a vendor.  Apparently I can shop (and men can flirt) despite a significant language barrier.

Then we walked a bit around downtown.  This country has shoes, shoes and more shoes.  Unfortunately, women's sizes only typically only go up to size eight.

We had lunch at an Italian restaurant called "The Plate".  I ordered a pizza but I was greedy and forgot to take pictures of it.

And then we went and got coffee

We then took a brief tour of a local Rotary office.

 Following that, we visited a shrimp preserving operation.  Hong Seong is wel-known for their preserved shrimp.  Shrimp is one of the ingredients in kimchi (who knew).  This business preserves them in barrels in caves and there are twenty such operations in Hong Seong. 

The cave was super creepy and the ceiling was very low with water dripping down it (it helps the preservation process).

 Watch your head!

 Showing us the shrimp that live in the candy corn colored baskets

 Why is there a shopping cart and a child's play car in this cave?!

Their store

The next stop on our tour was super super super cool.  We went to an archery range!!!!  We saw archers practicing and it was BANANAS.  The targets are so far away! We also got to witness a craftsman making a bow by hand.  One bow takes six months to make and costs approximately $700!

And then, and then, and then...WE GOT TO TRY.  Korean archery differs from American archery in that, in Korean archery you hold the bow using a loop placed around your thumb.  Unfortunately, they didn't have any loops small enough for the girls so we had to hold them the American way.  BUT IT DON'T MATTER, CUZ I WAS BAD ASS ANYWAY!!

HOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLA!  Archery is so cool.  I want to look into taking lessons when I get home. 

Then we went to a kim/gim (seaweed) packaging plant.  Lo and behold, this company makes the prepackaged snacks for Trader Joes!

Then we went to Lotte Mart to pick up supplies.