A village and a wedding.

We had a long weekend at the end of May because it was buddha's birthday apparently. We didn't mind the extra day off school! We went to a traditional village about halfway between Busan and Seoul. It was so fun to be out of the concrete jungle and into some country scenery for a couple days. There were some really fun things to see while we were there. We took the trip with our friends Matt and Andrea, so it was fun to spend the time together. Plus they were basically the tour guides. They planned it all and we got to just follow along and enjoy it. That's the way to travel sometimes.

This cute man was giving a basket weaving demonstration. I think my legs would get tired of sitting like that for so long. 

This village is known for it's mask dancing. I don't really know what's up with all the masks, but it was interesting to see it. What's funny is this guy came up to me and asked for a picture...I didn't ask him. 

Kimchi, Kimchi, Kimchi! These are all giant kimchi jars that are just letting the stuff ferment. It takes months to make good kimchi.

Ah, we loved seeing trees and grass and not apartments, factories and stores everywhere.

Rocking the hats.

They're out there working their field. What a  beautiful view though.

It's time for us to come home to America... the Korean culture is definitely having it's affect on us!

This may be the best meat either of us has ever had! It was so delicious. This place is known in Korea for it's "Galbi" which is a type of meat. We don't know if it was pork or beef but it was outstanding! I don't know what they did to it, but it must marinade, plus the flavor of it grilling over the coals...perfect. As it should be... it was about $18 for 190g. That's a lot. About 430g is a pound. So this meat was about $40/lb.  Needless to say, we didn't eat a lot of it. 

Makes you  more thankful for indoor plumbing and a toilet that is a *seat* 

I love the way this looks from inside the little courtyard of this building and seeing out the door behind Jon. 

Aren't we cute? I think so.

Another famous meal in Andong... a town a little bigger than the Hahoe village. But unfortunately we could only sit on the floor in any of the restaurants we could find that served this dish. It's a smothered chicken with glass noodles that are really slippery. It's called Jim Dahk.

We did a lot of walking in these two days. It wore us out. There was a lot to see and do.  I took about 900 photos... and had to cut it down to 200. That will be killer in a few years when I want to look back at our Korea photos and they number in the tens of thousands. Oy.

Anyounghee Gah-shipshe-yo

Like I said, it was buddha's birthday..blah blah... so there were lanterns everywhere... which I have to admit, were really pretty at night. 

Jon wants to get in to bicycling when we come back home. I think he should get one of these. 

We found this little garden with all these carved statues of faces and other body parts. I really would have liked to post some pictures of the other carvings...but it's a bit too graphic for public viewing I think. But pretty hilarious to see though! Totally caught us off guard. You get the picture.  
I'm trying to look the same as grandmother willow there.

I LOVE this. This old couple is riding around on a motorized cart thing and she has her arms around his waist just enjoying the ride. It was so cute, and something you don't see often. I told Jon I still wanna be riding with him when were in our 70s.

So the weekend we were out of town was the same weekend of my brother's wedding. Thankfully we were able to find a hotel that had the internet, and we took our computer with us so we could watch the wedding live. This is 5am for us....3pm in Kansas. We got to see it all from the front row next to mom. Technology is so amazing. It's hard to even grasp that we could be on the other side of the world but have a a look into such a special day. Thank you Facetime!

Obviously it was really hard for us to not be there, but we took part in as much as we possibly could. When all the bridal party and parents prayed over Matt and Becca, we joined it. I thought it would be cool to capture it for Matt. 

There they are, the happy couple. I have a new sister that I can't wait to get to know once we get back. The best part of this is I think Matt is smiling for my camera... at least it looks like it to me. His best man is definitely looking our way :)