Jeon Ju (전주) October 24-26

At Ewha Woman's University, there is a break for midterms just like finals.  Midterms were from October 22-26 and I didn't have any midterms during that period.  Thus, my roommate, Ai and my friend Yuka and I took the free Visit Korea bus to Jeon Ju which is 3 hours away from Seoul. 

Free Bus!

The bus gave us free candy - ginseng candy - it was nasty!

We arrived at around 11am in JeonJu and we first went to our Guesthouse and settled down.

Then we walked around Hanbok Village because it was the last day of Bibimbap.  Mary Howard, my Delta Gamma sister, receieved the Fulbright scholarship to teach English at JeonJu.  She met up with us and we walked around the village.  First we went to a bamboo forest!  It was so cool!

Then we saw a demostration of a traditional Korean wedding ceremony.

Then we had bibimbap at the best restaurant in JeonJu (the city is famous for bibimbap).

They were 10,000 won but it was so good!

Afterwards we walked around the downtown area.  We went to Chinatown and the Street of Youth.  Then we relaxed at the Gaeska which is a resting area.

Entrance to Chinatown but once we entered...there was nothing Chinese about it!

Street of Youth - lots of shopping and young people.

We were relaxing!

By then, we were all tired so we said Goodbye to Mary and headed back to our Guesthouse for a nap.  When we woke up at 8pm, we decided to go out for dinner.  However, most of the restaurants were already closed...which was such a big surprise.  We had dinner at a place that served Makolei (Korean rice wine) and they served seafood as well.  I didn't enjoy it.



The next day, we each pay our host father 10,000 won and he played tour guide and drove us around in his car.  First we drove to a cliff so we can get a good birdeye's view of Jeon Ju.

I love the traditional houses!!

Then we drove to Jinan where they are famous for their ginseng.  We sampled a lot of different types of ginseng and I ended up buying some for my grandfather :)

We also drove to a bridge to look at more beautiful scenery.

With Host Dad

Then we went to a temple and it was so beautiful.

Afterwards, we went to eat Korean BBQ and said goodbye to our host dad.  By that time it was around 5pm.  It was very cold so we didn't do much that night (there wasn't anything to do anyway).

On Tuesday, we started our money by making Hanji (Korean paper).  We went to a Hanji place which was righ tnext door to the guesthouse.  We were making a jewlery box!

While the box was drying, we went out to the Hanbok Village to use our free money (they gave it to us because we're foreigners!).  We walked around the village, took pictures and had coffee at a cafe.  It was a nice and chillaxing afternoon.  Then we took the bus at 5 at headed back to Seoul.

fun game!

so much fun!

free money!

It was such a nice and relaxing 3 day vacation.  I really love Jeon Ju.  I love the traditional houses and the beautiful scenery.  It's definitely a nice place to live after you retire but for young people - ehhh I don't think so!