Korean Folk Village in Suwon

Every month here there are 1 or 2 organized field trips that are planned for families to attend that take us adventuring somewhere. Today the group took us to a Korean Folk Village in Suwon. It was a little over an hour bus ride to get there.

When we got there, most of the families split up and went their own ways to explore or with friends. 

There was a lot to see, it was a hot day and it was all outside!

Here is the entrance to the village...

Kimchi Pots....they are everywhere over here. Koreans love their Kimchi.

We wandererd through the village for awhile looking at the different shops and watching the workers make things. It was very interesting and there was much more to see than we even had time to do. We didn't make it into all the different huts and houses but we did go in quite a few. The kids really loved watching the bamboo guy. He was splitting up these huge bamboo poles into thin strips very quickly. he was making baskets and weaving other things as well. 

Here is inside one of the pottery shops. We got to watch them pounding and shaping the clay too. I love pottery so this was one of my favorites to see. None of their pottery had much color to it though, it was all very neutral brown colors or black. 

We got to go into the different huts/houses that they lived in and see how different they each were depending on their status in the village. All of them seemed very small inside though, and very simple, hardly any furniture. 

Here is the giant kiln they used to fire all the pottery. 

Peter walked the kids up the hill between the two big kilns to check them out. 

After walking through the village for awhile, we met back up with the group to see a few shows. There were these marching band, dancing guys that had long ribbons atttached to the tops of their hats and they would do tricks with them. Depending on which way they turned their heads the ribbons would spin and twirl around. 

There were a ton of Korean school children there with us as well. These rock seats were REALLY uncomfortable!! They all look pretty flat and smooth, but they are not!

After the dancing guys we saw another show of guys doing tricks on horses. 

 

The kids loved watching the horses. They moved up a little bit ahead of us and stood by this tree to get a better look.

The Koreans are always taking pictures of our kids or wanting their picture taken with them. I realized after I took the above picture that this guy in the hat below was taking pictures of them as well!

We then went to another stage area and watch a tight rope walker. He was pretty impressive! He walked up and down and across it several times, skipping and jumping and doing tricks. He had a microphone and was talking, and I think cracking jokes, because all the Koreans there were laughing at what he was saying but of couse we couldn't understand much of it yet! It was still really cool to watch though. 

The last show we saw was a traditional wedding ceremony but we didn't stay for the whole thing. The kiddos were not that interested and there was a lot more still to see. 

This is the Bride and Groom kneeling, facing eachother and she has an attendant on either side of her.

We left the wedding and walked through some beautiful gardens on our way to lunch. 

There were several of these 'napping huts' all over the village and there were actually people sleeping in them! There was a little sign infront of each asking to 'Please remove shoes before using the nap hut"!

In the lunch area there was a small section of American style picnic tables and the rest of the area had Korean style tables...

Every time we see these Joy tells me how perfect they would be for her and her dolls to have a tea party at. She thinks they are just her size.  :)

We ate lunch then headed to the play ground. The kids really enjoyed the standing swings.

Daddy played with the three big kids on the teeter totter too!

While walking we saw this beautiful waterfall...(the pictures never show them like they are in person!)

Then we found where we could walk across the top of it on this cool rock path...

The kids were very excited about this part of the adventure!

We had heard there was a 'Kids Area' somewhere in the village but hadn't seen it yet. When we did find it we had no idea it was going to be so huge!

The first thing the kids wanted to do was ride this giant animals. What we didn't realize until after we stuck the Won coin in was that they actually moved! The kids got to DRIVE them around!

They were THRILLED to say the least!

Even Faith drove one! They went slowly, but still, they were moving and the kids actually had to steer them to avoid running things over. It was very cool!

We took the train around the park next...

I thought this was hilarious! Several times in this part of the village in the kids area, we saw "Made in the USA" on different rides. The train had this on it...

Peter and Bree...and sleepy Samuel :)

Peter took the big kids on lots of rides...For our Missouri friends, this place was very reminiscent of Silver Dollar City...Joshua kept asking if that's where we were!

Notice anything missing in this picture below? The whole park was like this....These kids are all running around with NO PARENTS!! There were hardly any adults in the whole park except for a few that worked there. It is so weird to me, but it's like that everywhere over here. The children have so much freedom to go off by themselves. Even kids as young as Joy just hop on the city bus by themselves.

It was a fun day and we were all really tired when we met back at the bus. I can't wait for next month's field trip!