On May 9 -10,
2013, our Gyeongbuk province had our 10th generation cultural trip
in Andong. I am a 9th generations TaLK scholar so I have been on one
of these trips before in the fall. This time around I am familiar with the
format and the schedule of these cultural trips. In my head, I have an idea of
what to expect: a lot of time on the bus, staying at nice hotel and free food.
I have heard of Andong before but
have never visited. I knew that the famous mask festival takes place in Andong
every year. This is one of the more popular festivals in Korea and a lot of
people visit Andong for this reason. I also heard that Andong is famous for
good jim dalk (a Korean dish with chicken and noodle) so I was definitely
excited. My favorite food in Korea by far is jim dalk!
The first place we went to was
Gyeongcheonchae in Sangju. Gyeongcheonchae looks like a park along the river.
We got a great view of the river and it was a great place to sit and catch up
with everyone from the program. I haven’t seen most of these people since our
last cultural trip in October. It was pleasant to hear everyone’s updates on
what he or she have been doing and if they are extending their time in Korea. It
also gave us a chance to meet the 10th generation scholars. This is
the first time I got to see the new generations scholar. Though, I was
disappointed that we didn’t have any icebreakers to officially introduce all of
us.
We got to visit a few museums, which
was nice because the weather wasn’t cooperating as much. This gave us a lot of
free time to just look at our own pace and sit around if we wanted. I really
enjoyed the Andong Folk Museum. It was really cool to see how people used to
live back then. I was just picturing people back then eating, going to
festivals, and going to academy (sewon). The most interesting part of the
museums for me was the exhibit about the games that people used to play. The
games and competition were so simple yet they were also important parts of
people’s lives. I felt like this trip was very “cultural” because of the
museums that we visited. We also visited a very beautiful and cute ontrepieum.
The ontrepieum looks like a small garden with a lot of blooming flowers. There
were a lot of chances to take really cute pictures at this location. It was
really enjoyable
The
trip was definitely more relaxing than our last cultural trip in the fall. Last
semester we visited Jeonju so the bus ride long there and back was very long. I
felt like we spent more time on the bus than any the places. This time, we got
more time to spend at each location and we didn’t feel rushed to get back to
the bus. Our trip also ended earlier than expected which allowed most of us to
catch a bus home before it got too late. I liked all the activities and I
enjoyed the time off of school and do something different. Overall, I am
grateful for this trip because it gave me a chance to see another city in
Korea. I am thankful for the TaLK program and the Gyeongbuk POE for this trip
and for everyone who made this trip possible. 
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