Korea Day 10: Kimchi Kitchen & Namsangol

Carol | July 29, 2019 | Featured, South Korea | No Comments

Who knew making kimchi could be so much fun! Today was taken up with school activities, including our field trip to Seoul Kimchi Kitchen, and Namsangol Hanok Village. Both places were super fun. Later in the evening, a group of us went to Jeongneung to pick up pizza from Dominos for a little taste of home.

Day 10 Highlights

Language Class
Field Trip
- Seoul Kimchi Academy
- Namsangol Hanok Village
Shopping & Dominos in Jeongneung
Chicken Truck
Group dinner in the Study Hall

Language Class & Lunch

We reviewed consonants and vowels in class. After class, I went to an on-campus bank along with some others to withdraw funds. Convenient! We went to Baguk hall for lunch. I got Subway which tastes like home yet extra fresh.

Field Trip

Our first cultural activity for this week was an afternoon field trip to Seoul Kimchi Academy and Namsangol Hanok Village. We left Kookmin around 1pm. We tried on Hanbok and learned how to make Kimchi and Tteobokki (spicy rice cakes) at the Seoul Kimchi Academy from 1:40pm to 3:15pm. Then we toured Namsangol from 3:30-4pm. It definitely felt like we were at both places longer but my clocks don’t lie.

Seoul Kimchi Academy

The first stop of our field trip was Seoul Kimchi Academy. We spent about an hour and a half here trying on Hanbok and learning to make kimchi and tteokbokki. It was great fun so I’d highly recommend it.

Going to the first building on the right

Part of our experience included trying on traditional Korean clothing called Hanbok. It was super fun to see everyone dressed up and pose for photos.

Next, we were taught how to make our own kimchi. There are a lot of ingredients but they were conveniently already measured out for us so all we had to do was chop, combine, mix, and coat our cabbage.

After making our Kimchi we moved to the other side of the classroom where supplies were set up for making Tteokbokki (Spicy Rice Cakes). After cooking we all sat down to eat our Tteokbokki. We took our kimchi back to the dorms to eat later. Sadly I forgot about mine and never ate it. I wonder if it’s still in the dorm fridge on floor four?

Namsangol Hanok Village

Namsangol Hanok Village is a large garden and traditional village area where locals and tourists can go to enjoy a walk or to learn and appreciate Korean traditional culture. There was a lot of construction when we visited so we didn’t get to see much of the ‘village’ but the garden and time capsule areas were lovely and we all enjoyed taking pretty photos.

Dominos & Misc

We got back to campus around five in the afternoon. I bought some snacks and rested a bit. For dinner the group decided we wanted pizza — we were homesick for American food. Instead of taking the bust, we decided to walk to Jeongneung. It only took about 15-20 minutes and we got to enjoy the views along the way. Tucked away in various places were cute bridges, mural art, outdoor parks, and all kinds of interesting architecture.

We stopped at a bookstore where Bethany found a copy of Harry Potter in Korean. I want to get a book in Korean as well but they only had one copy of the first Harry Potter book and didn’t have anything else I’d want.

We ordered a bunch of pizzas from Dominos and then carried them back to the dorm. A few neat things: if you order a cheese pizza corn will come on it, and most Korean restaurants will bag your to-go orders very nicely. On more than one occasion my to-go drink was also placed it it’s own bag which made carrying it much easier and reduced my fear of spills.

On the way back to the dorms some of us made a quick stop at Daiso. Afterward, I spotted a truck parked on the side of the road selling whole chickens and decided I had to have one. It was tasty and I had fun eating dinner and sharing my roadside truck chicken with my new friends.