Sunday, July 1st - Day Trip to Jeonju

I had the day off since Eric covered my shift. I headed to 전주 (Jeonju) on the 10 am KTX, so I arrived in Jeonju at about 11:15 am. I met Winston at the station and it was surprisingly way less awkward than I thought it would be. Both of us had thought it might be kind of weird at first to finally get to meet again after two years, but since we'd kept in touch it really wasn't. I really think Facebook and Skype make it easier to keep track of people and stay in touch , which in this case was a good thing, but can admittedly also be a bad thing.


I pretty much let Winston show me around since I know practically nothing about Jeonju. The first place we went was 한옥마을 (Hanok Village), which is a village consist of traditional Korean housing called Hanok. It's a really logical name in case you missed that. The area was gorgeous, so it was really relaxing and interesting.

We also got to wear some traditional clothing of royalty and take our pictures.

The head piece was really heavy in case anybody is wondering.  

After that we got 비빔밥 (bibimbap), which Jeonju is famous for and it was pretty delicious. Then we went to the shops selling traditional crafts and items. I bought some 한지 (hanji), which is traditional Korean paper. The paper, which I think was like 3x3 fee, was being sold for only 1,000 won and it was gorgeous paper. I bought one sheet of blue paper with a design on it simply to hang on my wall when I move to Seoul in the fall to add color to my room, which I'm sure will be a drab white no matter where I end up staying.


We then chilled in a 정자, which is like a traditional Korean style gazebo.

The view from where we were sitting, using the newly discovered panaroma function on my camera.

After chatting for a couple hours, we took a taxi to the neighborhood around the university to get dinner. We ended up splitting a veggie pizza at Papa Johns and it was great to taste American style pizza again. Korean pizza tastes sweet in comparison to American pizza and they usually don't do thick crusts. I was honestly surprised they even have veggie pizzas on the menu here.


After that we went to the park, which had a huge pond of lilies.

Afterwards we went to Caffe Bene for drinks and we decided to sit outside since the weather was nice. All of a sudden, Winston told me to not freak out but that there was a spider about to land on my head. I took a deep breath and then jumped out of my chair and started brushing at my head to get off the imagined spider. Luckily it hadn't actually landed on me, but I had no interest in trying my luck a second time, so we moved indoors. From inside, you could see spiders everywhere on out the outside canopy over the patio area. It made me keep feeling phantom spiders crawling on me just seeing all of them. I seriously think Korean insects are scarier than American ones. Mosquitoes are bigger and nastier and there are way too many spiders for my liking. 


Afterwards we went to the train station and got there about an hour early. Winston wasn't sure how long it would take to get there and I obviously didn't have a clue, so we didn't want to risk it. Since we had so much time, we walked along the neighborhood, but the only place that was even open was a sex shop. On the way back, I looked up to see the largest spiders I had ever seen in my life. I'm talking the size of about an inch and a half diameter -- their body that is, not including their legs. I freaked out and was paranoid the rest of the trip that there were spiders everywhere, although at that point I'm not sure if could really qualify as paranoia or a healthy dose of caution.