Diplomatic weekend in Andong

So here begins another strange tale of our life in Korea. I read a Facebook page called Korea for Kids and awhile ago there was a post about a weekend trip to Andong for the mask dance ( cool Halloweeny trip I thought) it said to e-mail someone so I did. She e-mailed me back and let me know that we were welcome to join the trip but the return bus on Sunday would not get into Seoul until midnight. I figured we could pull that off - Olive would just sleep on the bus and it was all free. Food - lodging -busing and tours.

So we decided to go, it seemed great and the agenda heading told that it was a trip for Diplomatic and Foreign Families. Who would be along? We assumed there would be other kids and some diplomats. Well we were right about the diplomats but not about the kids.

We had to meet them at 8 am at a hotel in Itaewon which is pretty far from our house so we set off early around 7 am. Well we approached the hotel in a funky way and wound up being 30 minutes late anyways. We had walked up a huge hill (the back entrance of the hotel) and were all hot and tired. They were all waiting for us --oops. We boarded the bus and not another single kid was along. It was mostly older folks and a few youngsters mixed in.

Off we went for a 3 hour bus ride to Andong. Strangely enough Andong was one of the places that John had visited on his trip so we were anticipating a lovely time. Olive slept on the bus and I think Netta did a bit too. The first place we went was a traditional Korean home. It was really beautiful and old and they treated us to a lovely snack. We saw the women working in the kitchen and the garden where all the food is grown. There was a beautiful garden there and some dogs with little dog houses that Olive loved. I will post photos in the next post.

There was an old building there that was used for a shrine and it was really beautiful. It was a bit weird there because apparently women are not allowed in the shrine building. Also the women were so obviously working their asses off making all the food and more talk was made of thanking the host than the women who were working so hard. We, of course, thanked the cooks and complimented them on the amazing snacks. The snacks included some lovely rice drink with ginger, peanuts and cooked rice. It was spicy and yummy.

Then on to lunch - which was an ancestor meal. Basically the people in this area practiced honoring the ancestors with food so often that the food became a meal that is very popular in that area. John had eaten at the same restaurant with his tour so you have already seen the food if you read his post.

I can't seem to find the time this week to finish this post. So I am publishing it unfinished and to be continued. Hopefully there will be time to finish the tale this weekend.