Chansaem Village: (part 3)

Sarah Paladino, Chang Nguyen, Ying Jing, Wang Chaopeng, Parvina, Angga, and other friends of www.rural20.kr trip, 

The first-hand experience for first-timers like most of us was always an irresistible lure. 

Well, who wouldn't want to delve into such an activity? Well, some may object, but I won't. It was surely a splendid way to learn something new, at least.

As most of us finished cutting a handful of paddy, we took a pose!!

Another pose, another angle, different pose, different look. First thing first; TAKING A PICTURE!!!! Yeah...well, we all love taking pictures. 

And for what its worth: this is a must for us who like to share what we do, did, and done...^^

"Parvina, you are really into it"..... "It's all miiiineeeeeee") 

Even she was dubbed the soon-to-be daughter-in-law of  MR. Park (the office manager of Chansaem Village). *the theme of the day*

Me and Chaopeng after harvesting our handful of paddy.

The look of the paddy field in the village. I thought since Chuseok had passed, there would be no single paddy field left unharvested, but I was wrong. I could see as far as my eyes could see...a vast lush green or yellow of paddy fields. This is something beyond words..and then some.

Oh, did I mention about the scarecrows in the village? I spotted some eye-catching scarecrows clutched in Korean traditional attire (hanbok). Well, they were meant to scare away...but with a smile this one put on.....who would be afraid of it, then?

Instead of scaring people or away, we were drawn into their charms and we made friends with them.^^

Like these figurines, instead of scaring, they were meant to be some sort of  give a 'garnish' into the surrounding. This one is like shooting its arrow into another group of scarecrow. (Oh, well^^)

Ouch...this is way too far a picture ....that I barely know which is which.... No, just kidding. 

At the entrance to the village, we took another group photo so as to remind us that we WERE there at Chansaem Village.

Ok, I got to admit that may look so cheesy. But, the fact that I did it...indicates the fact that I 've never done this before. Such a rewarding experience, though it was such a short activity. Could not believe how people could survive the harsh condition they must have gotten themselves exposed to..in the past.

Just look at the tool to disintegrate or to separate the paddy from its rods(?). 

Gosh, I did not know the word for it-->which simply indicates the lack of awareness among us about the past virtues. 

Anyway, this experience somewhat gave me an insight into the fact that some people (including me, for sure) simply do not know or do not want to know the past's hardship and shortcomings that our predecessors must have endured to survive.

Now, it was like a post-card from Chansaem Village. 

Greetings from Chansaem Village.

Chansaem Village (part 2)

The next thing we did after a 10-minute ride on the pick-up (read my other entry) and after listening to Mr. Park's lecture, we were ready to dig some cassava (?)

(For those who might just land on this entry, I'd like to point out that this is a story about our visit to Chansaem Village in Daejoen area as part of the Rural Community Travel 2012 program.

Everyone was glued into his/her newly dug out cassavas--which was first-time-ever experience for some, for me as well. Hesitant at first, but..as other friends managed to dig out bigger ones, some hastened their digging pace so as to keep up with them.

A sunglasses-wearing farmer, backpack-carrying farmers, jacket-wearing farmers, dirt-love-and-dirt-hate farmers....like us...were reluctantly but eventually happy-turned on-the-spot first-time farmers ever!!!

Each of us (mostly I guess^^) brought back along to Seoul......our dug-out cassava.

On our way down the hill after digging some cassavas, I stumbled across some gochu or chili field. As always, click-click-click sound from the phone was heard...

This is pretty much what it looked like...as we were walking down the hills. The picture actually is not doing justice to the real beauty of this place. 

Most of the rooftops found that I saw in the village was ocean blue. It somehow gave a contrast-look with its  green hills in the background.

Then..came the program that highlighted that day's visit in Chansaem village: harvesting the paddy. 

No, just a try-out stuff. Of course it would be unlikely for us to do the harvesting, but we were given a chance to plunge ourselves into the paddy field.

(see my other entry on Chansaem village)

Chansaem Maeul: Chansaem Village (part 1)

Waiting....for the best time to tell stories about Chansaem village that we visited.^^

..Now it is the time. I got my energy back and ready to bring back the memories I had when I visited this village. Chansaem village is one of the 20 villages selected by the Korean Minister of Farming, Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries. Its purpose is to provide village-based experiences for everyone who probably come from cities.

This picture above is the first one I took even while I was on the BUS before entering the gate of the village.

Rivers--small ones--, paddy fields, green forests were the wonders that I surely cannot experience back home in Seoul. So, I was pretty much excited about it.

The first impression as soon as we arrived at the intersection of the village, oh..I see! Even the solar panel is set up there. I guess the village itself has indeed utilized the latest renewable energy power plant to support itself. A nice touch. 

First thing first. What to eat. We arrived there slightly passed noon, so...the only thing that came to our mind was what to eat and "let's just have lunch" kind-of-thought. But......we got to suppress that desire since we needed to prepare the food by ourselves.!! (shocker!!)

Anyhow, since one of the main purposes of visiting this village is to experience the real village food, what is better than....cooking our very own food with the village's best organic produce. 

That day...we were making bibimbap or mixed rice with lots and lots of vegetables.

Here are some of the ingredients we needed to prepare and use. Sesame street (I mean..sesame ^^), sesame oil, garlic, pepper powder, salt, another kind of oil that I am not sure what...^^ and....well I do not remember what it was..

Than....we have some carrots, fried eggs, sprouts, lettuce, cabbage (?), reddish, cucumber...and one more thing that ...I did not what that was either. Anyway...we chopped all of those ingredients into small bits as shown on the picture above. We did it ourselves.

Then...we mixed most of the chopped vegetables with olive oil so as to give flavor out of them...

Oh, our group consisted of men. Not even one female friends in the group...which...surely made us make our very very own style of cooking. But, hey...we were the cooks! Most cooks are men, right? (Not sure if we are accounted for)

Judging from the pic. it looks like we were in attentively learning at a cooking class instead of preparing our own lunch. Well, frankly... that sort of feeling did stir into my mind. 

But...it was all worth the wait. The bibimbap we made was delicious. Of course, as for me and Santos--my newly found friend from India--our bibimbap was all what it was minus beef. Though I got to admit that even my bibimbap and Santo's were different either way. 

Ok, that's the look of my bibimbap. 

Our friends from left: Santosh (India), He Dengke (China), Wang Chaopeng (China), Andy (China) and me. 

A whole group of men trying to make their own bibimbap. We did it. 

Before continuing to other programs, I might as well take a picture of a placard stating what the place was. So, the place were we made our bibimbap is actually a place where we experience making Korean food. It turns out that this place was set up ( I think in a kind of joint cooperation) with Daejon's Research for Development in charge of green tourism, Daejon Government, and other institutions in Daejon area.

Next program was so exciting. No, it was not the program, but I think Mr. Park Jun-sung (the office manager) of the Chansaem Village deliberately prepared this for us. We got to ride at back of the pick-up (see the picture?) 

Well, who would not want to experience something like this? Riding at the back of a pick-up car....which took us up into the hill where we would start our next program...

On our way, I always had this urge of taking any picture of colorful flowers that I encountered along the way. This I-do-not-know-what-it-was-but-surely-nice-looking purple flowers were the first flowers that caught my attention.

This is pretty much the idyllic picture that I could think of.  Additionally..the weather somewhat made it manageable for me (at least) to experience Chansaem village

This is Mr. Park Jun-sung who was passionately explaining about cassava-related class and its trivia, too. Felt like I did not learn a lot back then at school. Still, the whole point was to give us an expository before we began digging up the Korean cassava. 

As for us, we could not help giggling or laughing at the how funny or occasionally intriguing Mr. Park's explanation was. 

(Comment: The dress code and what we were about to do..were an unlikely match, had we done this somewhere else).