삼겹살, Tea and Bonfires.

 The weekend started out great!  I went out to dinner with my Korean friends from work, Hee Jung and Ji Hyoon.    We had samgyupsal 삼겹살.  I love grilling the meat at the table, it is sizzling hot and tastes very fresh.  
I am always amazed at these BBQ restaurants.  I have never been to a place like this in America, but would love to go if I can find one.  This will definitely be something I miss when I leave Korea.  It seems very unsafe to me though, which may mean that we simply don't have places where you can grill your own food.  :(

On Saturday the 28th, I was invited to go on a Korean Culture tour. We started in a town called Mungyeong, at the annual tea festival.  Mungyeong is known for the traditional ceramics that were made there.  As we were walking up to the village, we noticed some monkeys on the other side of the stream.  We wandered over there to say hi.  :)

 Above is the view looking back to the entrance, it was a beautiful valley.  

Below, we got in on some free snacks before our lunch!  A ball of rice and seaweed.  Delicious!

 More samgyupsal 삼겹살 but not quite as good as Friday night, but still good.  :)

On the right, in the lower right corner is a pink drink called makgeolli 막걸리.  It tasted a little strange and must have been fermented because it was effervescent.  But it was good. :)

 After lunch we took the bus to a place where we could ride rail bikes.  It was really fun and had beautiful scenery!  

 

 After the fieldtrip I went home to change, and then headed out to Dadaepo 다대포 beach for a bonfire with some friends.  On our way there we happened upon the end of the Fountain Show, which I can't wait to see in it's entirety.  The fire was already going, so we sat down and hung out.  

 

Once the group thinned out a bit, I took over the tending the fire.  My skills are a bit rusty, but I managed to bring the fire back around. Kept it going til we were all ready to head home, which was exactly what we needed.  :)