May 27 - Kwangju again

The mayor of Kwangju gave us huge ceramic plates, of course made in Kwangju. We gave him a wheat weaving. Here he and I hold our respective boxes. I chose this picture in hopes that his beautiful tie would show. Koreans wear very distinctive ties - pastel colors, shiny silk, often with glitter. What could be better?

I can't get over how beautiful the rice fields are. Sometimes, they're small and between houses in or near towns. In this district there are larger ones as well. The rice is bright green in very even rows and the water reflects the sky and trees around it.
Bulgogi lunch in Kwangju. There were at least a dozen of us and five burners with bulgogi cooking on them, plus all the condiments you see here.
We went back to Namhanganseong, so I could put a couple of views of it on my blog. This fortress is on a hill that was a important defensive position where in the 17th century the Koreans held out against the invading Manchus until their food ran out and they had to surrender. Like many important sites in Korea it has been restored (rebuilt).

We also visited a primary school English class and the site where the first Catholics practiced in Korea.

The group did have one problem in Kwangju, which was probably exacerbated by the fact that we don't speak Korean; in at least one instance our translator was told not to translate what was said to the group. But for the most part, the Rotarians in Kwangju were as hospitable and thoughtful as we could have hoped they'd be. The three women stayed at Mrs. Kim's beautiful home and she spent a full day cooking a splendid dinner for 20 at her home. She also provided toast, eggs, bacon, jam, cream cheese, and pastries for us for breakfast. There is no similarity between Korean breakfast and American breakfast and she did her best to replicate what Americans eat. We were taken to many sites and had wonderful meals out. We attended a Rotary meeting and I spoke there briefly. There were many questions. We have learned that word about us is passed on to the future hosts, so when I mentioned that I thought the group would like a hamburger, the next Rotary Club was ready to give us one. And, in fact, it seems that now I need to assure our hosts that we don't want a hamburger with every stay. Our guides, Mr. Chong and Mr. Lee (We always have a Lee.), tried to fill our days with interesting sites and experiences, and they made sure we had excellent food.

Below is what I thought was a particularly lovely restaurant courtyard. We ate in a small room, sitting on the floor, of course, and then went to the Rotary meeting.

Here is the sign for us at the Kwangju Rotary meeting. All the clubs here have their own meeting halls. They generally seem to meet at 7 p.m., after dinner, and then at least when we're there, everyone goes out afterwards for drinks and snacks and socializing.

After the Rotary meeting, we moved to on to Yeoju, where the women stayed with Mrs. Lee, a Rotarian who also served as our guide and translator, and the men had hotel rooms.