Postcards from Italy: Reflections from an Andong GEPIK weekend.

City lights reflected through this curtained bus; with unknown cities passing - dazzling in their briefness, through tunnels, and across bridges, stops at those strange island rest stops complete with mentos crane vending machines, king size burgers, and squid rings. Orderly lines there, those stops, the beats of wakefulness in these dreamlike weekend adventures which will break up the weekly incessant repetitions of life.

 -This is a definition of magical bus rides, crowded in-between mountains, which are particular to Korea. And were we Korean, there would be soju and snacks passed up and down these bus isles, followed by karaoke made so voracious with its’ microphones. But we are not; we are foreigners, and perhaps from hence comes my bewitchment.

 She, our Korean guide, asks us to sing the national anthems of our countries. We are, all of us, representations of different countries-different times, languages, and words. South Africa, Scotland, Singapore, and England the closest seated among me. And so these people bring their countries with them; we are a bus in-between places, yet filled with intermittent and intermingling countries. We coast in a foreign land. Korea is our common language. We are happy.

 Upon arrival, I am name-tagged stranger in a sea of 120 foreigners.  I make a friend then wander around alone for a bit. I make another. Friends are available here like postcards in a souvenir shop. Spin the spindle and pick some bright beautiful picture. Every person an image of some faraway idea all so conveniently placed.  Here is my postcard.  Here is my friendship.  -We are, none of us greedy, among postcards from Italy.


There is a lesson to be learned here I feel; though elusive in nature.



Anyhow, Some things we do:

We shoot bows and arrows
We Participate in traditional Korean wedding reenacment
We Eat in palace like settings
We Visit a museum, a musical
We Pound out rice cakes with large wooden hammers
We visit a traditional village.
We Pound out rice cakes with large wooden hammers.

With large wooden hammers.