Pottery

After winter camps were over, one of our students invited all the teachers from camp to come visit her at her house. Her father is a famous potter who lives here in Sangju. Apparently he's ranked as one of the top 5 potters in Korea. We had tea and snacks with their family (grilled sweet potatoes and local dried persimmons,) got to see his studio and some of his famous show pieces (some of which are enormous and sell for upwards of $3000 a piece,) and even got to make some things of our own. He does this amazing pottery, his wife paints incredible intricate pictures and designs on some of his pieces, and they sell their work out of their home. Their daughter was one of our students at camp, and their son is in his third year of middle school. We were each able to make a pot of some sort on the wheel with a little- okay a LOT- of help. We also had the chance to make little rolled platters which we decorated with imprints of persimmon leaves since our town of Sangju is known for its dried persimmons. It made for a very fun afternoon and I'm excited to go back next month to pick up the pieces that we made.
After we were finished there, we went across the street to see the farm of one our Korean teachers from camp. Her husband is actually the farmer of the family. He grows persimmons for drying, a very rare kind of mushroom, and a rare and special root used in herbal medicine. Their daughter was home visiting this week- she's a first year teacher up in Seoul- and had been with us this week at camp and doing ceramics and playing ping-pong and all. Sue and her daughter made us dinner before we went back home. We had roast beef cooked right on the surface of the pot-bellied stove that warms the persimmon drying shed. It was yummy with grilled sweet potatoes, rice, grilled glutinous rice cake rods, cucumbers, and homemade duen jang- a paste made from fermented red soybeans and commonly served with beef and pork cooked in this style. Everything was fresh and local- the cucumbers had been picked that morning from an organic farm next door- and so incredibly good! And of course we finished off the meal with a little soju- a new kind for me flecked with bits of gold leaf and flavored with preserved plums- and some of the amazing dried persimmons from their farm. Such a great day! :)