Korean Traditional Paper

A couple of weeks ago we went on a field trip with some students from a Korean middle school who are learning English.  We took a bunch of international kids from our school on the trip, which included Pooks and R-Man.  Our first stop was a place to make Korean traditional paper and paper masks.  

We were there to make the masks, but you can also buy pre-made products.  

This guy was in charge of telling us what to do.  He had very little patience if you didn't follow the directions right away, which made it kind of funny for us. 

You start with a plaster mold of the face design you want.  If you look back at the picture of the completed masks, you can see that there are several different styles to choose.

Then you take this special paper and cover it with a gluey paste.

Then, glue side down, you mush it onto the mask, filling in all of the creases and bumps.  It is ok if the paper tears a little bit, because you put on four layers of the white foundation paper. 

After that, you do the same thing, but with one layer of the colored or printed paper. 

Then you can add details, like hair, eyes, etc.  

The extra paper gets folded around the back, and then the whole thing is put in an oven to bake.  While that was happening we went on a tour of how they make the paper.  

So, to make the paper they take bark from a dog tree, boil it for a bunch of hours, and then mash it up.  

Once it is all mashed up it looks like this. Then this paper pulp gets mixed with water and some gluey stuff and screened through so that it is in thin sheets.  In some of the batches they add color or special fibers or leaves to make specialty paper.

The sheets get layered together and the water is squished out.  Here you can see the wood press and some heavy containers are used to smoosh it down. 

Once the water is squished out, they dry the paper by taking each wet sheet and putting it on this big iron.  The ladies brush it on to remove air bubbles and then peel it off, one sheet at a time. 

They are all the same color, but are at varying stages of dry. 

In this shop you can buy sheets of all the different paper. 

Our group.

This is the oldest school in Korea.

My new friends.  

We just finished lunch and are heading back to school.  These are some great kids!

Bangkok... for work

You know you have a great job when you have to travel for work, and the family wants to come along!  Second business trip of the year, this time to Bangkok, Thailand.  This conference happened to fall during one of our school breaks, so these lucky kids, and the hubby, got to tag along.  

We had not been to Bangkok before because it is a city and there is no beach in sight.  But it was a great place to visit, with lots of interesting stuff to do, and great food and massages.  

This is the view from our hotel room, with the Chao Phraya River running along side.  The river serves as a one of the main forms of transportation, and you can take water taxis up and down. 

The first night we went to explore the area right around our hotel.  

Woah! 

And we found this cute little place.

RMan needs some dinner, but if you want to do the conversions, 120 Thai bhat is about $3.33.  Not bad for a big plate of pad thai!    

Walking over the bridge to the water taxi. 

First stop... along with hundreds of Chinese tourists, Wat Pho.

Just FYI, NONE of these safety rules were followed. 

I wanted to get a photo of these monks, so I had to do a fake selfie.  Ignore my hair and shoulder and just look at how cute the are!

Also really cute... SQUIDY!

But the cutest thing of all is these two kids!
OK, so this is the next day, at the night market.  This is Asiatique, which is really nice as far as night markets go.  It is a far cry from what you would envision, there are bathrooms, security, and it is highly maintained.  Which is a lot different from other night markets that spring up in dirt parking lots.  

They even have a mascot! 

Sometimes I wonder if these kids realize how amazing their lives are.  But really, this is normal for them.  I hope that one day they look back and see that they were extremely lucky to have two crazy parents that took them around and showed them stuff.  But if not, well, WE had fun!  

Bangkok Eye in the Sky.  A huge glass Ferris wheel.

Last night!  I love my job!