red and seedy

June = perfection. I am not just saying that because my birthday is in June. It really is the perfect month. The baseball season is in full swing (no pun intended). In Illinois, the weather is perfect, except for the occasional tornado warning. And, although it doesn't apply to me anymore, there will always be a feeling of freedom and relief. Coats and book bags are tucked away in closets. I live for Christmas...and June. And, if June had a taste, it would be strawberries.
MMMMMM! Strawberries! Aside from Funfetti cake with Funfetti frosting, is there a more perfect food? Delicious and healthy. By themselves, in a savory dish, in a dessert, or on top of pancakes. YUM YUM YUM. So, a few weeks ago when a sign up sheet was posted for a trip to a strawberry festival, I was pumped. As were many other people at school. However, the enthusiasm faded and by Friday, only two names remained on the sign up sheet, so much for an office unity building day. I felt slightly annoyed by the flakiness of my coworkers. However, that annoyance was soon forgotten when I started thinking of the flakiness of pie crust, topped with strawberry filling. Come hell or high water, I was still going to that festival.
So Saturday morning, I set off for Nonsan with my friend/coworker/fellow strawberry enthusiast and two of her friends.
I could barely contain my excitement. What kind of strawberry deliciousness was waiting for me? Strawberry pie? Strawberry ice cream? Strawberry cookies? Is there such a thing? Strawberry milkshake? Strawberry smoothie? Strawberry waffle? Strawberry tart? Nevermind the fact that it is still decently chilly in Korea, so I have no idea how/where all of these strawberries are grown. That didn't matter. What did matter, and I should know this by now, is that I am in Korea. Expecting good dessert in Korea is like expecting good skiing in Illinois. In my strawberry induced excitement, I forgot that tidbit. I ate zero strawberry desserts at this festival. Womp womp.
The pièce de résistance of the strawberry festival seemed to be the giant strawberry rice cake. For those of you I haven't talked to about rice cake yet...where to start? I don't hate Korean food, quite the opposite actually. I do however, hate rice cake. If you are curious about what it is like, go eat a spoonful of Vaseline. The texture is slightly different, but basically the same idea. Flavorless, and no amount of chewing really makes it any easier to swallow. But Koreans go crazy for this stuff, and they were super excited about their long strawberry rice cake.



Then this lady broke it. Luckily, rice cake is like putty, and they could just stick it back together.


And of course, because this is Korea, there were photo ops aplenty. No one in this picture looks particularly jazzed to be at the strawberry festival.


Another display at the strawberry festival was the sad zoo. This was a tent that had a diverse array of animal life in it. I did not say wildlife because in three of the cages, there were cats. There were also a variety of big disgusting snakes, a big hairy spider, a donkey, baby bears, a wolf/dog (not sure, the signs were in Korea), a few animals that I have no idea what they were, and this sad pen, containing a skunk, a turtle, a bunny, and a monkey with a chain around his neck. At least he wasn't drinking a beer like the chained monkey I saw in the Philippines.



The most important thing is this: TRAIN NORAEBANG. I can't make this stuff up. And never in my life has a train ride passed so quickly. If you don't know what noraebang is, look it up and tell me that doesn't make you want to come visit me. In my opinion (which is fact, let's be real), it's Korea's greatest asset.


So, despite the strawberry festival not being at all what I imagined, I had a great day. I bought a kilo of delicious strawberries for about $6. The weather was warmish, with blue sky and SUN. I was with good company. I got to noraebang on a train. I give the day an A+.