As part of studying Korean every term we have a culture day. This term it was a trip to The National Folk Museum of Seoul (국림민족박물관 - more info.) We started out by having a walk around the halls reading about Korean culture and looking at the lovely displays. We have recently been talking about similar culture in class so it was nice to put some visuals to the Korean. After an hour or so we all gathered again and were moved to a workshop to make masks. We were given a choice of blank masks and a quick briefing of some good techniques to use. I got really into the painting and after an hour and a half I finished a pretty solid design (see pic). It also came out in a national newspaper - The Chosunilbo (조선일보). You can see the picture and a brief description in English here.
Finally we learnt how to dance a traditional dance. It was like doing a kata in Karate or something - a lot of flowing movements and a confusing number of patterns to remember. Still I accepted the challenge and got a lot out of it.