Eumseong- the watermelon city

Many of the lightpoles in our city have these pictures on them. Eumseong is known as the pepper city (hence the strange pepper girls) and the watermelon city. I don't know if it's really a city...trust me..there's nothing here but ricefields and apartment buildings! 

 Last night we went into town and stopped by an outdoor market. Watermelons are grown all over this area, so I don't understand why they are so expensive. The average price of a watermelon here is 20,000 Won- about $19. Last night at the market we found one for 10,000 Won.

 It was huge! As we were walking down the main street in town, people would stop to look at us, which isn't unusual. But what is unusual is that they would smile! We don't usually get smiles- just stares, or sometimes scowls. One woman even tried to have a conversation with us. It was like a magical key to being liked by the locals. It was as if we had a baby with us. We were getting the sort of reactions that people get when they're walking around with a baby. So strange! But it was a nice change to have people smile at us!

 Isn't he handsome without his glasses? :)  I'm trying to talk him into getting contacts.



Here's a picture I took the other night of the fields outside of our apartment. This is one thing we will surely miss about the country life.