Tea

Last weekend we had the opportunity to visit a tea house and have tea in the traditional style.  It was even more surprising when you hear we were in a modern apartment in a giant apartment building.  We had been invited to have dinner with a family from church, and after dinner he took us to a room in the house (between the kitchen and the library), where you go in and are immediately transported to a rural traditional tea house.  It was wood-paneled (even the ceiling) with the traditional doors and decorated with various tea cups, pots, and tea-related objects.  We sat on the floor and had the traditional 5 cups of green tea.  The tea was put in warmed cups and made new each cup (though the water was from an electric hot water heater).  The room was also decorated with traditional paintings by the wife's mother, and by sayings in Hanja (Korean written in Chinese).  We ate traditional Korean food you eat while drinking tea, sugary cheese doodles without the cheese and sweet potato bites covered in sugar.  It was nice and relaxing.
Leaving the room back to the hallway was like stepping forward in time to modern Korea.