Seoraksan National Park

For such a small country, Korea has quite a few national parks.  Seoraksan is probably one of the biggest and most popular parks in the country.  It is located in a small mountain range near the ocean on the north eastern coast, right near North Korea.  

We visited Seoraksan a few weeks ago, figuring it would be a great time to explore the mountains and check out the leaves changing colors.  Apparently a lot of other people had the same idea as us, so the park was pretty packed.  But everything is Korea is always crowded, so it probably wasn't too different than it normally is.  

We spent two days there.  On the first, we did one of the main hikes in the park.  It was about 5 hours or so round trip, but we made some stops and took our time taking photos.  It takes you up to the top of this rocky mountain with great views.  I couldn't believe just how beautiful it was.  We sat at the top and enjoyed the views for quite a while.  I didn't want to leave.  The trail up to the top included over 800 stairs.  The last 3/4 of a mile or so was very steep stairs, drilled into the rock face of the mountain.  Not for those with a fear of heights.  I couldn't believe how many little old ladies made it to the top!

The next day we did a little bit of a shorter hike before we had to catch the bus back to Seoul.  It followed along a beautiful mountain stream and eventually ended up at a small cave.  The stream looked like it once was a big river (and maybe it still flows in the rainy season), but now it was mostly dry.  It was a rocky riverbed, and many of the rocky valleys filled up with beautiful pools of water.  The water was crystal clear with a hint of blue, if it were summer I would have jumped right in.  It looked like the perfect place to enjoy a nice dip in gorgeous scenery.  

The cave that we hiked up to was a very small Buddhist shrine.  The cave was only about 25 feet deep, but was packed with people.  Inside, it had a few small steps that led up to a shrine where, of course, you had to take your shoes off.  High up in the mountains, after hiking for hours, take your shoes off and pray.  

My favorite thing I saw in Seoraksan -besides the incredible views of the rocky peaks- were the Chinese characters carved into giant stones.  We saw them in a couple places, once along the rocky river and another time up in the mountains next to a small temple.  The characters ranged in size from about 8 inches to about 2 feet in size.  They looked really nice set against the great landscapes and the leaves changing color.   

It was a really great trip.  The leaves weren't changing color quite as much as we expected them to, but they still looked amazing.  We enjoyed the mountains as well as the small town of Sokcho that we stayed in.  Took lots of great photos, so check them out here.

A Great Day to Be an American

Wow, we did it!  I could not be more proud of America and proud that Barack Obama will be our next president.  I really feel that this is a great day for my country.  This is giant leap in the right direction.  Obama will be a great president and will help get our country back on track.  

Only around 50 years ago, African-Americans were fighting for equal rights.  And now we have our first African-American president.  I wonder how Martin Luther King Jr would feel on this day, to know that his "I Have a Dream" speech is being fully realized in an amazing way.  To know that his children are living in a world of more than just basic equality.  50 years.  Such a short time to achieve so much progress.

 

No matter what your politics or who you voted for, you should feel proud today.  You should feel proud that our country has overcome such huge obstacles in such a short time.  I really believe that Obama becoming president is going to open more doors for everyone and help everyone achieve their full potential more easily.  To me, this says that anyone can do what they want to do and shouldn't let social issues get in the way.  Just because it's never been done before, that is not good reason to believe that it is not possible.  Of course the obvious group that will feel most affected by a black man becoming president is African-Americans, but I truly believe that this is also bridging the way for every group that feels discrimination.  Hispanics, gays, women, etc. etc. Be proud.

And I'm also proud of our country for more than just the race issue.  Everyone will agree that the Bush years have been pretty awful.  I'm proud that we, as a country, have enough sense to realize that and make a change.  A big and powerful change.  Obama is a really strong candidate and has what it takes to help turn our country back around.  He's going into office at a very difficult time and he's surely going to face a lot of criticism. But I have HOPE and I think most of our country does as well.  

And I'm so excited that Colorado went for Obama!  How great to be from a blue state!  I just wish I could have been there to experience it.  Over here on the other side of the world, the group of teachers at my school all closely watched the election online between our classes.  We were happy we were able to watch some live coverage online, and were all thrilled when we heard the great news.  It's a great day!

The World Is Just Awesome.

Best Commercial Ever.  Makes me smile every time.

Gyeong-ju Weekend

A couple weeks ago, we had our last 3 day weekend until Christmas. That's about 12 weeks with NO BREAKS. So Jason and I decided that we better enjoy the time off. We headed down south to the city of Gyeong-ju. It was the capital of the Shilla Dynasty for around 1000 years - thousands of years ago. So, needless to say, there's a lot of history there. It's kind of like the Kyoto of Korea. Kind of.

We spent our first day there visiting a couple of temples. We made our way out to the Bulguksa Temple, one of the oldest temples in Korea. Very nice (see photos). After the temple, we took an extremely crowded bus up a windy mountain road to the Seoukguram Grotto. It was pretty much on top of the mountain, there were great views in every direction. Supposedly, on a clear day, you can see the ocean. But clear days don't really exist in Korea (perma-smog), so of course we didn't see it. But anyway, you take a short walk from where the bus lets you off and come to a shrine built into the side of the mountain. Inside the grotto, there is a giant stone buddha, surrounded by a semi-circle wall with around 30 or so guards carved into it. Walking back from it, we saw the best sunset I've seen in Korea.

Later that night, we walked around and visited some of the sites around the city. First we walked to the observatory, the oldest one in all of Asia. On flat ground and only about 25 feet high... a little different than observatories today. Guess they didn't have to deal with all the bright city lights and pollution. Hmm... Anyway, you can't tell just from looking at it, but there is a lot that went into designing it. There are 12 stones at the base (months), 30 layers to the top (months), and 366 stones in all (days in the year).
From the observatory, we made out way over to the Anapji Pond. It's a big pond with a few pagodas located around it. Everything was lit up and night and it looked really amazing. The perfect place to take an evening stroll. There once was temples surrounding the pond, but they've long sine burned down. Also, when they drained the pond in the 70's for maintenance, they discovered hundreds of relics that had been forgotten in the water and somehow stayed pretty well preserved in the mud.

The next two days we spent hiking around Mount Namsan, a small mountain just outside of town that is covered with shrines. The first day we met a couple of Korean guys who became our tour guides for the day. They were really nice guys, in their mid twenties, and they have actually become good friends since then. They are also from Seoul and were just vacationing for the long weekend as well. We've gone out to dinner and drinks and soccer games with them a couple times since we've been back. It's nice to actually hang out with some Koreans instead of just foreigners for once. The second day we rented bikes and rode around along the base of the mountain and through some rice fields before doing some hiking. Both days we some some really amazing buddhas carved into the sides of rock walls. I think I saw some of my favorite things I've seen in Korea there, but I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.  Take a look here.  

An Important Message Before Election Day

Life, As of Late

I haven't posted much about what I've been doing here lately because for a while, there wasn't much to post about. After the Japan trip, things kind of slowed down for a while. Life was just normal, day in day out, nothing special going on. We did a couple weekend trips to the beach. Jason went home for a week to go to a wedding. He was gone over a four day weekend, so I spent a lot of "me" time then, which was actually really great. But in the last week or so, a little bit more has been going on.

Here at our school, there are five English teachers and then four people on the Korean staff. Jean, the academic director, is who we go to for pretty much anything we need. She is so great and so helpful and speaks the best English out of all the staff. She is the go to lady. She helps us with anything, whether it is school related or not. Last week, a meeting was called and it was announced that Jean would be leaving us because of "personal reasons." We were told that on Monday and then Tuesday was her last day. There will be no one coming in to take her place, so Ronnie, the owner and director of the school, will be in Jean's place. However, since Jean left, Ronnie hasn't changed a thing about what she does here at the school. She still comes in late everyday and then just sits and talks with the other Korean staff. She's not constantly working on things the way Jean always did. And Ronnie just isn't a very approachable person; you don't really want to go a talk to her about something unless it's completely necessary. Jean is the type of person who knows what is going on with every student in the school. Not Ronnie. Basically, all of us teachers are just going to have to get used to figuring things out for ourselves, because no one else here knows what is supposed to be done, either. So we'll see how that goes over in the next few months.

But on a better note.... We went on a weekend trip this past weekend to a city down south called Gyung ju. Really nice place. It was once the capital of the Shilla dynasty, so there's a lot of history there; kind of like the Rome of Korea.... kind of. But I'll write more about that later, once I upload all the photos from the trip.

And I think we're going to do a few more weekend trips in the coming weeks. One to Soraksan, a famous mountain and good hiking area. And then another one to a city a couple hours away where Jason has a soccer game coming up. (He plays in a soccer league every Sunday. Most the games are fairly nearby to where we live, but there are a couple outside of Seoul. It's a really international club, which is kind of fun. His team includes people from 5 different continents.) This past weekend was our last 3 day weekend until our Christmas break. Oh maaan that's a lot of full work weeks....

Until next time, hope all is well back home. Love and miss you all.

Clips of Life

This is a video from the Hansin Tigers baseball game we went to in Japan.  The entire stadium (which was sold out) erupted in noise, chanting, singing, banging noise makers, etc.  I couldn't believe they kept it up for 9 innings. 

There was a monk chanting in one of the temples that we visited in Kyoto.  I probably shouldn't have been taking a video inside the temple, but it was just such a great moment and I really wanted to capture it.

English for Partygoers

Often times on the subway ride home, I will see people studying English.  Usually, it's just strait forward English lessons, or sometimes on specific subjects such as economics or biology.  However, today I saw something completely different.  There was an older business man in a nice suit sitting next to me, studying a small English book.  It had conversations in English and then translated to Korean as well.  Let me give you some examples of the things this businessman was learning:

A: Hey man, let's do a lap around the bar before we get some drinks.  We need to mack us some shorties.

B: No, I already met this beautiful young lady.  She's gonna be my boo!

A: Dude, she doesn't even like you.

A: Yo, girl.  This party is jammin'.   How bout you give me your digits?

B: No, I don't give me number to strangers.

A: Dude, Tom is totally trippin'.  

B. Yeah, he took way too much acid.  He has to be forced to go to a doctor.

A: Yo man, you got any weed?

B: Yeah you got the cash?

A: Of course. I'm gonna be rollin' in this club all night!

A: I saw you flip me the bird from across the room.  Why you got beef with me?

B: Chill out man, it was a mistake.  I don't got beef with you.

I wish I could make stuff up that was this good.  But unfortunately, these are real examples from the businessman's book.  I'd like to see him try to use some of those.