Anniversary weekend: Wolchulsan.

Last weekend, Doug planned a trip for our anniversary and wouldn't tell me a word about it.  He has been planning this trip for weeks and I have been so anxious to find out where we would be going. He even typed up an itinerary for different options of activities so we could chose depending on the weather and what we felt like doing.  He is the best :)

Saturday morning we decided to hike Wolchulsan.  It is super hot and humid in Korea right now, but we really wanted to see the cloud bridge, which spans two peaks of the mountain and connects the trail together.  So we set out at around eight in the morning trying to beat the heat.  

Here I am at the trail head.  About two minutes after this I was already drenched in sweat.  

The beginning of the hike had bamboo trees lining the trail and tons of birds singing.  I know this sounds stupid, but it reminded me of Disneyland with the bamboo, birds, and misty humidity.

Here is where the trail split.  We followed the lanterns, which led to a temple and eventually the bridge.

Notice all that sweat?  Honestly, I don't think have ever sweated like that before and I hope I never do again.  The hike wasn't that long but was really steep.  Here we took a water break and rested on some rocks.

Finally at the end!

I love that Korea always has little pagoda things for shade when you reach the end of a trail.

The cloud bridge.  Totally worth it.

The above and below pictures are looking down while on the bridge.

On our way back down with the bridge over top of us.

After, we stopped at a little restaurant and I got some ramen and Doug got a fried pork cutlet, called donkatsu.  The ramen was doctored up with fresh vegetables and seasoning.  Delish after a hike.

On our way back into town we saw a group of hikers about to set out.  Notice how all the other hikers in the previous pictures are covered from head to toe? Notice how we are not?  I thought they just didn't want to get tan since Koreans like having light skin.  Well, I'm pretty sure it has to do with the mosquitoes since my legs are still covered with huge itchy bites.  But even with the mosquitoes, it was a breathtaking hike and something so unique to Korea.  I loved having this experience with Doug.

A long-term state of mind.

I think it's time for another countdown post.  We will officially be home in only 102 days!  102 days, can you believe it?!  Just yesterday I was thinking about coming home and the actual day that we will be leaving Korea and on the plane to LA.  I got butterflies in my stomach.  It was weird because I also was remembering when we left Spain and my feelings at that time.  When I left Spain, I was excited to come home (especially since it was the holidays!) and to see my family, but it was also bittersweet.  We both fell in love with everything about Spain.  The fact that we were so passionate about learning Spanish also made leaving the country hard because I knew I may never have the opportunity again to be fully immersed in a Spanish speaking culture.  Plus, I got to see Doug everyday in Spain, which was way better than a few times a month like during the school year.  And I was returning to UCLA, which was a lot more difficult than my studies in Granada.  Maybe something had to do with that, too ;)

But leaving Korea will be a lot different.  And that feeling doesn't mean I don't like it here-I know I will have moments when I miss Korea-but the circumstance is just completely different.  I think because so much has changed in our lives in this past year and we are excited to share that with our family and friends.  Maybe it is also because returning home means starting an exciting new chapter in our lives rather than returning back into our routines.  I feel like we will officially be starting our life together: getting an apartment, unpacking our stuff, decorating, getting a car, etc.  This past year (more like the past five years with school and moving around so much) has felt so temporary and being in a long-term place sounds so refreshing. I can't wait to actually live in a place for more than two years.  It'll be so exciting coming home after our first year of marriage and getting to start an awesome second year together with our families and friends so close by...

102 more days!!

As promised...

Finally, here are our pictures from our Suwon trip.  I hope you enjoy!

 Here we are at the start of the day.  We still have energy and we are completely oblivious to the fact that we are about to walk the length of the city...like three times.

 First stop, lunch!  We ate at a little restaurant that is famous for it's mandu-aka dumplings.  Even though there is meat in the dumplings, I gave them a try.  I must say they were pretty delicious.  And I got to sit across from this handsome guy.. I'm a lucky girl :)

 

Here is our lunch.  I pretty much always order bibimbap when we eat Korean food (if I have the option).  It is easily made vegetarian if it isn't already vegetarian, it's filling, and it's fresh and healthy.  It never disappoints.  

 After lunch we headed towards the entrance of the fortress to start our tour.  Here, the boys, have already bought ice cream.  It seemed like these three bought some sort of snack every time we stopped.  Il Joon (left) and Yumin (right) are two of my very favorite students.  They're best friends and are precious. 

Here is a typical scene in any Korean park on a beautiful day.  A group of older men, called ajeoshis, or women, called ajummas, sitting around playing games, eating, drinking, and talking.  

 One view of the lovely fortress wall.  

 Typical temple and fortress paintings.

 Fortress flags that marked the defensive look-out places along the wall. 

Four of my third grade girls: Jenny, Lucy, Alice and Emma.  I love these girls.

 Here we are walking up to the highest point along the wall.  This was just the start of it. After this picture, some of the students seriously started to lag behind. 

 Isn't Korea beautiful?

 One of the offensive towers looking over Suwon.

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 The dragon train.  I was praying that we would take this train down the mountain after we walked to the top.  I was wrong.

We made it!  It was such a beautiful day spent with the great company of my students, my co-teacher, and Doug.

Half way there.

I can't believe we've already been in Korea for six months.  Our official six month "Koreaversary" (as our friend Jessica likes to call it) is on the 28th of this month, but we're practically there!  I know that leaving will be bittersweet, but I am honestly super excited to come home.  That's not to say that we don't like it here or anything.  There will definitely be things we miss about Korea.  I'll miss the fact that this will probably be the safest place I will ever live, period.  I'll miss the friendly and generous Korean culture where people will give you little gifts or start a conversation with you in the elevator, at the store, on the street, or pretty much anywhere.  I'll miss the fact that everything in Korea is extremely cute and I can easily find a spatula with a smiley face on it, pens in the shape of puppies, or kitten oven mitts.  And, I know that Doug will miss all the cheap street food and beef dishes here!

But....I can't wait to be back in sunny California where the avocados are abundant and our friends and family are just a drive or phone call away.  I'm counting down the days and we only have 192 more days till we're flying back to beautiful California!  That's not that far away, right?

Here's a few pictures that I feel really capture the beauty of Korea and the rural/urban mix throughout the country.

Busan, day 2.

Onto day two.  One thing that we were both excited to see in Busan was Yonggungsa Temple.  It is a beautiful Buddhist temple located up on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. To get to the temple, we walked up a large hill to make our way to the cliffs.  Once we got closer, there were a few booths of food and souvenirs lining the road.  I got a cute jade green bead bracelet and a little Asian cat charm that I may use as an ornament when we get back.  After the street shops, we came to the entrance.  There were two middle-aged Korean women rubbing the golden Buddha's belly by the entrance.  I was waiting to get a photo rubbing Buddha's belly, when the Korean women told me to rub his belly seven times, touch his nose, and then rub his hand.  They were really excited to be talking to me so I went ahead and rubbed the belly while they counted to seven for me.  They were so cute and definitely excited to show me how to rub Buddha's belly.

After that, we walked through a tunnel that took us to the cliffs.  Once we got to that side, we could see the stunning temple, ocean and view.  We've been to a few temples throughout Korea and Yonggungsa has definitely been my favorite.  There were these amazing rock formations off in the distance behind the temple area.  We walked around to tall the different statues and temple areas.  There was even a neat grotto where Buddhists go to to drink a sip of ocean water and light candles.  It was such a crystal clear, sunny day, which was so refreshing after some of the grey weather we've been having here in Cheonan.

When we were finishing exploring Yonggungsa, we went to Haeundae beach.   This is the first beach we have been to in Korea.  It reminded me a lot of Huntington, except it was winter so not many people were there on the main street.  I could tell Haeundae was a tourist place because of the many pubs and bars.  But, we were lucky enough to find a Mexican restaurant for lunch!  The place was called Fuzzy Navel Taco, which sounds sketchy, but it was actually pretty good.  Doug, of course, got a burrito and I got vegetarian tacos and a little side of guacamole.  It wasn't as good as real Mexican food that we get back home, but it did satisfy our Mexican food craving!

One thing that surprised me about the beach here was the large amount of people on the beach even though it was winter.  I feel like the beaches in Southern California in the winter are pretty dead.  Here, however, the were groups of students, families, and friends were down on the sand just hanging out and admiring the ocean.  

Busan, day 1.

Doug and I just got  back from our three day mini vacation to Busan. Busan is the second largest city in South Korea and is located on the southeast side of the country.  Since Busan is located on the coast, it is famous for its seafood and fish markets.  It's also kind of like the Hollywood of Korea.  They hold their international film festivals in Busan and on certain streets we saw golden hand prints similar to those in Hollywood.

We left for Busan Thursday morning and got on a four hour train south!  During the train ride, I finally was able to finish a scarf that I have been knitting.  It's actually the second scarf I've worked on, but the first one turned out horrible and was way to short and thick; it kind of looks like a cape!  So, I'll give that "scarf" to Yeppi for sleeping.  My second scarf turned out really well and is cozy and warm!

We arrived in Busan at around one o'clock in the afternoon.  For our first day their, we decided to check out Busan Tower, which has some pretty awesome views of the city.

Busan Tower is a really popular place for couple to take a lock with their initials on it and lock it to the fence at the base of the tower.  So, of course Doug and I had to take our lock up to the tower and take some Asian-inspired photos!

This is how a lot of my middle school students pose in pictures.  I thought it was an appropriate moment to test it out. 

After placing our lock on the fence, we got on the elevator for the top of the tower.  We got to see great views of the Pacific Ocean and of the city.

Next, we went to the Nampo and Jalgachi. Nampo is the big shopping district of Busan and Jalgachi is the fish market just a few blocks away.  The shopping was really great!  It was alleys and alleys of good knock-off wallets, purses, jewelry, shoes, clothing, dog sweaters, etc.

The sun was almost finished setting, so we decided to walk to the fish market.  It was really....interesting.  At first, we were walking along the outdoor market.  I'm always a little grossed out by the Korean food markets because the food is so close to the ground and it just doesn't seem clean.  Plus, the smells are always really, really strong.  I guess it's cultural, but to me it just doesn't seem sanitary.

Then, we went into the indoor market.  The indoor market seemed a lot cleaner, but it was still overwhelming.  Fish were falling out of the buckets and one wrong step and you could end up in with the octopuses!  Well, maybe I'm over-exaggerating a bit, but I still didn't think it was a good idea to have them in open containers.

Not surprisingly, Doug was pretty hungry by this point.  We went back to Nampo and got some street food.  I was really excited because some booths had corn on the cob, so there was something vegetarian I could get.  However, when I got my corn it was like chewing rubber!  It must have been sitting out for awhile.  I had to throw it away because it was so disgusting.  I ended up just having two doughy "pancakes" that were stuffed with a little bit of red bean paste and sunflower seeds.  It seems like a weird combination, but they were delicious!

This lady knows what she is doing!  I can't wait to go back to Busan and get another little pancake thing.  Doug went to another stall and got some dumpling and a chicken dish.  He said the chicken was gross because it had all the bones in it and you had to chew around it and spit them out.  They don't de-bone anything here.  I'm always amazed when I watch my students meticulously get the meat of their fish at lunch with their chopsticks.

Here is a picture of the stall where Doug ate.  Street food and snacks like this are really popular. The most popular dished are fish cake skewers seen at the bottom of the picture and tteokbokki. Tteokbokki is a rice cake spicy noodle that is extremely chewy.  It's nasty.

So, that was our first day in Busan.  Overall, I really like the city.  It had a much different vibe from the others cities we've been to in Korea.  I think since it was on the coast, it had a more relaxed atmosphere.  I'll post more about our trip later today and tomorrow!