Friday, May 18, 2007
A Weekend at the Coast
This past weekend we headed over to the east coast for a little R & R. We went to Seokcho, which is a town at the base of Seorak mountain. We left EARLY on Saturday morning (we're talking 5 a.m. wake up call), and arrived at the coast by 12:30. Funny thing: most of the ride there was sunny, however once we got to Seokcho, found a hotel, and found a beach, we had about 15 minutes before hurricane weather rolled in and we were faced with blowing winds and drenching rains. Pretty funny, and we managed to enjoy the beach anyways.
We hiked Seoraksan on Sunday. It was a beautiful day, and the mountain was absolutely beautiful. I have never seen shades of green like we saw there. A lot of people were out, as hiking season is already full blown over here. The finale of the hike involved about 800 metal steps that were bolted into the side of a huge rock face...very cool, but a little scary, as the steps were pretty steep, and who knows how long ago they were bolted there. But, we managed to survive, and we've got the pictures to show for it. Enjoy!
This is a picture of what we saw out of our bus window for most of our trip over to the coast. It's planting season and the rice paddies have all been flooded.
Here we are on the beach: powdered sand, smiles on our faces, and dark clouds looming.
This body of water is known as the "Sea of Japan" to everyone in the world except Koreans. They call this water the "East Sea" because they don't think it's fair that it's named after Japan. I call it both.
Despite the chilly water temperature, the guys decided to take a dip. They are so tough!
This is what you have to do if you want to order pizza in Korea. Step 1: Make an elaborate drawing of exactly what you want. Step 2: Look up all the words in the Korean/English dictionary, and write them down too. Step 3: Find someone with a cellphone. Step 4: Show them this paper. Step 5: Let them call. Step 6: Wait for your pizza. It worked!
This is a pre-hike picture. Sam enjoying some energy food...chicken on a stick.
This statue was at the bottom of the mountain. We've found that most mountains here have a temple and a huge statue right before the trailhead.
I thought this dragon sort of looks like the one of "The Never-ending Story", so I made friends with it.
Some of the beautiful scenery. You can't see them, but this is the rock face that the stairs are bolted to.
Here we are getting closer and closer to the rock face. Sam posing as a friendly mountain man.
Starting up the stairs.
The views we had were amazing. Still hiking the stairs...quite the workout!
Here we are at the top.
Some of the rock formations were unreal. The one behind us just looked like slabs of rock that had been set against each other.
Here I am hanging on for dear life. This could have been a very bad accident!
We hiked Seoraksan on Sunday. It was a beautiful day, and the mountain was absolutely beautiful. I have never seen shades of green like we saw there. A lot of people were out, as hiking season is already full blown over here. The finale of the hike involved about 800 metal steps that were bolted into the side of a huge rock face...very cool, but a little scary, as the steps were pretty steep, and who knows how long ago they were bolted there. But, we managed to survive, and we've got the pictures to show for it. Enjoy!
This is a picture of what we saw out of our bus window for most of our trip over to the coast. It's planting season and the rice paddies have all been flooded.
Here we are on the beach: powdered sand, smiles on our faces, and dark clouds looming.
This body of water is known as the "Sea of Japan" to everyone in the world except Koreans. They call this water the "East Sea" because they don't think it's fair that it's named after Japan. I call it both.
Despite the chilly water temperature, the guys decided to take a dip. They are so tough!
This is what you have to do if you want to order pizza in Korea. Step 1: Make an elaborate drawing of exactly what you want. Step 2: Look up all the words in the Korean/English dictionary, and write them down too. Step 3: Find someone with a cellphone. Step 4: Show them this paper. Step 5: Let them call. Step 6: Wait for your pizza. It worked!
This is a pre-hike picture. Sam enjoying some energy food...chicken on a stick.
This statue was at the bottom of the mountain. We've found that most mountains here have a temple and a huge statue right before the trailhead.
I thought this dragon sort of looks like the one of "The Never-ending Story", so I made friends with it.
Some of the beautiful scenery. You can't see them, but this is the rock face that the stairs are bolted to.
Here we are getting closer and closer to the rock face. Sam posing as a friendly mountain man.
Starting up the stairs.
The views we had were amazing. Still hiking the stairs...quite the workout!
Here we are at the top.
Some of the rock formations were unreal. The one behind us just looked like slabs of rock that had been set against each other.
Here I am hanging on for dear life. This could have been a very bad accident!(Note: the above picture is staged. No hikers were hurt in the production of this photograph)
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Some Funny Signs...
We aren't exactly sure why this man is being spanked by the police officer. Funny that the cop is wearing gloves, eh! We think it's either a poster to warn against drinking and driving (since the man's holding a bottle of something and there's a car in the background), or to prevent people from jumping the turn-styles to get on the subway (as it was set up right by the turn-styles). Either way, I do not want what is happening to him to happen to me, so I will always pay my 80 cents before riding the train, and I will never drink and drive!
I think a little something was lost in the translation of this dish name. Kimchi jigae (the dish shown in the picture) is really delicious, however un-appetizing the name may be!
I think they must have had a German lady help them with this translation work.Coming Soon to a North American City Near You...
It's official...we're coming home! Our contract is up at the end of June, and we'll be flying home on June 26th. Hard to believe that a year has already almost come and gone...but it has, and so we're getting ready to move on to the next adventure.
Some things we're looking forward to about North America:
1. Seeing family and friends
2. Tim Hortons (notice this is second only to family and friends...I don't think Sam shares my obsession, but I miss anything and everything about my favourite coffee shop!)
3. Food (it would take too long to mention everything we're craving right now...things like steak, salt and vinegar chips, pie, vegetables -sounds funny, but vegetables are really expensive here, brownies, feta cheese, Doritos, salad, pitas, English muffins...you get the picture)
4. Being able to understand the signs. Not just read them, but UNDERSTAND them!!
5. Driving
We have about 7 weeks left to pack as many Korean activities in as we can, and then we're off. We're looking forward to seeing everybody again soon.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Some Pictures from the Weekend
This weekend Sam and I re-visited some of the sites in Seoul that we have been to before. We went to a prison where the Japanese held many Korean freedom-fighters during their occupation in the earlier half of the 20th century. After we had toured around and left the facilities, an older Korean man walked up to us, told us a bit about the prison, and then thanked us for taking the time to visit such an important site. He was really happy that we wanted to learn about what had happened to the Korean people. I was pretty touched by that. We also hit up a palace in Seoul to check out the grounds with their newly acquired blossoms and greenery...very pretty! Here are a few pictures of things we saw...
Just in case some of you have forgotten where exactly we are, let this extremely over-sized flag serve as a friendly reminder...we're in Korea.
Here I am in one of the holding cells in Seodaemun Prison.
Sam and David, through the cell door.
Sam in front of the throne building at Gyeongbukgung Palace.
Sam took this cool artistic shot. This building is also on the palace grounds. As you can see, everything is green and flowering and beautiful!
Just in case some of you have forgotten where exactly we are, let this extremely over-sized flag serve as a friendly reminder...we're in Korea.
Here I am in one of the holding cells in Seodaemun Prison.
Sam and David, through the cell door.
Sam in front of the throne building at Gyeongbukgung Palace.
Sam took this cool artistic shot. This building is also on the palace grounds. As you can see, everything is green and flowering and beautiful! 
