An update on cute children

Hey hey. So the other day when writing my post on Seorak San I was about to include all of my pictures of little children that I met there, but I had too many and so I decided they needed to go in a separate post. (Great story, Jordan, thanks.) Anyways, here they are.

Sleepy baby bunny! (Little so happy!)

Yesterday, (Monday) I went to Miya's pharmacy for lunch again, and then had tea from Rumorpang. Afterwards, I took the taxi home and then walked from there to Chuam Beach. It was about an hour long walk there, and I hit the beach at the perfect time. There was very few people, and the sun was starting to sink in the sky, so the light on the water and rocks was really warm and very pretty.

The sand was different from any other beach I'd been to. It wasn't rocky like the beaches back home, but it also wasn't as small a grain as some other beaches. I liked it a lot, and walked around barefoot. I also collected some shells because all of them had really interesting patterns on them. I sat on a rock by the water for awhile and read my book, (Yay, Game of Thrones!) until it started getting a little colder and I put my shoes back on and decided to move around a bit. I walked up a trail, which lead to a lookout of the water and the rocks, when Uncle Jamie called and said he was driving by Chuam and was going to go swimming downtown and would I like to explore downtown for awhile? So I went downtown and shopped a little, (didn't buy anything, although there was a really cute pair of shoes) but mainly I saw the cutest baby alive.

Adorable. And I also found proof that even the Android himself uses an iPhone!

Haha. ^^

Breakfast: Cereal

Lunch: Ramen with dumplings

Dinner: Sambap (One of Uncle Jamie's co-teachers wanted to take us and another co-teacher out to dinner as a 'Welcome to Korea!' for me. He was really sweet.)

Dessert: Rice cakes, the cutest and most bland dessert ever. 

A breath of fresh air...

Sunday we went to Seorak San, which is a really tall, beautiful mountain north of Donghae. Our GPS took us to a entrance into Seorak San and we didn't realize it was the wrong one until we had payed for parking and hiked up the path a ways and then talked to some women who said the place we wanted to go was really far away. Although it put us back a little, I enjoyed taking the detour because the air was so fresh and the trees were so colourful, and we had been hiking next to a river that was really clear and very pretty.

So we walked back down, got in the car, and by that time we decided we should stop for lunch. We went to a really cool vegetarian restaurant that served lots of mountain vegetables found in the region. Everything was really fresh and very beautiful. There were lots of different mushrooms, leaves, and roots. One thing that I've really found interesting about Korea is how resourceful the people are. Korea was a really poor country for a while and so they had to live off of anything edible they could find. There are also gardens in every spare space of land, and you see people on tarps drying different beans, seeds, and fruit. So this meal was very traditional. The gave us lots of different vegetables that they had prepared, and some rice and some soup, and with the rice and vegetables we made our own bi bim bap.

After lunch we drove to the place we had originally been meaning to go, which was at the bottom of Seorak San, and it had a giant buddha statue, a couple of trailheads, and a gondola to get to the top of Seorak San. We walked around at the base and I took lots of pictures of the trees and of the buddha statue, and of small children that were really cute. Here, it isn't odd for people to just go up and pat kids' heads, or take pictures of them. They aren't in any danger of being kidnapped or anything, and everybody is very friendly. The parents like seeing that other people think their kids are cute, too. Then we got our gondola tickets, and since there was two more hours until the gondola we were scheduled for was going to go up (there were gondola's going up every five minutes- that is just an example about how many people there were there, wanting to go up to the top), Miya and I decided to go up a ways on one of the trails. Uncle Jamie decided to read his book by the river while we did that. I can't believe how pretty all of the trees were, and since trees are one of my favourite things to take pictures of, it's needless to say I took lots of pictures.

When Miya and I had came back down and met up with Uncle Jamie, we got on the gondola and headed up. It was so cool. By this time my camera had died and so I could only take a few at the top unfortunately.

We walked around the building which had different levels that people could look off of, and I noticed a sign that went down a pathway off of one side of the building. It was for a buddhist temple, and I really wanted to see it because I couldn't believe how beautiful it would be to live on the side of a mountain! I didn't realize it was going to be down a really long, steep, rock staircase, and I felt bad for dragging Uncle Jamie and Miya down with me, because I don't think they were as excited about it as I was. It was very pretty though, and very small. Uncle Jamie said there might only be one monk living there. I walked down a little further to look off the edge of a cliff, (that path was even steeper and so I went on my own) but it was so nice looking off the edge into the valley covered in orange and green, and hearing nothing but a waterfall in the distance. The weather was perfect too, I forgot to mention. We were worried it was going to be too foggy because it was in the morning, but by then it had cleared up and it was so nice and crisp, which reminded me so much of home.
Anyways, after we had headed back up the trail and gotten a Hodduk (Honey Pancake- it was a fried pancake that the center was filled with a kind of caramelized syrup and almonds. It wasn't exactly honey.), we took the gondola back down, walked back to our car and head home. We were all really tired and we stopped for Budae Jjigae, which is translated to Army Soup. It was from the Korean War when the Americans came over and brought with them all of their kinds of army food- spam, hot dogs, canned beans and peas and corn- and the Koreans took it and made a soup out of it by mixing all of those up in a fish broth with ramen and onions and gochu jang and rice cakes. It was kind of spicy as all Korean food is, but really yummy after hiking and exploring in autumn weather for a day.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN.

Last night was the Halloween Party at Club Connection, which is a bar in downtown Donghae that a guy named Mini owns. The people that go there are mainly foreigners, and so it was really neat being in the same room as people from South Africa, England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and Australia. I talked to a lot of really interesting people with lots of opinions that were vocalized more than normal with assistance from our friend, alcohol. It's an interesting sight to see- when a guy in a cardboard robot costume is serving drinks to Scooby-Doo, Charlie Chaplin, Cruella DeVille, Siamese twins, and a construction dummy at the same time. In Korea, instead of having flaggers everywhere that there is construction, they have these robotic dummies dressed up in construction clothing that are just waving a lighted up stick. They are the creepiest things ever, so it was a great Halloween costume. The guy who wore it got voted best costume and won a bottle of Tequila, which he shared with everyone. 

Oh, and Uncle Jamie did go as a school girl. How cute.

Today, Saturday, we were planning on going to Gangneung, and going to another temple, but it was really rainy and we all felt like laying low. So we went to get lunch and then went to a really neat coffee shop called TerraRosa, where they roast their own coffee (rare in Korea) and bake their own bread. 

(The perfect latte- and pretty, too!)

Tonight we're just hanging out and playing wii- Frazer, one of Jamie's friends, came over and right now they're having hardcore Ninja Turtle duels. 

(Caution- mild swearing.)

Anyways, that's all. Tomorrow we go to Seorak San, which should be pretty. 

Breakfast: Cookie!

Lunch: Dol sat bi bim bap (My favourite korean food. It was my idea. Yay.)

Dinner: Sweet Potato Pizza. (Haha- not exactly traditional, but it is specific to Korea!)

Market Day!!!

Hey! Second post! YAAAAaaayy. Okay, not nearly as exciting as the first, I know. But! It was market day today! Which is super exciting! So suck it, blog!

A giant market takes place in Donghae every day that ends in a 3 or an 8, and as today was the 28th, it took place! I spent a good couple of hours just walking around, looking at things, and taking pictures. But I have learned a couple things- people here are really friendly to foreigners (my lunch normally would cost 3000 won but the lady gave me a discount), things are really cheap, and I like Korean clowns WAY better than American clowns. They're much more friendly and way less scary. Kay, I'll leave the rest of it up to the pictures.

This shirt was a really nice soft shirt, but I thought what it had on the front of it was the best.

Cute doggie! (Gangaji)

The best hat.

Peppers! 

These old ladies and lots of other old ladies like them were all sitting around with their vegetables, chatting. 

I loved this lady. 

Mushrooms! 

Those are live fish in a bucket. 

Plant stand.... lots of really interesting cactuses and succulents.

Oh, and there were cute children everywhere. 

Everywhere.

Everywhere.

Colourful fish.

They're in love! 

Wowowow. So cool. 

 I don't know what these were, but I think they were alive... baby sea cucumbers?

 I randomly took this picture but then the guy in the red jacket came up later and asked to see it. It was cute.

There were a bunch of old guys gathered around these two guys playing this game. The guy with the best hat was one of them (he's the one with the red vest). I asked to take a picture and they seemed really happy to get their picture taken. 

Another fun shirt. "Charming Animal America Yellow- Little so happy!" 

High fashion!! 

I agree- POLAR BEARS SUCH! Especially when they are on inner tubes.

...wait, I don't think what I just said meant anything.

Tonight we're going to a Halloween Party at a smallish club here in Donghae. I'm going as a vampire kind of thing, just make up really and a white dress Miya slashed up and put red splotches on for Halloween a couple of years ago. I think Uncle Jamie's going as a schoolgirl. Yay! 

Oh and last night I tried Soju...

Before...

After!

And I'll leave you on this note... Korean clowns are great.

So, here we are.

Hey all. Sorry it's taken me so long to get this up and running. I want to continue this blog after I've left from South Korea, and so coming up with the name and colour scheme was important to me, although I know I can always change it later. Heh. Anyways, today's been my fifth full day here with Jamie and Miya (my uncle and aunt, for those who don't know), and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

Just to catch up- the first day, we visited Gyeongju where we went to the Bulguksa Temple, Anapji, and the Tomb Park. Bulguksa was my favourite- not only was the scenery and architecture stunning, but seeing the monks praying in front of the statues of Buddha, with rows of red lanterns on the ceiling was a really breathtaking visual. That night we met up with some of Jamie's friends in Pohang, and went to a couple bars (where I tried Soju Cocktail- yummy.) and then Noraebang. (Korean karaoke) Needless to say, Party Rock Anthem was stuck in my head all the next day.

Breakfast: Kimbap
Lunch: Sundubu Jjigae
Dinner: Barbeque Eel

Day two, (Sunday) we slept in and then met Rebecca and Sang Yul, and their two kids, Hanneem and Jason, for coffee. (Also this is funny- Tom and Tom Coffee is basically Korean Starbucks.) Afterwards we drove back up to Donghae, met Miya and went out for a little.
Breakfast/Lunch: Kalgooksu
Dinner: Vietnamese Shabu shabu

Monday, after catching up on email etc, I took the taxi to Miya's pharmacy where we ordered in Bi Bim Bap, and then went next door to Rumorpang to get tea. Afterwards, I walked along the Arrow River and saw a bunch of old guys fishing along the side. So cute! (Gwi yeo weo!) On the way home, the middle school girls got out of school and they all would giggle and say "Hi! Pretty!" when they saw me, or they would just stare. Uncle Jamie says that there is a total count of three blonde haired people in Donghae right now, so that's why.

Breakfast/Lunch: Bi Bim Bap
Dinner: Japanese udong and fried shrimp. (We tried to go get what Uncle Jamie keeps referring to as 'Clamicken'- it's where they cook chicken and clams and one GIANT clam all together. The restaurant was so small and smoky though, so we went to Japanese, which was good too.)

Tuesday, Uncle Jamie and I put together our thermos' of coffee and drove up to Mureung Valley, where there's another temple and lots of hiking trails. The air was so fresh up there, which is way different from down in Donghae. The leaves were changing colours too, and the river (which connects to the Arrow River) was so pretty running over the rocks. We ate lunch at a restaurant on a patio overlooking the river and talked about how if life was ideal, it would be amazing to live in a place like that, and sleep out on the patio in the summer. Uncle Jamie had to teach a class so he drove back down and I stayed to go hiking. I went on a really good longish hike to see the twin falls, which I'd heard were amazing. Took lots of pictures. This was probably the most beautiful place I've been to.

After I had taken the bus back down to Donghae, Jamie and I met up with two teacher friends, George and Yelly, and went up to the orphanage they teach at. I wanted to meet the kids so I went too. They were all so cute! It was George's birthday so we had a birthday cake and then we played Scrabble, since they were being taught English. I couldn't really speak with them much, but I helped two girls find words to put down. Later when we left, they walked us out to the car, and called me Eoni, "older sister." In Korea, people are very personable and people call each other "aunt," "uncle," "younger brother," "older sister" etc, so it was nothing strange, but it was still really sweet. And when they walked back into the orphanage, they yelled "Sister bye!" in English.

Breakfast: Coffee?

Lunch: Baek Banchan

Dinner: Ssambap

Wednesday, I went with Uncle Jamie to visit the elementary school he works at. The grading system here is a little different, so I can't remember what grade they were in but they were 10 years old. (Korean age- in Korea, I'm 19. Here, when every baby is born, they are 1 year old, and then every New Year's, everyone gets older. Birthdays aren't really a thing. We celebrated George's birthday because he's American and I think they wanted to show the kids how we celebrate birthdays.) Anyways, when each class started walking in (there were four total) they would see me and ask Jamie who I was, to which he replied, "I don't know- I walked in and she was already there!" It's so funny watching their reaction to a completely different looking person. They wanted to touch my hair and my nose ring, and after class started and Jamie and Sunny (the other teacher) introduced me and opened it up for questions, they had so many! They asked what the nose ring was, if I was married, if I danced and sang well, if I liked MarioCart, and snakes, and mice, and kimchi, and Starcraft and... well, it went on like that. That day they were learning the weather, and they would do this cute dance to learn it.

(Sorry if this is really low quality)

Afterwards, we went out to lunch, and then Jamie dropped me off at Cheongok Cave, which is right in downtown Donghae! So I went spelunking for about an hour... I even had to wear a hard hat, which turned out to be a very good idea because I kept hitting my head in the tight spots. I was almost positive the old korean guy that was handing out the hats and punching tickets at the mouth of the cave could hear the noise I was making and be able to tell that it was the clumsy american girl who couldn't find the ticket booth until he had pointed it out twice. Heh. When I had double checked to make sure I had seen every crevice in the cave, I went outside and as I was about to hail a cab, I saw a wooden staircase that went up into the trees above the cave. It had a map next to it and it looked like it was some kind of park, so I decided to mosey around in there for awhile. The stairs kept going up, and there were paths that broke off and I could see pretty gardens and an ampitheatre to the left of me, but I was determined to see how high the stairs went. I ended up at a platform pretty high up and I could see the ocean and most of downtown donghae from there. That's when I noticed a small dirt path leading even farther up, and after looking around to make sure no one was watching I started walking up it. As it turns out, I found myself in a labyrinth of hiking trails, way up above this cave, all of Donghae surrounding me! And there were graves, too, overlooking the water. It was so peaceful, and I could tell that it was an incredibly ideal spot to be buried in. I walked up to the highest peak of the mountain I had gotten myself onto and at the very top there was a big rock pile/tower thingy. It was cool, but I still don't know the purpose of it.

Breakfast: Seaweed soup, fried egg, rice.

Lunch: Tonkatsu, cream of mushroom soup.

Dinner: Ori galbi

Today was less exciting, but still fun. I visited Bukpyung Girl's Middle School, which Jamie teaches at, and went into each of his classes and did the example dialogues with him. All of the girls were so sweet, and they all thought I was really pretty. It's funny that all of the things that are more traditional about their appearance, they think is ugly. They like bigger, more open eyes, and higher bridged noses, etc. I tried explaining to some of them that I really liked how they looked too, and I thought they were really pretty, but in my EXTREMELY broken Korean it was difficult. Jamie let them ask me questions at the beginning of class. How old are you, where are you from (to which the answer was, the area Twilight is in, to which the response was "WAOOOHHHH!"), did your nose piercing hurt, why are you in Korea, do you have a boyfriend? (I think the affirmative response to the latter had the biggest reaction on the girls... one girl even shouted "ME TOO!" Hee, hee.) 

Anyways, I think I'm going to go back there next week. There was a couple of girls who wanted me to visit them again and so I probably will. I'll take pictures then, too. Today was just really nice meeting all of them, and seeing what Korean girls close to my age are like... I wish I could've spoken with them more and gotten to know them better, but I'll visit next week and maybe then I'll be able to understand more.

Breakfast: ... 

Lunch: Squid, rice, kimchi (It's probably needless to say that I ate kimchi- I've been eating it at every meal almost. Haven't gotten tired of it though!)

Dinner: Not yet.