Gangneung!

On Saturday, June 19, Betsy, Dustin and I met Saebomi in Gangneung, a city in Gangwan-do (do = province). It's population is around 300,000 which is super small for Korea, but is one of the (possibly the) biggest cities(y) in Gangwan-do.

Our friend, Marissa's boyfriend, Luke has lived there since I arrived and he's come to Seoul dozens of times to visit and I had yet to visit him. So, on the weekend that wrapped up the Dano Festival in Gangneung, we decided it was time. Plus, Luke leaves for America on July 10, so we only had a few weekends to choose from.

There is a big river that cuts through downtown, and festival tents lined either side of it.

There were lots of tented shops, restaurants, and cultural activities. There was also, what we would call, traditional carnival games:


A huge pot of soup that you could sit down and eat (it was way to hot and humid for soup):

Betsy found a stand selling fresh coconut milk. She lived in Brazil for a year when she was 16 and hadn't drank from a coconut since! Agua de coco is much better in Brazil than Korea.

Then, we found a tent that was doing traditional hair washes for about $1. Before shampoo, Koreans would wash there hair with Iris water. They took leaves and petals from the iris plant, boiled them, and used the water to wash their hair. It smelled really good!


Saebomi and I after our hair washes. Excuse the raccoon eyes, my mascara ran all over the place when they were dumping water on my head.


After we had our fill of the Dano Festival, we headed to the beach! Gyeongpo beach was beautiful and quiet. We played until the sunset!

Here's a picture of the "boardwalk:"


Here are some Korean teenagers who lit a fire atop the sand-covered chest of a buried friend. He said it didn't hurt... yet. Kids these days...

Luke and Dustin on the beach! Luke teaches at an all girls high school and is pretty much a celebrity in his town. I felt like I was walking around with Brad Pitt in Fort Wayne. They dubbed him Beckham Teacher as soon as he arrived on the peninsula.

The girls on the beach!


At this point, my camera died. We bought some beers at the local convenient store and chatted until the sun set. Then, Saebomi had to head back to Seoul, and we found an ocean-side restaurant and ordered some fresh pan-fried fish.

The next morning we got up early and caught a 10:30 am bus back to Dongbaek. We all had prior obligations to meet that day so as much as we hated to leave the coast, we had to. It was a great trip and really interesting to see what small town Korea was all about.

It was nice to visit, but I think the foreigner crowd would be a little too small for me. We went to 2 of the 3 foreigner-frequented bars that night and everyone seemed to know everyone already. I have much more fun being anonymous! :-)

Joshua's Birthday!

We celebrated Joshua's birthday on Thursday, May 20, at school. In Korea, he stays 5, but in America he turned 4! He was my first one to turn 4, and Alice and Sunny are still three for now.

All the celebrations begin with the student being ushered outside of the classroom until the class is asked, "Who's birthday is it?"
When they respond, "JOSHUA!!!" (or whatever other student), then the student comes in from outside. Joshua walked in like the super precious, shy boy that he is, hunched over and dragging his feet. Please note Irene's shoes. She's 40.

Then, we sing happy birthday to the student! Joshua had this look on his face the entire time.

Then, of course, he blows out the candles on his cake.

Then, each student presents him or her with his or her present. They hug, and pose for a photo op.

Then we have a little photo shoot behind all of the food. Here is Joshua with his mommy.

Joshua and Molly Teacher!

Me and my kiddos. This was the best one taken... They were excited to eat.

The mom usually brings a cake, chicken, fruit, and often pizza and juice. We always do birthday parties the period after lunch, which is silly, so they always make for a very full day!

Alice's birthday is coming up... pictures will follow!

Beijing - Day 3 (Summer Palace)

On Sunday, May 23, we met our new friends at 10 am in our hostel lobby. We had the front desk call a taxi, and boarded it for the 40 minute or so drive to the Summer Palace. A 40 minute taxi ride only cost $20 total and there were four of us to split it!



We got to the Summer Palace a little after 11 and it was HOT! We bought tickets and made our way through the main gate.


Borrowed from Wikipedia:

The Summer Palace is mainly dominated by Longevity Hill (60 meters high) and the Kunming Lake. It covers an expanse of 2.9 square kilometers, three quarters of which is water. The central Kunming Lake covering 2.2 square kilometers was entirely man made and the excavated soil was used to build Longevity Hill. In the Summer Palace, one finds a variety of palaces, gardens, and other classical-style architectural structures.

The Summer Palace started out life as the Garden of Clear Ripples in 1750 (Reign Year 15 of Emperor Qianlong). Artisans reproduced the garden architecture styles of various palaces in China. Kunming Lake was created by extending an existing body of water to imitate the West Lake in Hangzhou. The palace complex suffered two major attacks—during the Anglo-French allied invasion of 1860 (with the Old Summer Palace also ransacked at the same time), and during the Boxer Rebellion, in an attack by the eight allied powers in 1900. The garden survived and was rebuilt in 1886 and 1902. In 1888, it was given the current name, Yihe Yuan. It served as a summer resort for Empress Dowager Cixi, who diverted 30 million taels of silver, said to be originally designated for the Chinese navy (Beiyang Fleet), into the reconstruction and enlargement of the Summer Palace.


This next picture is of a three-story theatre within the palace walls. Apparently, three different shows could be going on at once to entertain the Empress and her guests.

They had a show going on when we walked by. It was two men fighting/dancing to the beat of a drum and some basic instruments. Very cool.

After we made our way up and back down Longevity Hill, we decided to board a dragon boat to the small island across the lake.

Liz Teacher and I on the boat:

Summer Palace from the water.

On the island across from Summer Palace:

We walked from the island across a long bridge back to the main gate of the palace. We hailed a taxi back to our hostel, grabbed some lunch there and then began our journey to the airport for our 6 pm flights back to Seoul!

No hiccups on the return flight and we made it back safely. I wish we could have spent more time there. Maybe next time.... :-)

Beijing - Day 2 (Great Wall)

On Saturday, May 22, we had booked a Great Wall tour with our hostel. There are three on-the-beaten-path options of sections to climb the Great Wall from Beijing: Badaling, Mutianyu, and Simatai.

Badaling is the closest to Beijing, about 30 minutes, with the easiest climb and is supposedly pretty touristy. Simatai is supposed to be a very steep climb and is the farthest options from Beijing, but the least touristy. We chose the middle option, Mutianyu, and our tour included breakfast, lunch, transport, and entrance fees ($46 = amazing!).

The bus picked us up at our hostel and we met the group we'd be traveling with for the day. There were a lot of teachers from Korea who were in China for the holiday weekend, so it was fun to compare stories.

When we got to the base of one of the mountains that the wall sits on, we had the option of hiking up the mountain or riding on a ski lift. We were not in hiking shoes or outfits and it was hot, so we opted for the ski lift.

As you know, I've never been skiing and, therefore, had never been on a ski lift. I'm so glad we chose this option! It was like I got to fly above the Great Wall!



A view of the wall from the ski lift:

We had 3 hours to spend on the Great Wall before lunch, so Liz Teacher and I took are time and mozied up and down the section of the wall, taking pictures and reveling in our blessings.

These steps were literally at a 45 degree angle...

The wall's sheer magnitude is mind-blowing. Then, you put it on top of a mountain range and it really makes your head spin - so much man power. I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

Yay! Great Wall!

Our way down was on a toboggan slide. This was so much fun! It just twisted and turned all the way down the mountain!

At the bottom, lunch was waiting for us and it was delicious! I love lazy susans! This seemed to be pretty typical of a Chinese dining experience. Many dishes all served in the middle of the table. There seemed to be no main course, unlike Korea. Everything was amazing! This is what was left when we were finished.

After a long bus ride back, we moved into our new room at the original hostel, showered, and rested. We made plans to meet some of our Great Wall friends to go out to eat some famous Peking Roast Duck. I learned of a restaurant near the hostel from one of the hostel employees and so we made plans to meet everyone on Wangfujing Street and then try to find the restaurant.

Without too much effort, we found it. Here's a picture of the outside.

We were all new friends, so ordering was a bit of a challenge because we didn't know each other very well. There were also 9 of us, which is difficult no matter what when you don't order individual servings.

We ended up ordering two sets, and a couple extra orders of fried rice. Each set came with a full duck and a variety of side dishes. I couldn't explain them all even if I wanted to.

Here's one of our ducks being sliced up!

Then, our waitress came over to show us how to prepare and eat the sliced duck. You take a thin pancake, add onions, a peanut sauce, and the duck, roll it up and enjoy! So good!

Not much was left after our feast...

Afterward, we walked down Wangfujing Street in search of a night market.

When we arrived, it appeared there were only food shops and we were all stuffed. Then, we stumbled upon a fried scorpions on a stick stand and a few in the group decided to give it a try! They were still moving before the fried them! Yikes!

We had a beer near the market and then got in a taxi for Hou Hai. It is an area with many bars and restaurants that sits on a small lake. It was absolutely beautiful! We were all pretty tired, but had some beers and continued sharing stories about Korea and our other travels until we just couldn't stay awake anymore and headed back to the hostel.

Here's a picture of Hou Hai.

We made plans for the next day to visit the Summer Palace with two of the girls we hung out with that night. They were both teachers in China, so they had a lot of fun stories to tell, too!