Camping at Woraksan National Park

A few weeks ago we got a long weekend for Children's Day, so Mike, Hannah, Nick, Jaya and I decided to go camping. I did some research and found out that most of the National Parks are still closed at this time of year, but managed to find a small one not too far away that doesn't close, Woraksan National Park. So we set off from Seoul after my drum lesson (which added to the journey an hour and a half subway ride carrying all camping supplies, much to the chagrin of my companions.) We were headed for a town called Chungju where we would catch a local bus to the park. So we went to the ticket counter at the bus station and asked for Chungju (chu like chug) and were just in time to grab a bite and then board the bus. Nearly 2 1/2 hours later (on what was supposed to be 1 1/2 ride) we got off the bus and began to look around for the afore-mentioned local bus, but soon noticed that we were in Cheongju, not Chungju. I guess the city we wanted is pronounced Choongju, not Chungju. An easy mistake to make, I guess. Especially if you have no idea that there is another city close-by that sounds almost exactly like it.

Luckily Chungju and Cheongju are not very far apart and it only cost us another hour and a half and $7 to get there. So we counted our blessings that we didn't end up 7 hours away from where we wanted to be, and took it in stride. Adventures in Korea aren't adventures unless they have a few misadventures throw into the mix. (Those of you who know me know that I'm really really good at getting lost. But I can honestly say that this is the first time I ended up in the totally wrong city.)

So when we finally go to the right city we were about to get on a bus that all our sources told us would take us to the park, when a taxi driver pulled up and tried to stop us. We thought he was just trying to scam us, because we were sure we were getting on the right bus. But he got a young lady who was standing near-by to translate to us that if we took that bus we'd have to walk 6km to the camp-site. So we decided the taxi was a better idea. And as we were driving he pointed out in broken English where the bus would have let us off. Which was at the bottom of the mountain. And then he drove for half an hour up the mountain. And we were thanking our lucky stars once again that we hadn't got on that bus. We probably would have died trying to walk all that way.

So we finally arrived at the campsite and manage to set up our tent in the falling dusk. We hadn't brought any food with us because we had more than enough to carry and were sure there would be a supermarket nearby. Sadly, there wasn't. So we had to settle for bibimbap (rice mixed with red pepper paste and veggies with an egg on top) for supper that night, though we were so hungry and tired by that point that anything would have been amazing.

We brought a barbeque with us to do some cooking, but since there was no food to cook, we used it as a fire pit instead and sat around the fire roasting marshamallows and talkin' shite. The darkness and quiet so thick and deep that even I, a hard-core country girl, was a little creeped out after being used to the constant movement of the city.

The next morning we went on a hike up the mountain. On the way we saw...

old fortress walls...

a Temple all decked out in lanterns for Buddha's Birthday the next week...

a Buddha carved into the side of the mountain...

also decorated in lanterns, a stunning sight against the backdrop of the mountains.

All the way up the mountain there were these little piles of rocks. Someone said they had something to do with Buddha...

After the touristy things were done, the trail got pretty intense. Most definately the hardest hike this prairie girl has ever experienced. But I did get some great pictures. Here are a few of my favourites...





This is the peak. I didn't go all the way up. I was honestly afraid I would die if I did...lungs still not working as well as I'd hope. And the top of a mountain 1000 meters high is not a good place to stop breathing. So Hannah and I left the others to their mountaineering and headed down, hoping to find a supermarket in the town at the bottom of the trail. Sadly, that search was fruitless (well, not technically, as we did find some oranges to buy, a great treat after dining on dry crackers and canned tuna all day.)

There was another temple at the bottom...crazy about Buddha, those Woraksan-ers.

That night we ate ginseng chicken stew, very revitalzing after our crazy hike. More mallows and soju around the campfire, then headed home the next morning. Here are a few pics of where we were camping.

We stopped for a pleasre cruise on the lake on the way down. A windy hour-long photo-op, but pleasant and relaxing.


Then it was back on a bus, this time directly to Suwon. The wet tent, the disappointed barbeque and the tired campers...the latter very happy to see their beds.

For the rest of the hundred pictures I took, see
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=112093&l=c4811&id=890700076
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=112096&l=814c0&id=890700076

My Window-sill Garden

One of the things I've been doing to add a little nature to my life is growing a garden in my window. I was given some soil by one of the old teachers, and some seeds by another, so once it was warm and sunny spring, I planted my little garden. I'm growing coriander, basil, "spinach" (it's not actually spinach, not what we have in North America anyway. But's it's pretty close.) and some mysterty seeds that were given to me and that I have no idea what they eventually grow into.

I've been documentingthe garden's progress in photos.

This one was taken a few days after I planted the "spinach"


These two were taken a week ago. Can hardly see the sprouts in the second one...

And here's a video I made just now!

I'm sure there will be photos when I harvest them. Spinach salad...YUMMY!

(I do wonder if I'll have the heart to cut them down though...)

Suwon Bu-loo Wings!!!

I went to a Suwon Bluewings game last weekend. They are the Suwon soccer team, and almost everyone else at the Villagee has season tickets. I wish I did too, now that I've been to a game. It was SO MUCH FUN!!!!! Not because I enjoy soccer all that much, but because of the atmosphere. We sat in the cheap seats, where the real fans are. And the cheering was unlike anything I have ever seen. I would even go so far as to say that it would rival Riders fandemonium. There were two guys with megaphones and one with a bass drum leading the cheers. They had the words to all of them up on the jumb0-tron, and choreography for pretty much every cheer. I was able to follow some of the more simple songs, and was jumping and cheering and clapping along to the ones I couldn't.

I only snapped a few photos, but here they are.


Suwon Bluewings, brought to you by....KIMCHI!



Villagee! REPRESENT!

Better than the photos are the videos, though. They don't even come close to capturing the energy in the air...

I love the random flags. France, Thailand, Che Guevera. Anything blue and white will do.

North Seoul Tower

Last weekend after my drum lesson Collin, fellow Villagee Teacher, went to Seoul Tower, one of the major tourist places on my "to do" list, and the highest point in Seoul. It's the CN tower of Korea, though it's on top of a mountian, not in the middle of downtown. And much smaller than the CN Tower.

To quote the brochure we were given, "Standing at the top of Mt. Namsan in the heart of Seoul, N Seoul Tower provides the city's highest viewpoint. It was Korea's first integrated communication tower, transmitting TV and FM radio signals for the metropolitan area since it was constructed in 1969. Nearly 48% of the people in Korea benefit from its antanna for various local ad nationwide FM and TV broadcasting stations such as KBS, SBS (yes, I have a tv station named after me) and MBC. Since opened to the public in 1980 as a hybrid recreation/cultural complex, the Tower has become the symbol of Seoul and has played a role as the city's most recognizable and popular tourist attraction."

It's not just pretty! It's usefull too!

Have I mentioned how much I love Korean brochures? They are either really really excited all the time about everything, or their translations from Korean to English leave something, well, lost in translation. Need I remind you of the "biggest funs of your life" from the Ice Fishing Festival? Gold. But the Seoul Tower brochure had this little gem that made me laugh until my sides ached:

I don't know if you can see it very well, but it's a picture of two people, a man and a woman. At first they are standing apart, but with a dotted line of sight illustrated for us between their eyes. And then in the next frame they are clasping eachother in a passionate embrace. This picture is on a page about the observation deck. I guess it's been known to make people fall instantly in love or something... that panoramic view will do wierd things to people. Sadly, I was not one of them.

Anyway, back to the tower.

Here's a picture I took last year of the Tower at night. This was when we were wandering around looking for a hotel the night before we went to the DMZ. It looks rather impressive all lit up like that, doesn't it?


And here's what it looks like upclose and in the day-time.

We took the long way up the mountain since my knee was still recovering from my spill on the rollerblades and didn't have full bending ability and thus was not stair-climbing-ready. (And, let's be honest, because we followed the wrong signs.) It added 3km to our walk, but also some beautiful scenery, as it took through a botanical garden.

Sadly, we didn't find the Botanical Garden for the Visually Impaired. I think perhaps our imagination of it would have been more fantastic than the real thing though. I imagined...scratch and sniff, speakers everywhere describing the flowers, maybe Stevie Wonder in the background...

Anyway, we finally made it up to the top of the mountain and went up to the observation deck. Unfortunately it wasn't a very clear day so we didn't see much. The brochure says that on a clear day you can see all the way to Incheon harbour. We could barely see the Han River, which runs through the middle of Seoul. Here's one of the better pictures I got.

They had signs on all the windows tellig the distance to major cities around the world. Here's me 10,607km from Toronto.

And 7,174.2km from my babies in Vancouver.

We also got to enjoy the "Sky Restrooms." Back to the brochure: "Sky Restrooms dominate the landscape atop N Seoul Tower and a spectacular aerial view of Seoul awaits those who want something extraordinary. These restrooms are not only well located in the sky, but they also offer all the comfort and services of a prestigious building."

To be fair, they were pretty nice.

And well-located bathrooms in the sky calls for...a photo shoot. (This is only one of many photos of me washing my hands...)

On the way down the mountain we stopped for some dried fish warmed on a gas hotplate by this nice lady. We opted out of the whole squid in favour of some less-offensive looking "fish paper" as I like to call it.

There was also a cool chicken-wire Spiderman hanging in the air.

And we caught the sunset on the way down too.

After our hike we were hungry so we went a few subway stops away to Iteawon, near the American Army base, where there are lots of different foreign food restaurants and shops that have sizes for western people and things like that. Unfortunately, there are also lots of loud foreigners there too...

I bought a wicked pair of sunglasses that I would like to share with you now.

This is me and Collin sexy-face-posing on the subway home. We wear our sunglasses at night.

Some Wonderful Discoveries

Life has been good good good lately. No more am I wallowing in the sad sack sadness of failed romance, but have been getting out and being Shanda. And it had led to Some Wonderful Discoveries.

Wonderful Discovery #1: Homeplus has roller blades for half price

I bought some roller blades. I'm not sure if I posted about this way back when I first got here, but I've tried this already. Part of my first paycheque from the Villagey went to a pair of cheap blades. They, sadly, were unusable. I returned them and decided not to buy another since the places for comfortable roller-blade use are few and far between here, compared to Saskatoon at least, where you can go down the middle of the street and not be bothered by cars, or to the river and not meet a single person to get in your way.

But, my attempts at running having being foiled lately by my dodgy hip and knee, I decided to give Korean roller blades another try. And I got a sweet pair for half price. And they rock.

Wonderful Discovery #2: The parks are blade-able after all

You may not really care about this, but it makes me so happy. The thought of another summer with no rollerblades in it make me very sad. And so the discovery that cobbled sidewalks aren't impossible to blade on was like finding gold. There are two parks near our apartments and going between and around the two of them makes for a varied and intense workout.

Wonderful Discovery #3: Road Rash gives you street cred

Yes, I wiped out. Big time. In front of a nice young Korean man who spoke enough English to ask if I was okay and tell me to be careful after helping me up. It was actually his fault that I wiped out in the first place. He was walking on the smooth part of the sidewalk that ramps onto the sidewalk so I had to take the cobbled part that has no ramp. And the difference from street to sidewalk was more than I anticipated. And I hit the curb at pretty much full speed. And ended up sprawled pretty much face first on the sidewalk. Luckily my shoulder broke my fall. I'm used to having a few skraped knees over the course of a summer, but it's the first time I've had road rash on my shoulder. Not pretty. Especially when the kids at school notice it and poke it and say "Teacher, what?" But one of my facebook friends says that road rash gives you street cred. And plus it makes me feel "hard core." (I was going to post some pictures of my impressive war wounds...but I just realized how disgusting they are.)


Wonderful Discovery #4: Black Bean Noodle is actually good

We all know Valentine's Day. Well in Korea and in Japan and some other Asian countries they also have White Day, one month after V-day, where men give presents to women in reciprocation of the gifts they recieved on V-day. And the month after that comes black day. It is a day to celebrate (or lament) singleness. Me and my fellow single co-workers chose to celebrate.

The traditional food of black day is black bean sauce on noodle.


So we went out for dinner to a noodle house. The black bean sauce is not something new to me, we eat it at the school cafetteria every week. But, as most people will agree, cafetteria food shouldn't be used as the basis for judging anything. Even the best of foods will taste awful once a school cafetteria gets its hands on it. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that black bean is actually delicious!

After the noodles we went on a grocery shopping spree at homeplus, our favourite department store hang-out. Then to an organic soy icecream shop. (I gave up dairy at the start of the month hoping it would help improve my health, so Baskin Robins was out of the question.) But we found the soy delicious, though not as creamy as real cream. (Who'd a thunk...) We then topped of the evening by giving ourself mud facials and reading Shakespeare and tarot cards.

Who needs a man when you have girlfriends? When was the last time your boyfriend let him give you a facial or debated the healthiness of banana chips for 20 minutes?

For more information about black day: http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSSEO18852320080414?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews

Wonderful Discovery #5: Hwaseo Station has a gorgeous park/lake

Hwaseo is the station next to Suwon Station, where I usually catch the subway. I see out the window when I go into Seoul every weekend that there is a lake near the station. And right now is cherry blossom time and the lake was in full bloom. (Well, not the lake exactly, but the trees around it.) There are cherry blossom festivals all over the place, but I wanted to see them without the crowds of people that would inevitably flock to the festivals. So on my lazy Sunday I went to check out the lake. And found my new favourite place.

It felt like I was actually in nature, not just in a park in a city. True, there were sky-scraper apartment building in the background, but those are easily ignored. And you could hear the subway rattle past every few minutes. But the trees and flowers and water and families picnicing and children frolicking...it was heaven to my poor nature-starved soul.

I took a million pictures. Here are some of my favourites.

There were dozens of blue herons nesting on an island in the middle of the lake. I caught one of them in flight in this picture.

To see the rest of the album visit: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=104272&l=ba44f&id=890700076

Wonderful Discovery #6: I am a circus cat

I bought a new shirt. On it, a cat in a red cape balancing on a tightrope. And the words "I am a circus cat." This may not seem note-worthy, but I feel I must live up to that shirt. It's not the kind of thing you take the wearing of lightly.

In other news, I have started a new blog. This one is more of a creative writing project. I've been wanting for a while to start a second blog, something more personal. So I was inspired the other day when I found a small red block on the side of the road.

You can see the new blog at http://redblockdiaries.blogspot.com

I hope you like it. (And also don't mind if you don't.)