Summer vacation part 2

On Wednesday I visited Gyeongbokgung Palace in Gwanghwamun. The palace was originally built by King Taejo and was used as the main palace until 1592 when it was burnt down by the Japanese invasion.
I also visited The National Folk Museum of Korea, which was also on the Palace grounds. Here ar some pics:

The Palace front gates







Check out the mountains overlooking the grounds....

Moi






Outside the National Folk Museum

Summer vacation

I started my week long summer vacation on Tuesday. I had planned to go to Incheon and do a lil island hopping, but my coworkers informed me that nothing is over there and if I really wanted to go I could do it all in one day. So I decided to save some money and just take some day trips here and there touring around the areas closer to where I live.

On Tuesday I visited the Seoul World Cup Stadium. The Stadium itself is built on a landfill site, the roof is shaped like a traditional Korean kite. The opening ceremony of the 2002 World Cup finals were held here. Surrounding the stadium are cinemas, shopping areas, markets, and different parks.
I wasn't allowed inside the stadium, so here are some pictures from outside the stadium and of the parks.

Day 2 in Busan

The next day Cesa woke up early and headed out to look for a photography exhibit while I slept a little longer. Later on in the morning I found a small coffee shop where I ate breakfast, then afterwards headed up to the beach. I met Cesa at Haeundae Station. We walked down to the beach which was pretty crowded for being an overcast day, it had started raining a little as well. We walked along the beach and took pictures.....











Cesa eating the silkworm pupa!!!





I thought about trying it, but I really wasn't sure......




So I looked to the ocean for help...I listened intently to what it was saying........




And then I heard it......far off in the distance the water called to me and gave me my answer. "YES" it said, try the silkworm pupa, and I agreed.











Soooooo.......I did it!! I only tried one though, I didn't eat a cup full like Cesa. As you can see I prepared myself and bought a drink, but it actually wasn't horrible, it just tasted like a bug.....
not as bad as you would expect.
I was very proud of myself :)








Afterwards I met a handsome man and decided to kiss him, however, my silkworm breath turned him to stone :(










After leaving the beach we walked downtown in the area. There were some some interesting looking alleyways and homes.







Cesa and I found a gate to a temple, the temple was closed, but we thought the main gate was pretty cool looking and stopped for a quick photo.


Stay posted for the rest of the evenings events.....

Beomeosa Temple

After we left the fishing market we found a cute cafe where we had coffee and cake for lunch. After lunch we wandered around in the rain for a while downtown, and a little later we headed up to Beomeosa. The Beomeosa temple is one of the larget temples in Korea. It was beautiful. Located up in the moutains, the surroundings of the temple were breathtaking.


The air was fresh, and a small creek ran down the moutain.






The front gates.

















We were able to watch an evening worship in which a large drum was beat and the monks gathered in the tample to bow and worship. We listend to their chants while walking around the temple. Around 7:30pm we left and headed back down the moutain by bus. At 9ish we met Mime and Lotta at Busan station and ate dinner at "Chicago Pizza," not very Korean, but it was good nonetheless. Later we wandered the streets looking for somewhere to go dancing. We found a small street that was a little Phillipino area. Cesa found her home! We went to a couple of spots, we found a small bar that had live music. Different Phillapino groups sang popular english songs, and a few Phillapino songs as well. It was a good night, but Cesa and I called it in pretty early and headed back to the hostel. And that was the end of Day 1 in Busan.

A Trip to Busan....

We were off to an early start this morning catching the 7:45am KTX train (aka the bullet train) to Busan.
We arrived at 10:40am.




We drank some coffee, had some donuts and we started our trip!! We had our first photo shoot right outside the station in a small park with pigeons, a water fountain and some crazy bushes. From there we made our way to the hostel we were staying at. We got a cab, I had to call the hostel owner who was expecting us, I quickly handed the phone to the cab driver who then asked him for directions......we eventually made it a few minutes later. The Geumhwa Yeogwan hostel was a tiny, little place at the bottom of the "Bandal Staircase."





This is a picture of the hostel and the owner who was MORE than excited to have us and kept coming up to our room to see if we were ok and if we needed anything, he was so sweet!




This is a picture of the "Bandal Staircase." The hostel we stayed at is to the left of the staircase.



Cesa and I shared a small room, luckily it had a private bathroom. The bed was just a simple double mattress on the floor. There was a fan and a small dresser with a mirror. Not a whole lot of room, but just what we needed, a bed and bathroom. We rested for a little and mapped out our plan of action for the day. We decided to hit up the Jagalchi fish market first, that way anything else we do that day we would have a lovely odor to share with others. The market was enormous. We saw everything from squid to ocotpus to hanging fish to gigantic pig heads.
We began our second photo shoot there:














We eventually found the warf and wandered to the area where most fishing boats depart from. A man approached us and offered us a tour of the warf on his boat for 5,000 won each.

This is our boat, we sat on those luxurious red cushions!!









This was our generous driver. For the first little while I seriously questioned if he had ever driven a boat before, but we made it safely.










It was just the two of us, he took us around the warf where we saw cruise boats, other tour boats, and many fishing boats. The moutain tops overlooked the river and you could see houses for miles piled on top of one anotherbehind the markets. It started to rain a little, but it cooled us off. As other boats drove by us we were rocked pretty violently, and for a minute I thought we were going to tip over. It was quite a ride. We made it back and walked around some more. But the day wasn't over just yet.....

As July pushes on, so does the MONSOON season here in Korea. Last night we had a heavy rainfall and many of the places in Ilsan (the city where I live) were flooded. My apartment is right above Daewha Station, the subway station in my area of the city. It is on the 3rd line and Daewha is stop 310. The subway stations from 310 all the way through 320 were closed due to flooding from the night before. Needless to say it was a mad house on the streets this morning as people were rushing to get cabs and buses to Seoul for the workday.

At school the kids strolled in soaked to the bone and were NOT in the mood to study. I tried to lighten the mood with rainy day activities such as word-searches, word puzles, lots of hang-man, and even a few ghost stories in the dark!

Here are some pictures of the kids at school on this rainy day:



Elizabeth and Juliet giving the Korean sign for "cheese"




Lisa and Susan hiding from the camera......and peeking out from the table is the always shy, Tim.




Tom, always silly :-)




One of my favorite classes :-)




Clara and Sally, and Gary flying around in the back.




From the top and counter-clockwise: Gary, Jeremy, Rachel, Carmen, and Clara peeking out the side.




Jeremy and I



A serious game of hang-man!




Me, Rachel, Carmen and Gary