People have been asking me for weeks, “When exactly are you moving?” And I laugh and say, “Oh, I don’t know. We’re still waiting on [insert the item of the week here].”
It’s been really hard to mentally prepare ourselves to leave Korea. We know we are leaving, yet none of it has seemed real. Today we had our first glimpse at reality when we got word that we are definitely leaving Korea on June 4th… next week. With only 5 days to spare, our tickets have now been booked. Continue reading
This past weekend Dave and I didn’t have any plans so my Korean tutor recommended we go to a two places: Jusanji (주산지) and Juwangsan (주왕산). She said she goes every autumn and it’s really amazing. She couldn’t have been more right!
We woke up at 3:00am and drove 3 hours to get there. I knew it was up in the mountains so I took a motion sickness pill before we left. During the drive I tried to stay awake as long as possible, but around the halfway mark, I just couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer and I slept for the rest of the drive. I felt terribly guilty, but Dave was such a good sport about driving while I snoozed. Continue reading
Namhae is such a great place to escape bustle of the city. Driving along the winding roads wasn’t my favorite thing, but I still really enjoyed the beautiful scenery even though I was a little bit nauseous! If you’re prone to motion sickness like I am, I highly recommend taking some medicine before driving around the island.
We set out to find Darangee Village because they are supposed to be some incredibly beautiful rice terraces there. I learned about the rice terraces from an article by CNN Travel called “50 Beautiful Places to Visit in Korea.” The rice terraces are number 3 on the list and the featured photo is of a group of tourists watching and helping a farmer plant the rice, with the help of a ox. Really cool, right?
We had some difficulty finding the village. Initially, The address listed on the CNN Travel article was missing some information that our navigation system required. Thankfully, there were some signs along the way.
Happy Hangeul Day! October 9th is the day Koreans celebrate their alphabet. It’s one of the best in the world and it’s definitely something to be proud of. Each letter has only one sound so if you really want to learn to read Korean, it only takes a few hours. I learned to read Korean in about 6 months, with practically no studying. I just kind of absorbed it.
I celebrated Hangeul Daywith my awesome Korean tutor. We went to 5 different temples. I learned a lot about the places we visited and a few new Korean words and phrases. One of the highlights of the day was seeing a flock of peacocks at one of the temples. They were so cute and it was such a nice surprise!
Dave spotted this shirt at our local grocery store.
“Parachuting it seem to be casual.”
Do you agree??
In my last post, I told you a bit more about what Haeundae Beach is like during summer. My next summer time recommendation is Tongdosa Temple. It’s located in Yangsan, just between Busan and Ulsan.
There’s a stream near the entrance that is quite popular among the Koreans.
As you learned in my last post, Haeundae Beach (Busan, South Korea) in the summer is more than a little overwhelming. If you find yourself at this chaotic beach in summer, my advice is to soak up the scenery…
… then head towards the Westin Chosun Hotel.
Don’t forget to people watch along the way!
Take a left just as you see the Westin and head towards the rocky end of the beach. Once there, it’s now time to check out what I’ve decided to call, “The Men of Haeundae.” They are an interesting bunch!
*I didn’t write any of these myself, but they pretty much sum up life in Korea. *
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Things that just don’t seem strange anymore…
Life Outside of Texas 