My mom's trip to Korea!

Well, lots of stuff happened to round out the tail end of my summer.  Mainly, that lots of stuff was that my mom came to korea to visit!!!

It was pretty sweet, and we spent the two weeks she was here going all over the place!  We initially hit up Seoul, and looked at Insadong which is a big traditional korean center in the city.  Then Eunhye and my mom and I went to a JimJilBang, which is like a combination of a spa and a sleepover, all wrapped up in one big package!  Pretty sweet, however I definitely don't enjoy the bouncy machine that is suppose to make you lose weight... It felt more like a brain scrambler.

Following our time in Seoul, we decided to go out to do some mountain climbing!!!  We went out to Seoraksan National Park, and decided to hit up some white water rafting on the way!  It was a blast, and aside from the mothership being a little scared, it was really a good time and we both had fun!  Following this we went to the Park, where we got a hotel, and started hiking.  The first thing we saw was....

Yes... a giant Budda!  It was really really cool actually.  Following this, we hit the mountain and quickly realized it was harder than either of us had predicted.  For the mama Beis's credit, she definitely outperformed the stereotypical 58 year old American expectations for athleticism and conquered the mountain, named Ulsanbowi.  The especially rewarding part, was seeing the view from the top. 

  See, this specific moment when we summited the peak, was also the same time when the sun had decided to finish burning throught the clouds, giving this amazing view of basically the cloud castle from Super Mario Brothers 3, world 5. 

So following this, we decided to go to Jeju-do. Before we go any further... just where is Jeju-do?  Well I found this map to help orient you...

Bam!  There it is!  and again, just for reference, remember that the Korean peninsula is only about the size of Illinois.  So Jeju isn't really all that big.  But regardless of it's small size, its actually home to 3 of the 166 UNESCO world heritage sites for geological importance.  Pretty sweeeet~

Now I know if you read my last post, you'd know that I'd just got done going to Jeju with my girlfriend!  But, let's not pretend like that matters... I'm sure no one I know would pass up a second chance to go to Hawaii... So anyway, we hit up Jeju, and I decided we should make it an effort to see everything I missed the last time I was there (ahem... just 1.5 weeks ago)
 The first stop, was scuba diving, and snorkeling on the southern shore of Jeju.  My mom hasn't been certified for 30 years, and I'd never gotten certified myself, so I opted for the "discover verson" where they sort of take you on a guided tour of the ocean floor.  Think of what it would be like to take a dog for a walk, and you'd get a pretty good idea of what it's like.  Pretty awesome though, and following that my mom and I went snorkeling in the tide pools around the area.  Really neat!
The next day, we decided to hit up one of the wonders of the island, a place that all koreans know because it famously appears on so many soju advertisements...

...Ok, so maybe I didn't take this specific picture.  But it still gives the perfect perspective of where we went!  The trail up the to the massive cone wasn't exactly the longest, or the hardest (they had the whole thing paved in very tasteful lava stone steps) but it was definitely the most crowded one I'd been on in Korea!  Yikes! 

But wait... these clothes... the lack of popped collars on the guys or high heels on the girls... these aren't koreans at all!!!  THESE ARE CHINESE!!!!  That's right, we hiked this thing, surrounded completely by Chinese people!  (Not that that is bad at all, just surprising!)  But it really was worth it, and when we got to the top, the view was pretty cool!  Coming down, we also had another opportunity for a photo...

Following the hike up the cone, we decided to go to the smaller still island of U-do!  it's just a day trip thing, and the island is only like 3km x 4km but it had one of the prettiest beaches I've ever been to!  We also made it a point to do some snorkeling there, and found a zillion sand dollars.  Really pretty big sand dollars, which we collected, and are now the things I'm giving to my coworkers as souvenirs from my trip!
After this, we decided to go to the Lava Tubes.  Another one of the UNESCO herretige sites, which I actually took a lot of pictures in, however my computer seems to have decided to eat them.  I don't know if it'll like the taste of lava tunnel pictures enough to keep them, or give them back.  But for now, I ain't got em.  So here's a stock pic or 3...

So like I said, none of the pics of the tunnels are actually ones I shot, but they're all places in the tunnel I did take pictures of (before they turned into computer food...).  The point, is that this is pretty freakin incredible.  It sorta reminds me of ghost busters 2 with the river of slime flowing through new york's sewer system... Except it's not slime, it was lava, and it really happened!

The final thing we wanted to do, was hit up the last UNESCO site of the island before we left-- Hallasan Mountain.  A dormant volcano, rising 6400 feet strait out of the ocean!  Although, given it's shape as a shield volcano, the hike would have been relatively easy and pretty fun.  Hallasan also holds the title as Korea's tallest mountian!  So, needless to say (if only to rub it in my brother in law's face) I wanted to "High Point" South Korea!!

Unfortunately,  as pure as my motives were... It was not to be.  There was a ton of rain on the mountain before we went to ascent it, and we were told it would be impossible to climb that day.  If you recall, this marks the second time I literally stood at the foot of this peak and turned back.  The previous time I wasn't able to climb it due to lack of time.  But the bottom line is... Hallasan: 2, Danny: 0

Following this, we hopped on a plane the next morning (at 7AM!!) and were back in Gwangju (my home town) in time for the Mumsatron to get to the international airport in time to make her flight back to the US of A!  All in all, a freaking amazing way to spend two weeks, and I'm real excited to get back to the swing of things in school!

My vacation, and my mom's here!

Well, I've been on vacation for a couple weeks now, and it is greeeeat!  Seriously, what job other than a teacher gets the summers off?  Maybe the only problem with the Korean summers, is that they are hot and humid, but after a little getting use to it, it's really not all that bad.

My first week of vacation consisted of a big trip with my girlfriend from
Seoul---(via train)-->Geongju--(via train)-->Busan--(via BOAT!)-->Jeju Island---(via BIG BOAT)-->Seoul

It was really pretty spectacular, and if you check out the pictures I loaded onto facebook, you'll be able to see aaaaalll about it!

Geongju-- This is a really historic part of southeastern Korea, where lots of Kings use to live.  Theres a lot of temples and it was really pretty sweet.  Especially the big mound tombs!  Picture 4 story mounds of dirt that are stacked on top of kings' tombs.  We rented bikes and went all around the main city, and it was really fun.

Busan--
I'd been to Busan once before with my friend Mark when he came to visit.  So this time I wanted to make sure we hit the things I forgot to do before.  Namely going to the huuuuuge fish market!  It goes on for like a mile, and you can just walk up to some of the vendors and say, "I want that one!" and they'll chop it's head off, cook it for you, and then you eat it!  Pretty sweet.
Also, I attempted to teach my girlfriend how to swim.  There aren't that many swimming pools in Korea, so not that many people know how to swim.  It went pretty well, and now she is sort of able to swim 10 or 15 meters totally by herself!

Jeju--
Jeju Island is really pretty!  It's sort of like Korea's version of Hawaii.  They have lots of stuff to do there, but it is really hot.  Like, around 100+ degrees, and the worst humidity I've ever felt :-(  It was alright though, because the first thing we did was rent a scooter and start touring the island next to the ocean!  It was pretty much like driving through paradise, and the wind from the scooter kept us cool.  Unfortunately, the wind from the scooter kept us too cool to realize we were developing nasty sunburns, so the next day I looked kind of like a lobster, and Eunhye looked like an Indian person.  After riding the scooter 1/2 way around the island (100ish km) we went to the beach, swam a bit, and then I went surfing!  I've been wanting to surf for the better part of 10 years, but whenever I've been at the beach, the conditions have always sucked.  Finally they cooperated, and I was able to use my windsurfing experience to actually get out and ride a bunch of waves!  It's really fun!

On the Ferry Boats--
So I'd never taken any boat trip before, but on this vacation, I took two!  And we're talking really big, 1000 passenger boats!  These things are great!  They have a restaurant, a bar, a convenience store, and then different types of rooms.  The rooms we stayed in, were really just a massive room where 100 people would sleep on the floor together.  No beds, but they did provide blankets and pillows!  It's actually much more comfortable than it sounds! 
The first night on the boat (there were 2 nights spent on the boat all together) we met these really drunk old guys who only spoke Korean (really difficult accented korean too... ) and wouldn't stop talking for 3 hours!  It worked out though, because after the conversation, they decided to give us their room in 1st class!  It was like a 200 dollar bump up in accomidations!  Yes!!

So all in all we had a really awesome weeklong trip!  It was fun to only speak Korean for an entire week (because Eunhye doesn't speak english), and I can't wait to go out on other trips in Korea! 

Right now, my mom just flew in from Chicago for two weeks, so I think we're going to go on some more trips soon.  Word.

I got a girlfriend

Well, I'll be brief, but I got a girlfriend.  She's nice, can't really speak much english, and we get along really well!  Even with the language barrier, we communicate pretty well (we sorta only speak korean) 

But yeah, here's a picture!

Summer in Korea

Well... the weather here is ...Hot.  Hot and humid, and the occasional rain storm.  Actually the occasional rain storm happens quite a lot.  But for the most part, the weather is nice and good for doing outdoor things!  I just got back from the Boryang Mud Festival.  Something really cool that involves a TON of mud coming from the mud flats in Boryang and then people painting themselves with said mud.  And of course the obvious mud wrestling, mud slides, mud body art, and other mud related activities!  After we all got cleaned up, there was a pretty sweet hiphop concert with korean rappers and it was really awesome.  The next day we sat on the beach for like 4 hours doing nothing but relaxing and drinking rum out of coconuts... Talk about the life!!

I'm also pleased to say my korean is finally starting to allow me to have conversations with people!  Sure sure, they're limited conversations, but they are a lot of fun!  In one week, I will be going on a trip with a friend who doesn't speak any english!  We'll be touring all over Korea for a whole week! 

Right now we're teaching summercamp, and what that means is that I only have to work for 1/2 days, and then they let me go home, so I've been filling the time with lots of bike riding, hiking, and meeting friends.  I think it'd be pretty easy for me to say that life is good right now! 

I definitely miss everything that's happening at home these days, so if anything sweet's been going on since I left, someone let me know in a comment!

It has been a long time without a post...

Well what can I say... I have been busy!

My good friend Mark Stickler came to visit and for the past 10 days we have been doing things!  I took him all over Seoul, and then we checked out all of Gwangju and the surrounding areas.  Then we went to BUSAN!!  In my mind, I always think of busan as this little resort town, but the fact of the matter is that it's got 3 million people, making it bigger than chicago....  Freaking huge!  But the place looked really really cool!  We did a TON of stuff too!  The only thing I didn't end up doing was go surfing.  I really wanted too, but there was no waves... Bah, maybe some day I will get to do that.  But either way, it was great having him come to visit.  It was nice too, because my korean ability is finally starting to get to a level where I can communicate with people a little bit!  Its nice to have those classes start paying off a little bit!

I'm a bad blogger

So, sorry for not posting much recently...  I sort of am bad at this thing I guess.

But anyway, some pretty cool things have happened recently!  First off, my school kind of gave me 2 extra weeks of vacation, and second... I'm trying to see if I can turn those two extra weeks into trips to China and Japan!  Stupid china though... They require a visa to visit anywhere on the mainland, and it just so happens that that visa is $120 USD to all American citizens...  Damn.  But since I'll have some extra time, maybe I'll take the 24 hour ferry to China, instead of hopping a plane!  I have a feeling it might be cheaper but I'm not sure.  I've never really been on a ship for any extended period of time so that might be pretty fun.

The idea of going to Japan is still a rough plan... But it might be a good one?  I know I want to check it out some time, but it might be really expensive...  Maybe not something I should do back to back with china traveling.  But then again... I do have a month of vacation...

Also happening this summer, my Mom is coming to visit and I'm really excited to show her the country!  Also, in 5 days, my really good friend Mark Stickler is coming for a visit so I'm more than a little pumped to see him!  The guy's been dreaming of Asia, specifically Korea and Japan, for like 10 years.  So I'm sure his visit will be a blast!

Quickie

Really quick note:  I'm going to visit china.  Details are pending, but comment if you have any suggestions.