We love to take time on the weekends to go do something new. This was about 4 weekends ago, we went to see the kids new school and found this lake, walking path and butterfly museum just up the road about 1/2 km. It was beautiful. The butterfly collection was surprisingly extensive. The kids really enjoyed looking at them. We learned the word for butterfly in Korean is "nabi" from Chinese. We walked two miles around the lake, and of course they had the little Korean exercise machines on the side that the kids and the adults love to play on. The picture of Gwynyth inverted is one of these machines that hangs you upside down. Brian got on it and turned himself upside down, but he was too tall and hit is head on the ground causing all of the loose items in his pockets to fall down and hit him in the head. The Koreans and I had a great laugh at his expense.
These are duck paddle boats that the kids are dying to try out. The problem is that none of them come in "big family" size.
I love this picture of Sophia watching the duck boats, it looks like she is hiding behind a tree plotting some mischievious way to commandeer the thing.
Some of the really cool butterflies.
As you can see Korean terrain is beautiful and mountainous. Sometimes the smog gets bad and it isn't as clearly visible, but when it is clear, it's breathtaking.
Another weekend we went exploring in the mountains north of town on highway 79. I just do google map searches and they have pictures of cool places to go right on the map, so I print it off and we take off in the car. This was about an hour drive on a windy scenic road. On the way, we had a really neat experience that completely endeared us to the Korean people even more. We were trying to find the mountain fortress and the ancient cave Buddha. We thought we had found it because there was a large parking lot and a picture with the fortress on it. We got out of the car and realized it was a campground of sorts. (The funny thing about camping in Korea is that they don't go out in the forest, they just pitch their tents next to their cars in regular old parking lots that just happen to be in the mountains.) Anyway, we found an office area and used the rest room and realized we were in the wrong place. We tried to communicate with a man about getting directions. To make a long story short, after calling a friend to translate over the phone for us, we realized he wanted to escort us as a "serbisa" (service). He was so sweet. He took us to both places and tried to explain to us in Korean all about the sites. Ironically, we sort of understood what he was trying to tell us thanks to exaggerated hand and facial gestures! He also took us into the Buddahist temple and taught us the correct way to pray and bow three times to Buddha.
Below, if you look closely, you can see coins lodged into the nooks of the wall. I think it is the same idea as a wishing well. The coin is for your prayer/wish to be heard by Buddha.
Here we are coming out after bowing appropriately to Buddha.
The ancient carving of Buddha was made in 800 AD by monks. Really very cool to see.
Brian called this the Nazi dragon turtle.
After leaving the temple, the unofficial tour guide stopped at a roadside apple stand and got us all free apples. We spoke with the orchard owners and they were especially excited to have Americans in their orchard, so they gave us tons of free apples and let us take a tour of the their orchard. It was really fun to explore the rural side of Korea because where we live it is like living in downtown New York City.
Finally, we visited the ancient mountain fortress built about 800 years ago. The ramparts extend in both directions of this gate for about 5 km. We ran out of daylight, but we want to go back and hike the entire stretch. As you can see below, the view is spectacular.
I guess I don't really have to say because it has obviously been implied over and over again in my posts, but we LOVE Korea. We have committed for sure to stay for two years and more than likely we will be extending to three years. The kids are happier in their new school and with their life here than they have ever been, so I think we would be unwise to not try and make this last as long as possible. We have been incredibly blessed to be here.
Below, if you look closely, you can see coins lodged into the nooks of the wall. I think it is the same idea as a wishing well. The coin is for your prayer/wish to be heard by Buddha.
Here we are coming out after bowing appropriately to Buddha.
The ancient carving of Buddha was made in 800 AD by monks. Really very cool to see.
Brian called this the Nazi dragon turtle.
After leaving the temple, the unofficial tour guide stopped at a roadside apple stand and got us all free apples. We spoke with the orchard owners and they were especially excited to have Americans in their orchard, so they gave us tons of free apples and let us take a tour of the their orchard. It was really fun to explore the rural side of Korea because where we live it is like living in downtown New York City.
Finally, we visited the ancient mountain fortress built about 800 years ago. The ramparts extend in both directions of this gate for about 5 km. We ran out of daylight, but we want to go back and hike the entire stretch. As you can see below, the view is spectacular.
I guess I don't really have to say because it has obviously been implied over and over again in my posts, but we LOVE Korea. We have committed for sure to stay for two years and more than likely we will be extending to three years. The kids are happier in their new school and with their life here than they have ever been, so I think we would be unwise to not try and make this last as long as possible. We have been incredibly blessed to be here.
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