Snowing in the Goon - NaunDong

This is what they call BAR STREET or Naundong, its walking distance from my city school. The streets are lined with bars and usually lots of foreigners. It was snowing this last Saturday night and very pretty with the lights.

Daedunsun Mountain - Hiking in the Snow

This was at about 2,000 feet, it was a little make-shift cafe, where we ate lunch, had some hot coffee and rice wine, and warmed ourselves up with the kettle and some Koreans.







This was from the very top, at least as far as we got...The ladder was pretty slick and both of us are a little scared of heights. Sorry for the pictures being out of order. The hike was 2,800 feet, it took a little over an hour in the snow and rocks, where these gusts of wind would just about knock you down. What an experience and the views were incredible.



Joanna, my friend from Canada, and I, both of us are quite tired after the hike up, some lunch, and then a slick trek down from the highest point, where I slipped and fell on my butt. We ended up taking the cable car back down the mountain from here since a lot of the snow had froze and it was quite treacherous climbing down.



The pictures really don't do it any justice and it was a little foggy.












You can see how steep the hike was at points with snow falling and slippery wet rocks. I had the strategy of getting ahead of Joanna so I could take breaks and wait for her, while enjoying the ever increasing gorgeous views up the mountian as I looked back.





The big rock on the left here that is perched up by the mountain is a historical rock that Budda went and spent like 30 days and nights of solitude on, pretty cool history to see.





This is the picture at the bottom before the grueling hike.

Weird Toilets in Korea

I almost died when I saw these types of toilets, thinking they were the only type of toilets they had. Koreans actually prefer to use these types of toilets over the traditional toilet seat, thinking it is more sanitary I guess. This is true, because in my country school there are two types in the teachers/staff restroom and when I enter it there will sometimes be a Korean in that toilet and the other traditional toilet will be unoccupied. I actually tried to use one of these types of toilets once, thinking that it was my only choice and I promptly urinated all over my pants. I now do my very best to avoid them as much as possible and actually would prefer peeing in the woods over one of these.

Also, it is a good idea to always carry your own toilet paper out here, as most public places don't carry it or you have to grab the amount that you are going to use before entering the stall from a huge toilet paper dispenser that everyone uses, if they even have one. Which can be a bit of problem if you are doing more than urinating and not sure of how much toilet tissue you will use for the process, LMAO.

I have to carry my own roll into the city school and sometimes have to wait for the one traditional toilet that there is available if the students are out of class. Obviously me or the students don't care to be very sanitary, or maybe they pee on themselves too. The staff lounge at the city school only has a toilet like this one, which as you now know, I avoid like the plague. I thought you might find this story funny, because Koreans can be funny, I know I am laughing.



They even have the dual toilets, found in Jeonju, in a department store, where you and your kid can go at the same time and have more time to shop and spend money. You gotta love Korea.

FRIDAY - The Two Beer Story and Shopping

Just to give you an idea of how cheap things are out here. Just on the side of the road on my way to the post office this afternoon, I picked up a few items. I needed some new gloves for hiking trips and the cold weather. I needed more hangers to hang and dry my clothes on. I also needed a big wooden spoon, so I am not scratching up my pans while cooking. And of course, last but not least three plastic containers with lids to store food in for my hiking trips or leftovers in the fridge. All of this, including the beer cost 9000 Won, which is about $7 US dollars, nice shopping trip, my sister would be proud, she is such the bargain shopper!!



I only had two beers, I promise!!

Local Hike - Wolmyeong Park

As you can see, the hike is pretty steep and takes about 15-20 minutes at the pace I go. I huff and puff going up and take many breaks to catch my breath. Joanna makes me run to the park, about a 10 minute run and then she runs a good portion of the hike as well, while I try and keep up. Last night we did the hike and then ran down on the other side the entire way, because it was getting dark and we needed the light from the park to get us home. It's a great workout and there are several trails just like this one, some we have done and some we haven't. I am sure all the views are just as spectacular.

Most of these views are from the top, on one side you can see a big part of the city of Gunsan, which looked pretty cool at dusk last night(not in this picture) when the lights were just coming on. The other side is the view of the Gunsan port and Yellow sea. I was hoping it would be clearer when the sun came out, so I will have to lug my camera up there again on a clear day for better pics.

Thursday Morning or Wednesday Night in the States

Me at my desk at Ja-yang Middle School.

I just wanted to write to the BLOG, since I haven't written in a few days and there seems to be nothing else to do as I sit here at my desk in the office of my country school. I was informed this morning that I will not be having any classes today and the next three days that I teach out here, due to final exams being held at the school. They even said I could leave after lunch today to go and rest. So needless to say "I love Korea" and my new job. I am sitting here looking busy typing away with only a few hours to kill before lunch and then off for the day. This is the first day that I have gotten off early to pursue my own endeavors on a work day, so I am excited about the opportunity. It is unfornutely a cloudy and rainy day, so a stroll through the park to read my book is probably out of the question.

So far, I absolutely love Korea and my new full time job as evident of my Thursday morning. With the way the economy is and the unemployment rate continuing to rise back home, I could be here a while. I went to the Dentist this last Tuesday to finish a root canal that I started a few years ago down in Mexico. Since I never finished the root canal, the hole often gets infected, causing swelling and pain. The Dentist here was really cool, he spoke English and did wonderful work, suprisingly with little to no pain as He dug, grinded, and poked me with long needles. He said I must continue to come back, probably several times to finish what I started in Mexico. I can't stand the dentist or the genecologist in general, so you can imagine this was bad news and hard for me to succum to the fact that I needed this. But I had let the problem go and persist to this point, a lesson learned, when the Dentist says come back, you come back. For the first visit, it was only about $12 US dollars and about $2 US dollars for the antibiotics, gotta love Korea!! The beginning of the root canal with medications cost my 5 times as much down in Mexico and probably would be more in the States, even with insurance.

Truly the only things that I miss from home is the weather and my dog. I can't stand having to layer up and wear a heavy coat everywhere and I miss the "roo roo roos" of my Jezzy when I would come home. I have even looked into flying her out here, but I keep reading horror stories of dogs and cats dying on planes. I also think she is a good fit to take care of my Mom as I always worry about her as well. The negatives always seem to out weigh the positives when thinking about it, she wouldn't like the cold weather, she wouldn't have a yard, and my desire to do lots of traveling would make it stressfull for both of us. I still miss her though!

I have been doing a lot of running, hiking, and climbing. A combination of that and the Korean food has already brought on a weight loss, yay! The local park also has these circuit machines with bikes and exercise equipment which is all free and very enjoyable. I was on a machine that twists the waist back and forth watching the gorgeous full moon last night, what an awesome experience. I am scheduled to go on two hiking trips the next two weekends up huge mountains, I will take pictures to share the fun. Thank you all for reading and being involved in my adventure and I will continue to share my thoughts, feelings, and pictures of my experiences in this new country.

November 27th Birthday Celebration

The Koreans really celebrate birthdays, complete with sparklers for the whole restraunt, candles, that funny hat, strobe lights, and music. It was pretty cool as you can see here.



The girl on the left is my friend from Ja-yang Middle school, she took me out shopping before meeting everyone for my birthday celebration. Also some of my foreign friends who are teachers. From left to right, that is Sarah, from New Zealand, she teaches at two local high schools, Joanna from Canada, she teaches at two local middle schools, and then Aaron from Ohio, he teaches at two local elementary schools.



Both Aaron and Joanna live in my apartment complex and we tend to hang out the most. Joanna has even gotten me to run, hike, and, and climb mountians in Wolmyeong park for exercise.