Good Morning Everyone!
It has been quite a long time since my last post and I do believe that has to do in part to my winter hibrination . It has turned cold here and I dont really get out that much. David has been traveling a lot to Yeosu these past few weeks and I have been concentrating on my substitute teaching. Other than that I like to stay home with Bear and wait out the cold!
One happy this to report today is that David and i have successfully completed our class session ans confined water dive. We are now 2/3rds of the way to being Scuba Dive Certified. We found a wonderful PADI teacher here in Korea and after paying up an exorbident amount of money we were on our way! We have really had a lot of fun with the lessons and we cant wait to do our open water dive this Spring on Jeju island. It just so happens to be a top dive site and we are just an hours flight away. Once we complete our certification we will then be free to dive in places such as Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, New Zealand and so On. Our instructor was kind enough to take an array of underwater pictures during our first dive and I hope to have them up in the next few days. They may also befound on my facebook profile!
As of now David and I are set to move to Yeosu on March 31. This would be a wonderful time for you to book your flight to com and see us. The weather will be getting warm and there are plenty of fun islads and mountains to explore! Dont delay though because plane tickets will only get worse :D!!!!
Happy Chinese New Year ~the year of the BLACK DRAGON!
Peace
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Yeosu Apartment Hunt
Well I am finally back at the computer, ready to update! It has been quite a busy end of the year, but a fabulous one as well. David and I completed our house hunting trip down south just prior to Christmas. We are currently set to leave for Yeosu South Korea the first of April. Now for those that are not familiar with Davids project, he is working to build a chemical plant in Yeosu which will be completed in March of 2013. For the past few months we have been here in Seoul while the design phase has been underway. However, our life of leisure and convenience will end soon enough once we depart for the southern coast for the construction phase of the project. Yeosu is quite a bit different than Seoul but I am looking forward to meeting the challenges head on.
We found an awesome three bedroom apartment located right on the water with a little beach just across the road. Our complex has a really nice sized skate park, basketball court and climbing wall in addition to some really nice trails that surround the perimeter. There is even a mountain directly behind it which makes for some good hiking with Bear. The apartment itself has a nice open kitchen, two bathrooms with a shower and a tub as well as a nice side patio where can grow some plants. The entire unit is covered in hard wood floor with a built in heating system. I am most excited about all the extra space we will have and the many, many kitchen cabinets!
Apart from our unit, the town is quite pretty. It is surrounded by mountains and small islands in every direction. While there is a huge decrease in good clothing stores, they do have some nice looking boutiques and shops downtown. Unfortunately if we want to eat out, its most likely going to be Korean food. However, they have a Lotte Mart fairly close where I can get my American-ish style foods. Another perk is that David and I will be using our Korean pretty often, seeing as English is rare.
Overall we had a great trip to Yeosu. Our relocation agent was wonderful, despite her food choices for lunch of course. We got to see a number of different available apartments and experienced most of the major tourist sites within proximity. Now for all our friends and family out there, since we will be having a three bedroom unit, I encourage you to come visit! What could be better than a trip to Asia to see our lovely faces!!!
Lovingly....
We found an awesome three bedroom apartment located right on the water with a little beach just across the road. Our complex has a really nice sized skate park, basketball court and climbing wall in addition to some really nice trails that surround the perimeter. There is even a mountain directly behind it which makes for some good hiking with Bear. The apartment itself has a nice open kitchen, two bathrooms with a shower and a tub as well as a nice side patio where can grow some plants. The entire unit is covered in hard wood floor with a built in heating system. I am most excited about all the extra space we will have and the many, many kitchen cabinets!
Apart from our unit, the town is quite pretty. It is surrounded by mountains and small islands in every direction. While there is a huge decrease in good clothing stores, they do have some nice looking boutiques and shops downtown. Unfortunately if we want to eat out, its most likely going to be Korean food. However, they have a Lotte Mart fairly close where I can get my American-ish style foods. Another perk is that David and I will be using our Korean pretty often, seeing as English is rare.
Overall we had a great trip to Yeosu. Our relocation agent was wonderful, despite her food choices for lunch of course. We got to see a number of different available apartments and experienced most of the major tourist sites within proximity. Now for all our friends and family out there, since we will be having a three bedroom unit, I encourage you to come visit! What could be better than a trip to Asia to see our lovely faces!!!
Lovingly....
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Dog Mania
Good morning friends, I hope that everyone is keeping warm out there, I know it is definitely getting cold here and we are anxiously awaiting the first snow fall. We have had quite a weekend in Seoul once again. While staying warm has been a bit of a challenge, we still managed to get out and about. We began our weekend with date night on Friday which consisted of a wonderful dinner at CPK (California pizza kitchen) and then went to an American movie. In between dinner and our our movie we also ventured out to see a few Christmas lights. I just wanted to show everyone the wonderful decorations and lights around the city. Here a just a few of the many...
This past Saturday I am happy to report that after taking a leisurely hike on Achasan, we took Bear to the Baus House...A dog cafe. We were accompanied by our NZ friends once again and it was quite a site to behold. First I must say that despite being a cafe, they only serve a select drink menu due to the chaotic presence of 25 different dogs. Purchasing a beverage allows access to the cafe and you can then buy as many dog treats as you like or merely chase the dogs around and play with them. Being dog lovers and all we were quite excited for this new experience. While I would recommend it once, I myself probably would not return. It was just a bit to unsanitary and crazy for my likings. We did have fun however playing with the gigantic husky, two devilish Dalmatians and one very rambunctious Bichon Frise. At one point in time one of the two Dalmatians decided to leap onto our table, thus spilling our NZ friend's drink directly into his lap. Thankfully, the staff were very quick to respond not only to our spillage but in cleaning up all dog waste. They even provided a lint roller and air-spray to manage the after affects. Bear seemed to do OK with all the excitement but he was a lot more content to sit in my lap than go chasing after any of the dogs.
Our next journey began on Sunday after church with a trip to Namsan Mountain, which is a very touristy destination. Many people go there to overlook the city, visit the tower with the revolving restaurant, or place a lock on one of the many lover's trees. David and I had been here once before but wanted to go and watch the traditional drumming and swordplay reenactment. We ended up taking the cable car all the way up and back down the mountain due to the cold weather. Once we got to the top everything had been decorated for the Christmas season. They had a very lovely silver Christmas tree along with several lights and Fake enlarged Present boxes for a photo opportunity. We managed to make it just ten minutes prior to the reenactment so we got a fabulous seat. The show was absolutely wonderful and we of course got loads of pictures. Well, I hope you all enjoy our photos, and keep the comments coming, we love you all and miss you!
Our next journey began on Sunday after church with a trip to Namsan Mountain, which is a very touristy destination. Many people go there to overlook the city, visit the tower with the revolving restaurant, or place a lock on one of the many lover's trees. David and I had been here once before but wanted to go and watch the traditional drumming and swordplay reenactment. We ended up taking the cable car all the way up and back down the mountain due to the cold weather. Once we got to the top everything had been decorated for the Christmas season. They had a very lovely silver Christmas tree along with several lights and Fake enlarged Present boxes for a photo opportunity. We managed to make it just ten minutes prior to the reenactment so we got a fabulous seat. The show was absolutely wonderful and we of course got loads of pictures. Well, I hope you all enjoy our photos, and keep the comments coming, we love you all and miss you!
Monday, November 28, 2011
Thankgiving
Well, I apologize for the lack-there-of with my posts lately. I fully intend however to remedy that shortly. I have a few fun things to mention today so I guess I will start with my Thanksgiving festivities. David and I have decided to remain here in Korea for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Not wanting to compromise on the holiday fun we have made some other plans. On Friday evening David and I decided to go to our NZ friends house for a somewhat Thanksgiving style meal with some other American teachers. We had chicken, mashed potatoes, non-homemade turkey with stuffing as well as some Korean-style sweet potato casserole and a salad. The food was pretty good actually and I managed to make both Apple and Pumpkin mini pies. We even had Pillsbury biscuits, thanks to some army connections! Overall we had a really great time celebrating with our friends. Now, David and I were a little unsure about how the holidays would be celebrated here in Korea. We didn't think many people would have Christmas decorations or trees with ornaments or any of the other must have traditions. Much to our surprise though we were very wrong. Right before Thanksgiving hit the entire city of Seoul slowly began to cover itself with Christmas!!! All the restaurants and stores have trees, the building have bushed and trees decorated, even our favorite shopping area has loads of light up reindeer and snowflakes. It is absolutely wonderful! I managed to get a small tree at the Lotte Mart and we have it nicely decorated in our apartment along with some exciting stalkings and a red poinsettia. So needless to say, it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
Another really exciting thing to report on was our last weekend. We managed yet another trip to Buchansan mountain with David's colleague Michael. This time however he brought along his female language instructor and another Korea friend named Victor. While the company was fabulous, the mountain was another story. I always enjoy a challenging hike but every time we venture to this particular one it manages to kick my butt! This time was no exception. It was a very muggy day and a little cold at ground level. The weather didn't stay like that for very long tho. After about two hours we made it to the top and in was below zero degrees Celsius, absolutely freezing and the winds could have blown me away. I was so happy to finally make it back down the mountain, but I will say I got a wonderful view and a great workout from the trip.
After our hike on Saturday we then went to church on Sunday, the first Advent. The week prior however, David and I were asked to do a short script in front of the congregation and to light the first Advent calender. Well, come Sunday morning we both got up there and really had a lot of fun with it. I was able to light the candle without burning down the church and I managed not to stumble during my speech, praise God!
Now it is Monday morning and I am sitting during the lunch period at Seoul Foreign School. It is my first day substitute teaching here and I love it. While waking up at 5 am was not real fun, I have enjoyed being back in a school setting without actually having to do school work. Today I am with the sixth grade teaching a humanities class. Mainly it is just reading and assigning book work but the kids are a lot of fun and I have met some wonderful American teachers that have been here for over five years. I will be posting more updates on my subbing but until then, its coffee time for me. We miss you all very much and hope you all send us Christmas Cards.
Many Blessings
Another really exciting thing to report on was our last weekend. We managed yet another trip to Buchansan mountain with David's colleague Michael. This time however he brought along his female language instructor and another Korea friend named Victor. While the company was fabulous, the mountain was another story. I always enjoy a challenging hike but every time we venture to this particular one it manages to kick my butt! This time was no exception. It was a very muggy day and a little cold at ground level. The weather didn't stay like that for very long tho. After about two hours we made it to the top and in was below zero degrees Celsius, absolutely freezing and the winds could have blown me away. I was so happy to finally make it back down the mountain, but I will say I got a wonderful view and a great workout from the trip.
After our hike on Saturday we then went to church on Sunday, the first Advent. The week prior however, David and I were asked to do a short script in front of the congregation and to light the first Advent calender. Well, come Sunday morning we both got up there and really had a lot of fun with it. I was able to light the candle without burning down the church and I managed not to stumble during my speech, praise God!
Now it is Monday morning and I am sitting during the lunch period at Seoul Foreign School. It is my first day substitute teaching here and I love it. While waking up at 5 am was not real fun, I have enjoyed being back in a school setting without actually having to do school work. Today I am with the sixth grade teaching a humanities class. Mainly it is just reading and assigning book work but the kids are a lot of fun and I have met some wonderful American teachers that have been here for over five years. I will be posting more updates on my subbing but until then, its coffee time for me. We miss you all very much and hope you all send us Christmas Cards.
Many Blessings
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Three months In
It has been almost a month since my last post. We have had quite a lot of stuff going on this last month and things are finally beginning to slow down. David has taken a short trip over to Yosu (down south) so I thought I would take the opportunity to update you all a bit. For starters, we recently returned from a last minute trip to North Carolina. We had to say goodbye to David's younger brother whom passed away after a long battle with MD. The lord finally decided to take him home and we have found peace in the knowledge that he is now whole and the suffering has ceased. While the occasion was sorrowful we were still very grateful to have been able to spend time with family and friends. Upon our return to Korea we have been doing our best to get back into the groove of life here in the city. I had my interview with Seoul Foreign School and are now awaiting my health exam so that I can get started subbing in the near future. This past weekend David and I were also very fortunate to have been invited on another hiking adventure.
This time David's colleague Michael and his wife asked us to hike Buchansan Mountain with them. Buchansan is the highest mountain in Seoul and it also provides the best view for miles. This hike was unlike any of the others we have partaken. It was far steeper, far more rocky and far more adventuresome. There is one leg of the trail in particular that require you to hoist yourself up the mountain by grabbing onto the built in railings. After about two and a half hours we reached the peak. The view was breath taking to say the least however, my favorite thing about it was that we were so high up, the cities sky rises shrunk to allow a perfect view of all the different mountains.Remarkably, even though the hike was quite advanced, Micheal's son Harry came with and did the entire thing right along side us. Koreans really are fantastic hikers and its easy to see why they love it so much.
After our hike on Saturday we also attended the International Fireworks Festival downtown. I wish I could say that I really enjoyed it but it was far to crowded for that. It was so busy that people were actually pushing us down the street even though there was no where to move to. The festival features fireworks from three different countries and while they put on a good show, we would have enjoyed it more had it not been so overwhelmingly packed.
Anyhow, David and I are doing well back in Korea and we are getting ready to take another trip back to the states in about three weeks. We are really looking forward to seeing our very good friends Ben and Ale tie the knot and we cant wait to see David's family yet again. I can also report that David and i just celebrated our three month anniversary and we are still going strong! I will do my very best to update a bit sooner next time. Until then,
Thanks for reading...
This time David's colleague Michael and his wife asked us to hike Buchansan Mountain with them. Buchansan is the highest mountain in Seoul and it also provides the best view for miles. This hike was unlike any of the others we have partaken. It was far steeper, far more rocky and far more adventuresome. There is one leg of the trail in particular that require you to hoist yourself up the mountain by grabbing onto the built in railings. After about two and a half hours we reached the peak. The view was breath taking to say the least however, my favorite thing about it was that we were so high up, the cities sky rises shrunk to allow a perfect view of all the different mountains.Remarkably, even though the hike was quite advanced, Micheal's son Harry came with and did the entire thing right along side us. Koreans really are fantastic hikers and its easy to see why they love it so much.
After our hike on Saturday we also attended the International Fireworks Festival downtown. I wish I could say that I really enjoyed it but it was far to crowded for that. It was so busy that people were actually pushing us down the street even though there was no where to move to. The festival features fireworks from three different countries and while they put on a good show, we would have enjoyed it more had it not been so overwhelmingly packed.
Anyhow, David and I are doing well back in Korea and we are getting ready to take another trip back to the states in about three weeks. We are really looking forward to seeing our very good friends Ben and Ale tie the knot and we cant wait to see David's family yet again. I can also report that David and i just celebrated our three month anniversary and we are still going strong! I will do my very best to update a bit sooner next time. Until then,
Thanks for reading...
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Chuseok Extravaganza
I am at a loss as to how to begin this blog. I have so much to mention about David and my week that I will have to do my best to summarize it all. I wrote in my last blog that Chuseok was coming up and because of the holiday David had last Friday through Wednesday off from work. While he did a little bit of business here at home on Friday and Wednesday for the most part we got to go and do anything and everything. The weekend was very busy but we both had a lot of fun and got to experience just a bit more of Korea in the process.
On Saturday we had a very special lunch date with a lovely Korean couple that were introduced to us through family. As it turns out there is a twelve year old boy living in Florida with David's aunt's best friend. This boy is the son of the couple we had lunch with on Saturday. After getting in touch with them through email they were very eager to meet with us and offered to take us out for lunch. Upon their arrival we were greeted with a hug and I was given a very nice gift in light of Chuseok. We ended up going to a nice little area not far from our apartment and had some more traditional Korean food. Now yes I may of had to suffer through the meal a bit but the company was well worth it. Rahni (the wife) was absolutely wonderful and has now designated herself as our new Korean mother. As it turns out her husband is also a civil engineer here in Korea so David and him had a few things in common as well. The rest of Saturday appears to be a blur however so we will move on to Sunday.
Sunday morning David and I decided to return to Seoul Union church to give it another go. We are still undecided upon churches but I happened to make a wonderful connection with one of the expat teachers there. She told me about how the local school was always looking for substitute teachers and she promised to pass my name along to the coordinator. It was definately an answer to prayer seeing as how I am looking for things to keep me busy during the week. After church on Sunday we then ventured over to Cosco, which was all very exciting until we actually got there. Lets just say there was a line to get into Cosco, an even longer line to go down the escalator and some extrememly pushy Koreans that made it rather hard to enjoy our shopping experience. We definately learned our lesson, going to Cosco during a national holiday is no good. We did however manage to get some great American made items and I plan to return at a later date to get some more :D.
Now Monday was probably the most exciting and most tiring day of this saga. Monday is the day we journeyed to EVERLAND! And yes when I said journeyed I ment it. Everland is the fifth largest theme park in the entire world and they were offering discounts to all foreigners. Naturally, who wouldnt want to go. We made the trip with our good friends Grant and Joy and left around 9:45 after dropping Bear off at Kindergarden. Since most Koreans leave the city to travel home during Chuseok we were under the impression that transportation would not be that crowded. While that is true of the Koreans, every foreigner in the area it seems turned up to go to Everland as well! In order to get to Everland we had to take a bus, which we had never really done before, and will never do again. The first bus that arrived was so full that we could not fit and had to wait for another. The second bus that arrived thirty minutes later was also very full but we managed to squeeze our way on. That was not the best idea however. There were no seats available, the bus was full to the brim and we had to ride back to back for 50 minutes inside a bus with little to no aircontitioning. Might I add, we were traveling through the windy roads of the mountain countryside which made it all the worse. Anyhow, we finally got there and I was able to walk off my motion-sickness about an hour later. The theme park itself had some really good qualities as well as some less desirable ones. We were dually impressed with the worlds highest wooden roallercoaster but were not as happy with most of the other rides. We definately enjoyed the animal attractions and those alone are worth a return visit. They have an entire zoo built into the park and we were able to enjoy two seperate and equally wonderful animal shows. They also had a safari but we were unable to go through it because the lines got to out of control. All in all we really enjoyed the trip to Everland but we are not real anxious to get on another bus to go there again.
Finally I will end our adventures on Tuesday, the Chuseok holiday. We celebrated the event with a trip to Mr. Harris' house that evening. Accompanied by David's boss Ron and his wife we rode the subway over there to partake in a traditional Chuseok meal. Im sure by now you know how much I enjoyed the food, but David was genuinly pleased with it. Mr. Harris lives in a beautiful apartment like most Koreans in Seoul and we were able to meet two of his children as well.
Alas, it is time for me to study up on my Korean for our language lesson tonight. Missing you all back home, send some food :D
Happy Chuseok
On Saturday we had a very special lunch date with a lovely Korean couple that were introduced to us through family. As it turns out there is a twelve year old boy living in Florida with David's aunt's best friend. This boy is the son of the couple we had lunch with on Saturday. After getting in touch with them through email they were very eager to meet with us and offered to take us out for lunch. Upon their arrival we were greeted with a hug and I was given a very nice gift in light of Chuseok. We ended up going to a nice little area not far from our apartment and had some more traditional Korean food. Now yes I may of had to suffer through the meal a bit but the company was well worth it. Rahni (the wife) was absolutely wonderful and has now designated herself as our new Korean mother. As it turns out her husband is also a civil engineer here in Korea so David and him had a few things in common as well. The rest of Saturday appears to be a blur however so we will move on to Sunday.
Sunday morning David and I decided to return to Seoul Union church to give it another go. We are still undecided upon churches but I happened to make a wonderful connection with one of the expat teachers there. She told me about how the local school was always looking for substitute teachers and she promised to pass my name along to the coordinator. It was definately an answer to prayer seeing as how I am looking for things to keep me busy during the week. After church on Sunday we then ventured over to Cosco, which was all very exciting until we actually got there. Lets just say there was a line to get into Cosco, an even longer line to go down the escalator and some extrememly pushy Koreans that made it rather hard to enjoy our shopping experience. We definately learned our lesson, going to Cosco during a national holiday is no good. We did however manage to get some great American made items and I plan to return at a later date to get some more :D.
Now Monday was probably the most exciting and most tiring day of this saga. Monday is the day we journeyed to EVERLAND! And yes when I said journeyed I ment it. Everland is the fifth largest theme park in the entire world and they were offering discounts to all foreigners. Naturally, who wouldnt want to go. We made the trip with our good friends Grant and Joy and left around 9:45 after dropping Bear off at Kindergarden. Since most Koreans leave the city to travel home during Chuseok we were under the impression that transportation would not be that crowded. While that is true of the Koreans, every foreigner in the area it seems turned up to go to Everland as well! In order to get to Everland we had to take a bus, which we had never really done before, and will never do again. The first bus that arrived was so full that we could not fit and had to wait for another. The second bus that arrived thirty minutes later was also very full but we managed to squeeze our way on. That was not the best idea however. There were no seats available, the bus was full to the brim and we had to ride back to back for 50 minutes inside a bus with little to no aircontitioning. Might I add, we were traveling through the windy roads of the mountain countryside which made it all the worse. Anyhow, we finally got there and I was able to walk off my motion-sickness about an hour later. The theme park itself had some really good qualities as well as some less desirable ones. We were dually impressed with the worlds highest wooden roallercoaster but were not as happy with most of the other rides. We definately enjoyed the animal attractions and those alone are worth a return visit. They have an entire zoo built into the park and we were able to enjoy two seperate and equally wonderful animal shows. They also had a safari but we were unable to go through it because the lines got to out of control. All in all we really enjoyed the trip to Everland but we are not real anxious to get on another bus to go there again.
Finally I will end our adventures on Tuesday, the Chuseok holiday. We celebrated the event with a trip to Mr. Harris' house that evening. Accompanied by David's boss Ron and his wife we rode the subway over there to partake in a traditional Chuseok meal. Im sure by now you know how much I enjoyed the food, but David was genuinly pleased with it. Mr. Harris lives in a beautiful apartment like most Koreans in Seoul and we were able to meet two of his children as well.
Alas, it is time for me to study up on my Korean for our language lesson tonight. Missing you all back home, send some food :D
Happy Chuseok
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Two Months of Forever
Well it is official, I have been a married woman for a whole two months! It is September 8th and David and I are celebrating our anniversary with a trip to On the Border for dinner accompanied by a potential American movie. I am one lucky girl to be married to such an amazing man and living in a foreign country to top it off. These last two weeks have been a bit of a struggle for me in the food department. I have been having a hard time eating vegetarian in a place where soybean products and beans are hard to come by. My day has become significantly brighter however now that I have received my very first package while here in Seoul. My mother in law sent me some much appreciated herbal tea, candy, Indian style chickpeas and soup mix among other items. We have yet to receive our sea shipment which contains all of the food we purchased prior to coming to Seoul. Lets just say I will be one happy girl once that package arrives! Well anyhow on with the good...
Just last weekend David and I had the privilege of completing yet another hike, but this time we were accompanied by our new friends from New Zealand. We started our hike up at Yongmasan Mountain and continued all the way down to Achasan Mountain where it spit us back out to a second subway. We had the most perfect weather and felt absolutely blessed to have seen all the wonderful greenery, waterfalls and mountain tops. It took us approximately 3 hours to complete the hike and we hope to one day work our way up to Buchasan Mountain, which is a much higher and longer trek. Compared to my last hike of Achasan Mountain, I will say the Yongmasan portion of it was much more rocky and much more of a challenge. We really deserved the ice cream we purchased at the mountain peak!!! When I say we purchased ice cream, that does not mean there was a pre-existing ice cream shack at the top. Nope, a very courageous Korean man hike all the way to the top with a giant cooler on his back....now that's hard work!
Since our hike took place on a Saturday, after a well deserved nap David and I headed out for a little Mexican food and some walking around the Insadong market place. They had some great music playing outdoors and everyone was enjoying a good stroll next to the stream running through town. The next day was Sunday so of course we went to church! This time we decided to try out another church just south of the river called Jubilee. While the church was much younger than our previous one, we really enjoyed hearing from the Korean-American preacher and meeting all the expats there. It was a great church and it will be hard to make our final decision as to which one we will end up at for the next five months.
It is now Thursday afternoon here in Seoul and we are coming up to the biggest holiday of the year for Koreans, Chuesok (spelling unsure)! Basically this is the Korean's version of Thanksgiving. Everyone is expected to return to their hometowns and pay homage to their ancestors. Many people will go to their beloved ones grave sites and place flowers or clean up the area. There is always a major celebration with of course, a lot of food. We actually just found out that we were invited to a traditional Chuesok celebration at the home of Mr. Harris. Mr. Harris is the VP of the company David is working with and the same man that took us on our first hike here in Korea. I am a little nervous about the food but David's boss Ron and his wife Joy will be joining us for the celebration as well so I am greatly looking forward to it. We have also made plans to meet with a wonderful family here in Seoul that is friends of David's aunt Bonnie. We will be meeting with them on Tuesday for lunch so I am looking forward to meeting with another native Korean.
Finally I want to talk about my trip to the salon today to get my hair cut. I was a little nervous at first wondering weather or not they would understand me and have the same level of care that American salons do. However, I was worried for nothing because I had a wonderful time. The store manager spoke fluent English and I they were very big on head and shoulder massages. The lady that cut my hair did a great job and she even dried and curled it for me afterward. Well that concludes my week, missing everyone back home but enjoying my husband and Korea all the same...
Peace Out
Just last weekend David and I had the privilege of completing yet another hike, but this time we were accompanied by our new friends from New Zealand. We started our hike up at Yongmasan Mountain and continued all the way down to Achasan Mountain where it spit us back out to a second subway. We had the most perfect weather and felt absolutely blessed to have seen all the wonderful greenery, waterfalls and mountain tops. It took us approximately 3 hours to complete the hike and we hope to one day work our way up to Buchasan Mountain, which is a much higher and longer trek. Compared to my last hike of Achasan Mountain, I will say the Yongmasan portion of it was much more rocky and much more of a challenge. We really deserved the ice cream we purchased at the mountain peak!!! When I say we purchased ice cream, that does not mean there was a pre-existing ice cream shack at the top. Nope, a very courageous Korean man hike all the way to the top with a giant cooler on his back....now that's hard work!
Since our hike took place on a Saturday, after a well deserved nap David and I headed out for a little Mexican food and some walking around the Insadong market place. They had some great music playing outdoors and everyone was enjoying a good stroll next to the stream running through town. The next day was Sunday so of course we went to church! This time we decided to try out another church just south of the river called Jubilee. While the church was much younger than our previous one, we really enjoyed hearing from the Korean-American preacher and meeting all the expats there. It was a great church and it will be hard to make our final decision as to which one we will end up at for the next five months.
It is now Thursday afternoon here in Seoul and we are coming up to the biggest holiday of the year for Koreans, Chuesok (spelling unsure)! Basically this is the Korean's version of Thanksgiving. Everyone is expected to return to their hometowns and pay homage to their ancestors. Many people will go to their beloved ones grave sites and place flowers or clean up the area. There is always a major celebration with of course, a lot of food. We actually just found out that we were invited to a traditional Chuesok celebration at the home of Mr. Harris. Mr. Harris is the VP of the company David is working with and the same man that took us on our first hike here in Korea. I am a little nervous about the food but David's boss Ron and his wife Joy will be joining us for the celebration as well so I am greatly looking forward to it. We have also made plans to meet with a wonderful family here in Seoul that is friends of David's aunt Bonnie. We will be meeting with them on Tuesday for lunch so I am looking forward to meeting with another native Korean.
Finally I want to talk about my trip to the salon today to get my hair cut. I was a little nervous at first wondering weather or not they would understand me and have the same level of care that American salons do. However, I was worried for nothing because I had a wonderful time. The store manager spoke fluent English and I they were very big on head and shoulder massages. The lady that cut my hair did a great job and she even dried and curled it for me afterward. Well that concludes my week, missing everyone back home but enjoying my husband and Korea all the same...
Peace Out
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