Busan Night Hike

A few weeks ago we went on a night hike in Busan.  Our vision was to hike to the top of this mountain to get a good view of the sunrise over the ocean, with a hot cup of coffee and oatmeal in hand and bask in glorious nature... What we got was quite different.

We took the last train from Daegu to Busan at 11pm, which with some pit stops and travelling to the trail, would put us at a 2am start time. The hike was supposed to be 2 or so hours and we would be set up for the sunrise with time to spare. What happened was the trails were not so clearly marked and the names kept changing so we hiked an hour on the wrong, grueling trail until we realized that something wasn't right. So we flagged down some guys on a motorcycle... in the mountains...at 3am... to help us? They didn't speak much English so they weren't much use but we did decide to go back down and up the other trail.

This was the right trail and with a few more minor detours we saw the lookout point. The lookout point was bare, and windy, and cold. So we made some coffee and waited out the sunset ,wrapping ourselves sheets people who sell chicken in the park give you to sit on (maybe this deserves an explanation but that's for another time.)

An the sun came up... into the clouds. And we saw it get light... but no spectacular sunrise. After which we quickly packed up to get out of the horrendous wind and cold, and we went home to Daegu... to sleep.

our cute friends Alyssa and Jeff

Andong Mask Festival

We have been keeping pretty busy these weekends. Both because we are trying to soak up the decent weather before winter descends on us and because after fall we are going into major saving mode to prepare ourselves for our journey back home. Anyways, this has made me fall behind on our weekend happenings.

First, we went to the Andong Mask and Dance festival about a month ago. It was interesting to see the traditional costumes and dances. We were especially lucky because we ran into our Korean friend Hoonmi! (she was not so lucky to run into us) She helped us understand the dance's meaning and the stories being told. Most stories are about the underdogs, or the corrupt Buddhists (I dunno why they were so corrupt) and about forbidden love. They basically hit all the best types of stories. Well here are the pictures.

These were strange automated rickshaw things? 

We all bought puppets and I chose the ol' lady who hits her back because it hurts. This is her partying later that night.

Sports Day at Bukbisan!

After 2 weeks of preparation including coloring, choreographing, racing, and costuming, my new school Bukbisan had a huge sports day. I liken sports day to my experience with the operetta at my grade school. I remember we didn't have any class after lunch for a month and we just practiced for the show. I loved it! In Korea, sports day is pretty similar. Practice, practice, practice to show off to the parents your skills.

Our sports day started out pretty crappy. It rained until 8 that morning and after it stopped all students were called to duty. They got dust pans to get the water from the puddles into buckets and poured new sand on extra soggy spots. Here is a picture of the first crew out.

Luckily, they are a hard working bunch and we were up and running only 20 minutes behind schedule. We started off with a parade. I was MC so I didn't take too many pictures of this.

Next, there were races!

In between the races all the classes put on performances. The little ones were so cute!

There was even some fun for the grandparents... fish for ramen!

After, competitions of tug-o-war and a ball game. 

Lastly MY FAVORITE was the 5th and 6th grade performance. They did a fan dance in traditional clothing, I was pretty impressed. Here are some pre-performance pictures. There are some gem faces. 

               

 And their performance! The end is my favorite :)

All in all a lovely day with the kids where we could goof around and have fun.

Chuseok 2013!

Chuseok, Korean thanksgiving, seems like a long time ago now. While it was less than a month ago, the warm weather and possibility of going swimming seem like a far away dream. Yesterday marked the first day that we really needed to wear a sweater or coat and today marks the first day that my hands got a little purple and cold while lesson planning. So it seems like a great time to reminisce and to keep my fingers moving by typing.

We went to Tongyong, a small port city on the south, east coast of Korea. Our friend went there and loved it, it was cheap to get to, Derek wanted to see it for historical reasons and our friends Alyssa and Jeff wanted to go to. Decision made! We got on a bus and went early and spent 3 days 2 nights there. 

First we saw the street art on a hill that it's famous for. The owners of (previous) shanties painted their walls to prevent the city from bulldozing their homes and it worked! 

Translation: I love so-mech (A mixture of beer and Korean liquor soju)

 Derek and me!

 This reminded me of the 90's and my sister, I think she had a shirt or shorts like this.

 his hero

Here are some views from the top:

 Next we went to the sculpture park. Pretty much everything was about time and space, but there was one cool interactive sculpture.

I don't know why, but I like the picture yelling at Derek for something or other.

Then onto the first underground car tunnel in Asia, not used for cars anymore. It was built because cultually you aren't supposed to build over the dead. Many people died during wars in the port/ocean so out of repect they built it underground instead. We also had a tour guide we met along the way, Jack. Jack should probably be paid by Tongyong's tourism department because we ran into him 3 times, he is super nice and I've heard from other foreigners that he has helped them too. 

 The next day we went to Bijindo. An island off the coast that has a decent beach and some treacherous hiking. First we woke up before the butt-crack of dawn and hopped on a ferry.

Then we spent some time hiking with creatures that probably could kill us. I may be exaggerating but even though the others didn't show they were worried, you could tell everyone was because we all took baby steps after realizing we were surrounded by giant black and yellow spiders, crabs, centipedes with strange coloring and other unknown.

I don't really have good pictures of the creatures, I thought it better to keep moving rather than notice even more creatures. 

 The lost boys

Then it was time for the beach! My kind of time :) (Except there were these clear water bugs that started biting me in the water)

I'm Ariel!

 Alyssa is a better Ariel!

Derek's a ...monkey?

The final day we started of with a bike ride for two. I have been nagging Derek to tandem with me and he finally did! He even had fun and I think can be convinced  that it's a good idea to own one.

proof

And lastly, if you made it this far... the turtle boat. I don't have many pictures and if you want the history I encourage you to go to Derek's blog here.