Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Mudeungsan Hike

Hi everyone, this is Carrie.  We have been busy!  Last weekend we had quite an adventure.  Our city, Gwangju, is very close to a mountain, Mudeungsan.  We have hiked on trails there before, but last weekend we had our longest and most difficult hike yet!  We decided to meet up with some other foreign teachers at 3 AM to hike to the summit of the mountain, in order to see the sunrise.  We were nervous at first for several reasons: one, the buses aren't running at that time, so we would have to call a cab and request one in Korean!  Also, previous experience told us that this wouldn't be easy, and we would be hiking in the dark.  However, we decided that it would be worth it, and we were right!  We left our apartment around 2:30 AM, (after I had taken some Nyquil and zonked out at 8 the evening before), and before we even took out our phones to call, we found a cab that just happened to be driving down our street (sweet!!!) So we headed over to the base of the mountain to meet our friends (14 other teachers came).  We had heavy clothes on, (it is getting cold here! And was even colder at the top) lots of water, and flashlights.  The hike took us about 3 hours to get to the top.  Along the way, it was so dark and the stars were gorgeous.  We stopped and rested  at several points, and at about 4 in the morning we heard the sounds of a Buddhist monk somewhere in the forest, hitting an instrument I have seen them use often, though I don't know the name.  It is wooden and hollow, and it is hit with a small wooden mallet.  The trail is near a Buddhist temple, and the sound carried across the mountain and valley.  It was so beautiful and haunting to hear in the dark of the night.  Our whole group sat in silence and listened for several minutes.  We continued on, with Bradley and myself in the rear. :) When we finally reached the top, Bradley and I were exhausted and tired, but it was SO worth it.  We got some beautiful pictures and we both felt so proud that we had made it.  It was definitely a memory I won't forget!!!
Waiting for the rest of the group to arrive; it's 3 am but we are ready!!

Some city lights far below and darkness all around

It is starting to get lighter as we reach the top

70 million year old rock formations towards the top of the mountain!

Beautiful!!!


Here comes the sun!!

It looks like an ocean below us but we are above the clouds.

Some of our group

We made it!

A bit higher in the sky . . 

Below us, the city of Gwangju, but a little hard to see through the morning haze.  The tall buildings are apartment complexes.

The rock formations in the daylight

Heading back down

Bradley's fancy color setting on the camera, highlighting only reds and yellows


What an amazing day!!!!

Korean class


Hello everyone, this is Carrie again.  (Why am I doing all the posts???)  Anyway, for the past six weeks we have been taking Korean at the Gwangju International Center (or GIC). The GIC is a great non-profit organization in our city, which helps the foreign community by providing an English library, counseling services, helpful advice, programs, tours, and classes.  A lot of Korean university students volunteer there as interns in order to meet foreigners and develop their English language skills.  We have been enjoying our own Korean language classes there.  We attend every Tuesday and Thursday evening, and the first 6 week long session just ended.  We can now read in Korean and know several words and phrases, like "I would like (blank)," "Do you have any (blank)" and lots of random words like body parts and numbers.  We can introduce ourselves, say where we are from, and can even sing happy birthday!  Anyway, we had a small class and a great teacher and it has been really enjoyable.  We will continue taking classes and have already signed up for the next session.  Here is a picture of our class! :)

Bradley, Carrie, Kristin, Cassie, Depak, Lizzy, Song-i (our teacher), and Mihoko

Monday, October 8, 2012

Kayaking on the Seomjin River

This past Saturday, we went on a river kayaking tour!  The tour was led by a Gwangju native, who goes by the name of Pedro.  He leads a group called "Lonely Korea" in the city, and takes foreigners on tours several weekends every month.  Usually they involve some sort of outdoor adventure compnent.  This was our first tour with Pedro, but we will definitely be going with him again!  We started the day with a drive through the beautiful Korean countryside.  We drove about an hour outside of the city to the lovely Seomjin River.  When we arrived, we were given helmets and lifejackets; we wondered what we had gotten ourselves into when we were given helmets, as we had thought the trip would be on smooth waters.  However, we soon found out that the river had some very small rapids and at points went a little fast.  However, it was definitely a great beginners level river kayaking trip.  The tour guide got some great pictures of us as we floated down the river.  It was a gorgeous day and though we both got soaked by the end, it was well worth it.  I am glad we got to participate before the weather starts to get really cold!

Here are some photos provided by the tour guide:


Pedro, our tour guide, is on the left




"ISN'T THIS AWESOME??"



The whole group


Snack time!


We had a great day!  This is something I might want to look into doing as a hobby! :)

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Chuseok and a visit to Seoul

Hello all, this is Carrie.  Last weekend was Chuseok, or the Korean equivalent to Thanksgiving in America.  They celebrate the harvest by getting together with family and sharing a meal.  Also, some of my students said that they go to the tombs of their ancestors, clean them off, and have a ceremony offering them food and drink to remember them.  Anyway, for us, it meant a 5 day weekend!!  So, we decided to take a trip to Seoul, the capital of Korea.

We arrived on Friday late at night.  On Saturday, we went to the War Memorial Museum, and learned all about the numerous conflicts Korea has been in.  This place was HUGE and had lots of interesting exhibits.  The most interesting for me was to learn about the Korean war and how the U.S. was involved.  In the 1950s, communist North Korea invaded democratic South Korea, and the U.N. and many other nations responded by sending troops, supplies, and medical aid to South Korea.  In the museum, there is an exhibit about the South Korean people's thankfulness to these countries, and they have made special monuments to each country throughout Korea.  In addition, there was a movie and exhibit about the American General McArthur who commanded the forces in Korea, and who the South Korean's acknowledge as one of the main reasons they were able to drive back the invading North Korean army.  It was different to see an outside view of America and learn about the conflict which I knew little of. 

Next, we went to N. Seoul tower, an observation tower on the top of a large hill in the middle of Seoul.  We hiked up the hill, which took about 30 minutes, and by the time we reached the top it was dusk and we got a BEAUTIFUL view of the city.  We then rode to the top of the observation deck (in the worlds fastest elevator) and got to see gorgeous Seoul twinkling below us.  We ate dinner at one of the restaurants on top of the mountain and it was just amazing!!!

Sunday was Chuseok, so we headed to the Gyeongbokgung Palace, the royal palace in the 1400s-1500s.  There were lots of kids there dressed up in hanbok, traditional Korean costumes; this is something fun that parents enjoy doing to their kids on major Korean holidays! And they were cute!  We learned that the whole palace was destroyed when the Japanese occupied Korea from 1900-1945, and they built their administrative offices on top of the site!  It is so sad to hear what people do to eachother . . . but, since Korea became an independent nation, they have rebuilt much of the palace and are still working on parts of it. 

Nearby there is the National Folk Museum of Korea, where they display outdoor recreations of what life was like in villages in rural Korea.  They had special booths and performances set up for Chuseok, and we got to eat the traditional snack for the holiday, songpyeon, a special stuffed rice cake that is sweet.  We also tried on hanbok ourselves!  In addition, we got to see an AWESOME Korean traditional dance, that was just amazing!  While we were watching it, Bradley and I both looked at eachother and said, "I can't believe we are here doing this!" 

In the evening, we went to a show called Nanta (Cookin') which is a non-verbal performance of actors using hand gestures, kitchen utensils, and food to tell the story.  There are 4 actors that are playing chefs who have to prepare several large meals for wedding banquets in a short amount of time.  They use gestures, pantomime, and body movements to tell the story to the audience.  They also use the food and kitcen implements as drums and musical instruments.  Paula Levitt told me about this show, and we are so glad we got to see it, very funny and entertaining!

On Monday, we went to the Seoul grand park zoo.  It was a very nice zoo, with the most active animals I have ever seen.  We soon discovered why; while there are many signs posted asking you not to feed the animals, nobody follows the rule.  We saw bears rear up and beg as people tossed them popcorn, and monkeys stick their hands out of cages for a treat.  It was cool to see the animals so active but also not, because we all know that stuff isn't good for them . . . we decided not to feed the animals, but we got some great pictures!

Tuesday was our last full day, and we went to the headquarters of the largest sect of Buddhism in Korea.  They had huge golden Buddhas, the largest indoor Buddha statues in Korea.  It was so peaceful and beautiful on the grounds.

At the end of the day, we walked around our hotel's neighborhood, trying some of the various street foods for dinner. Some you wouldn't think of seeing in Korea, like corn dogs, and others, such as dried squid, which I wasn't brave enough to try! Maybe next time; there are street vendors all over the place in our city of Gwangju as well.

Wednesday morning, we took the 4 hour bus back to Gwangju to prepare for class the next day.  We had an AWESOME Chuseok, and Seoul is an amazingly beautiful city.

From the War Memorial:




Hike up to the N. Seoul tower:





The view from the top of N. Seoul tower:


N. Seoul tower looking up!


At the palace


 Palace guard: He stands there like at Buckingham Palace, no movement! 


Around the Palace:



I asked some of the kids if they would take a picture with me in their hanbok:








At the National Folk Museum, Bradley with one of the performers


Here is a video of the beginning of the performance.  Sorry for some of the bumpiness!



National Museum: this is a tomb marker to a scholar


Putting on hanbok!




Street food . . . YUM




We rode the sky lift at the zoo.  Beautiful!




For my Mom!


More zoo pics, animals asking for food!




 We had a great time!!!!!!!!