Cruizing the West Coast

Our group at the Buddhist carvings near Soesan.

Spear throwing at the Fortress

The arboretum...plant-lover's heaven! And our lunch spot. This is me with Joy and Gina from China.

Hana, dul, set!

The Nore Bus! I did a rather impressive version of Africa (by Toto) ;)

This weekend, the YMCA, where we go for Korean classes, took us on a field trip down to Seosan and Taean. It was awesome, so interesting and nice to get out of the city for a change! But best of all we went to the beach :) which I have been itching to do since I got here. The water was so warm too that we could have swam! It was loads of fun, and we were a really great bunch! And we rocked the Nore BUS on the way home - too cool!

The Seoul of Asia

Today I went to Dongdaemun to try to do a bit of shopping but I obviously got there a little early and the market was still closed....so I had a stroll around and then headed off to Olympic Park.

So Olympic Park was a totally random choice, and turned out to be awesome! There is a museum dedicated to the 1988 Olympics held in Seoul, and is quite special. I kept thinking that I wish I had trained harder at gymnastics, or actually went to swimming training, so that I could have even a snowballs hope in hell of having anything to do with the Olympics. Oh well. And on that note, WELL DONE to Kel who swam like a champ this weekend - proud of you my girl!

BTW, I love Seoul more and more each time I go there. It is really an amazing city. SO, maybe if I stay another year, I'll consider moving there!

I'm an L, and not just any large...

I think they decided to skip Autumn and jump straight into Winter. Or this is Autumn and I have a nasty surprise waiting for me in the next few months.

Anyway, I went to shop for some warm tops and I ended up having to shop in the men's section... and the smallest size that fitted me was a LARGE. That's right an L. Makes shopping kind of tricky. Think I have to head to Itaewon next weekend to find some 'western' shops with normal sizes.

My men's L top that fits just perfectly!

Gwanggyo San

Gwanggyo Music Fountain Park

Gwanggyo Reservoir

I've heard that 70% of Korea is covered with mountainous terrain. This means that there are plenty of hills and mountains around to walk up, or hike up depending on the mountain.

Suwon's main mountain is Gwanggyo, and even though it is a little tough getting up, it's good exercise and the views from the top are worth it!

Overdue Chuseok Post

Last weekend, I had Friday off for the holiday, so Brian (Canadian teacher from Pyeongtaek) and I headed down to Asan to check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiral_Yi_sun_sin Admiral Yi Sun-Shin's shrine. It is the place where he lived and also where most of his family is buried. It was a beautiful, peaceful place, and I loved exploring the exciting story that was his life. Admiral Yi is a very respected figure in Korean history, and there is a statue of him in most of the cities around the country. For the first time in my life I can say that I find history fascinating!!!

Then we were meant to go to the Oean folk village, but got horribly lost and ended up in a one-horse town with no English and very little public transport. Ah, the adventures....I am happy to say that we got home alive and well eventually.

What's on my wishlist?