Seolnal 설날 2011 (Part II)

Oh wow, I guess it's time to finish this post...three weeks later.

Our second day in Gwangju mostly consisted of the consumption of exquisite Korean dishes.  Seriously, we feasted every three hours.  These traditional meals were like Michelin Star quality - absolutely incredible.

We began the morning by enjoying a traditional breakfast with Jonghan's immediate family.  His mother prepared rice cake soup (tteokguk).  This soup is a mandatory meal for every Lunar New Year.  It is believed that if you eat a bowl of this soup you will grow a year older.  The oval shaped rice cakes in the soup symbolize coins, or wealth, for the new year.

Shortly after breakfast we headed to a relative's home for a Seolnal traditional ceremony and lunch.  Minutes after we arrived, the ceremony began.  Jonghan's 88-year-old grandmother was to be honored by all of the attendees with a bow and a New Year's greeting.  As a token of appreciation, the elder blesses those who bow with a gift, usually money.   Her children bowed deeply and their children followed.  And we were included in that group!  Chris and I felt so honored to take part in this tradition.

The youngest children wore their hanboks and endlessly entertained the crowd.

After lunch we all gathered around for a yutnori tournament.  Yutnori is a simple traditional game played every New Year.  The game is easy to learn, as the board is very comparable to Sorry!.  We'd love to explain the game but let's be honest, no one does it better than Wiki :)  See here if you're interested in the rules.

The foreigners won the tournament!!  6,000 won richer! (Looks like that soup is already paying off ;)

Later that afternoon we visited the traditional houses of the Confucian School (Hyanggyo).  The school was built in the 14th century and has since become a national attraction.  We love the rich history that is found in every corner of Korea.  

Life long friends

The next morning Jonghan's family took us on a scenic drive through the mountains of Naejangsan National Park.  We didn't have any hiking gear but we were able to stop and follow a paved road up to one of the two temples located in the park.  The views were beautiful and I can only imagine how gorgeous the area is come fall.

Jonghan's gracious family

It was a three day long double date!  We loved it :)

The contrast between the white snow and the brightly painted temples is stunning.

Look at those tall lovers.

We then stopped to fill up on a huge lunch before the long drive home.  The traffic was going to be horrific with so many out of towners returning to Seoul so we wanted to get an early start.  It was another delicious meal shared with our host family, but we have to be honest, it probably wasn't the best idea to feast right after the a long and winding drive through the mountain roads.   I was already feeling a little car sick and with my belly stuffed, the stop and go drive home was too much to bear.  I tossed my cookies in the car and Chris lost it the second we got home.  Motion sickness is the worst.

Too bad I lost it all, this Korean style meatloaf (tteokgalbi) is one our absolute favorite meals here!

Rice served in a bamboo branch from the bamboo forest in Gwangju.

Despite the long drives, the trip was unforgettable!  We are so thankful for the opportunity to spend time with Jonghan and his loving family.  We feel so fortunate to have been a part of the special celebration and the memories made will forever be some of our favorite times in Korea.

We hope to see as much of Korea as possible in the coming months before our departure.  Last weekend we took another road trip to the southern area of this great peninsula.  Maybe in three weeks we'll post about it :)

경주 (Gyeongju)

Last weekend we were able to get out of Seoul and head four hours southeast to Gyeongju.

We took a spacious bus and really enjoyed the ride - the scenery was amazing, the enormous reclining seats were unbelievably comfortable, there was a lack of other passengers (5 total including us), and we had two new books in hand.
We arrived at our hotel, The Daemyong Resort (Location:35°50'42.32"N 129°17'5.24"E) and were extremely pleased. The hotel was right on the water of the Bomun Lake. This view is from our hotel window (opposite the lake).
After doing a little touring of the Bomun Lake area we headed to the downtown area to see a few historical sites.
As we have done our entire time in Korea, we took the good old reliable public transportation. In trying to find 첨성대 (Cheomseongdae-more on that to come), we stumbled upon a nice parade certainly worthy of our humble attention.
After watching the parade, we picked up a Gyeongju treat - aptly named Gyeongju bread (or Hwangnam bread). It is basically a small round pastry filled with red bean paste. The ten we purchased were quickly consumed.
We followed the street signs to Cheomseongdae (The 31st National Treasure of Korea). Cheomseongdae is the oldest standing astronomical observatory in east Asia. Being the fans of Astronomy that we are, this was a must see (Loc: 35°50'4.53"N 129°13'8.73"E).

Near the observatory were some ancient tombs which were pretty incredible to see. You can actually see them on Google Earth if you look at the location of Cheomseongdae.
Another stop we made was to Anapji (언압지) Pond (Loc: 35°50'3.69"N 129°13'38.08"E).
This is an artificial pond that was ordered to be built in the 7th century by King Munmu. Interestingly, King Munmu's tomb is an underwater tomb. He asked to be buried underwater in order to become a Dragon and continue to protect his people.

Following some more walking and checking out different sites, we decided it was time to take the bus back to get ready for dinner. Thinking we were on the correct bus, heading the right direction, we sat down and began our longer than expected city tour. This was indeed one of the buses that could eventually take us back to our hotel. However, we basically had to travel the entire route, including the main station where we ended up locked on the bus for 15 minutes because of some awkward communication with the bus driver (He apparently said last stop, and then looked at us strangely through the mirror as he pulled into the main bus station. After showing him our map of where we want to go, he laughed, nodded, then locked the doors to the bus and went inside the main terminal for 15 minutes). As reliable as ever, the bus did get us back to our intended destination.

At the hotel we were able to enjoy a lovely dinner and watch our wedding DVD.
Our favorite place of the trip was the Bulguksa (불국사) Temple (Loc: 35°47'23.76"N 129°19'54.00"E). This is an old Buddhist temple and is home to seven of Korea's National Treasures. It was such a beautiful place especially with all of the fall colors.




This area of the temple we found very interesting. It had thousands and thousands of rocks stacked on top of each other. It is a tradition to make a stack of rocks, or stack on to someone else's pile. Every stack represents a wish or prayer.
Here is our prayer
If someone stacks on top of your stack, legend says it will have a higher probability of coming true (not sure what it means when you knock someone's stack over...yikes).

We then made our way to Baskin Robbins for a snack before our bus ride home.
This memorable trip was the perfect way to celebrate our First Anniversary.

Summer Vacay continued...

Following our first day of vacation was a week topped off with exploration, relaxation, and tasty treats. It was really pleasant to have a week away from teaching. We could not escape completely however, as we found ourselves talking daily about the children we have grown to love so much. We were happy as can be to get a break, but admitted missing all their faces dearly.

Nonetheless we were able to get out and do some things around Seoul that we had yet to do so far during our journey.

For example, we were able to go to the pool. All the public pools in Seoul are positioned along the Han River in various districts. The pool we went to was located in the Jamwon area (location: 37°31'11.40"N, 127°00'37.41"E). We were blessed to get a couple of hours of sun in the morning before the eternal overcast returned. There was one subtle difference we noticed about the pools in Korea though...swim caps. EVERYBODY (exclude these two Americans) had swim caps. We did not spot a single person without one. We began to think it was a rule here so we entered the pool extremely cautiously, polarized ourselves to the wall and kept our heads dry above the surface of the water for fear we would set off alarms by getting our hair wet. After a little google searching on the subject we discovered many pools in various parts of Asia do, in fact, have swim cap rules (not like we could have understood if there were signs posted) The pool was a great time otherwise though!



A traditional teahouse was another experience we had yet to be exposed to. After walking through a few art galleries stopping at a few street vendors in Insadong, we took a side alley in search of tea.

(LOC: 37°34'29.12"N, 126°59'05.12"E)

We found ourselves entering a quaint little spot ordering up a one 5-flavor and one persimmon tea. The quiet environment and traditional decor made it a very relaxing hour.





Seoul Tower: This city is ENORMOUS. Seoul metropolitan with its 20+million population boasts 2nd in the world largest metropolitan areas. In the middle of the city is Mt. Namsan (and by Mt. I mean hill [rocky mountain standards]). Erected atop the hill is Seoul Tower (Loc: 37°33'05.46"N, 126°59'16.03"E). This location provides a panoramic view of the incredible city. The mountain itself is Namsan park. The top of the mountain surrounding the tower hosts a Teddy Bear museum, traditional Korean restaurant, and a 3-D theater.

Looking West



Looking south towards Gangnam (our area)



Fixed to the guard rail lining the top of Mt. Namsan were thousands upon thousands of locks. Each is a "lock of love" couples attach with their names and short messages. It was a pretty awesome site.



We will surely be returning to this spot as there are a number of running trails along the base of the of the park.



One of our favorite stops Deoksugung Palace (Loc: 37°33'57.00"N, 126°58'29.75"E). This palace is one of the five royal palaces of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). The palace was named Deoksugung, meaning palace of virtuous longevity, by King Gojong's son, Sujong" in hopes that his father would live long there. While there we were able to watch a re-enactment of the Royal Guard Changing Ceremony of the Joseon Dynasty.











Trying to capture the traditional Korean architecture against the western style building against the modern skyscraper



Unfortunately the Rodin Gallery nearby was closed :(



The film Up! finally arrived in Korea during our break, which we opted to see promptly. We requested tickets for the 3-D version from a woman working the box office when she gave us a bizarre look and said Korean, Korean while motioning with her hand from her mouth outward. We saw the 2-D version in English thanks to the kind lady who gave us the heads up. The movie was fantastic!

Would you take a ride on a "pleasure cruise"? Sounds a bit shady, but extremely enjoyable. The Han River Pleasure Cruise owns a fleet of ships holding from 50-300 passengers taking trips up and down the Han River. We opted for a night cruise to see some of the city lights.




We are amusement park fanatics and lovers of roller coasters, how could we not visit one of the world's largest indoor theme parks, Lotte World. The park is not located entirely indoors, but a very large chunk was indeed under roof.





There were, of course, very interesting sites, including these enormous bows so many visitors chose as a fashion accessory



Many thanks to this man for keeping those in long lines far from boredom...



For anyone who was a Vine patron 05-07ish know exactly what this machine is...unbelievable that I wore this shirt and found this machine in Seoul...wow.





GYRO DROP(LOC: 37°30'32.29"N, 127°6'2.36"E) - Think Tower of Doom. Rotates on the way up, gives a nice view of the park and surrounding city



As I mentioned earlier, this vacation also included some tasty treats.

I used to think On The Border was a joke of a Mexican restaurant...well in Korea, this is as good as gold.



Our favorite, buffalo chicken dip. Seriously if you haven't had this before, make it immediately (especially before football season starts), click here for recipe.

Thanks to Momma Haws for the ingredients we were unable to find in Korea :)



This post has extended far too long and includes an excess of information so we'll leave it here with this "A vacation is over when you begin to yearn for your work" -Morris Fishbein

Maybe we don't yearn for work, but we sure do miss those kiddos.