Everland

On Saturday April 11 we went with Terri and Jini to Everland. It's an amusement park not to far from our house, or so we thought. We picked that day because there was a tulip festival. Matt and Amber also happened to be going too but were with other friends so we didn't meet up with them too much.
We had to take two buses to get there, as the direct bus only came once every 40 minutes. The bus that should have taken about 45 minutes, turned into about an hour and a half due to heavy traffic and because of all the starting and stopping I got very motion sick and had my head hanging out the window for part of the journey. Consider that the bad news first! hehehe... Other than that I had a fantastic day! The moment I saw the gate I knew Everland was a special place. It's pretty similar to Disneyland except it has it's own characters. The main grounds are all done up in a fantasy theme with turrets and cute little shops everywhere. There were flower beds chalk full of perfect red and yellow tulips. The first photo is of us trying on cute headbands. I chose one with flowers and I made Curtis wear the one with antlers. hehehe. We didn't purchase them, that would be too cheesy!

The first thing we all wanted to accomplish as finding food. We were all thinking burgers would be good so we ate at burger cafe. By coincidence we ran into Matt and Amber. Jini hadn't met them yet and actually had chosen the table they just stood up from... how weird is that?? We chatted with them and ate our weird spicy burgers. They were basically meat and a bun like normal, but then the toppings weren't the usual mustard, ketchup, lettuce, tomato ensemble. Instead it was like sauteed vegetables with a thick goopy sweet, sour and spicy sauce. I can't say it was my favorite, not was it terrible.

We spent most of our time walking around looking at things. Jini and Teri weren't fond of roller coasters and the lines were terrible so we avoided all the rides. They did look quite impressive though. They had a huge wooden roller coaster that I was tempted to try on several occasions. It was especially alluring because you could hear the "Whoosh!" of the wind as raced on the track. It was so loud we were looking for the thunder clouds at first. We looked at the tulip gardens and took photos of each other. There were all these pinwheels used to make the gardens more beautiful and dramatic. It was really beautiful. There was also a huge water fountain that spouted water vertically. It was choreographed a bit, not really to music, but there was a little program to which each of the spouts stopped or became taller.

The one thing Curtis and I were particularly interested in was seeing many of the animals they boasted to have there. I was quite impressed this most of the enclosures except the Safari Ride. In the map/ information guide, it said that it was the only enclosure in the world with lions and tigers cohabiting. The result of this has actually produced a mix between the two which is being called a "liger". I will completely admit that I was very grateful to be able to see such magnificent animals with the view I had, but at the same time, as I was enjoying, I looked around and noticed that there were about 14 large cats all in one enclosure that might be suitable for a pair. The ligers were in a very small pen as well. The most disappointing part was the next enclosure. They had grizzlies! I'm not even kidding! I was so surprised! It was quite sad though to see about 10 grizzlies lazily lying along the road lifting their head to catch a small biscuit that the driver threw their way. Those amazing animals were reduced to circus pets. Sigh, it made me feel ashamed that I was naive enough to think that it might actually have been a good example of a modern zoo. It was obvious though that their only concern was attracting visitors.

After that we went to see some monkeys and were on the epic search for the polar bear. We didn't find him, but we saw lots of different animals. My favorite were probably the monkeys because they're so amazingly agile and cute. Their facilities were also a bit more up to par.

When it got dark, we headed toward the area where we could see the parade. I love night parades! The more I see the more I love them. This one was ultra cheesy with robots and heroes fighting dragons. There was even an Alice in Wonderland float! I'm kind of amazed that there aren't any copyright infringements going on.

After the parade we were all thinking it was time to go home. The only things left open were the roller coasters, and while it was tempting for me, I didn't have anyone else brave enough to escort me, so I didn't make them stand in line waiting for me.

I do have many more photos, but the up loader isn't working for me. I'll have to add some more when I get a minute.

Thanks for tuning in!

Insadong

After viewing the palace we decided it was time to eat. Since the original plan was to wander around Insadong, we headed that direction. We took stock of out options and then settled on a place that said "Spagetti" in big red letters on the side of a building. It was delicious! We all enjoyed our meals and had a good time chatting with Shin-hok and Hokunani.

Matt met up with us as Amber had plans to meet with a separate group of friends. Since he didn't have a cell phone, it was a bit difficult to know exactly where we would meet up. We walked in the direction of the subway and saw Matt lumbering towards us. Huzzah! We did a 180 and headed back in the direction of Insadong. The first shop on the right hand side of the street was a guitar shop. It had beach guitars (3/4 size and more narrow) in the window. Matt stopped on a dime and asked if he could take a look. We went in and the vendor showed us the guitar. Matt started to enquire about other ones and in 15 minutes Matt chose, tested and bought a guitar. We love Matt for his spontaneity!

After that we continued looking around. We actually entered all of 3 stores and then headed to an artisan building. It was about 4 stories high and instead of stairs most of the floors had a small incline. It was similar to the rest, but a bit more condensed. Matt stopped in at a tie shop just browsing, but it was interesting to see all the shades of pink and purple. I was keeping my eye out for a new purse, but didn't find anything I liked.

At then end of the browsing we headed to Red Mango for delicious frozen yogurt. With our bellies full and our hearts content we took the subway back home.

The next day we were thinking about going to Yeouido to see the famous cherry blossoms. We weren't quite sure what time all the festivities took place and were skeptical about what we'd actually see because all of our cherry blossoms had already been replaced by leaves. With too many doubts and enough of a desire to chilax at home, we did just that. We heard later that Yeouido was completely disappointing this year as the cherry blossoms did indeed come early.

Changdeokgung Palace

The next weekend we were invited to Insadong by Hokunani. She is a foreign teacher that Amber met randomly on the subway and connected the rest of her cronies to. Thank goodness for Amber and her approachable style! If you ask her, she feels like it's a curse. Not because she meets wonderful, warm hearted people like Hokunani, but because religious nuts and charity groups seem to target her like bees and flowers. :)







The palace had a throne room, sleeping quarters for political guests and dignitaries and separate sleeping quaters for the King and the Queen. It also had extensive gardens which is why most of my pictures are of plants.


Absolutely stunning. It was a fabulous walk and we found out at the end we only saw about 20% of the gardens but the other portion is only avaiable with an tour you have to book in advance. We're thinking about booking as soon as the leaves change colours.

Suwon Fortress

It seems like we've been keeping a good sight seeing schedule. We have been getting to one new event or attraction (historic or otherwise) each week. Jini and Sup took us to Suwon Fortress. We had planned it the weekend before, but then decided against tromping around in the rain so the following weekend we went. On the way there, I was so surprised to see my first spring flowers! At first I thought it was just light green shoots and buds starting to form on bushes, but when I asked about them, Jini said it was very popular and you see it everywhere. It's called forsynth - I looked it up. Here's the first look at the wall and a lookout tower.







The first thing we did when we got there was practice Korean archery. It was really fun and it wasn't as embarrasing as I had expected it would be. Curtis turned out to be a born natural and hit the target once or twice. It looks like all those years at summer camp paid off mom and dad!











There are two main parts to see at Suwon Fortress, the wall that is 5.7 km in circumfrance and in the middle is the fortress itself. We didn't have time to do both so we had to pick. We decided to do the walk around the wall. At some points there are lookout towers or other building to look at too. Here was one of the first buildings that we saw.























Even though we had a map, I still didn't understand what we were getting ourselves into. It's a bit deceptive too that part of the city is still inside the wall. We couldn't really see where the path was leading around us. One sights that caught our eye was a gorgeous mountain thick with pine trees. Little did we know, but our trip would carry us up one side of that mountain and down the other. In fact, while we were admiring it at the start, I began thinking I'd love to come back to hike on it someday! Here's the first part of the wall. Along the way there were tonnes of gorgous flowers and the starting buds.






























This was Curtis' and my first excursion with our new camera so we took liberties to see how well our zoom worked. There is a bit of haze, but this golden statue was so far away it looked like a leaf on the hilside. Needless to say we were pretty impressed.

This was the view from on top of the hill. It was an overcast day so you can barely make out the mountains in the distance. It was so refreshing for us to get up high and make sure Korea wasn't one big city.

This one is my new most favorite picture. It was the first time in my life I've ever seen magnolias. They're really stunning because they are such a big flower on such a bare tree. I'm not sure if they like Canadian winters, but if they do, I'm going to have one in my yard.

Promised Pics

So here are some pictures of the wedding.

This is a hanbok. It's very flowy and worn loose from the body not like a kimono. She looked so elegant!

The next picutures are from a shopping trip with Matt and Amber.

The top picture is of a market stall specializing in doggie duds. There was a bee costume and a hanbok for puppies.

We went to out first foodcourt in Korea, which is quite a bit different because you order food from one counter and then take your ticket to the kitchen window when it's done. There are separate kitchen windows for separate kinds of food. I ordered bibimbap which is basically like stir fried rice. Occationally it comes with crazy side dishes. This time I had baby octopus with mine. I wasn't going to try it and then Matt did so I did. It wasn't toooo slimy, hehehe, but it was a bit chewy. Always the daring one, Matt decideds he's going to eat some baby octoups off my plate.

The last picture is an example of the crazy t-shirts here. This one has text on the back that makes no sense, but feels like a political / anti-religious rant. It even says something to the effect of Clinton being the first black president. I have no idea what it's supposed to mean, but this is comming from people who think I'm blonde, so it doesn't surprise me. ;)

These are pictures from when we saw the Van Gogh Exhibit. On the way to the museum there is a gorgeous walk. Comming the other way there was a colour party for one of the palaces that was close. It was a mini parade!

Rain Rain Rain

After Van Gogh, life has seemed normal and empty. Hehehe... no, I just felt like saying that to be melodramatic! ;P Actually things are going well. We have mostly just hung out with friends near or around home. We've been out with Jini and Sup a couple more times and Matt and Amber have graced us with their presence to keep us company. We even had a board game marathon in which Amber totally walloped the lot of us at "Taj Mahal".

We've tried to see more of Korea, really we have. The past two weekends in a row we were all set up and ready to see the Suwon Fortress. It's supposed to be a nice walk outdoors. We were rained out the first time and it's currently raining right now so we'll see if it holds up tomorrow.

Last weekend we went to church for the second time. The regular pastor was preaching instead of the youth pastor so it was good to know what that would be like on Sundays to come. Being that it was Easter Sunday, I expected a whole lot more ceremony. In fact, the pastor was in the middle of a series on salvation. I know it kind of fits with Easter, but doesn't Easter deserve it's own sermon? The pastor also talked about the "inner man". He referred to this part of all people that is their spirit essentially. It bothered me that he talked about it with a gender. I don't know what it is lately, but the more I attend church the more questions I have about my beliefs. I feel like all of my studying and past experiences is contrary to what some churches are teaching. Is it possible? Can a faith be so divided? I love God, I'm not the most diligent at disciplines - but I genuinely love God and want to follow Jesus example in our world. Is that not the call of Christians? I'm not sure whether I'm calling for help or just venting... bear with me on this one. It actually got to the point where I had to ask myself if I believe the same thing as the people around me. I'm tempted to say no, but does that mean that I deny my faith then? Always more questions than answers.

This blog is very quirky and jumbled. I hope it reminds you all of my and my quirky jumbled nature. :) Take care and I will update with more photos soon!

Van Gogh in Seoul

Upon deliberating whether we should see the Van Gogh exhibit or play boardgames, I forced Curtis to promise me that we would see that Van Gogh exhibit the next Saturday. Since it was the last weekend I was prepared for it to be completely packed so I insisted that we head out early. Early for us meant out the door by 10:00, which is admirable considering on weekdays we're not out the door before 12:30. Getting ready to head out, I noticed my own excitement. I was especially thinking about how amazing it would be to actually set my eyes upon "The Starry Night" and the sunflowers series.

We got there and at first weren't quite sure which direction to head. We had been given the exit number to leave the subway, but other than that it was more or less just assumed that it would be obvious. Not 5 minutes later, we saw a huge banner with "Van Gogh" printed on it. Hehehehe, in hindsight it makes me feel silly for thinking it wasn't obvious even for 5 minutes. :) Smaller banners lined the small brick street leading to the museum. Other exhibitioners were walking the same direction so we kept going for about 10 minutes. We saw a line forming and followed suit.

Coming up to the museum, it looked more European than it did Korean. It was concrete with pillars and mouldings. The glass revolving doors gave it the modern twist. It was not a long wait before we were inside. The inside of the building looked so much different than the outside. Panels of light coloured wood and flat panel garage doors concealed the works of art and sectioned off each exhibit. There was a huge banner declaring the presence of Van Gogh's art, but then no other signs. As soon as we entered the building, there was another line up. There were black strap gates to direct and move the traffic through this museum and attendants pointing and directing people. Once we were ushered up a set of stairs, it seemed like the rest of the museum was fair game. No more lines, no more black strap ropes.

As we went on, we noticed a pattern from the other viewers. It was common not to stand in line actually, but instead to go to a painting you wanted to see and elbow your way to the front, stand there for a minute, and then shimmy your way back out again. It made the line incredibly slow and so after about an hour of being patient we decided to do as the Koreans did.

We found the first room displaying Van Gogh. They were mostly drawings and chalk sketches. Not at all what I had imagined. There were human subjects in the sketches doing farm work. He drew and painted a lot of people just being people. It was really interesting. Halfway through the second of three rooms we started to see the oil on canvas that Van Gogh was famous for. It was really breathtaking. None of the ones that we saw were particularly famous except "Vase with Irises". The colour that he used were vivid and the contrasts were stunning. I didn't get to see any of the sunflowers paintings or "The Starry Night", but I feel lucky to have seen the ones I did.