Naksansa, Seoraksan, Jumunjinsa

I had a three day weekend for Foundation Day this past weekend. Foundation Day is a national holiday in Korea and it celebrates the mythological origin of Korea. I decided to visit literally one of the biggest attractions in Korea. I'd been wanting to do this ever since I realized why my favorite Korean restaurant in Northern Virginia is named Seorak Garden.

First we hung out at Naksan Beach. It was the first time I saw pine trees at the beach.

Naksan Beach is on the west coast of Korea, which is where the best beaches are supposed to be because they're blue and much clearer than the east coast beaches. Naksan Beach had really big waves because the water is very deep.

I made new friends, Laura and Lia, who took this fun photo. 

Right next to the beach was a Buddhist temple. Can't remember the name, but it had beautiful views of the sea.

There were several fountains like this one of fresh mountain water. I tried some and it tasted clean, nothing spectacular though.

I guess every temple has to have some kind of water feature.

Traditional Korean building designs are beautiful.

And everything is handmade and handpainted.

I learned the Nazi's copied the Buddhist symbol for peace and made it into the swastika.

This temple was more like a complex. There were a lot of buildings and pathways.

Afterward, I bought toasted dried squid and dried fish, both of which I hadn't had in awhile. It was just as chewy and yummy as I remembered. 

We ate a late lunch, I ordered a variation of one of my favorite seafood dishes - raw squid mixed with rice, vegetables, and hot sauce. Also known as hwedubbap (회덮밥). It was so fresh tasting because the cook fished the squid straight from the tank in front of our table.

Sunday, we went to Seorak Mountain! I believe it's the largest and most well-known mountain in Korea.

Beautiful waterscapes and landscapes left and right. I took so many photos.

AFT - apparently it's a tourist acronym for Another Farting Temple. Well, I'm still enjoying them. The same fellow hiker that told me about AFT said Buddhist temples are all tucked away in Korea (in mountains or at beaches) because originally Buddhism was not well accepted in Korea. Other Asian countries often have as many temples in the cities as they do in the country, but Korea is different.

About halfway up.

My sore legs are in payment for these beautiful Kodak moments.

We were hiking up the Ulsan Boulder trail. If you look closely, there were many rock climbers too, which was amazing because those boulders were really smooth. They were using the crevices of the rock to climb up.

Toward the end of the trail there was a mad number of people on the trail and we had to form lines. Traffic while hiking!

I was actually happy for once in traffic, maybe because I wasn't confined to a vehicle.

We made it to the top!!!!

You can't escape the couple's traditions in Korea even many thousands of meters up in a mountain. Each lock represents a couple that climbed the mountain together and it means that their relationship will last forever. They carve or write messages on their locks. So adorable!

Next day, we went to an even better beach called Jumunjin Beach. The water was more shallow and the waves more reasonable. I could see through the clear water and I was looooving it. <3

I went on a Zipline! I couldn't believe how much fun it was! I can't wait to do it again! 

Couples and families dress alike in Korea. I used to think my mom was weird for buying us matching shoes or clothes, but now it makes sense. Sorry mom, I'll wear matching outfits with you, but only in Korea. LOL

Our final meal before we returned to Seoul was fresh sea snails or whelk (골뱅이). I love whelk. Yumyum.

Family fun outdoors

I spent my first weekend with my Korean family (my aunt, uncle, and 3 younger cousins) this past weekend. We did normal family stuff...went out to eat, went to the playground, and for a walk around this huge wetland reserve nearby their town. I had the best weekend I've had so far in Korea! 

My uncle, my cousin Eu-hyun, and my new baby cousin, Bo-hyun.

Remember these? I don't know why I don't see them in American parks anymore...

...but they are so much fun!

I'm holding a live dragonfly! Or, a 'jamjari' in Korean.

 My cousin, Eu-hyun, caught so many of them that weekend. Don't worry, he took care of them and let them all go.

The view from my aunt's apartment is even more spectacular at night.

We went to the school park after dinner on Saturday. I actually exercised! I did 3 pull ups, took a ride on my cousin's bike (the ground was sandy so it was kind of difficult), played soccer, jump roped, and used the exercise equipment you can find at every park in Korea.

On Sunday afternoon, we went to Gyeongan Cheon Wetland Ecological Park. We walked on a trail around the park and ate roasted chestnuts.

All that green grass is rice!

There were some creatures too, but not many because the park was really dry according to my aunt.

Korean women are obsessed with their skin (I thought I was bad, nope not in comparison). I see them using umbrellas on the sunniest days, so they don't get skin damage. Makes me thankful for my brown skin. My uncle  doesn't like the heat of summer though.

GORGEOUS sunshine and happiness! I love the mountains in Korea.

These giant plants were strange looking but I liked them, I think I'm going to do a watercolor of this photo.

My first field trip with the kiddies

Every month we are supposed to take the kindergarten classes on a field trip. This month we went to a big park 10 minutes away from the school. The park has fun, child-friendly water fountains and an inflatable pool set up in the middle of the fountain area. The weather was gorgeous! I've been feeling sick so I wasn't able to play with the kiddies because I didn't want to get wet. I was super disappointed, you all know how much I love water.

The head foreign teacher, Chris, and I with my homeroom class. I love these kids already. <3

This is Estel, she's a sassy one and cute. Look at her styling those shades! She's definitely one of my favorites.

I wanted to play with them so bad!

Almost everyone brought a watergun, including the teachers. 

Another one of my favorites, Lucia. I had to tickle her to make her smile. She was sporting the wet, sad puppy face because she left her extra set of clothes at school...and I wasn't having it. Smile darling!!

My homeroom class again. Their Korean homeroom teacher got them to lay down and pose. I'm impressed at how skilled Koreans are at making cute photos lol.

Hear comes the sun

The Beatles’ song “Here comes the sun” popped up on my Pandora radio station (called Ginju Radio if anyone is interested in the eclectic mix I like) yesterday and really made me think. Its lyrics spoke to me, especially because I live in Florida where we basically had about a week of spring and we are already onto summer. One of my coworkers recently tweeted he liked this time of year best. I agree. I tweeted him back, noting that I automatically wake up happy. The Beatles were onto something. Thinking on sunshine and its effects on my life, I immediately thought of several things…the Sunshine state, Vitamin D and sunscreen, "You are my sunshine," and other random thoughts (like whether Walmart's yellow smiley face was inspired by kiddie drawings of the sun - what is a sun without a smiley face?).

I am now a citizen of Florida – the Sunshine state – for better or worse. I’ve got all the paperwork to back it up, even though I sometimes slip and call Virginia home. Florida has many great features: no state income tax, the ability to tint my car windows (not that I have the money), proximity to GREAT beaches (sorry VA, you got nothing on FL there), interstate speed limits (generally 70 mph), and of course number #1 for me is the climate. And there's so much to explore in the Sunshine state!

I never really thought about vitamins much. My mom used to buy them for me, until I told her to stop since I never remembered to take them. The idea that you get vitamins from direct sun exposure is exciting. I love sitting in the sun…weird I know because it’s not good for the skin and sometimes it can be darn right hot. But, given a choice of sitting in shade or the sun I choose the sun. I am working on wearing sunscreen everyday (difficult for me as I’m extremely picky about lotion and I have yet to find an affordable body lotion with spf that I like). I tried looking up why Vitamin D is good for us on Wikipedia and got some scientific mumbo jumbo I didn’t feel like deciphering. What is clear is there are a lot of foods I don’t like that either naturally have or are fortified with Vitamin D – fish, bread, milk, yogurt, breakfast cereal, etc. So sitting in the sun is probably okay, right? Its health effects include something about possibly reducing risk for cancer, cardiovascular disease, and the flu…scientists don’t seem to know much.

“You are my sunshine” is an awesome song. That’s all I have to say about that. ;)

I think we should appreciate the sun more and I’m not talking pagan holidays (although May Day might be a good holiday to use), but a true day of appreciation and learning about the many ways the sun affects our life. We have Earth Day...why not Sun Day (and Sunday does not count). I’m going to start my new year’s resolutions from now on in May…because I really don’t feel motivated in January. Coming on May 1st - May Day Resolutions…