Villages and Mountains
Trip Start
Aug 07, 2007
1
5
109
Trip End
Ongoing
Seoul/Uijeongbu,
Korea Rep.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Today we rode the subway to a satellite city South of Seoul. Can't remember the name. After 2hrs on the train and a 30 minute bus ride we arrived at The Korean Folk Village. The entrance fee was 16,000 WON. Inside over a few kilometers there was houses, temples and buildings like blacksmiths and bakery's. We spent a good part of the day exploring the village and the many customs of "Old school" Korea. On the way home we ate at Outbacks, a restaurant with an Aussie theme. First out in a game of poker. This time no buy backs.
September 25, 2007
Up at 10am after we decided to sleep in today. Three Canucks, two being residents of Korea and one a visitor from Ottawa, headed to a Korean national park to do some hiking. Hiking is a national pass time in Korea. We took a short ride on the subway and found ourselves at the park. A wee bit hung over from the night before we set off up the mountain. Took us three hours to get to the top. It was very steep at times but Jill, Scotty and I pressed on taking a few breaks along the way. Not to many people. Today is the National holiday Cheousok. At the top the view was incredible. A great reward for a tough work out (I was happy to relay this to other foreigners as I passed them on their ascent as we scrambled down). At the top a Korean man asked us to take a shot of him. He spoke good English. The three of us chatted with him on the peak. He was a retired cop of 30 years in Seoul. Jill asked him where he learned English and he said he tried to talk English any chance he got.
After the hike looking at the map.
he said that people in Korea know more English then people in North America knowing Korean. A testament to my job here and the courage of people like him. He spoke of his travels to North America that he and his wife took to celebrate his retirement. He was very friendly even inviting us to his house. We politely declined and headed back down the mountain. As we left we exchanged names, he was Kim. He gave me his card in-case I ever ran into trouble. On our way up I, with a straight face told Jill that we will run down the hill. Scotty agreed with a straight face. We had a laugh as Jill processed that crazy statement. In the end we did move quickly down. It took us 1 hour to get down. We were all exhausted at the bottom, but in the seductive embrace of that high you get from a tough workout. We played a game where we tried to think of the calories that we burnt. I now sit in a PC (not my fav. as it was full) listening to Pearl Jam and will load up some pics soon.Sad that Tigers once roamed the mountains that I just explored before humans developed the area,
Kevin teacher
Please don't mind the order of the pics. Still working on the software here that is in Korean.
September 27, 2007
Nice day back at work after a 7 day vacation so to speak. I will be a gym teacher until the new year as well as doing ESL in the evening after the kindergarten day. I find that I am settling here and it no longer feels like a vacation. Bought a gym pass for 60,000/month near my house. It has limited equip but with a little creativity I can get a good work out. I enjoy sitting in a cold room (literally has ice on the walls) and then sitting in the hot (very) room after a work out. Ran into an Asian woman about my age at the grocery store. She spoke to me in English and I asked her where she learnt her English. Turns out she is from Toronto...small world. As I walked away from the encounter I thought of how big the planet really is yet we are all connected so closely.
CYA,
Kevin Teacher
acher
Comments
:-)
Nice pics K, love the view. Looks like your having fun. C