This weekend is "teacher's weekend" so there is no school. The school takes all the teachers on a bus-trip tour across the country. This is an annual event. Jeong Won asked if we'd like to go...she said that all the teachers pitched in and paid for our expenses! They had already even set up a place for the children to stay if we agreed. It turned out to be a very interesting trip, learning much more about Korean history and culture. We really enjoyed it. We traveled east across the country...coming close to the east coastline.
The children were picked up at 7:30am and we left promptly on the bus at 7:50am. We made several stops to various historical sites, museums, and temples. We stopped for a traditional Korean lunch, and then had a huge supper of pheasant dishes (pictured below). We spent the night in a hotel (John with the guys and me with the girls) and were up early, had a Korean breakfast of soup, kimchi, rice, and veges and hit the road by 8am for more stops while making our way back home. Lunch was pork (and lots of it!) and supper was a bowl of cold noodle soup. We arrived home at 9:20pm. The children were delivered home at 9:30, and just as they were walking in the door, Tim Klaus called.(more on that later).
#1) Here is a map portion of Korea showing our route. The yellow was the route we followed on Thursday, and the blue was the route on Friday. The orange spaces are the stops we made. Toward the left top corner is Seoul, (surrounded by tollroads)...the tollroad you see breaking off to the west goes over to the island with the airplane symbol, which is Incheon airport. That is the "Seoul" airport where we flew into. The pink highlighted point on the far left is where we live in DaeSan. The initial inch south before heading back northeast is SeoSan...our closest "big city."
#2) Here I am with our self-appointed interpreter for the trip...Bok Soon Ja. Bok Soon Ja is a teacher at the island school and knows enough English for us to converse. She also carries with her a handy electronic Korean/English dictionary which came in use many, many times!!! She is a very energetic, young 47-year old! Because of her, the trip was more meaningful and we understood much more of the sites we traveled to.
#1) Here is a picture of the menu for our pheasant meal...consisting of 6 courses! That first course was served raw, but we dragged the thin slices through boiling water which cooked it immediately. It was all very good, but we were very full by the end!
#2) This picture is not an uncommon site in Korea. These two teachers are good friends...that is all. We also see men holding hands in friendship as well. Also, as we were loading up, a busload next to us was eating lunch, and the men were feeding each other. This, too, is common.
#1) This is an example of a mount similiar to several that we climbed. The hiking here is much more aggressive than any we've done in the US, even Colorado! We think this is because usually in America, hiking trails are sloped or gentled, and resting places inserted. More on this below.
#2) A close-up of the detail hand-painted onto the wood used for structures such as private schools, houses of aristocracy, temples, and other government & religious buildings.
We're not sure if this can really capture the incline grade, but here's to trying!! There were inclines that we looked at and could not believe we were actually going to hike up it. Climb up it was about more accurate! At one mount to get to the oldest temple still standing (1,000 years old), the grade never evened out once. These are the pictures from that hike. The grade was a serious 45-degree angle at the least. It was nearly impossible to just walk up it...we were shown how to bend over to a 90-degree angle and then walk up while zig-zagging across the path. The path was concrete and the concrete was deeply grooved. Even still, they said it would be very dangerous to attempt if wet. There were no guard rails, no resting benches, no breaks in the grade except for occasional hairpin turns. As you can see in the second picture, even the hairpin turns were graded. What they said was a 20 min. hike turned out to be at least 30 min. At the top was a temple and a tea house where some enjoyed pine-nut tea. The way down was very slow as well. If we tried to go at even a normal pace, we felt it immediately in the knees.
#1) The oldest temple in Korea - 1,000 years old. It was made with no nails; only notched wood. I thought the wood to the roof looked like a jigsaw puzzle.
#2) The view looking back down the mountain from the top. Very beautiful scenery. According to old Korean custom, there is a temple on every significant mount, with a river/stream running across not far below it.
#1) A picture of John that one of the teachers snapped.
#2) This is an "old-fashioned" Korean home. They were built in a square with the "courtyard" for the children to play in. The rooms were not connected...they had to go out, walk down to the room they wanted and go back in. Can you see the flaps under the awning of the room straight ahead? In the winter, the flaps were pulled down for doors. In the summer, they were bound up. The heating system is in the floor. (This is current as well.) Some rooms and furniture looked similiar to "old things" seen in our museums in the US.
This is a plaything similiar to a teeter-totter. It was for women only (don't know why). One woman squats in the middle of the board to stabilize the wood while two others jump, trying to dislodge the other one off the board. Bok Soon Ja demonstrated it with several teachers...and was the champion winner each time!
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