Waygooks Wandering

When Maria, Matthew, Gianni, and I were visiting the Daegu Stamp Trail locations at Palgongsan, we realized that it might have been easier (and cheaper!) to visit those places on a Daegu City Tour instead. We sent Lily on a few City Tours while she was visiting simply because it was easier for her to get on a bus and see a few places than it would have been for her to try to navigate the city by bus. Daegu City Tours offers a few regular courses to various places around the city, but only two of the four courses are offered on the weekend. One was the Palgongsan course, and we've seen all of the places it stops at, but the other went to some places we've really been meaning to visit. Although I made the reservations by phone easily enough for Lily, the staff at the tour office only speak broken English, so I decided to ask my manager at the Touch Daegu blog to make reservations for all of us. She was really great to help out and get us all the info we needed.

We took the Science and Environment Tour Course yesterday, and it was pretty fantastic. The locations were all really beautiful, but most are difficult to get to (especially the science museum), so it was nice to be able to sit on a bus with air conditioning and go there directly. The weather super hot and quite humid. The course took us to the Daegu Science Museum, the Daegu Arboretum, and the ARC (Architecture/Artistry of River Culture). All three locations were in my Korean Stamp Book, so it was nice to get a few of those ticked off my list, too.

Science Museum

The Science Museum was about 40 minutes from downtown on the bus. It's near Mt. Biseul, where we went for the ice festival, and none of us wanted to have a repeat of our bus experience from the first time we went there, so the city tour was perfect. Our guide spoke pretty good English, but all she really had to tell us was when to get back on the bus. The Science Museum was surrounded by mountains. It's a new museum (only opened last fall), so the building was really modern. The exhibits all had a lot of English, so that was helpful, but most of the exhibits were geared more towards children and teens. There are three wings of the museum: 

Global Warming Exhibit

one for very young children, one about climate change, and one about technology. You have to use a barcode on your entrance bracelet in order to scan yourself in to each wing. We stopped at the global warming wing first. Most of the information was geared towards children, as I said, because we already knew most of it. But there was a part with various sea animals that are found in Korea, so it was neat to see some of the fish and turtles. In this wing, we also watched a 4D animated movie about the life of a turtle. It was really fun, and all the kids in the theater with us kept saying, "fun! fun!" in Korean. They were super adorable. The seats moved and everything. The main characters were a regular, male turtle and then a pink, girl turtle. It was partly about what sea turtles experience and partly just an under sea exploration, showing various animals. Still, it was pretty cute. We tried to see a show at the planetarium. Unfortunately, we found out they only have shows in Korean, and they are 40 minutes

Technology Exhibit

 long. The woman at the museum informed us that they will, eventually, have English shows at the planetarium, or at least English subtitles, but that wasn't ready yet. Oh well! We then went into the technology win. The staff member in the wing spoke a bit of English, so he followed us around explaining different parts of the exhibit. First, we watched a bowling ball go around an "energy flow" machine. The ball went on a track, and was apparently powered by various sustainable energies. There was a section about how the city prevents major electrical black outs, like one that happened in 2011 apparently. My favorite part was a platform where you could build your own wooden structure and see how it would stand up in an earth quake. The platform you stand on also shakes and different speeds, so you can feel what it's like also. For some reason, there was a car arcade game where you had to drive your car and follow a GPS to a destination. I enjoyed seeing their predictions about the cell phones of the future, too. I really hope they are correct because some of those phones were awesome! There was a section about textiles and how textiles have developed over the years. Daegu is a big textile manufacturer, so I'm sure that's why it was included. Maria and I enjoyed a room in the wing where you could build things with colored, plastic pieces. I made a ball, and she made an ice cream cone-shaped thing, but there were kids in there make robots and all sorts of big things! After we finished checking out the wings, we headed to the cafeteria to get some food. One fantastic thing about Korea: the prices of most attractions, and the prices of the food at those attractions, is not overly inflated like it is at home, and the quality of the food is well above what you can get at similar places at home, too. The food was only about $10 for two of us, and the entry to the museum is $3 a person. We ate don cass (fried pork cutlet) before getting back on the bus to head to the next location.

Our second stop was the Daegu Arboretum. We were only given 40 minutes to walk around for some reason, so we could have done with more time there for sure. It was really hot though, so I'm kind of glad that today it was a short visit. We can get back there pretty easily, so maybe we'll go in the fall when it cools down a bit. The arboretum was beautiful. It was basically an outdoor park with all kinds of plants to see. There was a greenhouse full of bonsai trees and another full of cacti. There are walking trails along the outside of the park with all kinds of plants to see also. Matthew things the walking paths lead to hiking trails in the nearby mountains. It was hot, so we all decided to cool off with some ice cream bars at the store that was there. It wasn't very busy, but there were lots of Korean kids playing in sprinklers in the open park area at the center of the arboretum.

Our last stop of the day was the ARC. The ARC is kind of a landmark in Daegu now, but it only opened in 2012, so it's new. It looks like an art installation because it's a massive, shiny, metal arc outside by the river that runs through Daegu. Inside, they have a few art installations--one about accepting cultural diversity that was tons of small, blue men bowing, and another of Korean photography. The inside of the museum also has a history of the Nakdong River in Daegu and how waterways are important to any city, especially Daegu. It was really interesting to see the pictures of how the landscape of Daegu, even just around the river, has changed over the years. We walked up to the top floor of the ARC to look out over the city, and the view from up there was really pretty. The area around the ARC has very little shade, and it seemed like people had brought their tents to camp out outside the museum where there is a fountain the kids can play in. There are so few places for relief from the heat, which is strange since Daegu is the hottest city in Korea. No outdoor pools, no natural bodies of water that you're allowed in, no water parks--nothing!

The heat made the trip a little less fun, but the tour itself was excellent. I'm glad I got some stamps and that I got to see these places. I would go back to all three of them again. The City Tour definitely made it easier to get to these out-of-the-way places. If anyone comes to visit, I definitely recommend sending them on a tour, especially if you are working during the day, and they have to go alone. It was a great day.

Last night, after the tour, we went to see Malificent, which none of us thought was that great. I think Angelina Jolie was amazing though, and I didn't hate the story, but there were some holes, and the entire thing was CG. After, we got dinner at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant where they make san geop sal kimbap. Kimbap is sort of like Korean sushi, and san geop sal is a kind of really nice pork that you can get at most barbecue restaurants. It was the most delicious kimbap I have ever had! Maria has had a hankering for board games, so we went and played some at the cafe for a few hours after dinner. She won both of them. We played Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride, both are really great games that we've only played since being in Korea. Definitely check them out when you get a chance. It was a great day! Tomorrow, we're seeing Matthew and Maria again when they come over for movies and more board games. It's a Maria and Matthew filled weekend! :)

On Saturday, we spent the afternoon celebrating our friend's birthday. Sian is a friend we met at orientation, and she's from South Africa. We met by the river that runs through all of Daegu for a South-African style barbecue called a braai. It was really great to be able to enjoy the nice weather and hang out with friends for a good long time. Along the river are these stone pathways that let you walk from one side to the other, so some of us put our feet in the river or walked in it, which was really refreshing. Afterward, we tried to go to a Samsung Lions baseball game (their season just started recently!), but, unfortunately, the tickets were sold out, so Gianni and I just went home. We both passed out on the bus because we were so tired.


As you all probably know from previous posts, I've been working on completing the Daegu Stamp Trail. It's a good way to see different parts of the city, and the Daegu Tourism Organization does it as a way to generate tourism and suggest the better places to see. The Korean version has 30 locations, and the English version has only 10. I figure I'll finish the English version and then see what I can do in the Korean one. I'm already well on my way to finishing the English version because I only have three more places left to see.

This blog post talks about the Palgongsan area locations that we went to a month or so ago now, incase you missed it: http://waygookswandering.blogspot.kr/2014/04/black-day-and-weekend-adventures.html. Palgongsan is a very popular mountain to visit North of Daegu. There's a lot of nice hiking trails as well as a few temples.

Last weekend, Gianni and I decided to finish the downtown section of the book. We had already visited E-World, our local amusement park, with Lily, so that part was finished. The two other locations were the Herb Medicine Museum and Market and the Missionary Museums on Cheonggna Hill. We didn't really know what to expect from either, so it was a bit of an exploration for us. Turns out, they were both really easy to get to and close to the main section of downtown. Also, there were a few other interesting sites in the area, including one of the stops in the downtown section of the Korean book, so we saw a lot of things in one afternoon.

We started off at the Herb Medicine Museum. I think mom would have been really interested in all of it since it talks all about alternative medicines as well as acupuncture. Some of you might not know, but my mom has had really good results from acupuncture she's received, and, as a nurse, she's always really interested in other forms of medicine and ways to help people. Although some of the herbal medicines seemed a little hokey, some do have a basis in science. The displays in the museum talked about what herbs were good for what ailments, but they also mentioned that even meats can be considered medicinal. I think that's more like saying, "healthy eating is good for your body," but if they want to call it herb medicine they can. We were a little disappointed by the fact that the museum had very little English. There were some videos with English options as well as some interactive displays, but the main information sections were all in Korean. There may have been an English audio tour available, but the man at the front desk didn't offer us the option, so I'm not totally sure. Also, the museum has some really cool experience programs for less than $5 each. You can make herb soap, herb/incense pouches, take an herb foot bath, etc. If we go back, I'm definitely trying one, but we didn't get a chance this time. Outside
the museum, there was various herbs growing all over the place, and there was a fountain with giant, stone tea pots spouting water. The water bubbled up, and the floor was made of stones, so you could put your feet in and walk around for a foot massage. The water was a little cold, but refreshing, especially since the weather is Daegu is getting more and more unbearable! The actual herb market is the street right outside the museum. Although it looks more modern now--with your typical store fronts selling all kinds of herbs--the market has been in the same location for hundreds of years and is really important to the history of Korea.

Right outside the museum is the Jeil Church. Founded in 1898, it was the first Protestant church in the province. It's a really beautiful, gothic-style building all covered in ivy. As I said, we had never been to this area, so it was strange for us to see a Western-style church right in the heart of Daegu. There are churches, and Christianity is one of the major religions, but it is still something we haven't experienced much of. Turns out, that area is kind of central to the foundation of Christianity in Daegu. There are two other large, cathedrals in the area, both of which we explored a bit as well. The last one we looked at is located right next to the missionary museums, which was our last stop of the day. In one day, we were able to learn about the traditional history of Korea in terms of medicines and then also about the history of Daegu's interaction with Western people and religion. It was really eye-opening. The Christian people in Daegu are not shy at all. They don't hesitate to talk openly about their religion, so it was really interesting to get to see a bit of where that fervor came from or how it all started.

residence of Poet Lee Sang-Hwa

Lee Sang-Hwa and Seo Sang-Don

Anyway, I got a little off-topic there, and I'll come back to it later. Our second stop, after the museum, was the homes of Lee Sang-Hwa and Seo Sang-Don. This was a stop in the Korean Stamp Book. Both were traditional Korean-style homes. Lee Sang-Hwa was one of Korea's greatest modern poets, writing many poems about the Japanese Occupation. He lived in this home from 1939 to 1943. Seo Sang-Don was a national hero, in a way. He led the National Debt Repayment program, which began in 1907. The goal of the program was to repay the country's debt to Japan and reclaim independence. They were both great and important men in the history of Korea. It is still strange to me that the modern city is just built around these

Residence of Patriot, Seo Sang-Don

important historical locations. There is no space dedicated to them and the area around them and hardly any signage or import. You can walk around Daegu and simply stumble on these places of huge significance to the city. It's the same way in Seoul where the skyscrapers are just built around the old palaces. Just another reminder of Korea's rapid modernization I suppose, but interesting to see none-the-less. I like to think that it's different in the US. That these monuments are given space and made to look impressive in the modern landscape, or at least are set apart from the regular city a bit. I think this is true in some cases, but I think about Boston and all the important landmarks there. They are just part of the city, just like these homes were.

Gyesan Church

steps up Cheoggna Hill

Our next stop was close by. On the way, we walked past Gyesan Church, the first Catholic Church in Daegu, built in 1902. We walked up a 90-step, stone staircase dedicated to the independence movement in Korea during the time of the Japanese Occupation. It had pictures all along it of recreated protests and rebellions against the Japanese. This, I believe, is Cheonggna

missionary house

Hill. At the top of the hill was the last church we visited in the area. First Presbyterian Church was built in 1933 by the missionaries to Daegu. Before 1933, it was a single story church, but then it was rebuilt in brick in 1933. Next to the church was the missionary museums and houses. There were three houses built on the hill, and each museum housed a different museum. I

First Presbyterian Church

believe there was one on medical work and another on missionary history in the area, but the museums were actually closed (probably because it was a Sunday). Still, the old houses of the missionaries were really cool to look at. They were all Western-style homes that looked like they could have come from any town or city back home. Again, it was really interesting to see, especially after just having seen the traditional Korean homes. It must have been so strange for the Koreans to see these Western homes compared to the homes they were used to back about a hundred years ago. I know it was strange for us to see today given what we know about the traditional lifestyle of Koreans. It's like we found a place in Korea that we can go and almost feel like we're at home...in a way.

We started off the day learning about traditional Korean culture--herbal medicine and the traditional Korea home--and we ended it learning about Western influences and religion coming to Daegu. It was very enlightening and taught us about a part of Daegu we hadn't experienced before.


I wrote about the Daegu Stamp Trail--among other things--for the Touch Daegu blog. As most of you know, I am now a blogger for them. I often repost the articles I write on my facebook, so make sure to read those and like them. They are written in a more informative and formal way, obviously, but I do hope you like both of the writing styles you're now getting from me.

The next morning, we got breakfast at a coffee and waffle place. The waffles were made fresh, and we all got ones with almonds and nutella on it. It has been 8 months at least since I had nutella. It was amazing! We made our way to the War Museum of Korea, and we ended up spending about 5 hours there! It was an incredible museum that taught us a lot about the Korean War. Outside, was a huge display of tanks, planes, ships, and weapons from all different time periods. There were also some fantastic statues dedicated to the Korean War outside of the museum. They were really large and life-like. We spent a while looking at all of it, and then went to a 4D film on board a recreation of a boat that was involved in a small attack on South Korea by the North Koreans in 2002. The film was an animated recreation of an actual naval battle. It looked like an animation and was basically propaganda, but it was all about the 6 men who died aboard this ship in their efforts to keep the North Korean ships within their own country. The ship was a recreation of the actual ship that sank, and it was covered in massive bullet holes. Even though it wasn't exactly real, it was incredible to think of what those men must have gone through. After spending a good deal of time outside, we moved inside where they have War Rooms dedicated solely to the Korean war. Most of the museum is on the Korean War, but there were also a few rooms about ancient battles. There was even a recreated turtle ship, which was really cool. It was basically an ocean tank, covered in spikes with holes for mini-cannons. Turtle ships were instrumental in defeating the Japanese in several invasions a long time ago (1500's maybe). Definitely, the Korean War information was the most interesting. I learned about the Korean War in school, but because the Korean and Vietnam wars aren't the US's proudest moments in history, we didn't go into very much detail. It was great to be able to learn more. I'm about to drop some more history, so if you're not into that kind of stuff, you can skip the following paragraphs.

Mao, Kim Il-sung, and Stalin

South Korea troops dropping bombs by hand

South Korea reclaiming Seoul

Map that shows some of the back and forth of the Korean War

Nurse's uniform

Lily is leaving on Thursday, so we're trying to pack in a lot of things this week too. She missed her city tour on Monday, but I gave her directions to see the Daegu National Museum and the Herb Medicine Museum. On Monday night, we hiked Apsan with Sian, Thomas, Maria, Matthew, and Max (Serena is still visiting the US, so she wasn't there). This was our second trip to the observatory at night, and it was just as difficult as I remembered. Lily had a bit of trouble with the hike, but we all made it up just fine. The views of Daegu are really nice, and I'm glad Lily got to see Daegu at night from both the tower and Apsan--the two best views in my opinion.

Last night, we had a kitschy night doing Korean things. First, we went out for dinner at a sushi place she found wandering around on Monday. Then, we stopped at the photo booth studio that we took Lish to before. We took two rounds of hilariously cute pictures of the three of us. I think I'm going to write my next blog post for the Touch Daegu blog about photo booth studios, so I collected some pictures for that. My second article for the blog, about the stamp trail, has been released also! After the photo studio, we went to the Cat/Dog cafe. This was our first time, and, unfortunately, we came during the last half hour before it closed. It costs $8 to get in, which includes one drink, and it was so worth it, even if it was just for a half hour! The staff presented the rules to us in English, someone had written them out for them. The first floor was all cats who really wanted the tuna some of the staff in the room was giving out. There was a name placard with all the cats names on them. It is unclear to me whether the animals belong to people, and the cafe takes care of them during the day, or if the dogs and cats belong to the cafe and the staff takes care of them. We played with the cats for a while, but the best part was the DOGS! On the upper floor were the most incredible dogs. Some of them were really cute and wanted to lie on our laps. There was even a Great Pyrenees! He was so cute, but he was a little scared of my camera. We stayed with the dogs until the last second we could. It was such a great night!

 Neither Gianni nor I had class on Thursday because it was Teacher's Day in Korea. It was pretty cute, the students made signs and put them outside the teacher offices. Some homerooms gave their teachers roses or blew up balloons. I didn't really get anything special from any of my kids, but all the teachers get paper roses pins that some of the students made. They are quite pretty. Gianni had a special lunch at his school. Also, the students typically have a half day on teacher's day, so the high school students come back to visit their old teachers. I got to speak to some of my old students briefly. I think the best gift I got was a long conversation with one of my lovely students, Ester. She told me about how she wants to be a reporter and work in television, so we talked about our common interest in television production for a while. I just love when I can have individual conversations with students. Their personalities and abilities shine through.

Last Wednesday, Gianni and I had our last Korean class. We've been doing the classes twice a week for six weeks at the YMCA in the level 1B class. We're moving up to level 2 now, but we probably won't take another class until the fall because of our schedules and taekwondo. The test was pretty easy, if you studied. I didn't get to study as much as I wanted to because I had been stressing out about buying flights home. We actually booked those last Wednesday as well, so it is official. We are coming home for two weeks in the summer! Get ready Boston! I can't wait. Anyway, the test was only a page with maybe 15 questions. There was supposed to be a speaking part as well, but we ran out of time in class. Afterwards, there was a big ceremony where we all got certificates of completion. We had to make awkward speeches in front of everyone in the other classes, and we elected Erin to do our speech. Some of the other groups all spoke. It is cool to see how amazing some of the higher level people are at Korean. I hope I get to be that fluent. I feel like I've made strides throughout this class. After everyone got a certificate, they awarded one person in each class with the Best Student awards, and I won for our class! It's based on participation and homework and things. I was so thrilled. I really do enjoy learning Korean, so I try hard.

Last Thursday, Gianni's friend from college, Lily, arrived in Korea! She's our first visitor here, and we're so happy to have her here. She even brought us some treats from home. Gianni was thrilled to have some of his trader joe's bean dip for the first time in 8 months. She arrived at 9am, so we have to keep her up for the rest of the day to get her through the jet lag. She's been a real trouper when it comes to that. I know when I first got here, I was a mess for about a week, but she seems fine. She came on May 1st, which is actually labor day for EPIK teachers. We are contractually obligated to have it off, even though school isn't cancelled, so we got to go to the airport and pick her up and everything.

We took her back to our little, one-room apartment. Unfortunately, her bed is the couch for the next two weeks, but it's better than the floor I suppose. After taking a short rest at home, we headed out to Seomun Market. It was on her list of things to see in Daegu, and it's actually a pretty unique, Korean experience, so it was a good place to start. Plus, the market is in my stamp book! I got the stamp at the tourist info booth there, and we walked around the market for a few hours looking at all the clothes, food, and random stuff. The Korean word for market is 식장 (seek jang), and the way I remember it is, "you SEE JUNK at the MARKET." Seek jang sounds like see junk. Point is, there is a lot of junk at the market.

The market is right next to a park that is in the Korean version of the stamp book and that a few people have told me to check out. Dalseong Park is a really nice, small park by downtown. It has a local history museum and the saddest zoo on Earth inside of it. Gianni, Lily, and I just keep calling it the sad zoo now. Someone in our Korean class warned us about it, but we had to see it for ourselves. They have a huge range of animals, and I'm sure all those animals aren't meant for the Korean climate. They are in these dirt-floored cages that are way too small for these wild animals. I'm not sure how they even take care of the animals given that you don't even pay to get into the park. Maybe it was a holiday, and you do actually have to pay other days. I'm not sure. All I know was that the condition of some of these animals was appalling. The only bright side is that I heard the zoo is being relocated to a new, better facility. We literally saw two large elephants that stand on a small dirt platform. There was an inside part, but I can't believe they didn't have food outside for them since elephants eat so much. There were also lions, tigers, bears, and zebra. It was just a terrible zoo. The actual park was lovely though. The museum was really small, and there was only one chunk of information in English, but some of the pictures were cool.

After the park, we got a taxi downtown and took Lily to our favorite bingsu place, Bing! Bing! Bing!. Bingsu is shaved ice. We got green tea and strawberry flavored bingsu. The strawberry one was covered in delicious strawberries. It was delicious. After walking around downtown for a bit, we took Lily to fried rice place where they cook it right in front of you. We got the vegetable kind since Lily is a vegetarian, and we also got sea food pa jeon (pancake). We then had a relaxing night in, preparing for our trip for the long weekend starting the next day. Monday was Children's Day in Korea, and Tuesday was Buddha's Birthday, so we had a 4 day weekend. Because of Labor Day and my sick day, I ended up with a 6 day weekend! Wooh!

On Friday, I decided to call in sick to school. I have been having terrible allergies, but I think they turned in to a cold. I haven't been getting enough sleep, especially since on Thursday and Friday I woke up an hour before my alarm went off and had a sneezing fit. Lily and I had a low-key day while Gianni was at school. We went to the bus station and bought our tickets to Gunsan. Gunsan is the city where the ferry terminal is. We spent the weekend on an island on the west coast called Seonyu Island (Seonyudo). Gianni got to leave early from school and met us at Kim Pasa (a Korean fast-food restaurant) where we were having lunch. We packed our things and headed to the bus station to meet Maria and Matthew for our 4 hour bus ride to Gunsan. When we got to Gunsan, we spent a little while looking around for a motel to sleep for the night. There were plenty of motels around the bus terminal, and they were all around 50,000 won per night, but we had to get two rooms. They were all love motels, which are very common in Korea. They are basically rooms (some of them are very fancy or even themed) for people to have sex. Prostitution is very common in Korea, although they won't admit it. It's not like prostitutes walk around soliciting outside, but there are "business clubs" and places marked with double barber poles, and those are places you can get girls. You can also go to special noraebangs and hire a girl to come hang out with your group, and then go to the motel next door with her. Anyway, we ended up at one of these motels, but people also stay at them for normal reasons, like us. You just wouldn't do an extended stay at one. The hotel manager gave us little toiletries kits when we checked in complete with condoms and lube! It also had a face mask that Lily and I tried. It makes your face really smooth, but you look like you belong in a horror movie while you have it on. After settling in to the motel, we found a kimbap place to grab some quick dinner. We played a few games of cards in the motel since Maria and Matthew brought like 5 decks with them.

The next morning, we got up a little early and grabbed Dunkin Donuts for breakfast. We stocked up on donuts for breakfast for the rest of the weekend also. Our motel was convenient because it was next to the bus terminal, but it was also right next to a grocery store, so we went in there and bought some snacks, fruit, and PBJ for lunch for the weekend. That way, the only food we needed to buy on the island was dinner. We were told by several sources that the food is a bit pricey on Seonyudo. We took taxis to the ferry terminal for around $10. I had asked my coteacher to reserve ferry tickets for me because of all the problems I had trying to book tickets to Ulleongdo previously. So we picked up the reservation and were all set to go. Random side note: they ask for your ID number on the ticket, and they need to see it as your board. It was kind of strange that they kept asking for it. Not sure what that was all about. The ferry to the island was only about an hour, but I guess I must have been hungry or something. Toward the end, when I woke up from a nap, I was really nauseous, but I made it to shore alright. When we arrived, I met up with my coteacher's friend's husband. I guess they own a hostel on the island, so I had booked a room with them. He picked us and some other guests up at the ferry terminal and drove us to the hostel. Basically the only cars on the islands are these big vans that bring people to their guest houses. It's incredible. They drive down these really narrow pathways that have steep drops down to the beach and no railings! And people are walking and biking along them also! Maria was sitting on the end seat and felt a little unsafe for a minute. We are all staying in one room. In Korea, ondol rooms are where most Koreans stay on vacation. Ondol rooms are rooms with ondol floor heating where you sleep on the floor on sleeping mats. They basically only have bathrooms and one open room. Our room also had a small kitchen though. After eating some PB&J for lunch, we rented bikes downstairs from our room for 8,000 won for the day. What a deal! Seonyudo is actually one island that is connected to another two islands by bridges. We decided to just go out and ride our bikes wherever we wanted. We followed one path all the way along one side of the island, stopping to take pictures and look for cool seashells on the beach. I hadn't really been to a

Our really awesome seashell collection

Korean beach before, and this island had some AMAZING seashells. We collected a whole bunch to bring home. After our bike ride and a little rest, we wanted to try to climb up Mangjubong hill. They call it a hill, but it is basically a cliff face. Gianni and Lily made it up a little bit, but when we got to the ropes that you have to use to rock climb your way up the mountain, they backed out. Maria, Matthew, and I made it all the way to the top though. It is less hiking and more mountain climbing. We were pulling ourselves up on ropes and tree roots. It was a spectacular view of all the islands in the vicinity though. Simply beautiful. The way back down was a little treacherous, especially when we had to dodge people climbing up. But in the end, we made it safe and sound. Maria asked a local where would be good to eat dinner, and we decided to go in that direction. We ended up at a place owned by a really sweet lady. I think they were providing dinner for a large, business group or something because there was a whole room set up with food, waiting for people

raw fish bibimbap

to arrive. We sat in our own private room, and the owner actually held my hand and pulled me over to look at the food and show me some options. The business people were eating very expensive, large meals, so we opted for the raw fish bibimbap for 12,000 won a bowl. Hway is raw fish in Korean, and there are whole restaurants dedicated to it. There were a lot of Hway restaurants and seafood restaurants on the island for obvious reasons. After our delicious dinner, we played games, read, and relaxed at the room the rest of the night. Unfortunately, we realized we were really stupid and forgot to put on sunscreen. All of us had bright, red faces!

catching razor clams

The next day, we rented bikes again. We stopped on the beach because we saw a bunch of families digging in the sand and wanted to see what they were looking for. Turns out, they were looking for razor clams. Someone was digging in the sand and when they found a small hole, they would put salt in it to force the clams out of the holes. Then, they pulled the clam out and put it in a bag. One family let Maria try it! This time, we headed back towards the ferry terminal and rode up a steep hill to get to one of the bridges connecting Seonyudo

beautiful views from every angle

to another islands. We rode all the way around the other island. On the way, we stopped at a beach that had some cool rocks we could climb around on. Behind the rocks was another hidden beach and a few small caves. We didn't go inside because we didn't really have flashlights, but they were cool to look at. We also found some tidal pools and checked out the sea life inside them. At the end of the path, we headed back the way we came. All of these paths are supposed to loop around the islands, but somehow we missed the turn I guess. There were a few restaurants by the ferry terminal, so we decided to stop for lunch at one of them.

칼국수

For 7,000 won each, we got a big bowl of soup called 칼국수 to share. The broth was seafood and almost a little creamy. Inside were thick noodles and clams. It was very tasty. We decided just to stop for lunch and eat dinner at the room because we were already far from the room and didn't want to go all the way there and back again. After lunch, we went back up the big hill but this time turned right down the hill to follow a path around another island. My favorite part of our trip was probably the really cool, wooden walking path built on the rock face of this island. There were some stunning views. At the end

the cliff walkway

was a small town where we bought ice cream to eat sitting by the beach. I use the term "town" loosely here. All the islands seemed to have clumps of rather run-down homes with maybe a restaurant or convenience store mixed in. It seems like a pretty poor place to live. Not sure how they make a living exactly, but I guess it would be easier if you owned a boat. After our ice cream break, we walked back to our bikes and headed back to the room for a nap. Dinner was PB&J, but Gianni was completely comatose by that point, so he didn't even eat with the rest of us. We played some more games and hit the hay.

The next day was our last day on the island. We woke up a little later and packed our things and cleaned the room. We didn't have much planned, so we took our stuff and headed for the ferry. On the way, we stopped at something marked as "tomb" up a hill near our room. It was a Korean-style building with a table and offerings inside. I think it's a place where Koreans can make offerings to their ancestors or something of that nature. They make offerings like that for Buddhist holidays. We had an interaction with a cute little boy and his family. We didn't think we could open the doors of the building, but this boy just charged right up and opened them. He also kept saying, "hello!" It was adorable. We walked the rest of the way back to the ferry with a few stops to take photos. The islands were so scenic in some places that it's hard not to take pictures. We tried to change our ticket for the ferry because we had later tickets, but we were ready to head back to Gunsan and get home. The woman at the terminal didn't speak English though, so we were struggling. We managed to get a hold of a volunteer fire-fighter and coffee truck operator nearby who spoke great English and helped us. While we waited for our earlier ferry, we played some bananagrams and got lunch. We had the same seafood soup from the previous day. On the ride back, Gianni and I passed out for the whole ride. Next thing I knew, we were already back in Gunsan. Getting a taxi from the ferry terminal to the bus terminal was harder than I ever though. There were no taxis coming down that way. The security guard at the ferry parking lot saw us struggling and asked, in English, if we needed help. He actually spoke pretty good English. He was very concerned about how much the taxi would cost, but as we were talking a taxi came up. There was another group of foreigners looking for one, and some of them were Korean-American, we think. They spoke fluent Korean anyway. They were joking with us and laughing because the security guard was sticking up for us with the taxi guy. Telling him we had been waiting a long time and convincing him to let us take 5 in the taxi, even though 4 people is typically the maximum. He was a really great guy. So we all piled into the one taxi, and even though the meter in the cab said 11,000 won when we got back to the station, we didn't have exact change. We gave him 20,000, which he just took without giving us change. Whatever, we thought he might charge us double given that two taxis would have cost that much. We got our bus tickets back to Daegu and got on the bus without issue. We were all happy to be heading home and to get one more day off. We had a fairly active long-weekend, and I think we all wanted one day to relax and recuperate. Unfortunately, a lot of people must have been traveling for the holiday, and we hit a whole pile of traffic coming home. We were delayed by about an hour coming back because of it, so the ride took 5 hours instead of 4. Also, I'm not sure why this was allowed to happen, but it actually made me really mad. The bus wasn't crowded at all, and then it made a stop in another city and suddenly there were so many people on the bus that people were standing and sitting in the aisles! How can this possibly be allowed to happen, especially after the ferry accident and the Seoul train accident have brought up the serious safety issues in Korea. The Korean government thinks that the problem will be solved if they cancel all school trips indefinitely instead of imposing stricter safety regulations and enforcing them. It's so backwards to me. I can't understand it. Anyway, we made it back safely.

We were really lucky that the weather held out for us for most of the weekend. The second day was a little cloudy, but we didn't get wet. It was a bit colder than we anticipated on the island, but when we were hiking, walking, or biking, it was fine. What I really liked about this vacation was that it felt like a true Korean vacation. There were very few people on the island, and most of the people were Koreans. I think we saw less than 5 other English-speakers there. It was a really authentic experience, and I nice relief from city living. Also, everyone was super friendly on the island. Most people didn't speak English, but they tried their best, and even people visiting the island, like us, were really friendly. We got a lot of "hellos" in passing.




Monday was Buddha's birthday. We got a very late start. Gianni and I are strapped for cash this month because we bought our flights home, so we were doing some banking and making some calls, and we ended up leaving the house at around 3pm. There was supposed to be an Herb Medicine Festival in Daegu this weekend, but it was cancelled because the country is in mourning over the ferry accident. Instead, we went to E-World. Gianni and I had been meaning to go for a long time. E-World is the amusement park in Daegu, and it's not actually that far from our house. The tickets were 33,000 won, and they included the park and rides as well as a trip up Daegu Tower. We were stupid and should have waiting an hour. We got there around 4pm, and at 5pm, the half-price night tickets are sold. Ugh! Oh well. The park is meant to be a Korean take on a Western amusement park. The music on the way up to the park was almost surreal. You walk along a path up a hill, and there are outdoor escalators, which was weird. Then, the music playing was children's songs, like "If You're Happy and You Know it." It was really strange. There were a lot of people there, but the lines weren't long at all. I think the longest line we waiting in was 20 minutes or so. We went on all the big roller coasters. Gianni sat one of them out because it had too many loops. It is a small amusement park, but some of the rides were fun. After walking around the park and checking out the rides, we went back down to take the cable car (the "sky way") up to the base of Daegu Tower. It was a really nice ride and the sun was setting at the time. Lily, Gianni, and I went up the tower. Gianni and I had gone before, but the E-World lights weren't on then, so we got some cool pictures of E-World from above. We stopped for dinner at the food court in the tower, and we got the most authentic, American pizza we've ever had in Daegu. Gianni and I had Gorgonzola and almond white pizza and carbonara set. Super tasty! We headed home after that and stopped at a dessert cafe for some tiramisu bingsu! Again, super tasty!

Gianni got a super long weekend because it was his school's foundation day yesterday, so he got one more day off than I did. He and Lily went to Gyeongju for the day, and then we did quiz night with Maria and Matthew. We didn't win anything, and we ended up in like 6th place. There were some really good teams. Anyway, I will let Gianni talk about Gyeongju with Lily.

Today, Lily is in Andong. Hopefully, she's having a fantastic time. A few of my classes got cancelled today for school picture day, so I'm trying to catch up on some work. It's been an awesome time with Lily so far, and we're all really excited to go Seoul this weekend. Gianni and I haven't been back there to sight see since Chuseok last year, so it'll be nice to see the things we missed last time.