Waygooks Wandering

Gianni and I spent this weekend at home relaxing. We've been doing a lot of weekend day trips lately, so we needed some time to get things done at home. I posted a bunch of items to sell on the very useful Daegu Flea Market group on facebook. It's a group where people living in the city buy and sell things to one another. It's really a great resource to have. I have had to sell things for fairly cheaply, but a little bit of money is better than no money at all I figure. This is helping to get us ready to leave Korea come August. We've already shipped 3 boxes by surface mail (boat) with a bunch of our belongings, so now it's time to get rid of the apartment stuff that we will not be taking home with us. I will probably need to also sent an airmail package home with gifts and breakables soon.

We have been planning our weekend trips for July as well since it will be our last time to really see things in Korea before our summer vacation. We decided we want to go back to Jeonju, where we had our orientation. It is the most famous place in Korea to buy both Hanji (Korean paper) and bibimbap (rice with mixed vegetables and hot sauce). Also, we weren't able to visit Gamcheon Culture Village in Busan when we took a trip there in the fall, so we want to go there this month as well. The Culture Village is called the Santorini of Korea because the homes in the Village all have colorful roofs. So those are the two weekend trips, but additionally, Gianni is going to have a bowling birthday party on the weekend before his birthday, and the weekend after his birthday is a party for Serena as well as the going away party that all of our friends want to have together. It will be our last weekend all together because of the timing of our various vacations.

We've been getting ready for our summer vacation with Maria and Matthew to Vietnam as well. Most everything is booked and reserved for it with the exception of visas. But Gianni and I have been working on getting all the vaccines and meds we need. The time that we are going is prime season for mosquitos, and we will be spending a lot of time outside of cities, so we wanted to be safe. We got some quite expensive malaria medicine and have gotten one of two shots that we need to keep away Japanese Encephalitis.  I don't really think we need all of it, but better safe than sorry.

Aside from working on selling things, Gianni and I are both winding down at school. I've basically planned all my lessons for the rest of the semester. At the end of this week, I will have taught all the chapters I am responsible for teaching this semester to my second graders. Final exams at my school are Wednesday to Friday next week. We have both been working on planning our camps, and it will be nice to be able to get some serious planning done while the kids are testing. I've actually said goodbye to a few of my third grade classes recently because, with the schedule at the end of the semester, I will not be teaching them again. Some of them seem genuinely sad and asked for my email. I am going to miss these kids. I might not enjoy teaching exactly, but I definitely enjoy my interactions with the students. They can be so funny and energetic sometimes.

A miracle happened this weekend: I found shorts that fit me...in KOREA! There are almost no pants, shorts, or skirts that fit me here unless they have elastic waists. That includes at most stores that are European or American brands. But I went looking around because I needed new shorts, and I saw that H&M carries one or two styles of shorts that run in the correct sizes! Horray for me. I bought a couple of pairs, so, hopefully, now I'm all set for the summer.

Things here in Korea do feel as though they are coming to a close, and they are. Just a little over two months now, and we'll be home. Even less until we leave Korea. Getting ready to leave is stressful, but I am really excited to be coming home.

Damyang Bamboo Forest is on the top of Serena and Max's list of their

Our lunch of side dishes

favorite places in Korea. They went soon after they got here a few years ago, and they had been meaning to go back. After they told us about it, it sounded like a really cool place to see, so we made a plan to go on a day trip to see it with them. Max and Serena have a car, so we got up early to meet them and drive the 3 hours to get there. As I may have said in a previous post, Max has his daughter, Hailey, living with them in Korea for about a year, so she was, obviously, with us as well. Damyang is a city to the south west of Daegu. As soon as we arrived, we were all getting

Bamboo growing in husks like corn

hungry, so we grabbed a bite to eat. It was a pretty good but also kind of strange meal. We shared a plate of grilled meat that came with some sides, but then we also got a

In the bamboo forest

Serenity by the pond

 set meal that was basically just a cup of rice in a bamboo stalk cup and a TON of bonchon (side dishes). I honestly have not had a meal that included so many side dishes. That being said, the sides were really delicious: salads, crab in spicy sauce, soup, etc. The bamboo segment made the rice taste a bit sweet, but it was interesting to try something new. We were all satisfied after eating, so we bought tickets and headed into the bamboo forest. On the path up to it, there are a ton of people selling things made from bamboo. We didn't end up buying anything, but there were some cool products. What I really wanted to buy was from the special handmade and authorized bamboo craft shop. They had a hand-woven bamboo fan and the bamboo was dyed various colors. They also had jewelry boxes with the same kind of thing on the top. As you might imagine, everything in that shop was, understandably, really expensive. The bamboo forest is really pretty. You follow a pathway through it, and it grows everywhere. Along the path are various things, like the waterfall with panda statues all around it, play structures for kids, or traditional Korean buildings. I didn't actually know how bamboo grew before visiting the forest. Bamboo kind of looks like corn when it is still growing because there is a kind of brown "husk" surrounding it. The reason

Bamboo ice cream

Hailey and the Pandas

 bamboo is segmented is because the husk grows out of the base of each segment and falls off then the segment is done growing. At least this is what it seemed like as we walked around, and I saw the bamboo growing in different stages. So bamboo first grows tall, then the husks peel off and the segments begin to harden (new bamboo is really flexible and moist), then it gets thicker around. It was really interesting to me, and I'm not even really a plant lover. We walked around with Hailey, taking pictures of her doing silly things. On the other side of the forest, there are several traditional Korean-style buildings set up. Some people sell things from a few of them, but others are just for relaxing in. There were also fountains and little ponds set up, making the place look very serene and peaceful. Before leaving Damyang, we stopped to eat some bamboo ice cream. It was really delicious! It tasted a bit like green tea ice cream to me. We also took a few pictures of a scenic street in the city that is lined with metasequoia trees. Then it was back in the car for the 3 hour trip back to Daegu. Max was nice enough to drop us off at our house. We were completely exhausted by the day spent walking around in the hot weather, and we had to wake up early the next morning for a wedding!

I teach a class from 4 to 4:30 to other teachers at my school who want to practice their English. One of my most dedicated and high level "students" this semester is named Hana. She is a math teacher, and she also participated in a teacher class when she taught at Gianni's old school, Haksan Middle School. So she knows both of us! Hana is very kind and fun to talk to. I enjoy her company during my teacher class. We talked about American and Korean weddings during one of our classes, and she shared with me that she was actually getting married soon. She gave me a special paper invitation to come. Koreans invite a ton of people to their weddings--basically anyone who they know and everyone who works at the same place as them. But only important people get a paper invitation, so I felt very honored that she gave me one. Her wedding was at a typical Korean wedding hall where they have many weddings in one day. Her wedding was scheduled in the 10:30am slot, so a bit early. I think Koreans generally like afternoon weddings because it gives them time to have their more traditional, intimate ceremony somewhere else after the big, modern one. The Paradise Wedding Hall is located near Sandangmot subway station, so it wasn't too far from our house. Most of the teachers that I know

the whole family in hanbok

or socialize with from my school weren't actually there, so Gianni and I were a bit confused at first. I'd only been to one Korean wedding before that. We went up to one of the floors of the hall, and there were about 8 different smaller rooms off the main lobby where different weddings were taking place. We found the room where Hana would be getting married and gave the wedding hall staff our gift. Koreans give money as wedding gifts, and you generally give money in odd increments ($30, $50, $70, etc.). Giving a gift of money gets you a food ticket so that you can go to the buffet after the ceremony. After that, a teacher from my school pointed us in the direction to go take a picture with Hana. The bride usually sits on a nice bench in front of a backdrop and takes pictures with guests before the ceremony begins. Hana was happy to see Gianni again, and I took a picture with her in her beautiful big wedding dress. When I told her that, she said she was in her "full makeup" and, circling her face with her finger, said "money, money, money." As in, it was expensive to get all made up for the wedding. She's a very funny person. Her wedding hall room was quite grand. As with most weddings, the aisle was raised in the center of the room with round tables and chairs for guests around it. Gianni and I grabbed a seat at one of the tables and watched the engagement photo slideshow of the couple while we waited for everything to start (slideshows like this set to music are

a dramatic and beautiful entrance by the bride

bowing respectfully to the bride's parents

basically standard practice before the ceremony--some of the engagements pictures are of the bride in a different wedding dress from the one she will actually wear at the wedding). When the ceremony began, Hana's mother and the groom's mother walked down the aisle together and lit candles at the other end. Hana told me that the groom's mother usually wears blue and the bride's pink. Her mother works in textile dying, so she had hand-dyed the hanbok (traditional Korean clothing) she was wearing for the ceremony. The groom's father was already sitting on a throne-like chair at the other end of the aisle, and the groom's mother sat next to him on her own chair. Hana's mom sat on another chair opposite the groom's parents. Then, the groom walked down the aisle and stood to wait for Hana. Hana had been in a small room adjacent to the main ceremony hall taking pictures with guests, but when it was time for her walk down the aisle, the blue, velvet curtain separating the small and large rooms rose up to reveal her standing there. It was all very dramatic but beautiful. The ceiling was very high in the small room, so the curtain had a long way to rise. There were even chandeliers on the ceiling above her head. She walked down

the groom singing for the bride

a few stairs to meet her father and walk down the aisle with him. I guess there are some Western traditions that Koreans have adopted in their own weddings. First, the bride and groom made a speech together, thanking their guests for coming. Then they did what I assumed to be their vows. I'm not sure if this is common practice, but the groom even sang a song to Hana! At the last wedding I went to, Mr. Ahn sang and played the piano for Jessie, but I can't imagine every groom is expected to do something. The couple also bows in respect to both sets of parents, bringing the families together and being welcomed by their new in-laws. The most interesting part of the ceremony was when it turned into a game show! There was an MC of the ceremony throughout, but at one point, he came out and talked to the groom for a while, asking questions and making him do push ups when he got something wrong. Not sure what he was saying. He even made him run and yell down the aisle. It was so funny! All throughout the wedding, attendants were directing the family members, bride, and groom around to where they needed to stand, telling them what they needed to do. They adjusted Hana's dress as needed and even wiped away her tears! It's kind of nice to have someone making sure you look perfect, but it also feels a bit intrusive and staged. But this practice is very typical of Korean weddings. At the end of the ceremony, the couple walk down the aisle together and pose for pictures. They are supposed to kiss, but they favor very light kisses or barely touching lips. Apparently, it is embarrassing to kiss in front of your parents

the newly weds!

and coworkers, so they don't really do it. They are very demure in Korea. After the ceremony, the guests file out and go down to enjoy the buffet and the couple and family members take pictures on the stage where the ceremony took place. In the buffet room, guests from all the weddings that day eat food together. The buffet at this hall was really big! There were so many choices. I had a hard time finding anyone I knew at first, but Gianni and I ended up sitting with my vice principal and other teachers at my school. Although I didn't know many people, I was happy that I got to see Mr.

the buffet was huge!

Ahn. This semester, he moved to a different school (teachers rotate schools very frequently in Korea), so I haven't seen him in a while. His was the first Korean wedding I ever went to. I also got to see another teacher, Gi Eun, who was a substitute last year and sat next to me in my old office. She speaks a little bit of English, and we would always talk to one another. She had a baby last year, so she was out of school for a while. Anyway, I really enjoyed Hana's wedding. She was beautiful and so was the ceremony. I think it's really interesting to see which parts of Western weddings they choose to incorporate into Korean weddings. It's a unique cultural fusion. Congratulations Hana!

In honor of the opening weekend of the new Jurassic Park movie, Jurassic World, our friends did one dino-related thing every day two weekends ago, starting Friday night and culminating in seeing the new movie on Sunday night.

Many months ago now, Niall told me about an app that allows you to order food for delivery in Korea. Even though he and others told me it was really easy to use, I was worried that I would do something wrong since the app is all in Korean, so we didn't use it for a really long time. Eventually, I was sick of seeing everyone else's stories about it on facebook and not trying it myself, and we decided to order something off of it for dinner.

Our first experience with Yogiyo (which means "here" in Korean) was on June 7th. We ordered sushi from someplace in our neighborhood. Honestly, I'm not even sure where this place is located in real life. It seems like there are a ton of restaurants the exist solely for delivery, but I'm not sure. We used this guide to help us use the app: http://ramenwater.com/2014/06/22/english-explanation-of-the-yogiyo-app. We also used a lot of google translate for the messages that the app gives you. The best part of the app is that you can choose to pay with a card when the food arrives. That's always the thing Gianni and I are most worried about when we think about ordering food over the phone. We never have any cash on us, and we could probably order the food just fine, but then we don't know how to ask about paying with a card. Yogiyo solves the problem for us! We were very pleased that all went smoothly, and we received our sushi without a problem. We used the app again last night to order pizza. I'm a little bit happy that we didn't start using this app until now, 3 months before we get home, because I can see this becoming a problem for us!

Two weeks ago, I was getting the students ready for their speaking tests. In previous semesters, I had some guidance about what the test question should be, but this semester, I was told just to make a culture question. My third grade question is about manners, and it is a bit harder than I intended. It took me two classes of teaching the topic before I really hit my stride with it, so I'm a bit worried about those two classes and how they will preform on the test. We shall see. The second grade question is about English idioms. Last week, I was supposed to start giving the tests for all the grades, but the second grade teachers felt that most of the students forgot about the tests, so they postponed it until next week. Personally, I felt that if the students forgot then it was their fault since I told all of them about it. I did start the third grade tests though, and they have been good so far. These are the last speaking tests I will be giving anyway.

Two Sundays ago, we had a wonderful time with our friends Marie and Ben. They came over to our house for the first time ever! We've been over to their house for so many fun events this year since they have a nice, big place, but they had never been to our's before. They came over in the afternoon, and we played Beersbee in the park near my school. It's a game where you put cans on two poles opposite each other, and the teams take turns trying to knock the can off the pole with a frisbee. They are taped out beer cans, hence the name. After playing for a while, we went back to the house and played Catan before getting dinner at red pork and milk shakes at a delicious place down the road from the red pork BBQ place. Hope they had a fun time visiting our place!

Last Friday night, we saw Pitch Perfect 2 with everyone except Matthew, who was being lame. Gianni and I didn't go into it with high hopes, but it was actually pretty good. There were jokes that fell flat, but most of it was pretty funny. Not a great movie, but worth watching anyway. It was another one of those movies though that really doesn't translate well to a Korean audience. There were a lot of English language jokes or jokes with American Culture references, so we and the other foreigners in the theater were the only ones to laugh at those.

On Saturday, we spent the day playing games with Maria and Matthew. The board game cafe has Life in English now, so we've been playing that. It's such a long game. At one point, we were debating whether to stay or leave the board game cafe, and I think the manager saw us debating. He asked another staff member to come over and bring us a new game to try called Splendor. We really can't say no to the manager, and he always gives us such excellent recommendations (Love Letter, Ticket to Ride...). He seems us all the time, so he knows what kinds of games we like by now. So we played a game of Splendor before we left. It involves having to use gems to buy cards that give you points to win. In a way, it's kind of a mix of ticket to ride and citadels (a card game we like). After about 3 hours in the board game cafe, we went around the corner to get some delicious Italian at Little Italia.

This week, I continued giving speaking tests to third graders and started giving them to second graders. I'm being a little tough on the second graders because they had a whole preparation class to write something and practice it for the test. Most of the kids are doing pretty well, even the third graders who I taught prior to really nailing down my lesson about the topic.

Another big news story in Korea that you may have seen abroad is that Korea now has the most people with MERS outside of the Arabian Peninsula. MERS is a respiratory virus that started in the Arabian Peninsula. It came to Korea after a Korean man went out there to work. He came back and visited 4 hospitals before they realized what it was. The virus spreads through close contact with individuals who have it, so it's not really easy to catch at least. The man spread the virus to some hospital staff and other patients at the hospitals he visited before being diagnosed. Most of the reported cases are in the Northern part of Korea, around Seoul. But I have heard rumors that there is one person being treated at a hospital in Daegu that isn't terribly far away from us. In any case, we've been told not to worry too much and to just wash our hands a lot and maybe wear a face mask. The Koreans do seem to be quite worried about it. I guess when the SARS virus came to Korea 10 years ago, there were immediate moves by the government to contain it, which helped keep people calm. As far as I understand, the government has not done a whole lot of deal with the problem of MERS, and the president is even taking a trip to America soon, angering a lot of people. This morning, my school, and most, if not all, of the schools in Daegu, stopped the kids on their way in to school to check their temperatures. Not sure how effective that is because a kid could just get a fever another day, so unless you check them everyday, I don't see the point. Also, apparently, some of the schools weren't even wiping off the thermometer before giving it to the next kid. I didn't stop to watch what they were doing at my school, but that's so disgusting. I know that the Western and foreign media keeps writing news articles about how MERS isn't that big a deal here because Korea has such a modern medical system. In a way, that is true. But based on what I heard from friends this morning, they don't even have a grasp of basic hygiene! Some friends said they were wiping the end of the thermometer with alcohol wipes...at least that's something. Others said they were just going from one to the next. They mostly use the in-ear thermometers in Korea, but that's still disgusting! You don't want someone else's ear gunk in your ear! Other places use the "rub on your forehead" kind, which I have never seen, but still sweat rubbing on sweat. Anyway, I think the Korean government needs to get on this and give instructions to people instead of staying silent and causing fear. The hospitals where there have been reported cases are even threatening to file libel suits against anyone who publishes specifics about where patients are being treated! That's insane. I think people have a right to know and avoid those hospitals. Anyway, rant over. I'll keep you updated on the situation if anything else comes up.

We are headed to see some dinosaur fossils and footprints on the Southern coast of Korea this Saturday. Gotta be careful and make sure not to get MERS on the bus, but there haven't been reports of anything to the South of us. Hopefully, it'll be ok.

I forgot to mention, but a few weeks ago (in May), Gianni and I officially put in our resignation for August. I bought our flights home in March, but signing this piece of paper made it official: we are going home!

Sian, our wonderful South African friend, turned 25 last Friday. Her mom even got to be here in Korea for it. On Friday night, we went out to an excellent meal of kimchi jjim with all 9 of us. The restaurant was kind of a hidden gem in downtown Daegu, and we got our own little room since there were so many of us. Kimchi jjim is kind of like a pot roast. It's pork that is slow-cooked with kimchi. Traditionally, you also order portions of kimchi jigae to go with it. Kimchi jigae is kimchi and pork stew with ramen noodles added in. The food was excellent, and we were all super full by the end...but not full enough to enjoy the cupcakes Marie made for Sian. As usual, her baking was to die for.

The birthday weekend continued on Saturday with an early morning bus to Samcheok in north east Korea on the coast. It took about four and a half hours to get there. We got off the bus on the side of a random country road. There were a few shops around, but no taxis driving by whatsoever. We tried to ask people to call a taxi for us, but we were told that none would be willing to come to take us to our where we needed to go since it was too close--or at least that's what we thought we were being told. The first place we were trying to go was to the Haesindong Park (Penis Park), an entirely uphill walk for about a half an hour away from where we were. We had a bus schedule, but the time the bus was supposed to arrive came and went. Just as we were about to give up and start trudging up the hill with all our bags, the bus appeared! It was a miracle. I guess the bus schedule we had was from terminal to terminal, so times that the bus was supposed to arrive at the stops in between those terminals was not listed. We only had to go two stops on the bus before arriving at the Penis Park. The man at the ticket booth at the park was nice enough to let us store our bags in his booth while we walked around the park. The Penis Park was quite expansive. As you walked up and down the hills of the park, you could see the various carved, wooden penis statues--some had really funny faces. The park, built on a cliff face, also offered beautiful views of the coast and ocean. Gianni and I each took pictures with our Chinese Zodiac animals that were carved into the penis statues. There was a penis see-saw that a bunch of us had fun on, and there was even a penis canon. After all the walking, we decided to take a bit of a break and wander down to the rock beach at the park. The water was clear and beautiful, but the sun was beating down on us. On the very edge of the cliff, where the park ends, there is an alter to a young girl. We've heard opposing stories about the reason for the penis park, but all involving this young woman. In the most disturbing story, the young woman died a virgin. As soon as she died, all the fish in the area left. A fisherman later masturbated into the ocean there, and the fish miraculously returned. Apparently, since the girl died a virgin, that's what her spirit needed as an offering. So the penis park was *ahem* erected to appease her spirit by giving her the penises she never got during her lifetime. Seriously gross and disturbing story, but there it is. I've seen too many carved penises during my time in Korea. I think I'll be happy without seeing anymore. We did have a fun time though.

Although we had planned on doing more activities that day, it was getting late, so we decided to just go into Samcheok and try to find accommodation. We grabbed the bus back, and then took some taxis to the beach area. The beach was really pretty, but we didn't get to enjoy it because all the motels were full. We asked at every one we saw to no avail. The only accommodations available were minbaks. A minbak is a Korean-style accommodation involving floor sleeping, and many of the group members did not want to sleep on the floor. We had to grab taxis back to the main town center, and Marie and Ben found us a motel there. It was a love motel and a bit pricey at 70,000 won for the night, but we all got our own private rooms with private bathrooms. We split up for dinner, and Gianni and I ended up going for barbecue at a place that smelled divine right down the road from the motel with Sian, Thomas, and Sian's mom, Fran. We had a nice chat with some other foreigners who were eating there, including a couple girls who had helped us to get taxis to the beach earlier. We ordered samgeopsal (Korean pork belly) and pork galbi (marinated pork) to share between the 5 of us. The restaurant gave us sooooo much bonchon (free side dishes) that we could barely fit it all on the table with our little grill in the center. It was a lovely meal. Korean barbecue is not to be missed if you are here for a visit. Along with our dinner, the other foreigners suggested we order a couple bottles of orange soju, a new product on the market that you can only buy in restaurants for now. I usually hate soju, but this had almost no aftertaste and was more like juice than regular soju. Really tasty. The other part of our crew met up with us after they finished their dominos pizza, and we all went back to the motel. We played a few rounds of Cards Against Humanity together before hitting the hay for another slightly early morning.

On Sunday morning, we got up at 9am to try to make a reservation at the tourist information office to ride Samcheok's rail bikes. Apparently, it would have been a good idea for us to book days in advance because the rail bikes were all sold out. Rail bikes are these little cars that seat four people. They are kind of like paddle boats, but they are on railroad tracks instead. The tracks in Samcheok are right on the coast, so it would have been a really pretty little ride. Anyway, we changed our plans and decided to visit one of the two popular caves in Samcheok instead. We grabbed coffee, muffins, and bagels at a coffee shop nearby, left our bags at tourist information, and hopped on the bus to the caves. Both caves are in the same area, but you have to make a reservation to go into the smaller one. The ticket booth for the cave was in the shape of a bat because, I guess, you can see bats in these caves. The bat is like their little mascot. We didn't see any bats in the large Hwanseongul Cave anyway. It was about a 15 minute walk uphill to get to the monorail cars that lead to the mouth of the cave. You can either take the monorail or hike up yourself, but we opted for the monorail even though it was an hour long wait. We knew we'd have a lot of walking in the cave to do, so that was enough for us. The mountains where the caves are were really quite lovely. Korean mountains are so jagged and rocky, and everything was so green. As soon a you exit the monorail car, you can feel the cool, humid air from the inside of the cave. It was really chilly in there, but not so bad as long as you kept moving. The cave was massive! All we had to do was follow the metal pathway, and it took you on a walk all through the cave and its many different caverns. There were all kinds of beautiful rock formations, pools of water, bridges, and waterfalls. We must have walked around for at least a few hours before coming to the exit. I've never been in a cave that large before.

We had to get down the mountain quickly in order to catch our bus back to Samcheok city and buy bus tickets back to Daegu (well, Sian, Thomas, and her mom were going to Seoul instead). Maria, Matthew, Ben, Marie, and I bought tickets back to Daegu, but we had enough time to get some Chinese food for dinner before we boarded the bus. The bus ride was pleasant and pretty comfortable. Although the buses were a little weird both to Samcheok and back; the front of the bus had 2 seats on one side and 1 seat on the other side, and the back of the bus had 2 seats on one side and 2 seats on the other. It made the aisle a little off-centered. Our bus stopped in Pohang to pick up some more people, and some girls got on and sat behind us. After a few minutes, they got up the courage to speak to Gianni and I, since we were closest to them. We spent the entire hour long ride from there back to Daegu talking to them. Turns out they were high school girls, and they were all cousins. Later, we found out their names were Ji won, Hi won, and Shi won! Hilarious! They wanted to take a picture with us before we left at the terminal, so we did because they were so nice. Gianni and I grabbed a taxi home. The end of another nice weekend in Korea made even nicer by the fact that we didn't have school today because it is a Korean holiday, Buddha's birthday. It coincided with Memorial Day back home this year, so we plan to talk to our parents tonight. Gianni and I celebrated buddha's birthday by going shopping for some new clothes and shoes at home plus and eating some amazing chocolate bingsu (shaved ice) from a new shop in our area. Probably the most amazing that I've had, which is saying something because we've eaten a lot of bingsu.

It was really great to experience the Korean countryside this weekend. We don't get to do that very often. We also don't usually get to see the ocean because we live so far inland, and our bus rides along the coast were beautiful. We had a really nice time with our friends seeing a new part of Korea.