Dan & Catt - Happy Chuseok!

Well Chuseok weekend came and went for us here, Sept 18th - Sept 22nd.  Chuseok (chew-sock) is basically Korean Thanksgiving.  Its history is of course much older than our Thanksgiving, but its traditions are essentially the same.  People travel to their birth homes to visit parents or grandparents.  They eat a huge meal that takes several hours to prepare.  They play card games after dinner.  Very much like in the US.

So Dan and I of course had off of school for 5 days (Wednesday through Friday off and the weekend) and we kept very busy!  The Wednesday started off with me sick as a dog with some kind of random cold.  Fortunately it was a short one because we had lots of plans!  

On Thursday we went to E-World in Daegu.  It is a small amusement park with many rides and carnival type games.  It was sort of like a VERY tiny 6 Flags. They had about four roller coasters and various other rides and games.

We rode one ride called the "Sky Cycle".  It was really creepy!  You climb 3-4 flights of stairs and end up at this platform about 20-30 feet off the ground.  There is a small, leveled track going around the platform, just like on a roller coaster.  In front of you is the "car", the bicycle.  It is a two person bike, side by side, that you peddle around the track.  Cute idea, right?  In reality, not so much.  The track is rusted and the paint is faded.  The bike squeaks menacingly as you slowly go forward.  Not to mention the seats are only wide enough for a 10 year old.  My hips were not happy with me.  All in all, it was a (nice?) experience.  (We're pretty sure it was a ride designed for children but they just let us on cause they didn't know how to tell us no.)

Another "fun" ride was the "Tambourine".  

On this ride, you sit in a large round bucket type thing.  THERE ARE NO SEAT BELTS.  You hold onto the yellow railing behind you, and grip for your dear little life.  The ride spins and bounces up and down with you just holding on.  You bounce with it, loose your grip, scream bloody murder and try to hold on with the other hand instead.  

Ok, so right about here Dan would tell me that I am exaggerating.  Honestly, there was an operator in the booth the whole time slowing down the ride if someone lost their grip and making sure everyone was ok.  But it was still freaky, not my favorite ride of the day.  

All in all though, it really was a great day at the park.  We rode the carousel and ate somewhat familiar food (bulgogi rice and a pork chop of some kind).  I bought a bow-headband because they were everywhere and there was one in purple!  So you know, I had to have it...  

They even had a small zoo, mostly with farm animals, but a zoo none the less.  

Nom-nom-nom

Then, on Friday, we had the bright idea that we'd go hiking.  OMG.  This isn't hiking in the Kettle Moraine Park, this was mountain hiking.

The map of hiking routes.  

We started off ok, with a slight incline.  But then we hit the stairs.  SO MANY STAIRS.  

This photo doesn't do justice to the 100's of stairs we climbed.

But overall, the hiking was well worth it and beautiful.

What we had meant to do, was climb to the famous Buddha statue and then take a cable car back down the mountain.  We somehow got on the wrong trail though and ended up at a hermitage.  It was lovely, but very anticlimactic after spending so long hiking up a steeply inclined mountain.  See photos of the hermitage below.  

These stone piles lined the path to the hermitage.

Anyways, even though we missed the cable car ride and were drenched in sweat, it was a nice way to spend a nice day.  We plan on going back and finding the cable car next time, then the summit!

So then Saturday rolls around and what do we do?  We go on yet another adventure, this time to the beach for some relaxation.  With some friend of ours from Gyeongju, we took a 1 hour bus ride to Bonggil Beach.  It was beautiful.  Dan and I both commented that this was our first time at an ocean side beach in a very long time.  The water was so blue it was almost unbelievable.  The waves were gentle and the sand was warm.  Ahhhhhh.....

An underwater tomb supposedly.  There is a lot of speculation about whether there is someone actually buried here or if the King's ashes were just spread here.

The beach was just phenomenal.  Something interesting about Korean beaches...no one wears bathing suits.  Everyone comes to the beach fully dressed.  They will only wade out into the water as far as their clothing with allow them.  Most people were in tennis shoes and jeans.  It's much different from beaches in the US or from many places around the world.  We kind of broke that rule and went swimming in our suits.  But while we were on the sand we made sure that we all had our full clothing on.  The beach also wasn't full sand.  There were a lot of rocks/pebbles.  It was hard rather hard to walk on.  

Nobody wore swimsuits and most of them just waded in the water.

So we then ended our weekend with pizza on Saturday night and some bar hopping and going out to noreabang (karaoke).  It was a ton of fun.  

Talk to you later!  <3