Bundang Central Park and Other News

The beauty of fall.

I feel like my weeks keep getting busier and busier but I'm not even sure how that's possible. At least we still have time here and there to have some fun...

This month our school celebrated International Day. For the last four weeks or so we've been spending time teaching our afternoon kids stuff about different countries and we were required to pick one country to study specifically...which is how I ended up somewhat "assigned" Mexico (my own fault for not coming up with sometime better...).

One of the things we had to do with our class is make a presentation. We were told we could do anything (talk, sing a song, dance, etc...) and so, to make it more entertaining I choose to be the worst teacher ever and have my students dance the Macarena. 

Oh, it was worth every little bit of the guilt I feel for asking this of my students. 

Teaching. Sometimes, it rocks. 

Anyway, this week was also our field trip week and we got to go visit a farm (yey, home away from home). I think it was nicer than our last field trip (to the recycling center) and we even got to meet this guy:

 

Apparently, he's quite famous and was even featured in a movie staring Cha Tae Hyung (excuse me while I fangirl for just a moment) though it's one of the few of his movies I haven't seen...yet...(Title is Champ [챔프])

Doesn't really look like a "farm" does it?

The farm itself is actually really pretty and we were able to make ice cream with the kids (after they got to milk a cow) so it was an enjoyable day. 

Today, Jenee and I made another stab at finding Bundang Central Park and let me just say: you really can't believe everything you read online. 

Multiple sources have said to go out Gate 5 of the AK Plaza at Seohyeon Station but in fact you need to go out Gate 6.

The first time we went (last weekend), we left out Gate 5 and then took the road to the right and thought we found the park but we didn't really so, we gave up and decided to try again once we got better directions. 

Once home, we looked it up online and found that we needed to go out Gate 5 but turn left...so okay, we did that today and walked for forever and still couldn't find the park. 

Whatever.

We went back to the plaza and I took us out Gate 6 (because why not). Bam. There it was. Can't really miss it!

So, bad news: spent a lot of time wandering around searching for this local spot. 

Good news: it was so, so pretty!! 

Fall has finally arrived and the trees are starting to look for-real gorgeous. The park itself is actually pretty big and even includes some "hiking" up a small mountain. It can get a little confusing though because if you come in from the wrong end (as in, not the main entrance--which is what we did on accident) there isn't any maps. I suppose it all goes around in a circle (we didn't walk the whole thing) but it was a little frustrating not knowing where we were going. 

The view was totally worth it though. I'm so glad this places is really close to where we live (only 3 stops away). I'm sure it's going to be somewhere we go often! 

Tomorrow, we are making another stab at going to Chungdeok Palace (remember our failed attempt to go there during Chuseok)? This time we are going with a group from our church so we will be able to see the Palace and (hopefully) the Secret Garden if we're able to get tickets. I'm really excited!  

Haemi Fortress Festival

Haemi Fortress

Last Saturday (wow I'm slacking again...) Jenee and I went on our very first trip with Adventure Korea to Chungnam Seosan in Chungcheongbuk-do (almost a 3-hour bus ride from Seoul). The purpose of the trip was to go to the Haemi Fortress Festival which is held at a folk village there surrounded by the remains of a fortress wall and also apple picking/pie making at an orchard a half-hour away. 

We had to leave super early because of the travel time (needed to be at our pick-up point in Seoul by *shudders* 7:00AM) but we found the bus just fine and it was really nice because Adventure Korea has their own charter! Yey, no public bus! 

The drive was nice but would of been even better if I'd thought to bring a pillow. Oh, well. You live and you learn. We got our first experience stopping at a Korean style rest-stop which is basically a small-scale mall (haha) with restrooms, shops and food...so that was a plus, I suppose. 

Anyway, we arrived at the festival around 10:00AM and Adventure Korea had some things planned for us to do as a group: we walked around a bit on top of the wall, watched the opening cerimony, tried our hand at making some traditional-style fried rice pancake-things, watched some group members get "tortured" Joseon-style at the mock-prison set-up, and finally we viewed some archery. 

After the group events we had free time and were able to walk around the festival, enjoying the historic sites of the Haemi Folk Village and the all the different events going on.

There really was some pretty scenery and as you can see the trees are beginning to turn color (finally) and it's starting to look like fall! 

We had a really special time trying to order lunch from one of the booths and only managed to do so because a nice gentleman behind us understood what we were konglish-hand-motioning and explained it to the poor guy trying to take our order. Bless you, kind sir! It was an octopus pancake, apparently ..though we were unaware that the octopus was included until later when we discovered pieces of tentacles as we were eating. Luckily, they were small pieces and it was delicious none-the-less. 

When we finished our lunch we still had some more time left so we choose to just relax and sit in the grass for awhile. From where I was siting I was able to see the huuuuuge kite that was flying in the sky (I presume in honor of the festival) and it was entertaining to do some people-watching. 

1:30PM is when we all had to meet back up on the bus and once everyone was there we headed to our next stop: the apple orchard. Jenee and I totally took a nap on that bus ride, by the way. Pillow or no pillow. It happened. 

At the apple orchard we had a small "tour" and were able to pick 3 (huge) apples each. Then we went inside for another tour--this time of the orchard's winery. It's a fairly new establishment so it was nice and seemed to produce some good wines (although I'm no expert). 

Finally, we headed back upstairs and were able to make little mini apple pies. The ingredients had actually already all been prepared so we only put them together, but whatever. It was the best apple pie I've ever eaten!! 

With our pies fresh out of the oven we headed back and didn't get home until almost 9:00PM.

It was a long day but a really great experience. We're planning on doing more trips with Adventure Korea in the future and think they are a great travel group to go around Korea with. 

In more recent news, yesterday (Friday) after school Jenee and I went out to dinner and a movie with one of our co-teachers and her two children. Actually, this is the same co-teacher we go out with a lot and even go to the same church with her. She is so nice and a really good friend to us. 

Since she knows that Jenee and I both like yukgaejang (a really spicy beef and vegetable soup) she found a restaurant near our apartment that has it and we went to eat there. 

Ah, the spicy. It hurts so good.

It was delicious! Wow, it's been a while since I've eaten yukgaejang and actually this is our first time eating it in Korea so it was really great. I think this is going to be a winter favorite for us!

...right along with hoddeok, a popular street food here. It's made with batter (kind of like a pancake) and filled with this sweet awesomeness (I think brown sugar, honey, cinnamon, and peanuts)and then fried. Yum. There is a street vendor near our apartment complex which is conveniently along our path from work so I think we are going to end up stopping there often.

Anyway, after we ate dinner we went to go see a movie called Rollercoaster (Fasten Your Seatbelt) that just came out on Thursday. It has an actor in it who we really like and is a comedy about an airplane ride. Actually, it really was hilarious and even though there were bits we didn't understand Jenee and I were able to get the gist of it (plus our co-teacher explained what happened in the parts we were un-clear about too, which was nice). 

Fasten Your Seatbelt staring Jung Kyong-Ho

It was a really fun evening and I am so glad it's finally the weekend! 

Seoul International Fireworks Festival 2013

Flowers in the Sky

Wow. I've been slacking a bit on posting. Mostly because I've just been so tired! 

Anyway, last weekend was the Seoul International Fireworks Festival at Yeouido Hangang Park. We only found out about it just a few days before the actual event but in our naïvety we decided to go anyway....not knowing....not knowing...

There was around a million (literally) people going to this event. I cannot even describe to you what being in the midst of that sheer congestion of human beings was like. 

It wasn't bad until we got to Singil Station, which is where we transferred to the purple line only two stops away from our preferred destination of Yeouinaru Station (which is the closest station to where the event was taking place).

The subway was packed.

Like a can of sardines. 

If you can't picture that:

There were areas even more packed than this, if you can believe it.

You just kind of mushed into everyone and then we all flowed together like the sea towards where we boarded the train and by the time we realized that everything was probably a really bad idea it was far, far too late. 

We had to wait down there in the subway for three trains before we were whisked away into one. Everyone squeezed until I'm pretty sure there was a part of my body in all sorts of different locations. Like, it's a miracle I wasn't separated from one of my limbs much less my backpack (an empty bottle of tea in one of the pockets was an unfortunate casualty of the whole experience, however).

Then...we arrived at the station before the one we had originally planned on getting off at but apparently, most people decided it was better to just walk the extra distance to the park than suffer more on the subway so the sea of bodies shifted and we were moving whether we wanted to or not.

I just remember Jenee looking at me through the throng of people between us like 'Do I go? DO I GO?' 

And I was just like 'Go, on! Be free! ESCAPE!' 

Then she disappeared and there was this (THANK GOD) nice and broadly Korean guy right in front of me who I pretty much just latched on to and let him drag us through the mass of bodies, completely unaware that he was pretty much my hero that night.   

Anyway, Jenee and I managed to reunite outside of the train and we found ourselves in another flock of festival commuters heading for the exit. We had two choices, the stairs or the escalator. Thinking everyone would go for the escalator, we choose the stairs.

But...so did everyone else. Pretty much. And then we were stuck in another glob of people moving at the pace of a lethargic snail towards sweet, beautiful freedom. 

We couldn't figure out why the mass was moving so insanely slow until we reached the top of the stairs only to be greeted by none other than what has to be the dumbest invention in the whole world: a revolving door. 

A single revolving door served as the only means of release for thousands of unfortunate subway passengers...ourselves included.

You should of seen it: the door inched around and bodies piled in. Sometimes backpacks would get stuck (which was my greatest fear when my turn came around) and everything would just pause while the hapless soul struggled to free his or herself. 

It was so ridiculous it was actually funny, if you can believe me. 

At long last we did finally make it though and began our long trek to the river. 

At least we had no problem figuring out where to go. 

Once we arrived at the park (which is huge, by the way and runs at least a few miles along the river) we had to find a spot to view the fireworks and...just...wow. I've never seen so many people. 

Families and children, foreigners and Koreans alike...everywhere. To put it simply: we wondered around for nearly two hours before we decided we were just going to have to go a ways away to view the show. It was disappointing (I really wanted to see the fireworks on the river) but ultimately a good decision. 

The miracle of the evening was that we somehow managed to find Michelle. She arrived a little later than us and brought along some delicious chicken and snacks, which pretty much made our night. We walked with her for awhile before deciding to sit on this hill at the park (because it was such a steep slope there wasn't that many people on it). Luckily, we'd brought a regular blanket so if we sat on the end of it we didn't slide around too much. 

It's really hard to see but this is us. On our hill.

When the show finally started, we realized our view wasn't nearly as bad as we feared it would be and other than the rude individual standing in our view now and then it was actually pretty nice. 

Plus, we totally had a merry bad of what we refered to as our "ajumma warriors" (ajumma meaning middle-aged women) that kept yelling at people to sit down whenever they got all up in our view. 

Thank you, grumpy ajummas. 

There was one really funny moment as well when a family noticed how awesome our hill was and decided to try to sit (right smack in our line of sight too) but they had brought the typical Korean park-blanket which is basically this plastic coated (looks like aluminium...words fail me)mat and Jenee was like, "Look! Look! They're gonna slide."

And sure enough they sat down on their "blanket" and started sliding down the hill. It was so funny. Like, really? What did you expect. 

Thank you, inconvenient park-mat-things.

Anyway, the fireworks were aaaaaamazing. I've never seen anything like it. Seriously beautiful. 

Someone also released a lantern near where we were sitting, which was also really pretty and helped contribute to the festive atmosphere. 

Fly lantern, fly!

I'm really glad our evening ending in such a relaxing and fun manner after an extremely stressful commute. I'm really glad we went and I'm even more thankful my friends were there to experience the festival with me. Such a memorable event!

Here is a video I made of some of the fireworks I recorded:

And just as a random, somewhat off topic note: I had my first run-in outside of school with one of my students on the way home today. It was so weird! He's a boy from one of the afternoon classes I really like so it was a pretty fun encounter. He actually went zooming by us on his bike as we were walking and then came to a screeching halt all excited and like, "Danielle-teacher!" 

I was a little befuddled and just said, "Oh hi!" 

Then it got really awkward after we parted and his mom caught up with him and he was just like, "It's Danielle-teacher! Danielle-teacher!" 

And I looked back all unsure what to do and exchanged a brief greeting across the way with his mom. 

The world really is a small place, sometimes.