Gyeoryongsan

I decided that now that I have been here for a month that it was time to start doing the things on my Korea list.  The list that I had been writing for the six months leading up to my new life. 

Autumn in the mountains - CHECK!






I found a group of people going to the Gyeoryongsan for what will likely be the last colorful Fall weekend.  Gyeoryongsan is a national park in Daejeon, you can visit the website here.  It was potentially a little late in the season, but having not experienced Fall in a good eight years, it was absolutely gorgeous.  I will post some pictures here, but will probably have to set up a website for the rest of the pictures.  I will link that when I get it completed.  Most of these are my pictures but a big thanks to Marisol for letting me steal some from her as well!

Andrea couldn’t go that day but she helped me with the subway in the morning so I could go meet everyone. (I am so thankful for her!) Then we all took an hour bus ride from there. 

Almost everyone… Bart, Ross, Nicole, Sarah, & me. Marisol is behind the camera

On the bus ride there we saw this…

Wedding, Funeral, Celebrations…ONE-STOP Service!  What more could a person want?

Bottom of the mountain - first stop, bathrooms!   Here is a traditional Korean squat toilet…

Koreans are unique with their toilets. I won’t use these.  Sorry, I’m a snob. When you enter the restroom, there are stalls on either side of you as you expect. However, there is only one toilet paper dispenser screwed in the wall for everyone to share.  You better remember to grab some before you go in.  Next, you pray that when you push open the door, you won’t see a squat toilet.  Thankfully, there was a mix of  squat and western toilets so all was ok for us lazy foreigners.

Marisol and I needed some water to take with us so we stopped at the convenience store at the bottom of the mountain.  Pocari Sweat… turned out to be a Gatorade type of drink. Once you get passed the name, it still wasn’t very good.

Up the mountain we go.  Today wasn’t about hiking. We just went to see the Autumn leaves and a few Buddhist temples up the mountain. 

There are bugs in that skillet by the way.  They looked like roaches or something just really gross.  I thought it would be unacceptably rude to get up any closer to take a better picture. But trust me, gross.

 

Marisol and I  yay! for new friends!

And here are pictures of the temples…Before I leave SoKo I want to do a temple stay.  A group of people are doing one next weekend, but I want to learn a little more about the lifestyle and religion, even though I don’t think that’s the right word, before I do it so I can fully appreciate my experience.  You can do stays of one night, up to a week or month.  That’s probably in the top 3 on my to do list.

and on the way down…

They have wiener dogs here too.  short and chubby ones!

Afterwards we went back into Daejeon for dinner. 

Pizza Hut!  We ordered two pizzas -

pepperoni and sausage for the boys

which translates to pepperoni and hotdogs! hahahaha

and Bacon Potato for the girls

  It was pepperoni, bacon, onions, peppers, potatoes, and a sweet sauce on top.

So good. Definitely a fan.

After dinner we walked around for a bit and watched a small water and light show.  Sadly, Disney has ruined me for all things like that and they just aren’t as special as they should be.  Everyone walked me to the subway to ensure I wouldn’t get lost and then I made it home all on own!  I was so proud of myself.

It was so nice to spend a day exploring and talking to people about topics that are so normal to me.  I met some really wonderful people and had a great day!  Soon it will be too cold to go out and do things like that but there are plenty of other things to do inside and now I have more friends to do it with.  It’s amazing how basic it’s become. It’s like starting all over where you have to be consciously aware of trying to make new friends.  Such a strange yet wonderful life to have at almost 30.