Blogs from Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea, Asia - page 2

Good morning from South Korea! Today is April 6, 2015. I have officially survived 4 months living away from home in South Korea. In 4 months, I have spent my first holiday season away from my family... and discovered that family doesn't always have to be blood. I have watched my niece and nephew grow up via social media from the other side of the world... and realized how thankful I am for the technology I have access to. I have watched as several of my friends count down to and make huge life changes: engagements; weddings; babies... and, once again, I can only be thankful for things like Facebook giving me the ability to keep in touch with a simple click of a button. In the past 4 months, I have made many new friends ... read more

Just realized it's been almost a month since I posted... oops! So rather than make a bunch of separate posts I'm going to combine a few things :) Shinsegae is the largest department store in the world... and it's right here in Busan, South Korea! I had read about this before I even came to Korea and it was definitely on my to-do list. Lucky me, I accomplished that item within the first couple of weeks :) I went with another English teacher here, Kendra, and we spent the afternoon exploring the store and everything it had to offer. It wasn't Christmas yet so decorations were every where... and I was loving it! Shinsegae at Centum City has like 8 floors of stores, restaurants, and fun. There is a movie theater, an ice rink, tons of ... read more

While the title may sound like my last 2 years on the road, it is actually part of the teachings of Buddha that I tried to absorb during a temple stay in Jirisan National Park. Hwaeomsa Temple is one of many offering temple stays that can be reserved over the internet. Several are in or close to major cities but Hwaeomsa is in the national park (near Gurye) where there are several hiking trails including an overnight trip to Ssangyesa Temple. Hiking wasn't really part of the program at Hwaeomsa but is at a few temple stays. Almost the entire program was in Korean but there were a couple of Korean ex-pats who took me under their wings. Aside from waking up at o'dark thirty (a.k.a., 3:00 in the morning), the toughest part was the purported ... read more

The city of Jinju, an hour and a half from Busan, hosts a week long lantern festival every year along their river with a myriad of activities and events organised. We'd planned to spend the whole day in Jinju sightseeing and participating in the activities, but due to a very late night the night before it was 6pm when we finally arrived! First stop was dinner and then we walked to Namgang river for the lantern festival. The tradition of floating lanterns on Namgang River in Jinju City dates back to the 1592 Japanese invasion of Korea. In October 1592, during a battle between Japanese and Korean soldiers around Jinju Fortress, Jinju people flew lanterns high up in the sky as a military signal and communication tool with soldiers outside the fortress, while floating lanterns and ... read more

Warning: this is a long one! The last two weekends I took short trips away from Daegu. One Sunday, I went to the Upo Wetlands (우포늪), about a 45-minute bus ride (and then a taxi ride) from Daegu (Seobu Bus Terminal near Seongdangmot). I had had it on my list of ‘Things to Do/See in Korea’ for a long time, and finally had free time, some friends to go with, and good weather. I know a swamp doesn’t seem that exciting, but the Korea Tourism Board did a good job of making it look picturesque, while talking about the many wild bird species that are protected there.Since it was so close to Daegu, I thought it would be a nice escape to nature, before mosquito season really hit. When we got there we realized we could ... read more