Over the long weekend in early May we decided to spend our time island hopping in Chungcheongnam-do province. We started our trek on Anmyeondo, the largest of the islands. One of my students had written a journal about a beautiful flower festival that was happening on the island so we decided to check it out. "Floritopia 2009" turned out to be a collection of different flower displays and a few showcases of flowers from around the world. All in all, Flowertopia was just like strolling through a public park back in Canada. Only with a few thousand of our closest friends. [View Full Entry]

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Here are the long overdue pictures from our trip to Jeju Island in January. After the most terrifying flight of my life (which consisted of 3 attempts to land in a snowstorm, and an uncountable number of filled barf bags) we finally landed in Jeju-si, the capital of Jeju. After we rented our Matiz (a cute teeny Korean car) we spent the first day driving around Jeju-si. We visited Samseonghyeol, the birthplace of the people of Jeju. Samseonghyeol consists of 3 holes in the ground which legend says, 3 brothers crawled out of and founded the Tamna kingdom. We learned all [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Fulong in early afternoon and found our way to the beginning of the Caoling Historical Trail (after a close call with a guard dog guarding an abandoned house). The hike took a few hours and we travelled through a thick forest and ended on a grassy cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Fortunately we arrived at the cliff before it got dark, although our hike down into the town of Dali was a bit frightening in the pitch black. This trail was built in 1807 to connect two cities (Danshui and Ilan) and the section that remains today is [View Full Entry]

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We awoke early on the second day and caught a train down the East coast of Taiwan to Hualien. Once there we found a scooter to rent, filled up with gas and headed to Toroko Gorge National Park about 20 kms away. Taroko gorge was once home to the Atayal people who were known for weaving, facial tattoos, and headhunting. The majority of the Atayal people have moved out of the gorge, but some still remain working at hotels, resorts, and selling woven and leather products. The gorge itself is filled with marble-walled canyons and gigantic cliffs. The road through the [View Full Entry]

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For our Christmas vacation this year we decided to check out Taiwan. We had 5 days so we needed to cram in as much as we possibly could. We started off in Taipei where we spent the first day parusing through temples as well as paying a visit to Taipei 101. There is a bit of controversy surrounding it's rank among the highest buildings in the world, but accoring to our Lonely Planet guide, it is the tallest. It also claims to have the worlds fastest elevator that rises 1010m per minute as well as a massive damper that counteracts movements [View Full Entry]

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Weekend trip to Seoul on the second weekend in November. Changdeokgung Palace is a World Heritage site and definitley the most amazing Palace I have seen since being here. Most noteworthy was the Secret Garden which was filled with stunning fall colours. Changgyeonggung Palace was another pretty palace, although not as nice as the previous and definitely had way too many gs. [View Full Entry]

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Weekend excursion to Suwon to see the Korean Folk Village, Hwaseong Fortress, and the lovely Heather Mullett! [View Full Entry]

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Our school had a holiday, so we hiked this mountain in Daejeon. Daejeon is surrounded by mountains and this one is located south-east of where we live. [View Full Entry]

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A hodge-podge of photos from our second month in Daejeon. Early in the month we went to watch a Hapkido (Korean martial art) tournament where we saw some of the craziest Korean children yet. Jeff's Hapkido school was competing so we saw some familiar faces as well as the only white person in the whole tournament take a roundhouse to the head (Note: He later was admitted to the hospital where he underwent surgery to attach metal plates to his jaw which was fractured in three separate places). Later in the month we had a belated housewarming party to welcome us [View Full Entry]

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On the first weekend in October we hopped a bus and headed down to Busan to spend the long weekend on a beach. After a couple setbacks in Daejeon (wrong bus terminal, missed bus) we finally ended up at our destination just in time to catch the last few rays on Haeundae beach as well as a beautiful sunset. The boys went for a quick dip while I opted for beachcombing. After we got some dinner at a local restaurant we grabbed a couple bottles of wine and headed back to the beach for a relaxing night of drinking on the [View Full Entry]

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