Blogs from Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea, Asia - page 14

Recently, I got a chance to go on my summer vacation. Some of my coworkers took the opportunity to go to Bali or Thailand, but I figured that I’d stay a little closer to home and see what’s in Korea. A program here called Temple Stay allows people to stay at Buddhist temples to see what life is like to there. A few temples in Korea make accommodations for English speaking visitors. Figuring that they are mostly the same, I just picked a temple and went. I decided on Gogulsa Temple near Gyeonju about a four-hour train ride from Seoul. A bus ride and short walk brought me to the temple gate. From the gate, there was a 10-minute walk up to the temple office about ¾ of the way up a steep hill. (I got ... read more

Just updating while I have a minute: Our plans have made a slight change, instead of being in China right now (like I originally thought) we are now in South Korea checking-out a 2000 year old history of the Korean people. Amazing, it's just too bad that the Japanesse burned the place down a couple hundred years ago in an invasion attempt. But the Bulguksa Temple has been recreated with great attention for details. I hope to be in Seol tomorrow; but I now have little, if any confindence in our planning. There is a ferry from the North of South Korea that we should be able to get to China that way, but I will update this soon (hopefully) with more details and pictures. While we are here, I would also like to go ... read more

Yesterday we looked in our cupboards to find something to eat. It wasn't good news. We quite literally only had bread and butter left. Oh, and 2 min noodles. But since we've been eating noodles for a week now we decided it's time to go do some proper food shopping. Instead of taking a taxi $7* ride to the closest E-Mart like last time. we caught the free shuttle into Ilsan, about an hours drive. We then walked the 3 blocks to the supermarket there, another huge grocery store. Every time we go to one of these stores it amazes me what they have. We were so keen to buy fruit, but a bag of apples costs almost $4 and a huge pear goes for $2.5. Crazy! Veg is also almost as expensive, but we ... read more

We taught our first classes today! Woohoo!! What a great feeling! We both ended up having really big turn outs which is the best! It's a really wierd mix of feelings here in EV. You feel like an everyday nut but are treated like superstars straight out of Hollywood with everyone greeting you and waving to you all over the place... and that's on a quiet day! On the busier days, typically Tues, Thurs, Sat and Sun, we're often stopped and asked if we'd be in their photo ...after my Travel Agency class two of the students even asked for autographs! All the men are regularly told that they're 'very handsome' and the ladies are told they're 'very beautiful'! It's going to be tough coming back to the real world! Hehe ... read more

Today didn't really go as planned. We had wanted to get up pretty early to get head into Seoul, since it takes about an hour and a half of travel time either way. Despite both of us setting alarm clocks, we only woke at around 11h30am. All in all it turned out not to be such a bad thing. I think both of us needed a bit of a break. We have also not really had a chance yet to move into our rooms properly. We used most of the afternoon just to clean our apartments, put up some pics on the walls and unpack properly. I (Darrell) have covered most of my wall space with some of the best photos from the past couple of years, so I have constant reminders of my freinds ... read more