Ppuri Park

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We have been pretty busy at school with report cards and preparing for parent teacher interviews, so we decided to take a break and check out Ppuri park on the other side of Daejon. It is fairly new park designed to honour the family names present in Korea, and so honour their roots. There are a series of monuments honouring family names (there are like 4 different Kim families originating from different places). So you walk around and look at the statues. It is on a hillside, and it is getting colder so the leaves are changing colour; it reminded us of fall back home. It was really nice to walk around. There were different paths through the woods and we walked, and they lead up to a a pagoda and a lookout, which were really nice and had good views. There were lots of families wandering around and reflecting on their ancestry and such. There were these great paddle boats in the shapes of swans; we enjoyed watching one chase these little white ducks: it was like a giant duck chasing little ducks (very comical!). They also have these wooden platforms to sit on and have a "forest bath"; the idea is that trees give off a chemical that prevents bacteria from taking hold, and that if you breathe it in it helps you fight off illness. It was nice to sit there and breathe in the clean crisp air. We took the bus back and got off in the downtown area for (embarrassingly) starbucks and Mcdonalds. I used to boycot both (and I regret eating the Macdonalds - that was Steve's idea) but I have to grudgingly admit that I get excited when I see a starbucks (there, my conscience is clear). Not only am talking like Americans, I am now also supporting corporate America. How very sad.

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