Recent Happenings

June has been a fairly inactive month for us for a few reasons.  The first of which is finances.  We spent a lot of money in May going to Tokyo, and we are now financially preparing for our summer vacation to China.  This vacation (which will be expanded on later) includes 3 days in Shangahi and 4 days in Hong Kong.  We will then return to China late August for a weekend in Beijing.  There are a lot of expenses going into this trip. One of which is the dreaded visa fees.  Americans need to really open their wallets if they want to go to China, having to fork over 190,000 Won per person.  So just for us to enter the country, the two of us forked over 380,000 Won last Thursday for this upcoming adventure.  Which we will say is roughly $300.00 (give or take).  While June has been inactive, there have been several fun things to report on.  Here it goes.

World Cup

The World Cup has obviously began and there has been a lot of excitement over here.  I have never seen such excitement for a sporting event than here in Korea.  Last Saturday, during SoKo's opener vs Greece we went down to City Hall to watch the game on very very large screens outside. 

A word that gives this experience the best (yet still undermines the night) is pure pandemonium.  I am not exaggerating when I say this, but there were about a trillion people packed in the streets of Seoul that night (as well as the next Thursday, in which we decided to go back).  We stayed in the crowd for the first half of the game and there were moments of actual claustrophobia.  There were so many people it was overwhelming, and this was only to watch the game on TV.  Korea won that Saturday vs Greece (2-0) but lost the next Thursday to Argentina (4-1). 

Photography

Recently, I have been trying to expand my horizons in the photography world.  There are a few steps that I have taken.  The first of which was done a year ago, which was to buy a DSLR.  In May, I decided to buy two extra lenses (I will not get into detail about those, as they will not make any sense to a non photographer).  I have also joined two photography groups here in Seoul.  The first group meets about once a month and we get together and learn more about our cameras and take pictures.  We actually had a meeting yesterday at the fish market here in Seoul.  It was great meeting like-minded people and utter geniuses of photography.  There is so much to learn about photography that it is so overwhelming it makes me just want to forget about making good pictures and to just take pictures.  Fear not my friends, I will not give up (too much of an investment!)  I have created a flickr page to upload some of my better shots (as opposed to my Picasa Web Albums), which can be accessed through my Facebook page.  I have also joined the Seoul Photo Club, which consists of about 500 members.  Every week the group admininstrator picks the best photo and it is published in the Korean Herald (fingers crossed here, guys).  This is one reason why living in Seoul is so great.  There are many groups that cater to the foreign population (as well as Korean) which offers great opportunities to meet people and do some amazing things.

My Green Thumb

I have always wanted to plant flowers and vegetables.  If you ask my brother Dave, he will tell you how I tried to grow an avocado tree from an avocado pit in his backyard.  I gave up after a week and he makes fun of me for it.  In May I had similar ambitions.  We bought tomato seeds (with no idea on how to grow them) as well as seeds to other eye appealing flowers.  I've learned some things about growing flowers.  Flowers, among other things, represent the beautiful and intricate life cycle.

 

The first stage starts at the seed.  Life is beginning for the seed to make the journey into full bloom.

The flower is now into the world, soaking in all the elements have to offer.

I had another picture of the life cycle of a raging, beautiful pot of flowers.  Things were looking good for my plants.  They then decided to take a turn for the worse, and went straight too...

Death.  I don't know what happened, but they suddenly started to die.  Some flowers just can't hack it in the real world.

Aunt and Uncle

On a more positive side of life...  Kelly and I are now an Aunt and Uncle to a beautiful baby boy.  Finley Nathan Freeburg.  He was born on June 14th.  There were no health problems or pregnancy complications (at least what we know of) and he is residing at home with a happy mother and father.  It is situations like these where it makes living in Korea difficult.

*photo courtesy of David and Elizabeth Freeburg*

Tokyo

Alas, the culmination of excitements and anticipations for the month of May have come to a close.  Last weekend, in lieu of Buddha's Birthday, we ventured beyond the boundaries of Korea to a much different and similar culture, Japan.  During the Tokyo weekend, the four of us (who have been previously mentioned) toiled in the biggest city in the world.  Fortunately our experiences in Seoul helped prepare us well for this weekend.  Culture shock was to a minimum and nearly non-existent which allowed us to experience a much different side of Japan.

 

We left Seoul at 6:45 pm on Thursday night and arrived in Tokyo at 8:45pm, a lovely two hour flight (which, I might add, is insufficient if you are watching Forest Gump.  I guess that was my fault and should have watched something else).  The picture above perfectly encapsulates our curiosities, and above all, confoundedness with the Tokyo metro.  Throughout the whole weekend we were (purposely and inadvertantly) comparing and contrasting Tokyo with Seoul, using a point system.  If we found something in Tokyo that pleased us which lacked in Seoul, we gave Tokyo a point and vise versa.  The Tokyo metro system racked up about a total of  -(negative)100 points.  The problem with  the Tokyo metro is that it is not the Seoul metro, arguably one of the nicests metros in the world (from my standpoint, which could be correct).  Tokyo had a great idea to make a enormous metro system way back when (a no brainer for all large cities), and in doing so, created an enormous deficit.  In order to relieve that deficit, they decided to privatize their metro system.  A privatized metro system means that if you buy, say, an all day ticket on metro A (for $12.00, which is exactly what we did) that all day ticket is rendered worthless on metro B.  Lamezoids.  Taxi cabs in Tokyo also are ridiculously expensive.  More on expense later (note our trip to Ireland, I get bitter with expensive countries and lame currencies).

Capsules

During our stay in Tokyo, we had the privilege of sleeping in a hostel which consisted of capsules in an area of Tokyo called Asakusa.  These capsules, as the reader can gather from the picture, are bunk bed style capsules.  Each capsule is equipped with their own TV, light, clock, and radio.  We also had our own personal locker.  There were about 8 beds in a room.  You also had your own personal draw shade for privacy.  Hostel experiences are always interesting, and while you sacrifice some luxury, they offer the cheapest means to travel.  These cost about $15.00 a night.  In a city like Tokyo, you need to cut costs where you can, or else you're going to spend a literal fortune.

A 'Pete's Eye View' from inside my personal capsule.  The TV's were worthless because, well, I don't speak Japanese.  I thought these were very comfortable, once I accepted the fact that it was possible I was going to get attacked by bed bugs (I didn't, however).

Ueno Zoo

The first leg of our Friday morning consisted of visiting Ueno Zoo.  This was a very large zoo in Tokyo and had several interesting animals.  They also had a Giant Panda but it died of heart failure last year.  I felt a piece of my life fall apart when I heard the news.

Watching an elephant.

Lemurs.

This is a Japanese Macaque.  Do not be fooled by this deceptive picture of one joyfully playing on a swing.  There was actually an epic battle in the Japanese Macaque ring.  There were about 30 of these things and there was a showdown.  This Macaque was either fleeing from aparent danger, or creating havoc on the rest of the clan.  It was fun to watch.

Sumo

We were really intentinal about going to a Sumo Wrestling match while in Tokyo because Sumo is very cultural in Japan.  It is a very old sport and one of the only sports in the world that verily holds on to its traditional customs thousands of years ago.  The only Sumo arena in Tokyo is in Ryogoko.  A ticket to a match was about $50.00 for the nosebleeds, but that ticket lasts all day.  Wrestling starts at about 8:00 am and finishes around 6:30pm.  It is up to you when you want to go watch the matches.  The beginner uber noobs wrestle early in the morning and the heavyweight champions wrestling later in the day, starting at 4:30pm.

One of the things I liked so much about Sumo was how traditional and old the sport is.  Every movement in the ring seemingly had some sort of significance.  Before wrestling while they are in a squatting position they clap very loud to "get the attention of the gods".  The very famous "large stomp" as you see in the picture above symbolizes the wrestlers attempt to "rid the wrestling ring of evil" before the match.  The more experienced wrestlers, who have more respect, are able to throw salt in the ring to "bless and prevent any injuries." 

The coolest aspect about Sumo was also it's lamest.  When you think of a typical sport, especially in Western civilizations, it is very fast paced.  Sumo wrestling is almost more ritual than actual wrestling.  Up until about a decade ago (possibly more) they put a time limit on the 'pre-rituals' of each match.  The time limit now is 4 minutes, whereas there used to not be a time limit.  There is a lot of 'face off' and intimidating between the wrestlers and it is actually a very calm sport to watch.  The matches themselves only last about 4-7 seconds.  The wrestlers only aim is to either make his opponent fall on the ground or push them outside of the ring.  A very simple concept.

Tsukiji Fish Market

On Saturday morning, very early in the morning, we went to the biggest fish market in the world.  Tsukiji Fish Market.  We left our capsule around 5:30 am and got to the market around 7am or so and watched the literal insanity.

There was fish everywhere and a lot of death.  Fish heads were a flyin' and blood was spilled in the name of the sushi gods.  There were a lot of interesting fish, dead of course, to look at.  The most interesting, were, the ....

Tuna.  These fish are pretty massive and I have got to credit these guys for the efficiency of the way they clean them.  First they gut the unfortunate beasts, then they freeze them, and then cut them to pieces on a large band saw.  They cut the head off then cut right down the spine in a matter of seconds.  There are a lot of tuna that go through these parts on a daily basis.  Japan loves fish.

Tokyo Tower

After the fish market, we meandered around Tokyo for a few hours until we decided to go to Tokyo Tower.  Tokyo Tower, interestingly looks very similar to the Eiffel Tower, and is actually 9 or so meters higher than the Eiffel.

What we liked so much about Tokyo Tower was that it was in the heart of Tokyo, offering excellent views of the city.  It was a beautiful day and very clear.  You can find more pictures on the web albums.

City Night Tour

On Saturday night we went on a city night tour.  This tour was about 4 hours and we were able to learn a little more about Tokyo and see some of the night life.  We were able to go up to Mori Tower and get some excellent night views of Tokyo.  The tour also included a delicious meal at the top of the Washington Hotel.

It was a fantastic short trip.  This past weekend got the sweet taste of travel in our mouths and we are already looking forward to the next place of adventure to take place.  We already have tickets for Hong Kong and Shanghai at the end of July and we are now anxiously awaiting that trip as well.  It was good to finally experience one of the reasons why we decided to come to Korea in the first place, which was to see this part of the world at an affordable price.

Caving

May (as will be noted in future blogs) has been a long time coming for several months now. Not only did I finish the swashbuckling epic "Three Musketeers", but we were / are able to be a pair of swashbucklers ourselves (I understand I have used this term in past posts, however, it is a sweet use of older lexicon). The weekends of May are nonstop, packed, action / adventure thrillers that Michael Crichton or Dan Brown would salivate over. Unfortunately, the former has recently passed. The month unfolds as this. Weekend 1: (baseball game. FUN and an apropos debut to the month). Weekend 2: Caving trip (expanded below). Weekend 3:Pete Freeburg's Birthday. Ok, not that big of a deal, but we are going bungee jumping that Saturday. Keep your eyes peeled for some epic videos. Weekend 4: Buddha has given us the courtesy of having a birthday that is worth noting in the far east. This birthday has given us a free Friday and a long weekend. Therefore, we 're going to Tokyo from Thursday night-Sunday. It's about a 2 hour flight from here and a perfectly expensive weekend getaway. More on that when time permits.

Allow me to ramble on a more suitable subject. A subject that inspired the creative title of this blog.

   

As I have just said, we went caving this past weekend. We went with Adventure Korea, the same group we went on the ski trip with in mid-February. This trip took us to the Chungcheongbuk-do Province (central Korea), which was about a 2.5 hour bus ride from Seoul. Another great getaway from the city. The first leg of the trip included a 2.5 hour ferry ride on this river. The day was perfect and the ferry ride on the river spared very little beauty.

 

There has been a recent fad here in Korea among the foreigners. When I say foreigners, I mean Pete Freeburg, Erik Johnson and Reuben Haggar.I understand that the Lonely Island song "I'm on a Boat" is a bit old, but we've been singing that song a lot lately, and putting us on a ferry for 2.5 hours won't help us stop. That's the reason for the pose, cuz "I'm the king of the world on a boat like Leo."

Near the end of the ferry ride. Note the greasy hair. I ate a bag of Korean knock off "Bugels"And my greasy fingers probably found their way into my fair hair.

After the ferry ride we went into a cave with even greasier hair. The cave was called Gosu Cave that runs up to 1,300 meters deep. This cave was not what I was expecting. I have been in a couple of touristy caves in my day, so I had some reservations prior to entering the cave. When I say this cave was not what I was expecting, I mean it was much cooler than what I thought. It took us about an hour (possibly hour and a half) to walk through this cave. There were spiral staircases galore. This cave was huge and pretty awesome. Data from "The Goonies"was behind me and was chomping at the bit to rig some booby traps to stop the Fratellis.(I hope Data was Korean, or else I just made a gross generalization.)

 

If I ever had any doubts about the existence of faires, they were foiled this weekend. I found their bathing place. Next time I see an oil company trying to cut down a rainforest, I know where to find the last remaining defenses.

I'm reluctant to put any more pictures of the cave on this blog, as the average onlooker who was not there would begin to think they all look the same. Regardless, if you are still interested in more pictures, you can verily look on our picasa webpage.

After Gosu cave we came here, Dodamsanbong Peak. In order to give you more information about this place, I shall briefly cut and paste what Adventure Korea told us it was. "These areas were visited many times by numerous scholars during the Joseon Period ( 1392-1910), and contains many historically and culturally important relics. Three rocks create a large "S" figure as it stands tall in the middle of Namhangang River. This is the only place in the world where you can see such three longest rocks protrude in the middle of a river. "

I say "sweet" and get a picture taken in front of it with my lady.

FYI, this was our ferry boat. If you were "on the shore, then you sure ain't me-O

Recent Happenings.

There are many times I find it difficult to convince myself that I need to publish a blog post.  On one hand it makes it easy to tell people who care/know about my blog/know how to use the internet what we are doing in SoKo in one fell swoop as opposed to telling roughly the same story numerous times.  There are also times, however, when I am too lazy to write a post and I feel like I don't need to update on much.  One thing that I find to be true and most common for all travelers is that there is an air of arrogance and boasting between them.  Most travelers have this incessant need to tell other people where they have been and what they have done.  If you get a handful of travelers around a cocktail table you'll know what I'm talking about.  While I find myself in that category I try to curb my enthusiasm when sharing stories with people who have never left state side.  That is why I decided to write a blog in the first place because I can brag all I want and nobody has to listen.  

I digress.

The month is April, and the last I have written a post was April 1st.  Twenty days has been a good break for me but terribly long (I'm assuming) for my readers.  While my writing style hooks a reader faster than J.K. Rowling, I figured it would be apropos to allow some time to pass before anything significant happens in our lives.  With that being said, I will start this epic post.

The Others

At this point Kelly and I have been living in Korea for about 4 full months and the possibility of having people come visit us was about as mysterious and unpredictable as "The Others" from Lost.  We have had the pleasure of having Ms. Meghan Donner and Mr. Drew Gernand visit us for about a week.  The living quarters were tight but it was comfortable.  Drew visited us from Thailand and Meghan flew all the way from Minnesota for the week.  It was a great time.

Cherry Blossom Festival

One cool thing about coming to Korea in the winter time is that we are able to see the sweet transformation in the spring.  Blossoming trees are a boomin.  Two trees in particular are in full bloom and they look beautiful.  The first of which is the magnolia and the second is the cherry blossom.  Cherry blossoms, like in Japan, are everywhere.  The cherry blossom festival is a pretty big festival, however, Korea is having their worst/longest winter in a long time rendering a late blossoming season.  One of the perks of living here is that we are able to see them regardless of how late they are.

A couple enjoying the festival.

This is a common food vendor stand.  Octopus.  I will never eat it, but will certainly take a picture of it.

Korean Baseball

We were able to experience our first baseball game this past Saturday.  We have heard a lot of good reviews about baseball in Korea, and let me tell you that it is an experience much different from the MLB.  The first aspect of this game that I very much appreciated was that it was my first outdoor baseball game.  I know that sounds crazy but I have only been to Twins games in the Metrodome, not an ideal place to watch baseball.  The second aspect was that we went with some good people.  We were able to go to the game with Mr. Reuben Haggar, Sir Erik Johnson, Miss Holly Schoephoerster, Count Drew Gernand, and Mme Kelly Freeburg.

 

The enthusasim at this baseball game was unlike anything I have experienced at a sporting event.  Well, I have experienced a lot of energy and excitement at a baseball game, but not for 9 straight innings.  Before we went to this game a fellow coworker of ours stated "every pitch is like the final pitch of the World Series."  While I took that comment with a mega huge grain of salt, he was not too far off.  If the batter made contact with the baseball, I thought people were going to charge the field, only to find out it went foul.  There were cheerleaders and guys who flamboyantly stood on a deck and led chants.  People were going crazy.  It was the most fun I have ever had at a baseball game.  (Those bags were our version of rally caps.  They were passed out to everyone and the visitors side was a sea of orange bags.)

Lake Park Musical Fountain

As mentioned in a previous blog post we live near a big attraction called Lake Park.  It is allegedly the largest man made lake in Asia.  At one end of this park lies, what I believe, the 8th wonder of the world.  Not really, but it is incredible.  There is an enourmous musical fountain.  When Kelly and I first got here in December, we noticed this attraction.  We have been greatly anticipating the debut of this musical fountain for 4 long months.  The show is 1 hour long and from April-June it is only on the weekends.  Througout the summer it is everynight.

The debut of this musical fountain from a lifetime in hypernation lied on the same weekend that our friends visited us.  The first night we missed the show by an hour, coming at 8:30 which was the exact same time it ended.  We then decided to come back the following night but it got cut short.  We were, however, able to go back the next weekend and were able to watch the full show.

The show was amazing.  It was very relaxing just to be able to sit and watch this show for an entire hour.  If we were not mesmerized in the streaming lights and flowing water we could just relax with good conversatoin. 

We certainly will make regular visits to this fantastic show.   Click to view a short clip of the fountain, or look on our web album.

Or click this one.

Scouring the land

Make no mistake for those who know me well, know that I am an advocate of adventure.  I'm also an advocate for documentation of adventure in a skillful and craftful manner (I mean photography, a world in which I do not fully understand but am beginning to consider).  One reason why Korea is a perfect match for Pete Freeburg is because it caters well to my obsessions.  I love being married, check (wife is here).  I love traveling, check.  I love hiking, check.  I love taking pictures, check.  I love awkward moments with people I cannot communicate with, check.  I love trying to observe cultural complexities and mysteries that seem to make no sense, check.  Korea houses many of my opiates.

Korea's national sport is Taekwondo.  I know this because I see gyms all over the place and nearly all of my students practice Taekwondo.  They even wear their uniforms to school to prove it.  I am convinced that one of my students has his Taekwondo uniform sewn onto him, because I have never seem him in anything other than that uniform for weeks.  The reason I'm discussing Taekwondo is because hiking, as it appears, is more popular than even their national sport.  Boo ya.  I love hiking, too.

Korea is a very mountainous penninsula such that you do not have to look very far, nor travel very far to see mountains to hike them and enjoy their beauty.  North Korea is actually more mountainous and scenic in that dimension, which is why prior to the Korean War, North Korea was actually more prosperous than their democratic counterpart on the basis of natural resources.  North Korea had more natural resources and factories (such as ore and so forth), which made it appear that they were the prevailing country, where as South Korea was doing miserably.  It was up until the 60's or 70's when South Korea realized they needed to funnel their energy into a working economy to prosper, specifically in technology development.  To this day, North Korean leaders have also lost their minds, which in no part aids an already failing economy. 

Regardless, I knew that hiking was popular in Korea but I just didn't know how to get my hands on it.  I could see the mountains and I knew if I got on the right subway or the right bus, I could get to them. I just have the problem of not being able to talk to anyone who knows the answers.  **Introduce a legitimate functionality of Facebook as a powerful networking tool.**  There are many Facebook groups that cater to foreigners in Korea, one that I found (with direction from Holly Bonnema and Kaley Eastman) is called Seoul Hiking Group.  This group does a lot of hiking and adventure type things on the weekends and are very cheap.  So cheap, in some instances they are free.  Boo ya.  It is also a great way to meet some other cool (and sometimes lame) foreigners in Seoul.  

                                                         Suraksan and Bulamsan

The last weekend of March we got our first taste of hiking in Korea.  We went to Suraksan and Bulamsan, about 1.5 hours away from our apartment but about 25 mintues via subway outside of downtown Seoul.  So it is relatively close.  We met some great people and had some amazing hiking.  It was really awesome.  One problem, I might add, is that whenever Kelly and I plan to do something fun outdoors on the weekends it usually is very cloudy and hazy.  This is OK, but usually 9 out of 10 times the next day in which we are not planning anything, it is really sunny and about 10 degrees warmer.  Korea is playing hard to get...and I like it.  We are very much anticipating Spring and Summer, as it will be a completely different experience.  While it pains me to say this, I cannot upload any photos on this blog of that trip because I shot all my pictures in RAW, rendering the file size very large.  They are, however, up on the Picasa Web Album.  If you are not too lazy to click on the link on the right of the blog then you can see them there! :)

                                            Yeosoo, Suncheon Man, odong do, Youngchi San

This past weekend I went with the Seoul Hiking Group to southern Korea for a day of hiking.  We left a subway station in downtown Seoul at 11:30 p.m. on Friday night and rode a bus for about 5 hours through the night.  We started a sunrise hike at 5:20 am and hiked until around noon when we had lunch.  It was so nice to get outside of Seoul and see some more landscape of Korea and some smaller towns. 

What makes this particual trip so appealing to many hikers is because there are some areas of the mountains that are completely covered in Rhododendron flowers.  In full bloom,  the hills appear to be purple.  It was very beautiful for us even though they were not in full bloom. Still, there were many blooming flowers.

 

After lunch we went to this island that was completley tourist-ized.  It was a beautiful island, very small but developed.  It was more of a big park but covered in trees.

The shoreline of this island.  The island itself takes about 30-45 minutes to walk around.

This is the singing fountain.  I have a video of it, but I can't seem to find it.  The fountains were, at one point, in rhythmical coordination with Queen's, "We Will Rock You."  Remember cultural oddities I try to observe?  That was one of them.  Why Queen with a musical fountain on a tourist island?

After the island we went to a nature reserve.  It was once a huge bay but has since dried up.  It is now, according to our hiking leader who organized this trip, the 5th largest swamp in the world.

The view of the wetland from the highest observation point.

Once again, all of the pictures are on the Picasa Web Album.  If you want your life to be changed forever, if you want something to tell your grandchildren, if you are looking for ways to acheive world peace, then I suggest you check them out.