A glorious "Only in Korea" moment

This morning, I was in my classroom, getting ready for a class that was ultimately cancelled... no, that is not the glorious moment.

Two of my girl students came in. They said "Teacher, Korean food!" and handed me a little yellow and pink plum and a lukewarm potato.

It isn't exactly an apple for the teacher, but the plums here are delicious - remind me of Ontario fruit. Heck, even the lukewarm potato was good (funny how I was talking about this with Jen just the other day - eating a whole boiled potato as a mornign snack...). Anyway, the tall girl in the picture is the one who gave me the potato - I took this picture a few weeks ago.

Updates

Here are a few updates from the land of me:

1. Tickets to China are bought and paid for. The full itinerary can be found at www.kangsantravel.com - it's the 5 day trip (no, that is not a link, you'll actually have to type it yourself). Tickets to Malaysia are bought and paid for and in my sweaty little hands. The Malaysia trip will be the first time in my life that I am arriving somewhere with no idea of what I am going to do. I mean, I have a vague idea of going to Pulau Kapas, but beyond that? I've got no real concrete plans.

2. Mr. Shane has a new home. After a few weeks of watching the little guy suffer from the heat, I fell off my wallet and bought him a rockin' new pad: purple grill, aqua green loft, yellow exercise wheel, flurescent yellow food dish, and a little purple tube slide thingy. He showed his appreciation by making so much noise that I couldn't sleep. His favourite foods include asparagus (at $4 for 6 spears, he won't be eating much), broccoli, and bugles chips. Not surprisingly, given my track record for obese animals, he is a fat little guy.

3. From now until the end of the school term, I have 10 teaching days left, after which I will have a week and a half of supplementary classes (summer school - but for everybody, not just the kids who have failed) and then a summer camp (that I have to plan! Arrrgh!) I know that today (or yesterday) was the last day of school in Canada. See, school starts in March or something here, so my long vacation will be in January.

4. The monsoon officially starts this weekend. Yay! I mean... Boo! Apparently, by this time last year, the monsoon was already two weeks old. I've been warned that my clothes will go mouldy and my books will curl, just from the extra humidity.

5. Also this weekend, we will be celebrating Canada Day. Yes, with all the Canadians here, you can imagine that it will be quite a party. Because I am a spoiled brat, my mommy sent me a "Canadian girls have more fun" shirt that I will probably wear to school tomorrow. As the only person who has spent more than a week in Quebec here (there are literally no Quebecois in Korea), I have decided to also represent Quebec by speaking only French all night. Right.

6. A few updates from home: Katrina is off to go sailing up and down the Dalmatian coast in Croatia this summer, Tiffany is getting married, Meaghan and Bridget are soon to be celebrating birthdays (I'll send your presents next week), Myrianne and Frederic are soon to leave La Poc for a trip around the world, Carl and Julie (my cat Jane's foster parents) are moving to Quebec City, Kat finally got her lawn mower fixed and has tamed the wild field of tall grasses next to her home, Kelly has finally moved everything into her new apartment, Barb is due at the end of August... and you all need to e-mail me more often.

7. And, a mini "Only in Korea" post:

One thing you will hear in Korea: "Wow. Did you see that guy's purse? Ya, him in the pink shirt... he's got a nice purse, eh?"

One thing you will never hear in Korea: "Oh, I'm sorry. Did I cut in front of you in line? Oh, no, please, you were here first, and you've been waiting longer... no, I insist, you go first. And I really apologize for butting in front of you."

Just being cheeky....

Friends

Well, it's been a while since I had a chance to post pics of me and my friends here in Korea. This is Matt, Steve, me, Helen and April, on our way to Korea's first World Cup match against Togo. It was a couple of weeks ago.

Aren't we gorgeous?

Weekend Report

The weekend started off nicely, with my friend Erik arriving from Busan. Although he left on Saturday evening, we were still able to do quite a lot. (Right... Erik is an engineer not a teacher, so he works more. And sometimes even on Sundays.)

Friday night, we went first to Big Dave's to wish him a happy birthday. From there, we went to ... Julianna's (of course). We decided not to stay out too late, since the rains had let up and we were hoping to go on a bit of a hike on Saturday. Although we would have liked to have gone to Songwangsa, I wasn't completely sure how to get there by car. Armed with a map that doesn't show most of the roads and directional signs in Korean, we made it to Seonamsa, a different, smaller temple. I do love Seonamsa, though. It's not as flash or big as Songwangsa, but is nice nonetheless. From there, we headed back to Suncheon for lunch (extremely spicy bibimbap!) and then on to Suncheon Bay. A couple of u-turns later, we found ourselves walking on a raised boardwalk snaking through a field of reeds. There were hundreds of crabs running around under us, and some were even being "harvested" by the Koreans. Hoping for a nice view, we walked up a trail, even though the humidity was rising (sheer torture for a Norwegian and a Canadian!), and were a bit disappointed that, once we'd reached the top, there was nothing to see except the trees around us (too bad, it would have been a bit of a reward). It was still an awesome walk, really beautiful and definitely worth a second visit.

In an "Only in Korea" moment, we got free cookies from the Cappuccino lady. I think she deserves her own post, seeing as she gives me free cookies, kiwi shakes, onion juice (ugh), extra espresso shots etc...

After Erik went back to Busan, I went back over to Big Dave's, where we sang quite loudly to Doug's, Helen's and Matt's guitars before heading over to Julianna's (hmmm, maybe I need a new hobby) to watch the most amazing World Cup match ever - Sweden vs Germany. For those of you who are keeping track, Korea is no longer a contender, having lost to Switzerland... anyway.... the Sweden vs Germany match featured some of the most gorgeous footballers ever who sometimes took off their shirts... I think I annoyed Matt a bit by pointing this out every 3 seconds or so.

And speaking of new hobbies: I've decided to buy a guitar and learn to play AND finally learn the fine art of chess AND learn Chinese. Maybe I should work on my Korean a bit more too. I'm understanding more and more every day, but still need to work on it.

Finally, it was great to have so many comments on the post where I announced my trip to Beijing. Be sure to check out Myrianne's and Frederic's blog (new link) where they will be posting information about their trip around the world... The site is in French, but the itinerary is pretty clear. And, let me give a shout out to the total strangers who are reading my blog and sending me e-mails to tell me that they are enjoying it!

The heat must be making me crazy...

...because I just booked a 5-day trip to Beijing in July.

See, I've got a couple of days off between the end of classes and the beginning of my supplementary classes and camp etc. For about $800 Cdn, it includes airfare, visa fees, tours (Temple of Heaven, Great Wall, Tienamen Square, Forbidden City etc), hotel, some meals.... seems like a good deal and the dates coincide with the bit of free time that I have.

Wonder if I'll regret this once I realize that I have come to Korea to make money and yet have none!

Nah - I'd rather have fun.

Rainy season....

The rainy season started last night at about 9:43 pm. You know how sometimes, when it's raining hard in Canada, you'll say "Oh, it's a torrential monsoon!".

Ya.

It's a torrential monsoon.

Just checked the weather forecast for the next 10 days. Guess what?

It's going to rain.

Suncheon Police Report: Missing Flag

Item: One (1) flag showing both Koreas united as one complete country. The blue design on a white background has the historical significance of being the flag that the North and South Korean Olympic teams marched together under for the Winter Olympics in Italy this year. There are approximately 80 billion of these flags hanging from almost every lightpost in Korea. They were first hung last week, in celebration of a conference of Nobel Peace Prize winners that was held in Gwangju, commemorating the anniversary of the first talks regarding the reunification of North and South Korea.

Missing since: June 20, 2006 at about 9:30 pm.

Other details: Flag seems to have been pulled from flagpole by two as yet unidentified Waguk females. The first was short, blonde and giggling as if she'd had at least one glass of wine too many. The second was tall, with dark blonde hair and was being very patient with the short, blonde, tipsy one. Witnesses (of which there were approximately 8,000, given that this happened on a street full of 6 lanes of traffic) report that both females seemed to be clad in pyjamas.
The Reunification Flag Committee has reported that the flags are held in place by a string tie (on top) and a plastic ring (on the bottom). When the string tie is no longer attached, these flags are VERY easy to snatch as the plastic ring simply snaps open when pulled. (The Reunification Flag Committee would also like to point out that there are at least 4 other flags just a short walk from Shidae Apartment complex that are only hanging by the plastic ring. One of them is right by the crosswalk. But, we don't wish to lead anyone into temptation, you know....)

Malaysia Tickets have arrived....

... and I am caressing them and perhaps drooling on them a bit.

For an "Only in Korea" moment, they actually arrived Friday, but the mailman gave them to another Waguk who lives on the same floor and this guy delivered them to me tonight. Don't you just love how honest folks are?

Mucho thanks to Jen for helping me sort out my links: Notice how pretty the right hand side bar is now.

World Cup Report 2

Was awoken at 5:35 a.m. by various noises (pounding on floors from above, yelling outside)... and checked the scores.

Korea tied France 1 - 1. They are currently the leaders of Group G. They play Switzerland next.

Pic is of hero Park Ji-Song, who scored Korea's goal. Those soccer fans among you will also recognize that he plays for Man U.

p.s. Take a look at Jen's blog and Brent's blog for more explanations of the symbols, cheers etc associated with Korea's team. You can even sing along with "Reds Go Together"!

HEY WAIT!

Today marks my two month anniversary in Korea! Wait... no... has it only been TWO MONTHS????

Yes... yes it has. I arrived on April 19. Wow. Looking back, I feel like I've done a lot. And there is more to come!

How many "best day ever"s can I have?

Just got back from a weekend away in Naju, hiking up Wolchulsan with Stuart and Max.... it was a looooong day, but definitely one for the "Best Day Ever!" list...

I arrived in Naju on Friday night and spent the evening chatting with Stu and Max - the first time I'd seen them since Orientation week in April. Naju is a very small place, and we celebrated my arrival with a delicious malicious pumpkin and chestnut pizza (with corn niblets on it, of course!).

Saturday morning, we were up bright and early to get to Wolchulsan. Our adventure began in the bus station. We bought sandwiches (ummm, ya, triangles of rice with sauce and fish or chicken wrapped in seaweed. Ya, that's a sandwich, right?) and some crazy Korean guy walked up and took my sandwich! I grabbed it back from him, and he started chatting with us. He took one of Stu's seaweed wrappy things and ate it! When it was time to get on the bus, I realized that I had lost my ticket, so had to get another one. Then, when we got to the town where Wolchulsan is (name escapes me) the crazy guy followed us into a store, picked up a can of Coke, pointed at Max and walked out! We figured that he was just a local loony taking us for a ride, since he seems to have gotten food, drink and possibly my bus ticket out of us. Fine, this is payback for all our service-uh, I guess.

Unlike the other mountains in Korea, which all seem to be like broccoli florets and covered in trees, Wolchulsan's summits and peaks are granite spires that hit the sky at over 800 metres. The hike began easily enough, but soon became steep and rocky. Sometimes, we were pulling ourselves up with ropes, or clinging to metal railings as we negotiated our way up rocks and boulders that had been smoothed by the hundreds of feet that pass over them every day. The summit was crowded with Koreans - we were the only Waguk out there - and we sometimes found ourselves walking single file with 5 people ahead and 20 people behind. Not a secluded nature trail, this!

Having only water and no food, we soon found ourselves absolutely starving as we walked along. We probably could have gone up to any of the multitude of Korean hikers who were there and asked for food, but we were all too scared (we needed Steve O. for a time like this!) At one point, walking past a small knot of men crouched around a few bottles of soju and dongdongju, I called out "Dongdongju chuseyo!" (Give me some dongdongju please) and the response (Ne!) came almost as quickly as if we were in a restaurant, but we decided against having a bowl of liquid ecstasy on an empty stomach after 3 hours of strong hiking (Max was still giggling about this episode the next day... definitely a blog worthy moment!). A sympathetic Korean hiker gave us some cucumbers which only served to make our lips and tongues go numb (WHY?). We pressed on, and our conversation often turned to food and what we would eat upon reaching the temple at the end of the trail. All in all, we calculated that we walked about 9 km, up and down granite peaks with breathtaking views, along narrow saddles with sheer drops on either side, through rivers, through bamboo or pine forests....

I was super impressed with Wolchulsan. It seems to be Korea's most under-rated attraction. Any website or guidebook has little more than a few sentences about it, whereas there may be pages written about something that is really not all that impressive.... wonder if the Koreans are trying to keep this natural treasure a secret???

Once at the bottom, we found a restaurant. My survival Korean was pushed to the limit by the ajumma at the restaurant, but we ended up with some Dak something something, which is chicken cooked at your table, then wrapped with rice, kimchi and spicy bean paste in a lettuce leaf. We were famished at this point, and devoured a sort of fish omelette thing that arrived first while we watched the other kitchen ajumma hack the chicken carcass to pieces with a huge cleaver, supporting Max's theory that meat is "carved" with a sledgehammer. The raw chicken that arrived at the table was complete with gizzards, liver, skin and some meat. Thank god for chopsticks that let you pick out the good parts. At the end of our meal, the ajumma ran out with the rest of the bits of chicken (bones etc), put them in a plastic shopping bag and handed them to Max. Poor Max! He gamely carried the bag of chicken carcass around until we got to the taxi, at which point Stu was like "You still have the chicken in a bag???" and I explained that he was not allowed into the taxi with it. He happily threw it away.

It was really an amazing day and Stuart's (who is an awesome photographer) photo link will soon be in my links list. Or, you can head to Brent's blog, and click on the pic or Max and I to get to Stu's photos.

Many thanks to Stuart for his hospitality, stories of adventures abroad and suggestions on things to do in Osaka!

Piclist: 1. Famous bridge spanning deeeeeeep ravine. 2 & 3. Views from the top: the photos don't do justice to how amazingly clear it was 4. Max (black hair) and Stuart (red shirt) 5. One of the many HUUUUUGE granite peaks.

Updates

1. Finally saw X-Men 3! We went as a big Waguk group and giggled at some of the more ridiculous dialogue. I liked it though...

2. Am off to Wolchulsan this weekend for a particularly gruelling hike... or so I've heard. Hope I survive it!

3. Mr. Shane is HUGE. I guess he was a baby when I got him.

4. Tickets to Malaysia will be arriving any day now!

World Cup

So, Korea is playing in Germany for the 2006 World Cup. For those of you who are not familiar with soccer, let me explain the sport....

1. Get 11 guys with nice legs. Put them in silky shorts.
2. Get another 11 guys with nice legs. They can wear silky shorts too.
3. Have 20 men run around HUGE field until they are positively DRIPPING with sweat. Put other 2 in cages at either end of the field.
4. Drink some beer.
5. Be thankful that Korean soccer jersey is perfect red for skin tone and hair colour and not that kind of red that makes you look like you are sick. Add red sandals, earrings, face tattoo, arm tattoos ("Korea Fighting!"), bandana ("We are twelfth!" - whatever that means), red rubber bracelets and light-up devil horns.
6. Go to outdoor square to watch match on huge screen with 47 million of your closest friends, including every single one of your students.
7. Drink some beer.
8. Stomp feet and clap. Scream "Dae han min gook!".
9. Decide square is too crowded and go to nearest Waguk bar (Julianna's again) to, um, drink some more beer?
10. Continue watching game.
11. Remember that it is a school night. Use bar coaster to write down names and numbers of cutest players for use in class the next day.
12. When sweaty men with nice legs finally stop running around field, and begin to hug and roll on ground with each other, it means that there was a goal. Cheer like mad.
13. Wake up next morning with barely enough time to get to school, scrape face tattoo off in taxi, begin each class with list of Korean players found in pocket on bar coaster (how did that get there) and why Young Pyo (#12) is the cutest player.

And that, my friends, is World Cup in Korea.

p.s. Ummm, right. They played Togo and won 2:1. Next match is against France on Sunday.... ummm, my students told me that France's star player hurt his leg or something and that Korea will win.

Daewonsa

In one of my first weeks in Korea, I was asking about Korean Buddhist temples and someone said to me, "Ah, you've seen one temple, you've seen them all".

I beg to differ.

Yesterday, I went to Daewonsa, a Tibetan Buddhist museum and temple complex in the middle of nowhere (for those of you who are keeping score, this is the third temple in a week - Seonamsa, Songwangsa and Daewonsa)

After a typical Friday night of too much food and too much dongdongju, I was up bright and early on Saturday morning to meet Jen and Paddy. Okay, Jen is a human from Vancouver, Paddy is a toy poodle from Korea (there will be a post one of these days about the whole animal issue....) that Jen found last March.

And so our day began. Like all good explorers, we had no maps, no real concrete information, no real bus schedule, some money and our Lonely Planet Korean Phrasebooks. All that we really knew about Daewonsa was that there was a bus that could take us there from Boseong at around 11:30. Boseong is a town full of green tea plantations about an hour from Suncheon. With a bit of time to kill in Boseong, we explored the "town", which is only slightly larger than my apartment. Once again, the foreigner factor kicked in and we had people stopping to talk to us on the street, little kids following us, and university students asking to take a picture with us. Jen got yelled at by one Korean ajumma, but that's because we were taking pictures of the 10 chickens stuffed in a wire cage in her little shop.

We finally got the bus to Daewonsa and bumped and swerved our way through gorgeous hilly terrain, small villages and fields of irises as we followed the curves and flow of a river. An older lady got on at one of the villages and sat right near us. She tried to pet Paddy, who snapped and snarled (which reallly surprised Jen, as she really is the sweetest dog in the world). The lady was totally obsessed with Jen and Paddy and, with the help of a girl who was translating for us, asked Jen if she could have Paddy! It was really bizarre. The lady also grabbed my hair (it's a real no-no to touch a person's head in Korea), so we figure that she was not all that mentally balanced....

Having left Suncheon at 9:00 am, we finally made Daewonsa at 1 pm. And WOW. The photos I just uploaded to Flickr do not do it justice. We started out at a museum full of Tibetan Buddhist artifacts (said to have been smuggled from Tibet to Korea. We couldn't really take pictures of the numerous statues (including some very Christian items: Joseph holding Jesus; Buddha holding a sheep! These were, of course, next to sculptures of multi-armed and faced figures umm... you know... doing... ummm,... "in union".), the costumes, the printing blocks, the scrolls, the sand mandala.... really nice. We shopped our way out the door (I got incense and a "Free Tibet" wall hangy thingy and gifts for some folks back home) and, as it was now after 2, decided to look for something to eat.

We ended up in the main temple area where every step elicited gasps of amazement from Jen and I. We couldn't stop taking pictures. And, except for about another dozen or so people, we had the place to ourselves. It really did have a different feel to it than the other temples I've seen. Unfortunately, the eating area was not serving any food so we continued to explore the paths in the bamboo forest, temple buildings and numerous statues with our stomachs growling.

We ended up back at the museum to ask about bus times and... get this... the cashier at the museum set us up with a little lunch in the back room! We sat down to a place of rice, kimchi, squid, and bamboo, with boricha (cold barley tea) and rice cake for dessert. Can you believe it? You arrive at a place and say "I'm hungry" and you get fed!

With an hour to wait until the bus came, we wandered around another lotus pond and sat in a pagoda to look through all that we had collected and bought. (I had picked up a brochure (all in Korean) about temple stays that are offered there - I think I will try to do one there. Hey, the Dalai Lama has stayed there, so why can't I?) Then, with thunder rumbling in the distance, the skies just opened and I got to experience my first monsoon rain. Yup - the rainy season is beginning, so I can look forward to a few hours of torrential rain every day.

We finally made it back to Suncheon and ran like hell (through rain, lightning etc) to get to Gemma's place (90 minutes late) to eat an awesomely delicious veggie meal, which was greatly appreciated after our Buddhist starvation day.

Geez, this post is long. Are you still with me?

In other news....

- Yes, Malaysia... Oh yes. But when? My school and I are having a bit of a disagreement on my vacation time.
- Tomorrow, I leave for Gwangju to judge a provincial English competition (with about a million other foreign teachers). It's my first official JLP "Business Trip", and I'm excited to be seeing Gwangju again (it's where we stayed during Orientation week).
- I have another little beastie in my apartment. Frank, Matt and Helen's dog, is enjoying the hospitality of Casa Parker this weekend. He's already stolen a sock and cleaned out the peanut butter jar. What do dogs do? Why isn't he more cat like? - then he would just sleep and stare at blank spots on the wall.....

And... I've uploaded a bunch more photos (of my students and of Daewonsa) to the Flickr page.

Only in Korea, part II

So, it's the morning, you are running to work and you go out to the parking lot to get your car. Oh no! Someone (or several someones) has parked in front of you, behind you and on both sides. The cars are touching bumpers. You are completely blocked in on all sides.... whatever shall you do?

If you are in Korea, you grab the nearest bystander and get to work pushing the cars out of the way. See, the cars are parked any which way (sometimes even double parked on a street, with a rock in front of one of the tires) but left in neutral. So, if the guy in the 2nd space from the left wants his car, he just needs to push the others out of the way. A car not left in neutral? No problem. The owner has probably left his cell phone number on the inside of the back window so that you can call him and he'll come out to help you move his car out of the way.

Then, you drive away, blissfully ignoring all red lights that you may come across...

Oh, and U-turns are no problem here. It's great to be on a city bus that has a U-turn as a part of its bus route! It's much less wonderful, however, to be in a taxi that pulls a U-turn in the middle of an intersection when the light has already changed and you just close your eyes and refuse to open them until you realize that you are safely going the other direction and there's really nothing to worry about but your heart is beating in your ears and you just can't wait to get to wherever you need to go and the taxi driver is attempting all his English phrases on you and/or chattering to you in Korean so you just smile and then he realizes there's a short cut so let's pull another U-turn. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Updates....

Right, so I either do 400 blogs in one week, or none for a while. Sorry....

1) Had the day off school (again) yesterday. Went back to Songwangsa with Matt, Helen, Karen and Victoria to sit on rocks beside the river and read. Total paradise! Recently acquired "Everything is Illuminated", which is an absolutely brilliant book. Saw the movie in Montreal and it's just a fun fun book to read.

2) Probably won't be able to go to Pentaport Rock Festival. This saddens me immensely, but I will get over it.

3) Am planning a trip to Malaysia in August! Can't wait! Am totally psyched!

4) Nicola's sister Catherine came to Suncheon for the night en route from Wando (Nicola's home) to Daegu (her home). The minute she walked in, she asked to see Mr. Shane, so I snapped a quick pic. Mr. Shane is three times the size he was when I bought him.... maybe I am feeding him too much? Anyway, Catherine and I talked about teaching (she was a teacher back in New Zealand)... she had a lot of very interesting stories to tell! We both agree that teaching in Korea is a fantasy world - far from the realities of discipline, homework, tests, parents etc.

Must start going to the gym if I want to loll around on beaches in Penang.

And for this gift, I feel blessed.

What have I done to deserve all this?

Nicola arrived from Wando on Friday evening. We went to Julianna's to get her a good Waguk fix, then came home to get a good sleep in preparation for Jogye-san on Saturday.

Saturday morning, we headed off to Jogye-san (mountain) with Matt, Helen and Carol. We took a city bus for an hour on winding roads through rice paddies until we reached the Seonamsa temple complex. The temple was beautiful - imagine a cluster of gorgeously painted buildings at the base of a cluster of mountains. We set off on a lovely path, meaning to go to the summit of Jogye mountain, then down again to another temple, Songwansa. I clearly remember telling everyone in Canada about this trek before I even left. It was in all my guidebooks and I was really excited about it.

As luck would have it, we ended up on the wrong trail... but what serendipity! At one of our numerous stops to catch our breath (steep trail), we asked a Korean man to tell us where we were on our map. He pointed to a different trail than where we were, but then set off with us as our newly adopted guide (he spoke no English, we were able to chat a bit with him in our very limited Korean). He brought us first to a Buddhist hermitage - basically a few small shacks high on the mountain, with an absolutely gorgeous view. We were welcomed by several older ladies and a monk. Nicola, who was hiking in bare feet, got a reflexology foot massage from one of the ladies, while I was invited by our Korean guide to go sit in the shrine. The ceiling was decorated with numerous lotus lanterns (Buddha's b-day was a month ago), and I was thankful to remove my boots and sit for a while. After a few pictures and quite a few "hahpjahng" (deep bows with hands clasped like Namasté) to thank our hosts, we continued on our way. We didn't make it to the summit, but to a small clearing where we met up with several other Korean hikers. Our guide showed us the correct path to follow to get to Songwangsa, introduced us to everyone, we shared oranges and a can of coffee (given to us by random hikers), then continued on our way.

At the base of the trail, following a stream (that we did wade in a bit), we came to a huge restaurant where several people sat on low tables, eating massive quantities of food. A table of people (probably the ones we'd met earlier on the trail) invited me over and offered me a drink of Dongdongju (a VERY strong rice wine). Imagine guzzling a bowl full of whiskey half-way through a hike! Of course, you have to do it "one shot". After chatting with a math teacher who spoke some English, we continued along the trail. By this point, we'd been hiking for several hours, but it was one of the most glorious trails I'd ever seen -- lots of variety (sometimes rocks, sometimes dirt, sometimes bamboo forest, sometimes a stream to play in or gather rocks at). I was in complete heaven (Matt laughs that he kept hearing me yell out "This is &*%$#@ awesome!").

This hike was not about just reaching the destination - the journey in itself was continuously rewarding. When we arrived at Songwangsa, I was floored by the absolute colour and beauty of the whole complex. Imagine a shrine with a big Buddha in the center, surrounded on all sides by 1000 smaller Buddhas - each with a different face!

Upon our return to Suncheon (we chatted happily with everyone on the bus), we hurried to get ready for supper. This time, our group was joined by Roberta, Gemma and Karen, and we headed to a restaurant where we ate our rice, veggies and kimchi wrapped in lettuce leaves (My favourite! Meron: to myself, I call them Gunslinger Burritos). During our supper, we drank more Dongdongju. This is the most amazing drink ever. It makes you happy, giggly and full of love for everything and everyone around you. It's euphoria in a bowl!

Our next stop was a Hof (pub) and batting cages. Then, we went on to Julianna's for another Waguk fix. We had another go at the Norae room, singing ourselves hoarse to Nirvana, Grease, Oasis etc.

This morning, Nicola and I brought lattes to Matt and Helen, and Matt made us a delicious veggie curry (brunch) while Helen taught me some basic guitar chords. Yes, I am going to learn how to play guitar -- must toughen up my fingers, they are still throbbing.

This entire week has been just one glorious time after another: Busan, an amazing shabu-shabu lunch with the English department at my school, the day in Gurye with the Cha family, girls' night (pedicures!) at Shidae, Nicola's visit, Jogye-san, dongdongju, the Norae room, changing from E to A minor on a guitar....

Yesterday afternoon, as I was hiking, I did make a bit of a decision: I know that I am in the "honeymoon" phase. I know that everything is new and wonderful. I know that the friends I have now will leave at some point - in some cases, in just a few months. I know that I will have bouts of homesickness and culture shock. I know that my glasses are rose coloured.

I know that I'm staying another year.

This is me not looking back....