Jirisan Mountain

I've been through 2-a-days football practice in 98 degree weather in 15 pounds of pads; I've been through an ACL reconstructive surgery and 6 months of rehabilitation; and I've had to be at work at 8am after a seriously long and horrible hangover but nothing, and I mean NOTHING was as challenging and difficult as climbing Jirisan Mountain. This weekend was supposed to consist of a ferrie trip, a sunny beach island, and beer with about 16 people. Those plans were changed when the weather decided to turn crappy on us and the ferrie was canceled. 7 of us decided to take our adventure to another climate and adventure. The weather was cool and I'm certainly glad I brought a thick UnderArmour (thank you Carl and Tessa), a sweat shirt, long johns, and sweat pants for the hike. It was kind of funny because almost every Korean I passed on the mountain they told me my running shoes were no good for the mountain and at times as I'm slipping off of some rocks, I believed them. Next time, IF there's a next time I'll make sure to get a pair of hiking boots. Ok so back to the struggle. My knees are horrible, have been since high school. My back is horrible, has been since high school and pulling it 4 days prior to climbing doesn't help the situation in the least. There were a couple of times on my hike up that I wanted to quit and turn around but I haven't quit anything in my life and I wasn't about to start now!

A bit about the positives of the trip. Jirisan is the tallest mountain in all of Korea. It was really cool being at the bottom of the mountain and looking at the peak of which our destination was the goal. As I mentioned it was a cool day in general and the bottom was comfortable. As we started to climb obviously things started to heat up. The sweat shirt had to come off but as we continued climbing the temperature dropped drastically so the sweat shirt came back on with the addition of gloves and a beany cap. The views were AWESOME! Being able to see everything completely covered in snow from one perspective and looking back to see greenery and waterfalls was breathtaking. I hope the pictuers and video can do some sort of justice so enjoy!

Video's go from top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right in order. SORRY FOR THE CUSSING! It's pretty funny now watching them seeing the progession of my "Get me off this moutainess"

Little Drummer Boy...

So it looks like a few of my friends and I are going to attempt to start a band here in Korea. There is a drum set at one of the local bars and they have open mic nights on Tuesdays. Andy, the lead guitarist and lead singer has been playing guitar for many years and was in a duet with another guy playing folk music but Andy has decided he wants to venture out into the rock world and asked me if I'd like to be the drummer. He has a friend who plays rhythm guitar and I know a kid who plays bass so we're going to ATTEMPT to get something together. We have our first "practice" this Tuesday so a better update will come soon there after!

Taco's in Korea?????

That's right! Yes, thankfully for the care package from my aunt and uncle with taco seasoning I have finally had my fix of Mexican food. I wasn't sure where to get tortillas from but I came across a little shop that had a few foreign foods and tortillas was one of them. I usually cook all of my meals here in my apartment as I had been doing back home in Tampa. One reason for this is I know exactly what I'm eating and the other is because it's not Korean food. I mean I like a good amount of Korean food but I can only handle so much at a time. The picture I have for this weekend was at one of my friends birthday parties and I decided to show an old bar tending trick I used to do back in the day. I wound up doing it 3 times that night because a lot of people had never actually seen fire being blown before.....warning!!! Don't drink Bacardi 151....if it's flammable, imagine what it does to your insides!

Almost threw up!!!

Ok, so today at work one of the Korean teachers brought his lunch to work. He asked me to come into the teachers lounge with him and asked me to try something. I thought it was really nice of him until I saw what he wanted me to eat. Now, I've seen this "food" on corner vendors but never really knew what it was until today. I always thought they looked like little bugs but I was always told "nahhhhh they're not bugs" by fellow foreigners. Well jokes on you Nathan! I had a good feeling I was going to regret biting into this thing but when someone offers you something in Korean it's an insult not to accept it. With a smile and hesitation I threw back the beetle and started to chew. Yup, it tasted exactly as I had expected; like a salty bug. I guess if I was lost in the Korean wilderness and had to survive off of these things then I could pull it off but outside of that I think I'd starve myself. I chewed the first one and told him it was good so like a true gentleman he offered up another one......great. I threw this one in and just swallowed it with a slight gag to follow. Come to find out the bug is pronounced phonetically as Beon-de-ki which is basically a silkworm larvae!!! Mmmmmmmm, boy do I love Korean food!!

Best day of Korea...so far :)

Today really proved the power of God! I walked around with my mouth wide open and honestly speechless. The weather was perfect, the cherry blossoms were in full bloom and the scenery was breathtaking! My friend TK, whom is a Korean woman but speaks fluent English, took a small group of us to Songgwangsa area of Korea. It's about a 40 minute bus ride from Jeonju and worth every second of the wait. The cherry blossoms only come into bloom for about 3 weeks until they fall off and the greenery starts to grow in right behind it. We headed out around 11 and arrived to the restaurant for lunch around noon before taking off to sight see. The little restaurant we ate at was settled right on the hillside with cherry blossoms blowing and a small river in the background. We spent around 4 hours walking around the hillside and went to a small coffee shop on the way back down the mountain and took everything in. I could have spend another 4 hours just sitting there listening to the birds, the wind in the trees, the little Korean kids playing in the background, and smooth jazz drounding out any thoughts of negativity. After our "nature hike" we went to a Budhist temple at the bottom of the hill and becuase I have never been to a Budhist temple I was in sheer amazement by the details these people put into everything. You'll see what I mean with the video of the guardsmen.

The other videos are of a father and daughter playing "paper, rock, scissors" on stepping stones to see who will get to the end first. It really was adorable and I had to share it with you. The other videos are of the scenery around the lakeside.

ENJOY!!!!!

Hanok Village

Today was a great day! I was able to finally get out and do some sight seeing and it was more than I had expected. Here is a little information on Hanok Village and then you can see the videos to back it up :)

Hanok Village was on the Jeonju River-side outside West Gate, which is near present-day Daga-dong. In 1907, the western part of the City Wall was demolished to make way for the Whole Army Highway. The complete demolition of Eastern part of the City Wall in late 1991 marked the end of Jeonju City. For several years after 1930, Koreans started to build Hanok Village throughout the PungNam-dong and Gyo-dong area. Looking over from Omokdae, the Hanok Village in Gyo-dong and Pungnam-dong shows majestic ridges of octagonal roofs with beautiful round lines and shapes. Located in the city of Jeonju, Jeonju Hanok Village in South Korea overlaps Pungnam-dong and Gyo-dong.

The features of the village include:
- The village consists of over 800 traditional Korean houses called Hanok houses.
- While the rest of city has been industrialized, Hanok Maeul has not changed a bit, and still retains its old traditions.
- Its roof curves make the village special. The roof edges being slightly raised to the sky is unique.
- Hanok houses are generally divided into two sections, Anchae and Sarangchae. Anchae is also known as Gyusu room, and is furnished accordingly. Sarangchae is where the men dwell, called Seonbi room.
- Another trait of Hanok is that all the houses are heated with the ondol system, a heating system in which the floor is heated from beneath. As the heat radiates from the floor, the entire room is heated.
- A part of Hanok has been set aside so that tourists can experience traditional Korean life, called Hanok Life Experience Hall. The Seonbi room and the Gyusu room are warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
- The food provided here is very traditional, which adds to the traditional ambience.

The pictures and video do no justice for the beauty this place has to offer. I'm looking forward to going back in the deep spring time when everything is in bloom but I'm sure my sinuses are going to hate me for that decision!