Wordless Wednesday: Gyeongju World

A few weeks ago, I went with a group of friends to Gyeongju World.  It is a small amusement park about 2 hours away from my beloved town of Pohang.  We rode rollercoasters (big an small), ate ourselves silly with dip n' dots ice cream (love it) and had a blast being child-like with all of the rides.  Being an amusement park lover of all sizes, I had a perfect day.

Gyeongju World:  The happiest place in Korea

The entire group before our day of fun

Before the drop zone ride.  I did not ride this one.  Far too scary for me. 

Right before the first rollercoaster

Next on our list of amusement parks is The Everland Amusement Park in Seoul.  It is the 5th largest amusement park in the world and NEEDS to be visited before I leave this country.  Consider it tacked on the ever-growing list of places to visit before I leave.

Gyeongju: A Cherry Blossom Bike Ride

[Thanks to Emily and Kory for these great pictures]

Over the weekend I took my first true biker ride.  A group comprised of 5 foreigners and 17 Koreans took a little ride to the beautiful city of Gyeongju to check out the cherry blossoms that come out around this time each spring. 

The lot of us met up at our "bike shop" and began the process of organizing the groups for the ride that day and who would be taking care of the foreigners.  Because our group was so big, it took a lot of communication among our new friends to figure out how exactly this was going to work.  Everyone got in a line according to their group, found their group leader and hit the road.  My bike was the slowest of the 22 (embarrassing to say the least) and was put into the ending part of the group.  Thankfully I had a few fantastic Koreans to be in my group and make sure that my poor little 50cc was able to withstand the 70km trip to Gyeongju.  They formed a rotating box around me on the highway in order to "protect me" and checked in on me during every rest stop.  While my pride was understandably hurt, I was not so secretly thrilled that I was getting so much encouragement during my first, big ride.

Our group during a roadside photo shoot.  If you squint
you can see me on the far right on the orange bike.

There's always time to do the peace sign

I had to add at least one thing Harley Davidson
for dear old Dad

After the roadside photo shoot, we continued on our way.  We wove our way through the countryside to the bustling city of Gyeongju, stopping along the way for a few more pictures.  

At yet another photo shoot.  Here is the entire crew for the day. 

Due to the short-lived cherry blossoms, the traffic was absolutely insane.  Bumper to bumper traffic as far as the eye can see.  Thankfully, the fact that we were on motorcycles afforded us the ability to do a little weaving through traffic.  Don't worry Mom, I was as careful as could be.   The veteran Koreans we were with were seasoned in how to maneuver traffic, keep together as a group and seamlessly coordinate directions.

Maneuvering through traffic

The rest of our trip was beautiful.  We took a quick detour to see some of the more cultural sides to Gyeongju and to try and get our fill of cherry blossoms.  We parted ways with our Korean motorcycle gang as they headed up the coast and we headed back to Pohang.  I had an amazing time with them and learned just how difficult (but exhilerating) riding in large groups can be.

Just one of the beautiful cherry blossom trees 

On all accounts, it's safe to say that my first official bikers ride was a smashing success.  We got to Gyeongju and back without any casualties, saw the rare cherry blossoms and had one hell of a day.  For our next big ride in May I know one thing for certain: a faster bike is a must.

Gyeongju

[Just wantd to give a big THANK YOU to Des, Dustin and Angela for the cards.  I love getting snail mail.  It brightens up my entire day when I go to that mailbox and see something there.  You three made my day!]

#59.  Bank accounts in Korea are intensely complicated.  Foreigners who want to send money home have to have two seperate accounts.  One account is for solely Korean expenses.  One is for currency exchange.  Apparantly they don't just have one account that can do both.  Point for American banks.

Clearly from the above I finally opened my Korean bank account(s). Eventually they were opened but the process was quite the experience.  For the first time in my life I was discriminated against for being American. Over and over again.  My director went with me to translate but at every window they took one look at me, did the hand signal for no and said "No English.  No American. No." and promptly waved a Korean forward.  Ouch.    Now I know what being discriminted feels like. I guess I just never thought that being an American was something to be discriminated against.  Look at me and my pompus "Americans are the best.  Who would hate us?!" attitude. 

#60.  Postcards in Korea are hard to find.  It is not at all like America, with post cards in every touristy city.  Hell, there are post cards in every non-touristy city.  Brownsburg has post cards.  Sorry Brownsburgians (Brownsburgians?  Brownsburgites?) but who seriously would wants to write from Brownsburg with a post card.  "Hey.  I'm in Brownsburg."  Thrilling. 

Today was my first field trip with the munchkins.  We went to Gyeongju (pronounced just like it looks) which is about 40 minutes by van. We walked around and took in the scenery (gorgeous) and took so many pictures.  The kids didn't seem all that impressed but Jen and I certainly were.  There is so much history in the temples and statutes that it's ridiculous.  Hand painted statutues, murrals on walls, intricate scrolls on the tops of buildings...it's intense. 

Gorgeous temple in the middle of Gyeongju

Ghoup shot before we left.

Right as we were leaving we took a picture in front of a huge rock that had a Korean inscription.  Don't ask me what it said because I don't have a damn clue.  It was huge and other people took pictures in front of it like it was important...so we did too.  Right as we were getting up to leave a group of about 20 people started yelling "American American! Come. Come."  We ended up having to take pictures with a group of Vietnamese tourists

They were so excited to take their picture with us and every single person wanted their own photo with the Americans.  They kept jumping up to switch out cameras and just kept smiling.  We were smack dab in the middle of the group and it was all I could do to just keep smiling.  How can I not.  If taking their picture with me made them happy then why the hell not.  I'll do it. 

When will I ever be such a celebrity again.  Not in America.  Definitely not in America. 

Sally.  The cutest tiny Korean cowgirl ever. 

The amazing feats we had for lunch.  Kimbap (Korean sushi), fresh fruit,
rice balls and egg battered crab.  Yum!

Firsts in Korea

Song of the Moment: "Forever My Friend" - Ray LaMontagne

I've decided that I will dedicate part of each post to something Koreans do that is unusual and unheard of in America.

#1 The first is that couples dress alike. When I say alike I don't just mean they wear the same color or style. I mean they dress identical from head to toe. There are entire stores that are dedicated to this unusual trend. This would never happen in America.

My first day in Korea was definately an experience I won't soon forget. One of my supervisors took me to the corner mart where all I wanted was water. Their water comes in 2 liter form. Solid. In America that 2 liter bottle of water would cost $3 or more. In Pohang it cost less than $1. I can live with that. After the mart experience she took me back to my apartment where she made me my first Korean meal. Kimchi. I didn't hate it...but i sure didn't love it. It's rice, cabbage, a sort of red paste and tons of spice. Apparantly that is one of the staples in my school's lunch menu. Looks like i'm going to have to make my peace with Kimchi. mmmm Kimchi.

After she left I had every intent of crawling under the covers and going back to sleep. My new friend Frances from my school had other ideas. We met up with 6 of her friends and took a bus to Gyeongju to go off roading on ATVs. Yup. I drove an ATV around. Who would have thought?! We had a blast and it is something I will definately do again soon! I am so glad that I have met other foreigners here already and am building connections. Before I came here I was worried that I wouldn't meet anyone or experience anything..but here in Pohang the teaching community is very tight knit and hang out throughout the week and every weekend. They say that Pohang has the big city look but the small town feel. So far it's true and i'm loving every second of it.