Wednesday 31 January 2007

Whirlwind pt.3

Saturday


after a groggy late morning of free (what they call) coffee and toast we headed out of our little guest house into the big city of Seoul.

a little background -
- Seoul means "national capital" in korean, but the city was called Gyeongseong until 1945.
- seoul has a population of around 10.2 million (ten times montreal!).
- it has been the capital of korea for over 600 years.
- the logo to the right is the "city's brand" which was adopted in 2002. (i found this on the internet and find it odd that i didn't know this until after i came home... i didn't see this logo anywhere...) and from the website: "The name combines the greeting "Hi" with the name of the city "Seoul,” the new brand aims to convey a friendly image of Seoul to the global community, and to promote harmony and unity among Seoul citizens."
- "the cuddly mascot tiger "Wangbeomi" was born in Feb. 19, 1998. It represents the proud citizens of Seoul with a strong spirit, an open mind, and lofty ideals." (info & images courtesy of seoul metropolitan government.)

what else does one need to know about seoul? well, there are tons of historic sites and other cultural things to see, but girls will be girls, and all we really did was shop until we dropped. of course, we did this in many different areas of the city, so we got to see a lot of places, but i'll have to do the touristy thing another time... so, on to the good stuff.

the neighbourhood where we stayed was west of the city center in mapo-gu, the closest subway was hapjeong station and on our walk there in the early afternoon, we passed this restaurant that i couldn't resist taking a photo of:
it could almost be any place in north america with a sign like that! there was a bbq restaurant on the first floor where we actually ate dinner later on... but don't let me get ahead of myself here.

we decided that our first destination in the city would be Itaewon - so on to the subway we went.
Hapjeong station

the subway system in seoul is massive - on scale with london and maybe even bigger... but they make it really easy to use by a) having different colours for all 8 lines b) numbering each station c) marking transfers really well in every station.

map of the Seoul subway system... montreal is a joke in comparison!
the star is hapjeong, the circle is itaewon...
(click on it to make it bigger)

itaewon...

Itaewon is known for being an area mainly for foreigners, something i never have much luck with. it was probably my least favourite part of the city... though there was some good shopping - i got a coach purse and some new t-shirts... Kim cleaned up in itaewon and bought the whole place! (well, not really but she lucked out and found tons of great tops). we had lunch at Subway (!) - i haven't eaten a sub since montreal, so it was awesome... not quite the same as canada, but subway is subway no matter where you go!
the weirdest shop i saw - there were a couple of them actually... selling all this really old diving equipment...
how odd...

of course, this IS korea, so half the shops are named "kim's" this and that so i snapped this shot of kim with her very own shoe store!
that's itaewon... in a nutshell... it was nothing super crazy and awesome, but lots of street vendors selling socks and hats, tshirts and underwear, the usual crap you find on the street... we were only there long enough to walk up and down the street and then moved on to better things... up next: Insadong and the andy warhol-ification of korea! stay tuned!

Tuesday 30 January 2007

Kim's Guest House

(or whirlwind weekend pt.2)

Saturday

Kim woke up really early and went to fetch her Cyndi (from the states) who is travelling in asia and stopped in seoul for the weekend. i slept through her arrival and woke just before eleven.

since we'd gotten in pretty late the night before i didn't really get a chance to 'take in' our guest house but i did in the morning. i let the girls sleep a little longer and got up to make myself a cup o' joe and some toast - included in the 15,000 won/night we paid for the accomodation. which, by the way, is totally cheap - around 17 $ cdn.

it's like a hostel, but since we were three we got our own room instead of the 'dorm' style room that they also have... you can check out their website since i linked to it in part one of the trip. anyway, it's much nicer than a lot of hostels that i've stayed in and with breakfast to boot! the room was clean, the sheets were clean, there was a space heater in our room too, and air conditioning in the summer. we had a set of bunk beds and a double - which i ended up with for the trip! thanks girls!
our room at the guest house.

it was nice to have our own room to make a mess in! but it was strange that the floors weren't heated, and my toes paid for it! but it did force me to buy a pair of fuzzy 'slipper socks' - something i've been meaning to pick up for a while.

the guest house has all the amenities of any hostel i've been to, but it felt like a house instead of a hotel...
the living room - couch, tv, computer (with free high-speed)
the kitchen - with free coffee (probably the worst i've ever had, but coffee nonetheless), toast and jam in the morning...
loved this! fire prevention... where? what does this mean? don't make fires?
the front door. kim's guest house actually has a few buildings on the same block and we stayed in this one... sorry, forgot to take a shot of the original one...
the front gate (which locks) the house is in a walled off courtyard that has a nice table and chairs to sit on outside on a nice summer day...

it was a nice guest house and i would recommend it to anyone. stay tuned... more to come soon!

Monday 29 January 2007

a whirlwind weekend - pt.1 (friday)

it's ten past midnight and i just got home from my whirlwind weekend in Seoul. i hadn't been up there yet, and since i'm on vacation this week, and my friend kim was meeting some friends there this weekend, i hopped on the KTX with her. of course, the first thing i have to do when i get home is upload my pictures and start posting!!! can't keep my away from here for long! so, in that vein, here is part one of my whirlwind weekend... it'll take a few days to post it all, since i'll go step by step and don't want to overwhelm all of my loyal readers...

FRIDAY

it already feels like a hundred years ago... i had to work until 4:30. our train (on the KTX - not sure what it actually stands for, but it's the bullet train... and goes up to 300 kilometers per hour) was at 9:13PM... so we met at Gupo station around 8:30.
i'm lucky that i live pretty close to the high speed train, it only takes me about thirty minutes on the bus and another ten on the subway... if i lived any further west it would take a lot longer and i'd probably have to go all the way into busan...
we were a little early and SO excited... can't you tell? i think we were both a little tired too since we'd been working all day... but we were equipped for the ride with snacks and drinks, and i brought along a deck of cards. the train only takes three hours... did i mention it goes up to 300km per hour? :)
so about five minuted before departure, they let us all crowd onto the platform, of course, they couldn't possibly have an escalator for all the people with luggage, but they did think of putting in a place to wheel your bag up (see above) if you're so lucky as to have wheels on your bag... i had a back pack...
and as always, you have to go up the stairs, just to go back down to the right platform... just had to shoot this as proof... as i still couldn't believe that we were on our way to seoul!
the train arrived promptly at 9:13 and we boarded - car seven...
i've been on a lot of trains in my day... but this was one of the nicer ones... looks a lot like an airplane, but with bigger windows... and more leg room. it wasn't the coolest train i've ever been on, but it was comfortable.

since we travelled at night, i don't have any shots out the window... :( ... next time... it was a good ride, and we arrived in seoul at midnight on friday night. we tried to take the subway, but it was closed, so we took a cab to Kim's Guest House, the place we would call home for the next three days... more on that soon!

well, that's it for now folks, stay tuned for the real deal... it was a wild and crazy weekend... who'd have thought you could DO so much in only three days!!!

Friday 26 January 2007

RE: whaddya think?

thanks for the feedback guys (and gals) will look into your suggestions when i'm back from seoul... stay tuned... next post will be minimum next tuesday... so watch out for me... i should get one of those "subscribe to me" things on here, shouldn't i??? and any more feed back from anyone else is always appreciated!

yay! i'm on vacation!!! c ya!

Wednesday 24 January 2007

whaddya think?

well, i think it's done.

how do you like the new look?

it took longer than i thought/was hoping it would, but i think it's worth it. some changes that i've made:
  • left side column
  • new colours all around
  • right sidebar background image
  • new header *designed by me
  • lots of new links
  • labels (in a cool label cloud)
well, when i look at it like that it's really not that much, but it took a long time... guess i forgot most of what "they" taught me in uni about coding... but with the help of google i managed to find all kinds of great tips online.

i know it's not all super stream-lined and curvy like my old template, i really liked the rounded corners, but it's really more trouble than it's worth, but maybe i'll do it eventually... for now i'm happy with what i've got... and i hope you are too.

let me know what you think... please, don't be shy about it... is it too dark? hard to see? is it eye-catching? what do you think of the graphics? PLEASE tell me!!! i worked on it pretty hard and feed back is always a good thing... promise to post something interesting tomorrow... then it's off to Seoul for the weekend, so no posting, but next week is bound to be full of goodies... in the meantime, let me know what you think of the new look!

Monday 22 January 2007

saturday night fever

this past weekend was the birthday of one of the gimhae ex-pats - kerry. she'll be going home to the UK at the end of february and so wanted to go out in busan to her favourite bar - the fuzzy navel. i wasn't sure if i was going or not since i'm on my way to seoul this coming weekend, and a night out in busan can get expensive... i also didn't want to destroy my sunday by having to recuperate from saturday... we usually get back to gimhae somewhere around 5 am when we go...

but after being persuaded with tales of "a light night out" and "not coming back late" i headed in around 7pm with a bunch of friends from gimhae... we headed to the seomyeon area (of nye dinner fame) to have dinner. we ended up at one of the most kitsch (sp?) (ie. cheesy) restaurants i have ever been to in my life! it was called 'gorilla':
that's one of the waiters... the food was pretty good. kim and i shared a plate of fried rice with cheese and a big chicken salad with kiwi (!) dressing. the boys had different varieties of spaghetti... poor bill ordered a pork cutlet that ended up being covered in a sauce containing soya - which he is allergic to - and didn't feel so hot for a while... then we headed to the fuzzy navel.

with much calling around and asking for directions, we still couldn't find the place. we finally got hold of someone at the bar who volunteered to come get us... by this time there were about 10 of us, as we'd met up with a bunch more gimhae-ens. we got to the bar after 10pm - i knew then that my dreams of a light night were out of the question... oh well... not reason to not have fun!

the bar was nice, they had a pool table, a fooseball table and a giant dance floor. there were a ton of waegooks there celebrating kerry's b-day and a good time was had by all... they also served gin and tonic - my drink of choice - so it was a really great night.

kim was playing fooseball with dave for a lot of the night... notice the table has lime and corona for players? i love it.
we spent a lot of the night on the dance floor too. this is bill and the lasers... thought it was a great shot... the best of the night actually... i thought i took more pics, but they aren't very good... so these will have to do. sorry. anyway, our light night turned out to be until around 4am when bill, lauren, and i, cabbed it back to gimhae... sunday was spent recuperating... so much for climbing another mountain... it'll have to wait til i'm back from seoul...

this week i'm teaching grade two winter camp... so posts may be few and far between as it really isn't that exciting... next week i promise full disclosure on seoul!

Sunday 21 January 2007

changes, part two

well, things are coming together... it'll be a while still until everything is looking the way i really want it to, but i finally found a way to make my regular template (which i love) into a three column... i just wouldn't have been happy with anything else. and thanks to the incredible hans of beautiful beta i have successfully edited the style sheet and html code all on my own! THANKS HANS! there are a few tweaks necessary, and hopefully i'll have them figured out soon... until then, bear with me! :)

Saturday 20 January 2007

changes

as you may have noticed, i am making some changes to my blog... bear with me while i get this done... i was desperate for a three column page, and have finally found a template, but it'll take me a few days to get everything up to speed... thanks for understanding!

Friday 19 January 2007

miss positive

sorry i haven't updated for a few days... i usually try to write something every day, but i guess i just haven't been inspired and didn't want to bore you all - my loyal readers! thank you for coming back!

this week i have been working at the gimhae middle school winter camp. i have to commute to get to the school, something which i was not looking forward to, but which really hasn't been so bad. it has kind of made me feel normal again. i usually walk to school, which is strange for me, coming from the city, where i usually spent at least 30 minutes in transit to get to work... so taking the bus has been pretty good. i catch the 1-1 across the street from my house and it takes a little over 30 minutes for me to get off just down the street from the school the camp is being held. who'd have thought that i'd ever enjoy commuting.

it's nice because it gives me time in the morning to enjoy my enviro-mug full of coffee, and i can think and look out the window at the world coming to life... there are downsides, like anywhere - people who don't wash (read: stink like rotten cabbage and cooked onions), people who crack their gum (yes at 8 AM - my biggest pet peeve), and people who talk on their mobiles too loudly for the whole ride... but it feels so normal to take a bus in the morning.

the camp itself has been heaven. well, the kids could be a little more enthusiastic, but i'm used to their apathy by now. with classes of only around 14 students, though, the week has flown by. i usually teach classes of 40-45 students - there's the public education system for you! my friends who work at hakwons (private after school schools) teach between five and 12 students in a class (please correct me if i'm wrong... but that's what i think). you can imagine the difference in, not only, the teaching methods, but in the actual learning that the kids do. oh, to have small classes and see a difference in what they learn! but i digress... this week i have seen a difference... i know they learned something from me, however small, i know that they did... which is a nice feeling.

i've heard that i may be transferred to a new school in march (the beginning of the new school year) and i think it would be really good for me. i'm not even opposed to having to take the bus anymore (that tune could change, so don't hold me to it...i've only been doing it a week) but doing this camp has shown me that my school isn't the only one out there, and it certainly isn't anywhere near being the best. hopefully i will end up at a school where the kids appreciate having me, where the school understands that it's useless to send me to every single class and that they should create some kind of special class for smart kids.... i just think that it would be really good to have a fresh start here, without the troubles of getting settled... now that culture shock (in it's most severe form) is abating, i think i could really do something good at a new school.

wow! look at me! miss positive! i'm trying, and i think it's working!

Tuesday 16 January 2007

gyeongju - the finale.

in the morning we were woken by someone and told we had to get up or we would miss breakfast. it was already 8 and it was only being served until 8:30. we weren't too fussed about it, since none of us really like to eat rice and seaweed soup in the morning, so we took our time getting up. in a period of about 20 minutes five different koreans came knocking on our door reminding us to get up for breakfast! (on a side note koreans are under the impression that no foreigners ever eat in the morning.)


we missed breakfast.

but that was ok... eileen had some nuts and dried banana, and i had some crackers, so we ate those. at nine all the kids and teachers were rounded up for an english competition. of course, it was outside in the same place as the bonfire the night before, even though it was freezing... and the wind coming off the lake didn't make it any better. after a while emma and i snuck inside to where the competition was moving after they had gotten the contestants down to 200 students instead of 900. the contest lasted for about an hour and half and then we were free.

we figured that since we'd gone all the way to gyeongju that we should try to get some sights in before leaving so we headed out of the amusement park to find a cab. that didn't prove as easy as in gimhae, so we got a lady in a corner store to call one for us. he took us to the bus station downtown so that we could see what time the buses were heading back to gimhae. we didn't have much time because we had plans to go to a friends that evening for our ladies wine and cheese night (also known as "chat n fat" - you can read about it here on kim's blog.)

if we learned one thing, it is that gyeongju is huge. it takes a while to get anywhere, and all the many many temples that cover the place are all quite far apart and not in the center of the city (obviously). so after a sketchy lunch of boiled beef soup, we headed to the nearest tourist site - the Daereungwon Tomb Park.
this is from the entrance. it cost us 1,500 won (~$1.75) to get in. it is the biggest park of tombs in all of gyeongju - 23 tombs, which look like this:
giant mounds of dirt covered in grass. well, to be fair, there are things buried inside of them... though most, if not all, have been excavated. you might remember my post on suro tomb - i thought his was big (compared to the ones you see all over), but as it turns out, i guess he wasn't that important.
it's probably a lot nicer when the grass is green...!

these are the tombs of the royal Kim Family who ruled during the Silla Dynasty. apparently you can walk inside one of the tombs and see the excavated objects, but i guess we didn't get that far, as we had a bus to catch... oh well, next time!
this sign was atop the gift shop that was open! and yes, everything was (price and quality), so i didn't buy anything...

on our way to and from the park we kept seeing stores selling "gyeongju bread" i was really excited because i could read the sign. i know the korean word for bread and sounded out the korean for gyeongju...it's nice to think i may be getting a grasp (however small) on this language. so, we had to get some - gyeongju bread, that is.
this was the shop we bought it at... "barley bread of purity korea", yeah, ok. they're kind of like mini pancakes that have stuff inside. i say stuff, because there seemed to be a couple of different kinds of them in the one box. one of them had red bean paste (sweetened) and the other almost tasted like maple, but we aren't sure what it was. here's what they looked like:
they were pretty tasty and we managed to scarf down a load of them on the bus... we also bought some for the ladies night...

all in all, it was a nice day and a half to break up the monotony of gimhae... and i'd do it again in a heartbeat!

Monday 15 January 2007

gyeongju - part two

after spending much of the afternoon in the cold at the amusement park everyone split up to "play games or whatever" with the kids. my group ended up singing some kids songs - the muffin man, humpty dumpty, if you're happy and you know it - i knew all of them from my childhood, and these kids were really great at singing them. they were in four groups and i had to choose the 'winner' (the group that sang the best) of every song - the teams had names: peace, surprise, excalibur, and chicken! i excalibur won this game. (yes, excalibur, they couldn't tell us what it was, but they chose that as their name anyway)

after that we played a "hugging game" where the kids all held hands in a circle and then i yelled out a number - say 13 - and they had to get into groups of that number. whoever was left out at the end was out of the game. the ten students left at the end were the winners. did i mention that if they won we showered them with lollies and chocolate? ya, that's a good idea, sugar 'em up!!!

our last game was a spelling contest where they chose five students to one-by-one run up to me, then i showed them a letter of thee alphabet, then they ran back to their team to come up with a word, ran back to me to say the word and spell it correctly. the team with the most points won...can't remember which one it was. it was fun.

then we all had dinner at the cafeteria. after that there was a show, or as the koreans put it, "recreation time". some of the kids had prepared dances or songs - yes, i spent my friday night at a middle school talent show! hahaha! it was pretty boring, but cute. here are some shots:
some of the kids i spent the afternoon with dressed in their pajamas dancing around the stage...
more of the same... you get the idea...

the coolest part was the professional dancing group. they were up there break dancing for quite a while. i took some video, but with no sound it's pretty boring... plus i never got the really cool bits of dancing, so i'll leave it to your imagination...

after the show we headed back into the sub-zero night for a bonfire. woohoo. can you tell i was excited? it was just so cold out... and a bunch of these kids had no jacket, no scarf, mittens, hats or any kind of warm clothing on. it was ridiculous. and, of course, this being korea, everything has to be all ceremonial, so it took a while for the fire to get lit. they had these people running around the circle with a torch - sort of like the olympics - and then one lady did one final lap to "we are the champions" and finally the stack of wood covered in gasoline was lit.
not like any bonfire i've ever been to before... what's it sitting on? a strange metal tray. i guess it's easier to clean up.

anyway, emma and i decided it was too cold and snuck away back to the log cabin we were staying in. this was the strangest and most surreal part of the whole trip. not only was this an amusement park, but they had all these dorm style houses and little mini houses all over for people to sleep in. apparently we were the lucky ones staying in the main cabin.
this was taken in the morning... doesn't it look like it belongs in canada? (almost anyway)
a shot inside the cabin... loft style and all. there were a bunch of rooms on the second floor - we, the foreign ladies, got one to ourselves:
eileen, me, and emma in our room. there wer eno beds, just mats, pillows, and blankets. it was okay since the floors were heated.

i took this shot of the little sleeping houses the next morning:
they're not much bigger than your average back yard shed in canada, but families sleep in them. it was just so weird that people would go and stay at a place like this. i suppose that it was built with events like ours in mind, but i just couldn't get over how odd it was. like a little village, sort of like a ski resort but not as cool...

all in all though, it was a good time... more to come on the events of the next day (saturday) so stay tuned!

Saturday 13 January 2007

winter camp @ gyeongju world - part one

on tuesday i got an email from my friend emma. she was going to be working at a winter camp and they needed some extra waegooks (foreigners) to come along... so i volunteered. we would be going to gyeongju and staying overnight, everything was planned already, and all we had to do was show up.


gyeongju is the ancient capital of the silla (pronounced shilla) dynasty which ruled korea for about a thousand years. it's about an hour and a half north of here (gimhae) in the province of gyeongsangbuk (i live in gyeongsangnam - nam means south and buk means north). in 1979 gyeongju was recognized as one of the worlds ten most important ancient cultural cities by UNESCO; it is also home to six world heritage sites. there are hundreds of royal tombs, temples, palace sites, fortress ruins, and pagodas. this is just to give you an idea of the kind of place we were going... so much history, interesting sites, and cultural heritage to learn about. we were excited. but, this being korea, the camp wasn't going to be touring any of these places, we ended up at gyeongju world - an amusement park!

our day started on the hour and a half bus ride with 50 kids.
i love the way korean buses always look like your grandmothers living room. at least this one didn't have the technicolour lights that you often have on tour buses here...or maybe they just weren't on because it was daylight. so after our bus ride of awkward conversation with kids that don't really speak english we arrived at the great and wonderful gyeongju world... how odd that they go to amusement parks in the middle of winter. the weather isn't terrible (by canadian standards, it's actually quite nice) but it's still cold out.
the first thing i noticed was the snow on the ground. i haven't seen snow since last winter, back home in canada. this is man made snow that just blew off the toboggan run, but it is snow, and i had to get a shot of it!
i thought this display was hilarious! eskimos with their igloos and huskies! how canadian of them! there were displays like this all over; houses with roofs covered in snow, santa clause standing on a mountain of snow, but the best was all the korean stuff thrown in around it:
like this one. i'm an ancient silla warior! i mean, this is, after all, gyeongju world, not the north pole!
and this one where i am a korean bride being carried off after my wedding - i just couldn't resist getting my picture taken in these.
and they had churros! i HAD to get one, just because it was so random to see them in korea. it's hard to find them in montreal, but to have one in korea was so weird. they also had waffles that they folded in half and filled with apples and sugar... reminded me of beaver tails, and how i haven't had one in ages... (just another thing on my list of stuff to do when i get home.)

you can see the picture of the baboons in my previous post... they had a petting zoo with goats and other animals, but i didn't get to see much because i was meant to be walking around talking to the kids... who didn't want to do anything but get on the rides. i was allowed to go on two rides - the octopus (pretty lame), and the tornado, which rocked. it was probably one of the best rides i've been on since i went to canada's wonderland a few years back. they had a ride similar to drop zone, but i didn't get on it.

so the afternoon at the park was okay, but it was freezing cold, and i was really happy when it was time to go inside and "play games or whatever" with the kids... stay tuned for that - i'll be posting more soon!

a quickie...

don't have much time to write at the moment, but rest assured there will be some neat stuff up here soon... a friend of mine hooked me up with a gig in gyeongju - a winter camp - and i got back from it today. it was only one day and a sleepover, but it was so surreal and strange that i can't wait to write about it... so stay tuned, until tomorrow... i'll have pictures and fun stories for all! but in the meantime, enjoy this:

baboons

Thursday 11 January 2007

trekkin'

in the spirit of becoming a "hiking kind of person" (see previous post 'up, up, and down') i went for a hike today. i suppose i could have gone for longer, but two hours seemed like a decent length of time for my second hike of the year... and my first real one since october. before that it had been years... sorry, just a little pat on the back for myself there...

my hike began as all korean hiking experiences start (well, many anyway) on a road.
you have to take a road up part of the way up the mountain in order to get to the good part - the actual mountain. even though i technically live in the foothills of the mountain i was climbing, everything is just so built up... as you'll see.
part way up you can veer off onto a path that follows the road, but much of it has been paved with cement. i wonder if this is to make it easier to get up in the wet season... anyway, it just doesn't feel like nature... gotta keep climbing for that... right?
i came to this bridge, and though there wasn't really more than a trickle of water passing udner it, i can only imagine the torrent that the trickle becomes when it rains for six weeks straight. i'll have to go back and check.
on the other side of the bridge is this little rest station - benches, signs to tell you where to go and how far it is (in korean, no good for me) and see the yellow padding on the trees? not sure, but i think that's for comfort if you don't want to sit, but just want to lean on a tree... where's the nature?

this is where the title of this post temporarily changes to "the stairs of korean mountains"...
stairway one
stairway two
stairway three
stairway four
(end post stairs of korean mountains)

i should have thought about it while i was still up the mountain... these are just a small sample of the way that the koreans make it easier to get to the top... i didn't shoot them all, nor would i have time to post them all here if i had... you get the point. sometimes it's nice to have a little help, but again, where's the pure nature?
oh! there it is! at the top! but still, it isn't even... if you look closely you'll see a building over there... it's a buddhist temple, and i thought i was going to it, but ended up on the wrong side of a wide valley - now i know where to go next time! it was still very beautiful up there, and quiet, and i was surrounded by nature. i sat on a big boulder at the top for bit. i was surrounded by trees and i thought to myself how much it actually looked and felt like canada. i used to climb mont saint hilaire, on the south shore of montreal, all the time when i was a teenager, and it just felt the same... like i was almost actually home. i think i need to climb mountains more now... i like this new hiking type of person that i'm turning into.

it wasn't easy, and i didn't get anywhere close to where i was aiming for, but it was lovely to be surrounded by trees, away from the boredom of my apartment, and also the bustle of the city. to think it only took me a little over an hour walking to get away from it all like that... wish i had discovered this months ago!
this is a view of the mountain i climbed from the parking lot of the dongbu sports complex - i stopped off on my way back to get info on their swimming pool. not bad... it's not the rockies, but it's definitely bigger than mount royal in montreal... next time i'll have to get some friends to come with, maybe we can have a picnic on one of the many rest stations up there:
like this one! hopefully i'll make it to the temple too... and eventually i'll make it all the way to the top of mount sineosan:
i think it's the tallest mountain in gimhae... see you there!