Because, why wouldn't we climb a mountain in -10 degree weather?

Last weekend, we went to Seoraksan with our friends Jared and Katie. Seoraksan is one of the highest mountains in Korea, and it is a very popular place to visit. We stayed in a cute little town called Osaek.

 On Saturday, we donned our many layers and ventured out into the cold. We were so bundled up that we felt somewhat like human marshmallows, but we were thankful for the layers once the wind began blowing sideways. We drove a while to the Seoraksan National Park. Once there, we began the climb up one of the more popular peaks. We trekked over frozen ponds and past slow climbing (but well dressed) Koreans. We stopped to take photos at the balancing rock, where the tradition is to try to push it over the edge.

Finally, we got to the last few hundred meters of the climb, which also happened to be the steepest part. Because it wouldn’t be hiking in Korea without stairs, this mountain was fully equipped with probably the steepest set of metal stairs I have ever seen. With the wind practically knocking us over as it gusted through the mountains, we began to climb… all the while asking whose brilliant idea this was in the first place. Once we made it to the top, however, it was all worth it.

The view was beautiful. We could even see North Korea off in the distance. While we enjoyed it, we didn’t stop to eat a picnic on this particular trip, as the wind was so cold we could barely hold our cameras. So, after a few quick snapshots, we climbed back down and made our way to the local restaurants for some much needed lunch.

The view on the way back down the mountain. 

  

Raar!

On the way back to Osaek, we drove past a frozen pond where children and their families were sledding. Because this is Korea, and parents don’t seem to care if you take photos of their children, we decided to pull over and play paparazzi. The kids were really adorable and we had fun taking photos of them and playing on the ice.

These little guys had different agendas.

Sunday morning we got up early and headed off for a sight seeing trip home. The plan was to visit the Peace Dam, eat some Dakgalbi in Chuncheon and go to an Ice Fishing Festival. The trip turned out to be a very interesting ordeal. That morning it snowed all over Korea, including Seoul and the mountains through which we were to drive. After a few slow crawls up steep hills, and a few skids and slides, we made it safely out of the mountains and to the Peace Dam.

 

The Peace Dam or Pyeonghwa Dam is on the Bukhan river in NE South Korea. Construction on it first began in the 80s when there was concern over a dam upriver in North Korea. The Bukhan river is connected to the Han which flows through the center of Seoul. The concern was that if the North Korean dam collapsed whether on purpose or by accident, the waters would cause a major flood, taking out most of Seoul. Construction was stopped partway though, because people thought that the threat had been exaggerated. But in 2005, a crack in the North Korean dam caused a lot of flooding in Seoul, so construction on the Peace Dam began again. The place was eerily quiet and empty. It was strange to see a dam built where there is no water to dam. It just sits there, waiting for an attack that has not yet come.

The site of the dam was one of the major battle zones during the Korean War. This monument was found after the fighting stopped, and has remained here as a memorial for the soldiers who fought.

 Throughout the weekend, we enjoyed a healthy amount of banter and exchange with each other, mostly due to our various locations of origin. Being Oregonians, were surprised when Katie, who is from Minnesota, divulged that this was her second time to climb a mountain. Meanwhile, she rolled her eyes slightly at our intense excitement over the concept of ice fishing, or simply being able to walk on an iced over river or lake.

You can imagine our immense disappointment when  we discovered that the ice fishing festival was closed due to the hoof and mouth disease that is spreading rapidly throughout Korea. I am pretty sure fish don’t have hooves… but I suppose they were just being sure.  At any rate, we drove through the town and saw a few ice sculptures, and then headed to Chuncheon for some lunch.

After some delicious Dakgalbi, we began the final drive home. By this time, the traffic was pretty terrible due to the snow, and cars were stopped at these stations every five minutes to be sprayed down with a mysterious hoof and mouth cleansing substance. We had only 60km left in our drive home, which should have taken around an hour to an hour and a half. Five hours later, arrived home. It was a long trek, but we had a great time anyway. Seoraksan is beautiful, and we were happy to spend a little time out of the city in the weeks before we leave Korea.

"You're not Santa, really."

Christmas came early this year at Grace School.  On Thursday, we had the school "Santa Party."  We spent a few hours making paper Christmas trees with our classes.   Clayton's class did a lovely job, and even made paper presents for their tree. Meanwhile, we got a little distracted in my class, and used our materials to make masks, Rudolph noses, and antlers. 

After making trees, the kids were visited by Santa.   Santa, who was played by a friend of ours, was not the most believable of St. Nicks, with his strap-on beard and 5,000 won Santacon suit. His case wasn't helped much by the fact that he was required to read a really terrible version of the story of baby Jesus.  The kids weren't buying it.  Sam, who had already been acting a bit like the Grinch, ran out of the room when his name was called. And Sue shouted, "You're not Santa, really!" upon meeting him. Nonetheless, they enjoyed receiving gifts and playing with them after lunch. 

We ended the day by playing the classic claymation Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (a suggestion made my Clayton and myself of course).  While it wasn't exactly the Christmas party we are used to, we had fun. We always enjoy those rare days when we get to spend time simply playing with the kids.  I'm not sure who eats it up more, us or them!

Photo-bomb courtesy of Dave.

Class photo, sans Sam.

Funny face time!

Hard at work making the tree.

Not so hard at work. :-)

Sue... one of the smartest kids we've met.  In another lifetime, I think we would be bff's. 

Sam overcame his Grinchy-ness, but wasn't so sure about Santa.

Sophia and Roy.  You can't help but love him!

Clayton's class, hard at work. 

Clayton spent about an hour trying to get Roy's toy to transform from a robot to a semi-truck. Ages 5+? More like Ages 20+ with a degree in engineering!

Audra's Class Tree

Clayton's Class tree.

Merry Christmas-uh!

Santa's Got Seoul!

This weekend, we participated in an epically ridiculous event. Santacon Seoul 2010.  People dressed as Santa, parading around the streets of Seoul? Where else would we be? Santacon started in San Francisco and has since spread around the world. Santacon Seoul started as a small group of foreigners, but has since grown. The event drew hundreds of foreigners eager to make spectacles of themselves. There were Santas of all shapes, sizes and genre. Jolly Santas, Gangsta Santas, Einstein Santas and Glam Rock Santas. There were even Santas with hopefully placed mistletoe dangling from their hats.  We joined the throng of  St. Nicks in singing songs and sending Christmas wishes to the confused passersby.

If one Santa makes you think of Christmas, then hundreds of them will really bring you into the holiday spirit!

Mr. and Mrs. Claus

We thought it was fitting that the mass of Santas warmed up in an establishment called HO Bar III.

Our friend Teddy, wearing his Santa beard with pride.

What better thing to do while dressed as Santa than to dance in the crosswalk during the 'walk' signal?

 When the 'stop' signal came on, the dancers rushed to the sidewalk, only to recommence when it turned green again.

Merry Christmas!!!!

One of the Santacon leaders yelling, "Ho! Ho! Ho! Santa's gotta go!" as the hords of Santas paraded on to the next location.

The many different hats of Santa!

 Santa getting his groove on.

There was a Santa balloon pass relay. This was our amazing, winning team! Woot Woot!

High Five!

We met Robin outside the best taco truck ever! Holy corn tortillas and cilantro Batman!!

Santa dance party in the ROK!

We had a grand time at Santacon. We look forward to being part of Portland's Santacon next year!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!



And Now it's Novemeber!

It is exactly 2 months since our last post, which makes us pretty much epic failures at blogging from Korea. In all fairness to us though, quite a bit has happened in the last two months. Quite frankly, we are exhausted!

Both sets of parentals (Stave and Lavender) flew in to visit on different trips. We studied for and took the GRE to get into graduate school. And we also celebrated our 1st anniversary by going to Malaysia during Chuseok (more on that trip in a later post).

Claytons parents came to visit at the end of August and mine came in October. We took both sets of parents to see some of the sights in Seoul : Insadong, Namdaemun Market, places we have written about already.  But we also went on different excursions outside of Seoul with them.

When Claytons parents visited, we went to Gyeongju. Gyeongju is sometimes referred to as the 'museum without walls.' It was the capital of an ancient kingdom in Korea and there are many grassy tombs throughout the city. The tombs were massive and the city was built around them. A love hotel or apartment building would sit right next to this incredibly old piece of history. There are also many temples and palaces. We visited for only a few days, so we could not see the entirety of the city. But we did get to see quite a bit. We also visited the beach nearby. And, as we have discovered several times, the bus ride through the countryside was just as beautiful as the destination.  Here are some photos from their trip:

An old astronomy tower.

Tombs. Dead kings inside.

Most amazing buns... ever.

Gotta love it when you go to the beach and make friends with a  bunch of Sri Lankan monks!

Ssambap. Not the best meal we have ever had, but it shows a Korean style dinner table.

Ajumma visors. You're just jealous you don't have one.



We also went to see Seoul Tower for the first time with Jeff and Yvonne. Perhaps my favorite part of Seoul Tower was the locks that lined the fence around the tower. They were covered in locks on which people had written their names, dedications, and inside jokes. It was a lovely day, so we had a great view of Seoul from atop the tower. 

It was really wonderful of Claytons parents to come visit. We definitely didn't expect that all four of our parents would be able to visit us in our year here in Korea. We  miss everyone and it was really good to get hugs from our family.

More on my parents visit to follow.