My Chusok

Well, as I said in an earlier blog, last weekend was a 5 day weekend because of the Korean holiday of Chusok, which is basically their Thanksgiving. I decided to get out of town for a few days and experience some other parts of Korea. My city can be boring especially because I don't know what there is to do here! So I met up with my friend from orientation. I got there late Thursday night. Friday we were sitting around and decided to visit someone she knew in Suwon. We heard there was a fortress there so we thought that would be cool to go see and come back for the day. We asked her neighbor if he wanted to go with us too. So within a matter of 10 minutes we deiced to go to Suwon for the day. We were excited about the two hour bus ride, well what we thought was only two hours. It ended up being 3. We got to Suwon and met up with her friend and made our way to the fortress. It was amazing! It was a fortress that was built around the city in the 1700's, called Hwasong fortress. Here is a link to the historical information...

http://www.hwasong.henny-savenije.pe.kr/

Our bus ride like I said ended up being a little longer than expected so by the time we got there is was about 2:00pm or so.

We spent a few hours walking around the fortress. Here is a picture of me with a man dressed up in traditional Korean dress. Katia and I had to have our pictures taken with him

Isn't the architecture beautiful? These gates and stations are posted all along the wall around the city. I took well over 100 pictures in these couple of days! I obviously can't post all of them and a lot of the buildings look similar so I am picking the best of the lot.

This was another post and tunnel which people can walk through to get into the walled area.

Another little station.


I'm making the pictures a little smaller for the sake of space but you should be able to click on them to make them larger.
Korean children practicing their archery.

This was a view next to a very nice little station where you could take your shoes off and have a rest inside. The view apparently is what they used on the back of one of their bills. I think it was the 1000 won paper bill (the equivalent of $1) I love the willow trees!

This was the picture from the highest point along the fortress and it was quite the hike my legs were hurting for days afterwards but look at this view. It was so worth it!

This is a picture of the lookout post on this highest most point and Katia the native teacher I met during my orientation who i went to visit for the weekend! She is from the San Francisco area.

This was a large bell you could ring at the top of this mini mountain. Katia and Andy had some fun ringing it while I got a video.

The water fountain at the base of the mountain. People who can't stand the idea of other peoples germs would have a very hard time in Korea. Not only do you share meals with friends and family by eating out of the same dishes. You find water fountains in touristy areas with these bowls that you dip water out of and drink with everyone! You can buy bottled water too though.

Beautiful! I love this picture.

This was the view coming back down from the mini-mountain.

Some cool architecture on the top of some of the buildings inside the middle of the fortress where the king would come and have parties back in the day.

This was a picture of Suwon after we went for dinner. It lit right up! I was kind of shocked to see all of the neon because when we went in for dinner it was still light outside.

7 Eleven!

After leaving dinner we decided to go to Seoul for the night so we could wake up in the morning and do some shopping since our time table was all messed up. We hopped on the subway and to took the hour plus ride to the area where we wanted to stay so we could get some rest for the night and start shopping first thing. We decided to find a hotel for the three of us and split the cost for the night. It was already going to be an interesting experience because none of us thought we were going to be staying the night and did not bring a change of clothes. The motel we ended up finding was interesting to say the least whenever you turned on the light, it was red... Also the complimentary items offered in the room were questionable, like condoms. It was what is called a 'love motel'. It was cheap though! Less than $15 each for the night. The three of us crammed into this tiny room. Katia and I on the bed and her neighbor on the floor. I would have to say I was not very excited about the idea of wearing the same underwear two days in a row but I am definitely glad we went. I tried not to think about where were were sleeping too much and was just happy I had a place to lay my head.

This was the shopping district we went to in Seoul. It was a lot of fun and we found a Gap and a Zara! We were pumped.

Starbucks! In Korean! I was excited to find it even though like in the States it was expensive.

When we went to the artist market later that day we came a cross a traditional wedding ceremony that they were putting on for the tourists. It wasn't a real wedding just more of a demonstration and it was being translated into Japanese, Chinese, and English. It was pretty interesting and right by it was this cool guy on a horse.

What is this?!?! I know you are wondering. This slug like looking object is actually candy! The scrape off of it and then take the shavings and mold it on to a stick. It was very sticky but you just kind of suck on it like a lolly pop. It was pretty good but I was not fond of how it sticks to your teeth.

This was the floor in Katia's apartment. When I first walked in I really though she had things growing from her floor!

Once we got back to Boryeong we went to sleep. The next day we went to the beach to enjoy some sun and relax a little bit.

After a few days of fun I decided to make my way back to Nonsan in order to relax and rest before going back to school on Wednesday. Overall it was a fun trip with some interesting experiences that I will be able to remember and share for a long time...

I hope you enjoyed these pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them!