은재 and I's trip to 창덕궁

The week after our trip to 태안's Shrimp Festival, I was in Seoul for orientation.  I got off early on Friday, so 은재 and I decided to meet up.  She suggested seeing 창덕궁 palace.  I'd already seen one of the palaces in Seoul.  I hadn't realized at the time that there were four different ones.  Still, I thought it might be boring, but 은재 talked me into it, and I'm glad she did.  Unlike the previous palace I'd seen, in this one we were allowed into "the secret garden," which is the king's garden that traditionally could only be entered with the King's permission.  It was quite beautiful.

Afterwards, 은재 and I went to a historical area of Seoul and looked around, and the got coffee and honey bread at one if the local cafés.  All around a very worthwhile experience.

북한산 Hiking Trip

I went to 북한산 (Bukhansan Mountain), a mountain range on the North West side of Seoul, last Saturday with a meetup group.  I met some nice people, including an US Army Engineer, a Korean Civil Engineer who works in Seoul, a couple expats working for Samsung, and a few Korean teachers.  Check out the pictures.

Near this area there were some statues hidden in the rocks representing North Korean soldiers who had been hiding in these mountains in order to assassinate South Korea's then president 박충희 (Park Chung-hee) in 1968.  The assassins were discovered by a lone police officer who fought off the group of soldiers long enough to thwart their mission.  The police officer died in the unsuing combat, but the North Korean soldiers were captured.

Me at the summit where we ate lunch (well, I didn't bring one, but others shared there gimpap and jerky with me, so I was more than satiated).

On the way down, we cam across this Budhist Temple.

Hiking In Korea

See a pattern in my post titles yet?

One of the big draws for me coming to Korea is the abundance of scenic hiking trails. Today me and a couple of other English teachers braved the 백화 (pay-kwa) mountain trail, which is about an 8km hike. See the results for yourself...