Sunday, October 30, 2011

Osan Air Power Show

Once a year the Osan Air force base opens their gates to the public for an air show of Korean and American aircraft. A teacher at my school invited me to go with him and some of his students. A ran into a bit of an obstacle when I tried to enter the base. Since I am a foreigner, they were requiring a passport to enter, which doesn't  make sense since they only require an ARC card (My korean Identification) to enter the base, so I had to ran back home, which is about 30 minutes by bus. I made it back just in time to watch the Black Eagles, which I was told was the best show of the day. I've never seen an air show by the air force, and I was really impressed with the show.
This guy was standing outside the base with a sign that says "stop the air show".
1. I think he is preaching to the wrong crowd since we were all going to the air show.
2. Funny thing is while I was taking the picture he started to put his banner down. When I looked at him again he was holding a camera and taking pictures of the planes that where passing by. 
One of the Black Eagles' plane
On base walking to the air show. I love how you can really feel the fall in this picture. 

The Black Eagles in the sky
The Black Eagles
A pilot of The Black Eagles
The kids hooked me up with a DVD of the Black Eagles performance and one of the pilot's signature
 After the Black Eagles' performance, we went to have lunch. There where so many food vendors but the lines where ridiculously long, which was unfortunate since the top reason for me going was the food. (might have also been a blessing since I am pretty sure I would have hit up every booth for American food.) We got in the shortest line and got pulled pork burgers, which was still a nice change from the Korean food. I also got a US dollar in change back, which made me kind of happy for some reason. I must also note that it was refreshing to order in English to Americans.
The kids enjoying American food 
A perfect day for the air show

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Suwon Fortress

This weekend my sister, Lisa, and I went to Suwon to visit the Fortress. When we got to the station all the morning trains to Suwon where booked, and there were only standing seats available. I found this odd because it was still early. When we arrived at Suwon we found the Tourist Information Center.  We were informed that we were lucky since today there was going to be a festival.
We took bus 13 to the Fortress. When we arrived, people where already getting set up for the festival. Lisa and Gabriela headed towards the coffee booth that was offering free coffee. The workers asked if we could take a picture with them in front of the banner. We happily agreed.

As we headed to the fortress, there was a huge area set up for just food venders. We all couldn’t wait to have lunch after our hike. We also noticed that everyone was so much friendlier and happier than in Pyeongtaek. I am not sure if this was because of the festival or if people in Suwon are generally happier people.
We made it to the top of the fortress and walked around for a while. The walk up was pretty steep and I am definitely felt out of shape, but once we made it to the top the rest was pretty flat.
The view from the top

Fortress
On the way down, we stopped at the gold Buddha.
For lunch my sister decided to get Chinese food since they were making the noodles fresh.  Lisa and I were lured by the aroma of BBQ beef. We were unsure how to order but the cashier spoke English and advised us that the cheap meat was American and the expensive meat was Korean. Not sure of the price difference, which was $10 but we went with the good ol’ American beef.  We got so much meat with our two orders; we could have easily shared one. We were so stuffed! After our waitress cooked our meat on the grill on the table she was asking us something about the bones. We had noticed other people had their bones grilled, so we thought maybe she was asking us if we wanted her to cook it as well. We said yes and she took the bones and stuck them in a bag and gave it to us to take home. We were all so surprised.
This is what Gabriela ate
After lunch we decided to head back home. We quickly noticed that the streets had closed due to the parade. We decided to talk towards the next bus stop, but the closures continued for several streets over. By the time we finally made on to a street that had moving cars, we tried to hail a taxi, but every taxi was full! We tried going different ways and still no luck. We had to back track and headed towards the station. We had been walking for what seemed hours and desperately wanted to go home. Walking on all the closed streets we never saw a parade and I was irritated since it made no sense for the streets to be closed. Eventually a nice lady in a taxi stopped next to us, and asked if we were headed to the station. We said yes and jumped in a little too quick. We were all relieved once we were in the taxi.  
When we got to the station all the trains were once again full to go back home. I no longer felt lucky for coming on a festival day.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Parents Visit in September

My parents came to visit me and my sister for our birthdays and where able to stay for a whole month! There is so much we did while they where here.


The first weekend they spent in Korea also happened to be a Korean holiday, Chuseok. This gave us a 5 day weekend. Our birthdays also happened to fall on this weekend. Now I don’t know much about Chuseok, but it has been described to me as a Korean Thanksgiving. I do know that everyone goes back home to be with their family and they also go visit the graves of love ones.


I wanted to go somewhere for the long weekend but everything was so expensive because it was last minute and a holiday, so I looked into going to Jeju but everything was booked. Then I looked into going to Busan, which did have hotels available but there was no way to get there because all the trains were sold out. So we stayed in Seoul at my sisters tiny apartment that my mom liked to call “el hotel de la sardinas”.
For my sister's birthday we went out to dinner and had Italian food at Garosu-gil. Garosu-gil is really close to the Seoul Express Bus Terminal and has a good variety of food. 

The following day we took the Seoul City Tour Bus for $10 that took us all over Seoul's most famous spots. The first stop was Deoksugung Palace. Here is my mom posing with the guard:

Then we stopped at Namdaemun Market, where we had delicious dumplings and lots of street food. 




Then we headed to the the Korean War Memorial Hall.


We ended the evening by going to Namsangol Traditional Korean Village. 


The next day was my birthday and we took a break from the sightseeing and went to watch a Korean play, Nanta.

The next day we continued on the City Tour bus and went to the Seoul Tower, where my sister was stung by a wasp. She still has a mark from it. 

The afternoon was spent at Insadong, which was a street filled with restaurants, shops, and vendors. We had good food, good green tea from Jeju Island, and had a really good time. 

The next day we went to Sorae Pogu Fish Market in Incheon. My sister had gone here with her co-teacher and thought we would also like it as much as she did. We ate at the the same restaurant her co-teacher took her to. We had a fish roe bibimbap, oyster bibimbap, and clam soup. Everything was amazing. My sister was right about how much we would like it. 


The next weekend we went to Busan. I loved Busan! It felt like we where in another country. The people were so nice, the scenery was beautiful, and it just had a different feel to it. My sister and I were both wishing we lived and work there. We did so much while we where there. 







The last weekend my parents were here we went to Gyeongju, a city my sister's co-teacher recommend. 
Folk Village 
Folk Village
Royal Tombs
 We also did a temple stay at Golgulsa Temple. This temple stay was very different then the one I did when I first got here. The temple stay activities were mandatory. Meaning we had to wake up at 4:00 to participate in the morning chant as well as participate in the 90 minuets of exercise. They also had various of activities lined up for the day and the schedule changed daily. The location was also not as beautiful as the last place and I did not leave with the same feeling of calm. We also did not wake up at 4:00 am because we all failed to hear the wake up call. Here are the pictures from the Temple stay:

 We also went to Seokguram Temple, which was close to the location we did the temple stay at. 


I was so sadden to see my parents leave. I was happy that my sister was here, which made the parting bearable. We where so fortunate to have a whole month with our parents. 


Now the weather is starting to change. The change was very drastic. One week it was hot and the next it was super cold. I am trying to take in the cold so that my body can get used to the temperature, but there has already been times I've thought about turning the heater on. Today was 74 degree which was quite nice; however, by the end of the month it should be 59 degrees in the day time.