Chuseok at the Folk Village

So On actual Chuseok (Thanksgivingish) day, we jumped on a subway to end up at the Namsongol Folk village, with seemingly the rest of KOrea. Seriously, it was busy, but fun. we walked around, and saw what old school Korean villages looked like (If old school Korea had thousands of tourists) There were some shows and stuff. Honestly, even if I took the time to read anything it was mostly in Korean, or long and there was a steady flow of tourists. It was cool to get out, and there were heaps of children in traditional clothing, which is oh-so-cute. There were some neat games going on, which was the most interesting.
Patience, Faith and a few hanbocks
ErinJ

BongEunsa and CoEx

First things First, A BIG Congrats to RyanRunsEurope, who I've been following since my return from NZ. Amazing job, Well done, mate.

Oh Goodness I'm totally behind, but I am going to get internet soon so hopefully I'll be firing off these badboys to keep all of my friends stateside up to date on the happenings of KoreaWorld.

So on Sunday I jumped on the subway armed only with my good camera and my Lonely Planet Seoul and out of nowhere BAM! It was my friend Jess, traveling with a girl who teaches in China. It scared the crap out of me, but they were going to spend the day in CoEx and Bongeunsa, a mall and a temple, respectivly. We ate in Coex, and Kerry (Girl teaching in China) was craving western food, since she can't get it in her neck of Asia, but I got some Manduguk, since Korean food is in fact growing on me. Manduguk, with mandu being a dumpling and guk being the word for soup (I'm getting there).
We met with her friend Clare. ANd scurried to the "magical hidden temple", which we finally got to. It is one of the largest Buddhist and most traditional temples. It was really large, and allowed for a lot of wandering and exploring. I'm not sure, but I feel like temples and palaces all kind of look alike. But this one had a Buddah. NOt like, a statue of buddah, but a HUGE Massive we're talking 23 meters high, largest statue of Buddah in Korea size Buddah. The biggest I've ever seen. It was rediculously cool.
It was a beautiful place, and it was a Holiday Sunday so there were heaps of people there praying and worshipping and doing normal sunday at service activites, and there was us taking pictures and lurking. I'm not sure how I'd feel about that, but I guess they're used to it. You could only imagine. There was one room with thousands of Buddahs. Lining the wall, everywhere. It was rediculous. The place was very Zen, as it should be, and very neat to explore. I am definitly going to go back to get there more than an hour before closing time to check out the grounds and find my Buddhist ways.
After we lurked, we went into Coex to look around. I wasn't overly impressed. A lot of expensive shit. The mall wasn't as cool as everybody was making it out to be, but maybe we missed something. There was, however a bookstore that had a foreign collection. Good to keep in mind. And heaps of lonely planets for all of my adventures 8)
Update soon about life in general!
Patience and Faith,
ErinJ

Chuseok Weekend

Taylor, Kimberly and Me at everland


So this was an extended 3-day weekend of Glory thanks to the Korean holiday of Chuseok. I think its a cross between a thanksgiving, and a day where one pays homage to ancestors of sorts. But don't quote me on that, thats just what I can gather.
So Friday, which was the day we had off I went to the contempory museum of Art with Kimberly and one of her friends. It was pretty cool. I've seen a lot of art in my day, but there were some pieces that were worth seeing. There was a room that sprialed up 3 stories and had 3X3 pieces of art up the entire thing. It was intense. Very cool. The museum itself was definitly worth checking out if you have spare time, but not necessarily some place I would go back to.

A pretty instense TV sculpture in the museum.


Saturday was heaps of fun. I went to Everland with a few teachers from school, since it was a holiday and therefore supposed to be dead. Everlands the biggest amusement park in Korea. It was an adventure. Everland is not in Seoul. EVerland is not in Anyang. Everland is a 1.5 hour busride from here. In which we stopped at bus depots and possibly took backroads through hell. I don't know, I wasn't feeling it. But we got there, kind of late, and hustled through the park. We went on a bunch of rides, had our personal bubbles invades, and were all sorts of confuzzled when the biggest ride there closed at 8. The park closed at 10. This closed at 8. So we didn't get to go on the steepest wooden rollar coaster, which was a bummer. BUt all in all it was a good day, and better than napping, which is what I was doing up until that point. It was a pretty good amusement park, only had 2 rollar coasters that we could see, and closed kind of early. It was fun though, I mean, who doesn't love some good rides.
Throwing up the Peace sign!

Some Weird Ass Jackolanterns!