Autumn weekend in the -Ju

Another BUSY weekend!

This weekend we took a day trip with the church 3 hours down south to do some hiking and sight seeing. It was a lot of fun, but it made for a VERY long Saturday! We met at the church at 7:30am and drove 3 hours South to Kangcheonsan mountain. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL there! The leaves were still on the tree and they were such pretty colors! 

We took a short hike around the mountain that included a suspension bridge which we had to wait in line for 20 minutes to cross (never had to wait in line to hike before)! It was a little scary to think about all the people crossing the bridge at one time, but they had it pretty controlled. The hike was much, much easier compared to the last one we did. However, there was probably a half an hour section of this hike that was incredibly hard. Koreans seem to be very serious with their inclines! It was seriously straight up, it was like rock climbing minus the harness! But the view was worth it!

After the mountain we hit up Jungnowon, which is a bamboo forest. It truly was, a bamboo forest. The forest had little paths all through it to walk along. We also got to see some traditional Korean drumming which was cool too!

This little kid was petrified of the dancing dragon...

after the forest, we went to a little street, where you could rent bikes and take a ride down the road that was lined with big huge trees. Brian and I rented a little tandem bike for 5,000 won. It was a little small and hard to steer but lots of fun.

Finally, we went to a Korean restaurant where we had a traditional meal. It was absolutely DELICIOUS! The table was completely covered with dishes, they always give you so many side dishes in Korea! The food ranged from full fish (eyeballs and everything, to octopus, pickled garlic, some kind of jelly stuff, lots of kimchi, and shrimp (head, legs, and all). Brian tried and ate absolutely EVERYTHING on the table and really enjoyed it. Me, being the more picky eater, was willing to try most things (except octopus), but mostly stuck to what I knew I liked. My favorite thing was probably still the bulgogi (pork). Brian loved the mussels that were in the soup.

After we were absolutely stuffed we all climbed (or rolled) back onto the bus for the three hour trip home. I thought it was going to be a very quiet trip home and everyone would sleep, but... we're in Korea, so our charter bus came equipped with Noraebong, which is Karaoke in Korean. We ended up singing the whole three hours, with Brian headlining most of the show. It was cool to hear the Koreans sing some of their hits and also for Brian to show off some of his voice. He tried to sing Bohemian Rhapsody, but it just doesn't have the same response as it would at King's....

Sunday has been a much quieter day, which has been needed. We went to church, had Korean lessons and then walked home. On the way home we hit up some kitchen like store, where you can buy dishes, pots, and pans, cutlery, etc. Brian and I made our first 'larger' purchase since payday and we got a nice frying pan and some ceramic plates and bowls. The couple who lived in our apartment before us just used these plastic picnic plates, that haven't really been to our liking, so this will be a nice change. We ordered a pepperoni pizza from the place across the street and plan to have a quiet night in before another busy week starts!

Overall it was a FUN weekend with lots of excitement, good company, and good times! (For more pictures see Facebook!) It's starting to cool down here and get a bit chilly. We turned on our heating (more like floor heating) for the first time this week. This was the last church outing until the New Year, so we'll have to see what kind of things Brian and I can get ourselves into the upcoming weekends...