Camping!

Just before I left Jeonju, we went camping with some of David's friends.  The drive to the park was  amazing!  Lots of mountain ranges to drive through!  The roads in the park were very steep--quite challenging to drive!  And because the ground was very rocky and uneven, platforms were available to set up on.  One platform is one site, so the sites are quite small.  We had 3 tents, so there was a fair bit of space for us.  I did a fair bit of walking there, and it certainly would be good training for mountain climbing!  David and his friend set up hammocks down by the creek.

Driving outside Jeonju

Korea is 70% mountains, but when we're in the city, we can't see the mountains, thanks to all the tall sky scrapers.  So David took me for a ride the other day outside the city.  Jeonju is completely surrounded by mountains.  They aren't rugged like the Rockies--they're very rounded because they are very old.  But they are also quite tall.  Any picture I took didn't do them justice--you can't  capture the height, depth, expanse of the mountains with my camera.  It was a great experience, though.

We stopped at a lovely tearoom for a break.  The grounds were lovely there, and we were accompanied by  a beautiful dag there.  I've never seen a dog like that one before!

Lotus Flowers

This was the first place David took me to the first time I came to Korea.  It really is a beautiful park, and seems to be even more beautiful this time round.  There is a lake in the middle of the park, with a bridge right across it.  On one side, the lake is chock full of lotus flowers, with a board walk going through it, on the other side you can rent large paddle boats that look like big swans.

Cranes!

While walking along the river, I went farther than I usually do.  In a tree up ahead, I saw a lot of white things.  I had no idea what they were.  As I was watching and wondering, one of those white things started to move--and then it flew away!  It was quite large.  I got as close as I could--the trees were on the other side of several streets--and took some pictures, zooming in on them  I'm surprised the pics turned out as well as they did!    At one point, I counted 25 of them!  I've never seen cranes before, and here I see 25 at one time!

July 1

Yesterday it rained most of the day, so it was nice to see the sun again!  I spent about 2 hours again this morning walking around David's area, trying to figure out where everything is.  I make sure that I only walk the streets that are perpendicular to eachother--that way I won't get lost!  Walking down by the river is the best, because I don't notice the traffic so much.  All along the river, in places you can see these large rocks.  That is how people cross the river!  There isn't much room for error there!

For lunch, we went to Jeonju Diner, a restaurant run by David Van Minnen (from Chatham).  He was a mentor to David when he first arrived to Korea, and showed him around.  After lunch we went to Hanook Village--a traditional Korean village.  The buildings were originally built in the 1400s.  And we think that anything built 100 years ago in Canada is old!  It was very interesting.  A friend of David's, Tori, was with us.  She's from Scotland, and has been here about 12 years, and was able to tell us about the history of the village.  This village has been very commercialized and really caters to tourists.

After that, we visited a Hagwon, run by David's friends, Leon and Puran.  A Hagwon is an after school academy.  Children in Korea go to regular school all day, and after school, many of them go to these academies for English, math, science, history, music, etc.  Some of them attend academies until 10:00 or later every night, then have to do homework for school and for the academies.  When David first came to Korea, he taught in the Hagwons for a number of years.  It was really interesting to see the kids in this Hagwon.  The kids I spoke with there were about 10 years old, and were a bit shy to speak with me at first, but they soon became more comfortable.  They're doing quite well with their English.

Last night we went out to dinner with some of David's friends.  It was really nice meeting them, and getting to know the people he spends time with.  It was a very enjoyable evening.  This weekend, we are going camping with several of his friends.