Last Night in Tokyo

I made lots of notes about all the wonderful things I have seen and done since being in Japan. Thank goodness, because all I can think of right now is how much I want to be home.

We are spending our last night at the Sakura Hostel in Tokyo. It is everything that I thought a hostel would be. Noisy, crowded filled with young, happy, chatty travellers.

We are heading off to the public bath for one more soak before I come back to Canada. Not sure how I will ever get used to 3 minute showers alone again.

One more sleep and I will be home. Yippee!

Sleepy Uji City

We got a new roommate in our room at the hostel last night. She arrived shortly before 9:00pm. We already had our lights out, pooped from a busy couple of days. This morning around 9:30am when we were still lounging in bed our roommate asked if we were tired. We chatted lots about sore feet, aching muscles and exhaustion. She felt the same way -- it was a bonding experience.

After a lazy morning, I took the train out to Uji today. Uji city is much more my speed -- S L O W! The town was pretty sleepy, I think because it was rainy and windy today, or maybe it's always sleepy. I finally got a tea ceremony in Japan. I had to pay Y500 to be served one little rice gel square and a bowl of tea by a nice lady in a kimono a far cry from the personal attention we received in Korea, but very nice none-the-less. The lady who performed the tea ceremony and her friend were talking in Japanese after she served me tea. There was lots of smiling and looking at me. I'm pretty sure they were saying something like, "It doesn't seem like she knows it's over. How can we get her to go away?"

I wandered through another beautiful temple and fell in love with these sculptures of deities on clouds. I have some postcards of them. They are said to meet you on your way to the pure land. Some are dancing or playing musical instruments, others are worshipping Buddha.

I found a local grocery store on the way home and bought fixin's for salad. Ahhh, green food at last. Tonight Mina and I have a date to meet for the Public Bath. Hopefully that will revive us. I don't recall ever being this tired before.

Day of Solitude

Brett left this morning and Mina was going out to see the monkeys today, so I was on my own, maps in hand. After my success with Brett yesterday, I was feeling confident. I walked down to the station, purchased my ticket (the right one this time) and got on my bus with no problems. 8:30am is a lousy time to be on the bus. It was absolutely jammed with people. I got off at my stop and headed in the direction of the first temple of the day.

This was a far cry from the path of philosophy yesterday. The streets and temple were wall to wall people. Lots of school groups on tour. Pretty overwhelming. I went down all the tiny little quiet streets I could find and eventually found some peace away from all the people.

This place is lousy with temples! I visited probably 5 or 6 temples and shrines today and walked up thousands of stairs. Again I was awe struck by the mountains. They have trees with leaves of every shade of green and yellow. Being on my own, I took lots of rest breaks and spent lots of quiet time in the temples.

At the end of the day I met a Japanese guy (my age I'm guessing) and we sat by the river talking for awhile. He wanted to know what I liked about Japan. One of the first things that came to mind was all the bicycles. He said that when he was visiting his friend in Chicago, they needed to run out and get a wine opener. They DROVE! "What is this? I do not understand." He said that he's not particularly in to environmental issues, but just can not comprehend how someone could be so wasteful of the resources to drive for ten minutes to get a bottle opener. Good point.

I've done it again -- I'm pooped after so much walking and looking. Sensory overload. I really bonded with the frogs today as I rested in front of a little Japanese pond. The iris' are in full bloom. It is beautiful. I enjoyed my alone time, but I think new things are better when shared. Wish you were here. Three more sleeps and this will all be a dream. Crazy...

Feeling Quite Travel Saavy

The end of the day yesterday found me sunburned, with sore feet, quads & shoulders, totally exhausted and completely happy. It was a perfect day. Brett and I headed out shortly after 8:00am to attempt to make our way out to Arashiyama, which came recommended by Amanda and appealed to Brett from a travel book. After purchasing the wrong all day bus pass, and pointing and smiling a lot to helpful information desk people, we were on the right train. :)

Arashiyama boasts a beautiful river, temples and a monkey park. The highlight for us, I do believe, was the Post Office with a bank machine that actually gave me money!!! Sigh of relief.

As we headed up the mountain to the monkey park, we were met by many warning signs: Don't stare at the monkeys in the eye, Don't feed them outside, Don't show them food, Don't Look Like You Have Food, and whatever you do, Don't Look Them In The Eye! So, needless to say, we were both a little tentative as we climbed up the path and then we saw our first two Japanese red-faced monkeys. And then we turned the corner and saw a few more. When we got to the top of the resting area, there were dozens (maybe close to hundred) monkeys. We were lead inside a little resting area where we were able to feed the monkeys through a fence. This way, they only associate people with food as being on the inside. It was soooo cool. We wandered outside with them for another hour or so becoming more brave the longer we were with them. The only time they seemed to get excited is when new people went in to the resting area to feed them.

Arashiyama offered a beautiful river, an incredible bamboo forest (new bamboo shoots over 6' high with a very soft brown fur on them amongst hugely tall bamboo with sunlight filtering through -- breathtaking), temples and a lovely pond. We stopped to dip our feet into the pond -- yesterday was hot and sunny -- and were a little spooked when carp the size of my thigh curiously started poking around our direction. We were to chicken to dangle our feet after that!

Being Brett's last day in Japan, we had a lot of ground to cover, so got back on the train around 3:00pm and stopped in a new part of town on our way back. We walked the Path of Philosophy with follows a little canal under a canopy of trees with flowers and beautiful homes along the way... and of course, more amazing temples. Our favourite was Eiken-do temple which houses the "Buddha Looking Back". The story of this Buddha is that Eiken was walking alone through the cold and it became too much for him. All of a sudden the Buddha appeared to walk ahead of him. He was too tired and cold to go on. Then the Buddha looked back as if to say come with me you can do it.

The place of worship in this temple was like nothing I had ever seen before. Gold everywhere. We sat for a nice long time as a monk chanted and gonged. It was way more beautiful than my words.

We had a great meal (pizza and salad) at a lovely little cafe beside the canal overlooking a beautiful flower garden. We hoped to end our day with a stop in the public bath, but after wandering for blocks and blocks, we found that it was closed! Big disappointment. So we settled for ice cream and melted in to bed.

Another perfect day.

Tokyo to Kyoto

We had a nice day wandering about Tokyo and through Ueno Park, a beautiful oasis in the middle of the big city, not too disimilar from Central Park in New York.

The temples/shrines in Japan are different than Korea. Rather than being guarded by scary looking giant angels as in Korea, they are guarded by small scary looking dogs. Some of the ones we saw have statues of Buddha, but they are much smaller than the ones we visited in Korea and have a different face (still lovely). There is so much more I could and should say about our day in the park, but I'm pooped so these stories will have to wait until I get home.

We took the super express train to Kyoto at around 4:30pm. The ride was just shy of 2 1/2 hours across the country side. Beautiful views of green mountains and flooded rice fields. We arrived in Kyoto at the brand new train station (just opened April 1st) and walked to our hostel in about 15 minutes. It seems fine, very nice staff, but not quite as charming as K's House in Tokyo.

My first impression of Kyoto is that it doesn't seem as clean (other than the train station) as Tokyo. But, it has come so highly recommended, that I just know we will find many gems tomorrow.

Did you know that they ride on the opposite side of the street here? I did not. And there are bicycles everywhere, ridden by everyone -- the young, the old, business people, women dressed to the nines in high heels. They have bicycle parking lots and most of the bikes have baskets. I am inspired. The sidewalks have bumps on them at each intersection, I guess for the blind. This does not make for the easy lugging of baggage around. I am so grateful that we have a place to park for a few days and don't have to haul our stuff around.

I feel like I might be whining a bit. I think I'm a little pooped -- oh, I must be, I already said that. So, good night for now!

O.K., one more thing. Brett met a chatty older man at the Hiroshima flame today who told us that the Japanese are 100% safe. No worry of crime here. Not like the Americans. He heard that 50% of Americans carry guns and will shoot you or pick pocket you if they get the chance. Hopefully our pleasantness helped soften his view of the west. As we were walking away from chatting with him, a Japanese-American woman warned us that he was "feeding us a line of bull"... hmmm, made me pause and think that his opinion of Americans being suspicious is true.

Morning Run

The　飼りれのれい　(my keyboard switches from time to time to Japanese) ... Start again. The hostel staff pointed me in the direction of a good running spot beside the Sumida River very close to here. The morning crowd is very different from Korea and from the evening Tokyo crowd. In Korea I was always joined by walkers and joggers in their colourful track suits, visors and masks, getting their daily exercise. Not here. I got lots of quizzical looks from men in business suits as I jogged down the street and across the bridge to find the river walk. It took me a few tries of running down dead end shipping paths and crossing back and forth over various bridges before I found the correct path.

It was a very nice trail, although noisy as the traffic ran overhead. The street people here have set up shop by the river -- each one having a very tidy area made of either cardboard boxes or covered by blue tarps. Oddly, I felt no fear at all as I jogged passed. Some were sitting cross-legged in their make shift homes, dressed and reading the morning paper. I was surprised at how clean it all is. Perhaps that is their agreement with the authorities?

Not sure what the day will bring -- a little more exploring in Tokyo and then we will take the train to Kyoto late this afternoon. It is warm (19C) and cloudy today.

In joy, Tanya

We're not in Kansas anymore!

Well we said good-bye to our Korea this morning and left for Tokyo at 7:00am. After an uneventful flight we arrived at the Norita airport, but something just wasn't quite right. It was raining first of all and where was the banner and entourage of greeters with flowers awaiting our arrival. We found our luggage and arranged to have most of it stored at the airport for the next week while we travel light in Japan. One point for Tokyo, which was quickly erased when we realized that this is pretty much a cash only country (Mina had done her homework and was prepared, Brett and I not so much). I tried 6 different bank machines and got 6 different messages telling me that my card was no good here. Mina took out some extra cash for me and now I'll just cross my fingers that I've got enough to get by.

We found our train, purchased tickets and after an hour and a half ride we arrived in Tokyo. O.K.,　here we are, so now what? Again, we were missing Rotary. We knew we wanted to see something, but weren't quite sure where to begin, so we wandered in the rain, the only people on the crowded streets with no umbrella. It was quite a cool site to see hundreds of umbrellas, mostly clear (very effective so you can still see where you are going on the crowded street), all moving in unison in an endless stream down the street.

Japan feels different than Korea. It is greener and seems cleaner. Tokyo is very modern, far more multicultural than Seoul. We explored the Shibuya district which is popular with teens -- the teens here seem much more worldly, high fashion, smoking, etc. They love very high sparkly strappy heels. There are bicycles everywhere. And green, orange or blue boxy taxis everywhere too.

Our hostel, K's House Tokyo, is adorable and in a great part of town. I felt much better about being in Japan once we finally got here. A day of being lost in the rain, humping my black carry-on and heavy shoulder bag through subways and crowded streets, being left totally to our own devices (thank God for Mina!), eating at possibly the worst place we could have found (we had Hawaiian Rice Bowls, which looked like BiBimBop our favourite Korean dish and really was white rice with macaroni salad and deep fried shrimp all smothered in a thousand island type yucky dressing) just about did me in. But we have a very clean room to ourselves and are two blocks away from a river with a running train and a cool temple, park and shopping area. So I will give Japan a chance.

We walked through this one touristy looking street that turned out to be a slot machine type game that they play. Huge, smokey rooms. Loud, sounds just like slots. They have buckets of silver balls that they feed into machines and with no skill involved, they either win more balls or don't. It was full of adults. Gambling is illegal here, so they exchange the balls for prizes. It was too smokey in there, so we didn't try it and I didn't get to see what the prizes were. I don't get it.

Last Night in Korea

Have spent the last two days wandering around Seoul. What a completely different experience than the last 4 weeks.

There are 11 million people in Seoul. The sidewalks are crowded with people, bicycles, motorcycles, scooters, food stands, newspaper stands, the wares from all the shops (it seems like everyday is a sidewalk sale). Definite hustle bustle. Great people watching from high fashion ladies and teens in their sparkly shirts, beautiful old people resting on benches, cute couples wearing matching outfits and kids everywhere -- today is Children's Day.

Seoul seems to be divided into districts -- the fluorescent lighting district, the hardware district, fashion, food, arts and crafts -- with row upon row of stores selling the same items. Suzie, our 21 year-old translator and professional snowboarder, told us that they set it up that way so that shopkeepers can share the shipping costs.

There is what I thought was a 4km and turned out to be 7km man-made waterway that runs through the centre of the city. Thank goodness they planned this, otherwise where would the children play and where would I run? I had a longer than expected run this morning along the waterway and enjoyed watching the city wake up. We are less noticeable here as there is probably one foreigner for every thousand people here. School kids do stop us though as part of their English studies they have a set of interview questions for us -- How long have you been in Korea, what is your favourite Korean food, where are you from, etc. After the interview we usually receive a gift of some kind (candy or chips). I have enjoyed giving out Canada pins, pens, pencils and stickers to the kids. Today even the adults were coming up to us once they saw that we had treats to give out. One lady after I gave her kids some goodies came back with a rose for me.

I love Korea. There is so much more, but right now I need to rest my feet after 7 hours of wandering.

Two of our team have gone and tomorrow Mina, Brett and I leave for Japan for a week.

Leaving Gyeongsangbuk-do

This is our last morning in the province. We head to Seoul after breakfast this morning by way of the bullet train out of Deigu. We spent three blissful and interesting days in Gumi, where we enjoyed things hi-tech and natural and everything in betweeen. As always it was hard to say good-bye. I have been away from the computer for several days, but have all the stories recorded in my journal.

I am a bit broken hearted that my time in Korea is almost up. We will have two nights in Seoul and then off to Japan for 6 nights before I come home.

Off for our farewell breakfast. Love to all. xox

Morning Dahn Hak

Yesterday was truly a day off. After blogging I gathered a blanket, my journal and my book and found a quiet little green space to park myself for the day. The parks were full with families picnicking in the shade under the trees. I, of course, spent the day in the sun. My shoulders are just a little pink. I am reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and thoroughly enjoying it. I highly recommend it. She has a beautiful way of expressing her journey throughout Italy, India, Indonesia and to herself. Reading this is bringing me closer to Korea.

Our team met up around 5:00pm yesterday and headed to Pizza Hut for a very expensive, but very delicious pizza. We had grandiose plans of walking downtown and going to the bath house, but after my day of solitude, I was craving more. I said goodnight and spent the evening enjoying the warm night air walking alone in the moonlight.

This morning was Dahn Hak -- me and the senior citizens counting, clapping and body tapping (see http://www.dahnworld.com/) at 6:00am. Now I am off for a run. Later this morning we head to Gumi.

District Conference and Day Off

Friday night was the reception dinner for the Rotary District Conference. This was for all the higher-ups in Rotary. Mina, Janis and I all dollied up in our black dresses. We definitely stood out. Mina's host mum from Andong kept trying to cover her up. The women there were lovely -- some in traditional Hanbok gowns and others in pastel coloured suits with sparkles. Complimenting is different here. We got lots of "Ah, very beautiful," as we shook hands with the men. They have a way of bending in and looking you up and down as they say it that is surprisingly not creepy. I think there is just a different sense of personal space here. Everybody tells us we are beautiful or handsome. When we show pictures of our families they all say, "Ah, very beautiful." When we show pictures of our houses, it is, "Ah, my house. Very beautiful." When we meet kids or teens (boys and girls) on the street, "Ah, you are so pretty."

Three things that we are asked every time we meet a new group is our marital status, our age and our waist size (mostly for the men). People here age very gracefully. We have spent time with lots of men over 60 that look to be in their late 40's and have seen people in their 80's that look 60.

Yesterday was the Rotary District 3630 conference. There were probably three thousand + Rotarians in attendance. The event was held at a stadium from 10am to 5:30pm. And there was no translator. So we had hours and hours of boring speeches in a language that we could not understand. We could tell it was boring because even the Koreans weren't laughing. There was a speaker from the Korean Smile and Laugh Resource Centre (who knew there was such a thing here) that was right up my alley. I will ask our new hosts if they can arrange a visit there. He does Smile Therapy and titled his talk, "Strategies to Change Your Life." His top three strategies as translated by our friend Grace who will be visiting the island on the incoming Korea team in early May, are: Laugh loud, use your stomach, and laugh long. Smile for 100 days for confidence, passion and to prevent heart disease. Say to yourself, "I am a national treasure. Of course I am!"

Today is an entire day off, our first. We are not sure what to do with ourselves. It is gloriously sunny. I slept in until 9am and then went for a beautiful run for an hour and a half or so -- my first run since I got sick. I think I will spend the rest of the day under a nice tree somewhere and then meet up with the team later to go to the bath house. As I was running this morning it dawned on me that our time in Korea is winding down. I wish I could capture it all and bring it home with me. I know the experience will be with me forever.

Back to Pohang then to Gyeongju

Yesterday we made a quick trip (1 1/2 hours) back to Pohang. We went to the VIP Restaurant for a western lunch. I did not realize how much I was craving recognizable food! I had a salad bar and fruit, followed by green tea ice cream with fresh fruit topping. Oh, it was wonderful. Pohang was a long day in the car... not worth blogging about.
We did go to a chic shopping district in the evening where the teens hang out. Lots of neon and teenagers dressed in bright colours hanging on each other. Lots of hand holding and walking arm in arm here -- guys and gals.
Our new hosts in Pohang were planning on taking us to YongDong village for the day, but we have already been there, so instead Janis requested that we go back to Postech University to visit their light accellerator lab... which would be very cool for scientific types (of which most of you know, I am not). I won't even try to explain what they do with light there, but it is very high tech. We saw a model for a helicopter smaller than a peanut and a lens smaller than a sesame seed -- very James Bondesque.

Next stop was Jukdo Market. The first time we visited there a couple of weeks ago, it seemed very cool. Busy, bright colours, fish everywhere for sale, octopuses... This time, however, all I saw was death and suffering. There was even a dolphin lying on the ground for sale. (I am sorry to write this). Janis pointed out that it is important for us to know where our food comes from. I think I am ready to be vegan again. Needless to say, when octopus was served for lunch, we suddenly weren't very hungry. I had a very strong urge to come home. I miss blending in and recognizing everything and understanding and being understood. I miss green smoothies.

I've bounced back already, though. We are back in Gyeongju in a huge very swish hotel. We had a few hours off, so Brett, Janis and I went for a stroll -- Mina needed to visit the sauna! Not far from our hotel, we stumbled accross Kyongju World, an amusement park. Brett and I thought it would be funny to go in. The admission was 6,500 won which did not suit Janis's practical side. We couldn't resist, so we bid Janis farewell and Brett and I spent an hour and a half laughing at the sillyness of it all. It was just what I needed. We even went on a rollercoaster and a funny little goose train. The highlight, however, had to be the "European Fantastic & Just Magic" dance show -- white dancers being made a spectacle of in front of an audience of about 12 Koreans that didn't seem quite sure when to clap or whether to clap. Oh the giggles. Better run, we have a big Rotary do this evening and I've only got 28 minutes to get pretty.
);

Snuffling in SunSan

I've had two days of sneezing and blowing my nose through the little farming town of SunSan. I did not expect to be the sickly one on this trip. I'm feeling like I am on the other side of it now and other than a raw nose, I am no worse for wear.

I really like the small towns. Our new hosts actually picked us up wearing blue jeans! The pace is much slower here and we spend lots of time visiting after meals instead of rushing off to the next event. Foreigners are not common here, so rather than tourist stops, we have visited businesses of the local Rotarians.

Our first stop was to the butcher shop. Oh dear. The butcher had a blow torch and was firing... pigs ears the size of my feet. Yuck. We walked quickly past so we wouldn't have to see much and it got worse. Outside it was a pig's head that was being torched. Janis was in there with her note pad and questions and Mina and I held hands like little girls and walked away trying to erase the memory.

We visited a textile factory where they make nylon thread, a bank, a beautiful little kindergarten and the water resource company.

The highlight for me was a visit to a tomato farm where we loaded up on organic cherry tomatoes. Rows and rows of delicious, red tomatoes. He also grows a small round variety of watermelon and another type of gourd (Sun, our translator, called it a pumpkin, but it was very small, green and hanging from the ceiling. It didn't seem like a pumpkin). The biggest problem our farmer has is finding labour, even though he offers higher wages. Same old problem of the younger generation moving to the big cities. He is worried about the FTA. Currently he ships his wares to Japan and is worried about the USA taking over his market. He will just do what he does and hope for the best. From what I can gather about the FTA, it means cheap Hyundai's and flat screen tv's for the americans and american cars (they are doing just fine with Hyundai and Kia) and hardship for farmers for the Koreans. I'm definitely down on the FTA.

We enjoyed a leisurely picnic of strawberries, tomatoes, melon and beer on the farm with our new friends.

They had asked us if there was anything that we wanted to see while we were in Korea. We told them that we had hoped we would be able to see some traditional dance... In generous Rotarian style, they made a few phone calls and put together a drumming troupe to perform for us on Tuesday night. The performers wore colourful costumes with big puffy hats like pompoms. They strapped a big hourglass drum on me and put two drum sticks in my hand and I was part of the performance. We all had different instruments and marched around the parking lot in the drumming circle. I felt so alive. I have discovered a new love for music here.

Today we have the morning off and will travel back to Pohang for the district conference being held this weekend.

Oh My God, I Ate One of Those

Another beautiful day in Mongyeoung. I woke up to a view of a little temple on a hill across the river from our hotel. I started my day by exploring the area a little bit. The view from the hill was spectacular.

There are only 20,000 people in this town. It was once a coal mining town which gives it a bit of a ghost town feel now. We walk everywhere and hardly see any cars. Everything is quaint. We visited the Coal Mine Museum in the morning, where we were once again stopped by lots of teens who wanted their picture with us. We are actually getting used to this and may be quite surprised when we get home and don't stop traffic just by smiling and waving hello.

Lunch was spicy fish soup -- delicious, although I wasn't quite sure how to manage the fish head. They were teasing me for not eating much. One of the ladies said, "Me, diet no. Big size." She was.

After lunch we went on the rail bikes. Very cheesey, but lots of fun. Two people peddle and one sits in the middle of these reclined bikes that go along the tracks. We tried next to go to the Ceramics Museum, but it was closed. Our hosts made a phone call and we were off to see the real thing. We went to the home of Seol Young Jin, a famous potter -- his work is at the Louvre! Luis Vatton will be visiting MongYeoung to meet him and see his home. He was a very distinguished looking gentleman, wearing Korean white lounge wear. His home was small and elegant, next to a babbling brook. He told stories about the tea bowls that he had made and how the Eastern culture is starting to make an impression in the world. It was truly an honour to be served tea by him.

Another great walk in a beautiful park, MongYeong Saejae. This is the 200km pass to Seoul, full of history of the Korean's protecting it from the Japanese. This group allow us lots of time to stroll and enjoy the scenery. Then off to the hot springs. This bathhouse had a pool with 6 different massage pools -- the dream bed, bench massage, floating massage, etc. It also had a wet jade sauna -- a room with floor to ceiling hot jade stones. We are very spoiled. Peter, our translator, told us that the Koreans have a very hard time when they go to America for any length of time because they have to go to the bath house at least once a month to relax their bodies and we don't have anything like that. I believe the Kingfisher has a hydro massage type deal, but it certainly is a lot more than $6. Mina and Janis enjoyed a personal scrub yesterday which was $13 for 30 minutes.

For dinner we had sashimi, one of my favourites. I was making my little lettuce wrap with sashimi, garlic and a pepper when my friend put a piece of octopus on my leaf. I wrapped it up and ate it, yummy. Shortly after, Brett nudged me as a new plate was being delivered to the table... it was moving!!! Mina turned away, but Brett and I were drawn in as one is to a car wreck. As Peter picked up a squirming tentacle dipped it in chili sauce and brought it to his mouth, still wiggling, Brett and I gasped in unison and turned away. It was then that I realized that I had just eaten one of those. The meal was over for us. We delicately covered the plate with lettuce so that we didn't have to look at anything that was moving or looking back at us. "There you go little fellow," Brett cooed. Brett was a little squeamish after that and was about to have a familiar looking cone, when he said, "Wait a second... what are those larvae looking white things in the bottom?" Even rice was looking suspicious.

We came back to my room for some California oranges and starburst candy. Mongyeoung is still our favourite town, even with this setback.

Mungyeong -- My New Favourite Town

After a run and breakfast, we said good-bye to our hosts and met with our new friends who will be with us for the next two days. Today will be an easy day. This group has been warned that we are very tired (I'm not tired anymore since my one hour of alone time yesterday).

On the way to Mungyeong, a beautiful little town nestled between green mountains, we stopped at a lovely shop. We were given a lesson in making Korean powdered green tea by a young woman with her masters in Korean Traditional Tea -- who knew there was such a graduate program? You first fill the ceramic bowl (like a deep cereal bowl) with hot water and swirl it around do heat it up. Then dump out the water and add 2 scoops (served with a little flat hook type spoon) of powdered green tea and one ladle of hot water. Whisk back and forth very quickly with a bamboo brush (looks similar to a man's shaving cream brush), without touching the bottom of the bowl until frothy. Then pass the bowl to your friend to enjoy.

To drink Korean tea, pick up the bowl with two hands, look at the colour of the tea, then smell it, then sip. Our teacher explained that Korean tea is served in little cups so that there is more time for visiting.

I was so taken by our tea making experience that I had visions of holding tea ceremonies for all of my friends. My mission now is to find the perfect tea set. Actually, I did find the perfect tea set at our little shop, but I guess I have expensive taste... it was 900,000 won (a little better than $1,000 US).

We checked in to our hotel -- much nicer than the love castle. Then went to the bath house to relax for a couple of hours. A leisurely stroll through the traditional market (I am ashamed to say that I purchased California oranges), a nice dinner and a couple of hours with our new friends at the singing room. One of our friends poured his heart into "I Did It My Way" complete with adorable Korean accent.

A great day.

Night time Lifestyles in Bonghwa

Despite a few setbacks, Saturday turned out to be a wonderful day. We did go to the mountain. After driving up a long, narrow, windy road, we had a bit of a picnic (white bread and cherry tomatoes) and gathered everyone to take pictures. We were in the middle of a cloud, so couldn't see much of a view, but it felt so good to know we were just going to be able to wander freely and turn down the stimulation for a day.

Janis, Mina and I started to walk down one of the paths. We knew we couldn't just take off, so Mina went back to find Brett and let them know where we were going. From what we could hear, it seemed that they wanted to LEAVE! Kudos for Mina, she had a bit of a fit and bought us 20 minutes (with two Korean escorts). It wasn't much, but we were happy. We were on a narrow, winding path with bare azalea bushes on either side. Tangled, bare sticks as far as the eye could see. Spring hadn't found it's way to the mountain yet. I can only imagine how amazing this trail will be in another month when the flowers bloom! Even without the life, it had a beauty all it's own.

About 3 1/2 minutes into our 20 minute walk, we were called to come back. I almost cried (actually I swore for the first time since I have been in Korea). I felt like I had been robbed. Mumbling under our breath, looking glum, we headed back. Mr. Kang who had accompanied us, took my hand. "Mina," I called, "I'm not mad anymore." We did manage to sneak an extra 15 minutes by heading down the mountain road ahead of the car and they picked us up on their way down. It was something anyway. I don't want to sound at all ungrateful. Rotary has been amazing to us and we would be lost without them, but we haven't made a decision for ourselves since we got here. Being sheparded around, even by the most well meaning hosts, has caused us to become a little edgey. We explained to our hosts that we are just a little travel weary.

Next we visited a primary school at which one of the Rotarians is principal. This small school will close next year as there are only 14 students grades K-5. We were able to spend about a half an hour with the kids, who were very shy at first, but greeted us with smiles as soon as we pulled out our little gifts of pencils, balls and stickers.

Off to the Ginseng plant. To protect the purity of the ginseng, we had to walk through a body cleaning chamber individually where we put our hands in holes in the wall to activate the body spray (I don't want to know what it was) before we could enter. We saw: natural ginseng root, red ginseng, ginseng tea, ginseng candy, pickled ginseng, ginseng extract, and dried ginseng (for 100,000 won a box). We are about ginsenged out. It is not at all delicious, very bitter, but apparently very good for you.

I asked Mr. Yu to explain what's so great about ginseng. I have come to expect the Traditional Korean answer; makes you younger and cleans your blood. Mr. Yu explained that ginseng is not a medicine, but is regulated by the FDA. "It is a supporting food that does many good things. "It is very good for the lifestyles nighttime." "Nighttime lifestyles?" I questioned. "Yes, the night time lifestyles. Would you explain to her?" "You mean, sex?" our faithful one, Brett answered. We are getting a lot of mileage out of the night time lifestyles.

Our hotel, which we are affectionately calling the Castle of Love... perfect for night time lifestyles, is a far cry from the Rich Hotel we enjoyed the previous night. In the entrance we were greeted by two statues, nudes of a male and female. The statue of the man seemed a little too happy to see us, if you know what I mean... eww. I did take a photo, but I will spare you all from posting it here! The hotel itself was shaped like a castle and over each bed was a red light (?). My bathtub wanted to be jade, but was only a soft green plastic, huge corner tub with jets -- the love tub. I passed. It was just a little too creepy.

Speaking of jade, Shane's host from Yeoungju slept on a jade bed. I am not joking. It was a queen size, single sheet of jade about 3/4 of an inch think. Amazing.

Another highlight of the day for me was our visit to Sosu Seowon (Traditional Confucian Academy). Beautiful (I really need to find some new adjectives), snowing blossoms, tweeting birds, babbling brooks, stone bridges... perfect. Brett's spidey senses were on and he suggested to Shane that Mina and I needed some time (we still hadn't quite recovered from being ripped away from the mountain and looked a little grumpy). So we were excused from the group tour and actually wandered around, ALONE for an hour. My wandering only lasted for 20 minutes or so and I was able to spend the better part of an hour sitting under a tree at the edge of a pond dotted with cherry blossoms, just being. It was heaven.

We ended our evening, very tired, with a beautiful meal at ... Mr. Kim's house? I am sorry to say that I just can't keep the names straight. It seems like everyone is named Mr. Kim here. This was the most beautiful meal we have enjoyed so far. You could taste the love in every dish. Many types of organic greens were served which was a real treat for me. Each dish was garnished with cherry blossoms and pine. So beautiful and delicate.

Korean Gratitude

Please enjoy this note to Brett from our friend and translator, Jackie. It truly captures the spirit with which we have been received. The photo from left to right is Brett, Jackie, Mr. Kim, me and Mina. We are standing in front of a 1,000+ year old Pagoda in Geongju near the East Sea (known to most as the Sea of Japan).

Hi!

I could't fall asleep

Tonight is so long

Tonight I went to korean pub with my firend who had a plan to study in Minnesota like me

How is University of Minnesota Twin cities?

That school is the lower ranked school I have appled for

It is my first school from which I got an admission

However I don't care

It is so lucky that I just get an admission from any schools

Now I am enjoying that result


I wonder whether Others( Shane, Tanya, Janis, and Mina) are doing well or not

I really miss you and your guys


I attach some pictures having with our wonderful time among us to email

Please share them with your guys

Maybe if you have pictures including me and you, please send me

I wanna memorize the time we spent together in Gyeongju

Please Say sorry to others instedof me for that I just email to you

Next I am sure that I will email to everyone

Goodbye Andong, Hello Yeoung-ju

My host family was sad to see me go today. Han Jong told me, "No sleeping. Tanya thinking. I feeling sad." He held my hand on the drive to the girl's high school this morning. While we were there, we were offered coffee. "Tanya, no coffee, no alcohol," and then he got me some water and some sun cream. Very doting all day. We will see our families again at the end of the month for the "Rotary Festival" (district conference) in Pohang.

Our first stop in Yeong-ju was the Mayor's office. Our new translator, Mr. Yu a farmer from North Korea, suggested that it would be a good idea if we gave the Mayor a gift since he would be giving us a gift. We were pretty flustered as we had no access to our luggage, so we dug through our bag of tricks and came up with pins and postcards. It seemed just wrong to receive a nice gift from the Mayor and pile him up with a bunch of ridiculous trinkets. We won't make that mistake again.

We have been receiving a lot of sincere apologies and condolences about the Virginia Tech tragedy. The Korean people are so loving and want only to leave the best impression. Each time we visit a new town they say, "Even though you are here just a few days we hope you will not forget us and tell people about your experience of Korea." There is also a lot of talk here about the recently signed FTA. This is one time when I wish I was up on current affairs. Any comments are welcome.

Yeong-ju is famous for ginseng, hot springs and Mt. Sobaeksan National Park... so of course, it makes sense that they took us to... the tabacco factory? I suppose it was a fairly impressive operation -- the processing is entirely automated, they use robots which look like forklifts with no driver and can produce 500-800 packages of cigarettes per minute. Laid nicely around the conference room table were large crystal ashtrays and boxes of cigarettes. Gratefully, no one lit up.

We finished our evening with another fabulous Korean meal. They are now commenting on how well we all use chopsticks. For lunch today we had a Western meal -- hamburger steak with gravy, corn, beans and macaroni salad on the side (yuck). We were given forks and didn't know what to do with them. After dinner was a trip to the singing room. Our new friends are not at all shy. We sang, danced and tambourined to Korean Folk and Pop music. It's pretty funny how into it they all are. The room had 16 screens, a disco ball, a dance floor and a big comfy couch. We were planning on sneaking out early, but as soon as we got up to leave everybody left. Things happen abruptly here. O.K., time to go.

We are staying at the Rich Hotel in downtown Yeong-ju tonight. It is pretty swish as the name insinuates. We each have a computer in our room and a bath with jets. It is sooo nice to have a few minutes alone. We only get one night here and will be picked up at 7:20am to head for the mountain (I begged). The weather report is for a sand storm and heavy rain, so we may default to our original schedule -- cross your fingers for me.

Busy day in Andong

Yesterday was rough. I think I visited every toilet in Andong -- praise Buddha that we are in a fairly modern city and I did not have to face the squat toilet, I think I would have cried! When I got home with my host, I immediately had to throw up. My host mom took very good care of me and gave me a facial (face massage) while I lied down on the living room floor.

Today was a much better day. Still a bit tender in the tummy, but I am almost back to full health. We missed Mina today as she was home with the same tummy thing I had -- kumquats from the Traditional Market?

We visited the Korean Traditional Paper factory today where they make paper by hand. It was really something to see. They use the bark of mulberry paper trees, strip it, soak it, pound it, lay it and dry it -- all by hand. Very beautiful.

Along with the Soju Museaum, the Hahoe (pronounced ha-way) Folk Village, the Andong Folk Museum, we visited the Yuri Oriental Hospital. Yuri means world without disease and pain. There is a problem in the smaller towns (I may have mentioned this before) with the young people moving to Seoul. That leaves the older generation on their own, so there are lots of government sponsored facilities for them.

We had an opportunity to meet with an Oriental doctor. He looked at our tongues and took our pulse. He said that my blood is clean, my body is no problem and my mind is busy, stressed. Need more sleep. Drink more water. Just got over a stomach problem. Shane's report was 'maybe your blood is not clean and inside your body is problems. Brett, 'body is unbalanced, too fat on top, climb the mountain is very good for you. Janis, 'skin aging, blood is not clean, stressed is a problem.

Tonight after the Rotary meeting my host wasn't there to pick me up, so we stopped at a Golfing 'bar?' to wait. There were big screens with a picture of a fairway on it and you drive a real golf ball at the wall from about ten feet back. It didn't look like they serve alcohol there, but everyone was smoking. There was also a putting green. We went back to Brett's host family to wait for my 'Chung Mu Opa' (older brother) to pick me up. It turned in to a little bit of a party. There were 10 of us there in the end and they served one bottle of wine in little shot glasses. When I left there was still 1/2 a bottle left. Brett is staying with a family with two boys. The twelve year old was snuggled right in to him the whole time, too cute.

Some other notes about Korea:
- they smack their food
- they talk on cell phones at the dinner table (or anywhere)
- they smoke inside, although most of them are fairly considerate and it hasn't been too much of a problem (my family doesn't smoke)
- they pronounce silent e's as in villagey, Shaney, even e's that aren't there as in wishy, lunchy
- when they see a picture of Jono and I together they point to us and say, "Same same."

On the way home from the party tonight, Han Jong said I looked tired (everyone has been saying that I look tired) and gave me a hand massage -- very firm in the fleshy part of the hand between the thumb and the index finger. It kind of hurt, but it really seemed like he knew what he was doing. I sure could learn a lot if only I could speak the language :) We get by though, with smiles and lots of "O.K."

First Homestay in Andong

I spent my first night with a Korean Family last night. On our drive home I asked my host, Kim Han Jong, if he was born in Andong. When he answered, "5 minutes," I knew I was in for a quiet visit with lots of smiling.

Their apartment is lovely -- hardwood floors and black marble accent walls. The living room is furnished with only a couch, a flat screen tv and a nice cluster of ferns in one corner. We spent the evening sitting cross-legged on the floor looking at family albums. Mrs. Kim is a very sweet stay at home mom. She wears an adorable pink hello kitty apron. They have a daughter (16) and a son (14). I'm not sure of the daughter's name yet, but she seems like a pretty typical teenager. She came home from school around 9:00pm and immediately got on the phone. She was too shy to talk to me, but the family photo albums got her involved and giggling. At 10:00pm she went back to school until 12:30am. She was off again for school this morning at 7:15am.

Unfortunately this morning I woke up not feeling well for the first time. Last night meeting our new Rotary club I hit a bit of a wall. I am loving every minute, but I am ready for some quiet time. My stomach is begging for a rest from all of this food. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to face the sushi and seaweed soup for breakfast, but I made it. Today I am going to work on the art of saying, "No thank you."

Uiseong Hospitality

We are in an agricultural town... population about 70,000 I think. The main crop here is garlic and fruit. We are surrounded by fields of green garlic chives sprinkled with apricot blossoms as far as the eye can see.

Once again we are humbled by the generosity of the people here. Not many foreign tourists visit here and our hosts keep saying that they wish they had more to show us. We have been gifted with wine, bells from temples, fans, towels, food at every turn. They even brought out hamburgers for us after one of our stops. I graciously declined, but the team reported they were very good.

We finally had an opportunity today to visit two Korean homes -- one traditional and one modern. Three of the team members are spending the night with a family and Mina and I are braving a night at another girls high school (story to follow).

It was such a treat today having tea at our hosts home. The floors are all heated here and the decor is lovely, sliding rice paper screens covering the windows. Our host's wife is a celebrated calligraphy artist of Chinese characters and her work is displayed throughout the home -- absolutely breathtaking. While we had tea, our team sat on the couches while our hosts (6 men in their 50's and 60's) sat cross legged on the floor in their business suits. It was such an intimate setting.

It was fascinating to visit the traditional Korean house today and see the modern mixed in with the old style. Looking into the back yard you see amazing Korean style roofs and beautiful stone statues with a plastic slide and a soccer ball next to it. In the kitchen is a modern refrigerator and traditional cooking tools. So cool. The traditional houses have several buildings on the grounds. Different buildings for the men's quarters, women's sleeping rooms, entertaining, cooking, etc. There were a group of about 12 elderly women having a tea party. They were all sitting cross legged on the floor enjoying tea, beer, juice, cookies and kumquats. Their faces are so lovely and so full of life. They have seen much pain in their lives having lived through two wars. They were wearing matching quilted colourful vests. We wondered if they were like our red hat society.

Tonight we were blown away (again) by our visit to the public girls high school. We haven't quite been able to figure out the difference between public and private schools. It seems that public is funded by the government and therefore have better equipment (furniture, computers, textbooks) and private schools seem to have a slightly higher grade of teachers. Both have equal tuition fees. School is mandatory up to middle school, high school is optional. About 80-90% of children finish high school and carry on to university.

The school we are staying at is very modern and high tech -- they just finished a big remodel. The entire school is wireless, with an interactive education broadcast system which the girls can log on to and study any subject at any time. They have American movies on dvd for the girls to practice their English -- they can replay lines over and over again to practice along.

We were invited to give a presentation to about 36 girls. We were told to wait in the principals office while they prepared the students for our talk. We feel like rock stars on tour with our entourage. We heard them introduce us and walked in to the room to 60 or so girls screaming and cheering. Brittany Speers has nothing on us. Every picture we show them is met with a loud, "Ahhh, very beautiful!" They are screaming and giggling every time I show a picture of Jono -- "Ah, my style, my style, please introduce. Very handsome!" These girls are BOY CRAZY. We had a few minutes to visit with the girls after the presentation and they all hug us, shake our hands, wave and give us little gifts of tea, gum or candy. Tonight we had to be escorted out of the room because the girls were getting out of control. Mina and I now are on the computer (it's after midnight) and we have a supervisor watching over us so the girls leave us alone. It's just nuts!

They are so sweet, though. They tease each other saying they look like a bear or Garfield the cat. They say to me, "Oh, so pretty. You have small face and big eyes." One girl even said to me, "Your eyes are so big and white. I want to go swim in your eyes." All of their compliments are followed by lots of giggling with their hand shyly over their mouth. Even the older women giggle behing their hands.

I don't know if I mentioned how hard they work in school here, but it is worth mentioning again. Their day starts at 5:40am when they are woken up to Korean pop music playing over the p.a. system. They get ready, have breakfast and clean up until 7:00am when classes start. They have a 10 minute break between classes and an hour break for lunch and dinner. Official classes finish at 7:00pm and then it is mandatory study time until 11:00pm. Most of the girls study on their own until 1:30 or 2:00am. They will say, "She's so lazy, she just wants to sleep." They are so sheltered, no wonder they go so crazy when something new happens. We asked them what they do between classes on their 10 minute breaks and they said either sleep or study.

Some of the funny things we have noticed and are quickly becoming normal are:
- Being served coffee or tea in little paper dixie cups.
- Squat toilets (Mina and I are still having some 'splashing' issues, but are getting better at it)
- Chopsticks -- the chopsticks here are metal and very thin. Our friends often say "I recommend that you use a fork," but always decline. Tonight we enjoyed our cake by chopsticks.
- I can now sit on the floor cross-legged through an entire meal without my legs falling asleep.
- Taking shoes off before entering houses, temples, bedrooms, restaurants and wearing funny little slippers to go to the bathroom
- Korean English written on signs and brochures. For example:
"Uiseong is a righteous and courteous county with unbroken loyalty, filial piety and agrarian tradition."
"This forest with about 10 kinds of trees is a natural and cultural heritage to give a glance about how our ancestors saw the nature and it also becomes a habitat for common herons."
The box from our cake tonight read, "Being fresh is everything to nice cake, however fresh taste and scent are easily affected, so taste before it may go too late."

Still laughing everyday and loving the people and each other (even though our leader can be a bit trying at times -- we remind each other to see him as a little child, with compassion).

We are almost brought to tears each time we have to say good bye to move on to the next town.

Our First Singing Room Experience

So much has happened in just the few days since we have been without email access. We visited an incredible town -- Gyeongju, the museum without walls. My journal is filling up with too many wonderful stories to add here, so I'll just enter some of the highlights.

During one of our visits to a Buddhist temple, Janis and I met one of the resident monks. The monks here wear light grey robes symbolizing oneness (grey is all colours combined). He asked, "please where are you from?" and then signalled for us to follow him. He took us to his quarters and gave us some red ginsing candy from his fridge. We learned later that it is very good luck to receive candy from a monk. He took us up a beautiful private path through the bamboo that opened to a park with a new natural log gazebo overlooking a lotus pond. The lotus flower grows in swamps which symbolizes purity even among the muck. We felt so honoured to be invited to this special place. It is an experience I will never forget.

We have visited many temples over the last couple of days, each one bringing something new and beautiful. There is such a peaceful flow to the grounds and being in the presence of the monks praying feels so calm. There was one monk who was in the middle of training. Jackie, our translator, told us that he would do 3,000 prostrations, "It is very hard. His body will be all wet." He looked and sounded exhausted. I have knelt before gold Buddhas 30 feet high, hiked to see carvings in the side of the mountains, drank from the mountain springs which are said to be blessed by Buddha and make you younger. Our friends claim that many things here make you younger.

We went last night to our first Korean bath house. The guys went with Jackie and Mr. Kim to the men side and Mrs. Myoun, our female host, kind of ditched Mina and I as soon as she loaded us up with shampoo, a towel and a short set. We could tell we were supposed to be naked... but were not quite sure what to do after that. It is one thing to not know what you are doing, and quite another to be naked and not know what you are doing. Our modesty was quickly erased when we walked up the stairs (naked) to the shower room. There must have been 100 women there of all ages, showering, sitting, standing, bathing, scrubbing each other, lying on hot rocks. We were awestruck. Little girls were running around laughing. It was so wonderful. We fumbled our way through by watching everyone else. We started by having a shower, scrubbing with a loupha cloth, then brushed our teeth -- everyone brushes their teeth there. Then we dried off and put on the funny jumpers they gave us to go and meet up with the men for a sauna.

In the sauna you sit on the marble heated floor; the walls are encrusted with huge amythysts and other rocks and crystals in beautiful patterns. Absolutely spectacular. Mina and I were sprawled out on the floor. Jackie told us that the Koreans were afraid to come in to our room... usually it is only the older people that lie down. Mrs. Myoun showed us how to make Princess Leah hats with our towels, so there we all sat together, sweating with our funny white hats on. We drank a special iced tea, that cleans your blood and makes you younger (of course) and sat in a massage chair that was very enthusiastic. At one point I heard a loud OW coming from Brett in the chair beside me -- he said his chair was trying to pinch his skull. I can't imagine what the Koreans must have thought of the funny, fat, pink skinned foreigners giggling uncontrolably. We were having way too much fun!

We spent a little time in the fitness centre -- they had one of those vibrating bands that you put around your butt to jiggle the blubber away. It actually felt suprisingly good. Then it was back for another shower before we entered the baths... there was every type of bath you can imagine; hot, warm, cold, jets, you name it. We loved it so much we went again tonight.

We met our new hosts today and had to say good-bye to Jackie, Mr. Kim and Mr. Kim. There are lots of Mr. Kim's here. Jackie said this morning that he did not want to get out of bed today because he was sad to have to leave us. We are making many new friends. Everyone is so sweet to us. We are given gifts at every turn. I hope to be a much more gracious host when I return to Canada. This morning while we were waiting in front of our hotel, I said hello to an older man as he was passing by. He was kind of disheavled looking in his rubber boots and dusty toque. He pulled some crumpled money out of his pocket and was gesturing to me. I did not have my purse with me and was trying to tell him I didn't have any money, when he put 5000 wan in my hand. I tried to say no, but he insisted that I take it. Wow. I asked Jackie why he might have done that and he said, "I have never experienced that before. You must be very lucky to first get candy from a monk and then money from the man." I left the money at a temple we visited today.

For lack of time (it is midnight now) I will not go in to all the details of our day -- the 'alcohol and rice cake festival', the temple, the traditional tea ceremony, the herbal medicine wholesaler, the open market, the bathhouse, lunch and dinner in really cool restaurants, the kids, the scenery. Our highlight for today and perhaps for our whole trip has been meeting the girls at the highschool. We are staying tonight and tomorrow night at a private girls highschool in their dormatory. All of us (Janis, Brett, Mina and I) are all in their computer lab typing in our respective blogs after so many days without email. We gave a presentation this afternoon to maybe a dozen or so of the students -- the others have gone home for the weekend. Ohmygod, they are so sweet. They all introduced themselves after lots of shy giggles. One girl wants to be a diplomat. She likes music and movies, but she thinks she needs to give them up for her studies. These girls seem very young although they are all 16 or 17. They are in school from 8:00am to 11:00pm Monday to Saturday. Sundays they study. To relieve stress from studying they go to the singing room! We had such a good time singing with 4 of the girls. Before we left home, I put my foot down quite firmly that I do NOT do Karaoke. Mina backed me up on that one. We would do anything but sing.

Guess who did most of the singing... yup, me and Mina! Dancing Queen, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Brown Eyed Girl, Oops I Did It Again. The girls made it so much fun. They are so happy we are here. And so are we! I think the mountain water is making me younger.

It's Tuesday it must be Belgium

Actually, it is Wednesday morning. Another incredible full day yesterday. We visited Postech University. They have a student body of 3,000 and every student is there on full scholarship, tuition and housing. They accept only the top 1% of high school students.

Then, of course, lunch and it was time to say good bye to our hosts to be handed off to another club. We had so much fun with this group we were sad to see them go. We will have a chance t0 see them again at the district conference on April 28th.

Our next group seemed much more serious, but we are finding that it just takes them a little while to warm up. We went on a beautiful drive to Hangot which is the Eastern most tip of South Korea. Every New Year's morning 20,000 people visit there to watch the first sun rise. There is a sculpture of two hands held upward, one in the sea and one on land facing each other. The sun rises directly up from the hand in the sea (it will make more sense with a photo). There was a group of students there (hundreds of them). A couple of the boys (about 10 years old) were in a bit of a fight. At first I felt sorry for the one little boy with glasses that seemed to be being picked on (our boys push and hit, theirs kick like martial arts), but after our host gave them a talking to, it became obvious that he was still in his face. There was one little boy playing mediator between them. He had a big job. Boys are boys wherever you go I guess.

As usual, we wished we had more time there to enjoy the beautiful, rugged seaside and promenade, but we were hurried in to the van for our next destination... E-Mart! When we got there our host said, "O.K., we will meet back here in 2 hours." TWO HOURS at E-Mart?! Sure glad we didn't waste too much time at the beach! Argh! This is one of the frustrating things about not speaking or reading the language. We let them know that we thought one hour would be plenty and it was. I took some photos of the men's clothing racks with shirts and suits in pinks, yellows, blues, purple. They dress in great colours and sparkles (the men and the women). Our hosts (4 men in suits -- the business dress is dark pinstripe suit with colourful tie) weren't quite sure what to do with us since we cut our shopping time by an hour. We suggested perhaps a park or a nice walk somewhere, they chose rather to buy us a drink at McDonald's! We had to shake our heads again, smile and say kamsahmida. Janice thought she was ordering a blueberry milkshake and ended up with a black bean and rice shake (black beans look kind of like blueberries, don't they?). We couldn't stop laughing. Actually it was quite delicious and tasted kind of like an oreo cookie blizzard. I just had a sip, still full from our lunch.

We went to our first Rotary meeting after that. We each gave a presentation with pictures of our families and lives at home. This group was pretty impressed with my marathoning and hiking. I'm glad I included pictures of what I like to do. "Marathon. Ah good," makes for a good conversation starter. They served us dinner and plates of the sweetest strawberries I have ever tasted. Mina and I polished of three platefuls of them! Sky-Bae, the club president presented us each with a gift (a business card holder -- exactly what we needed, presenting business cards is a VERY big deal here) and then wanted to take us out for a beer. We weren't sure what to expect, but wanted to be polite.

We went to a very cool quiet lounge with couches and stuffed chairs and a great view of the Posco Steel factory -- quite beautiful at night. After many glasses of beer (Janis and I had orange juice... they don't seem to mind that we don't drink, although we hold up shots of soju (Korean rice wine 19% alcohol) to be polite) and more food (plates of fruit and baskets of popcorn like snacks), the men lightened up. We are each wearing a Rotary pin. It is quite ridiculous really -- we all think they are tacky (except for Shane, of course). The Koreans LOVE it! "Big pin good!" One of the men gave his small Rotary pin to Janis. She gave him a Canada flag pin, but would not give up her wheel (or rather, Shane wouldn't let her give away her wheel). We pulled out some other pins we had with us. With each pin we gave him, he got prouder and prouder. He would pat his chest and sit up very tall with a big smile and a little grunt. When you think that these are CEO's, business owners and executives, it is just so darned cute that they are so crazy about pins. He was wearing 5 by the end of the night. At the Rotary conference we will give away our big (about the size of a twonie) ugly Rotary wheels to our favourites.

On my morning run I found a great little park with lots of little trails. In the centre of the park was all kinds of outdoor fitness equipment with at least a dozen or so people exercising to nice Korean music. They were all quite concerned that I was in shorts. Lots of smiles. They don't seem to mind that I find them all adorable and can't stop myself from taking pictures of them.

Posco Steel Plant and Oh Hu Buddhist Temple

It is impossible to report everything amazing that is happening. We are blown away every 10 minutes. Like, over the top, how will we ever translate just how amazing, ridiculous, out of this world the whole thing is.

My day started off with a run at 6am past ponds, cherry blossoms, forests of bamboo. I ran into a group doing Dahn Hak (like Korean Tai Chi) in the park (dream come true)... lots of smiles, body tapping, feeling energy, giving each other massages... me and half a dozen adorable little old ladies and a couple guys in track suits with masks on. After my run I went for a walk through the residential streets. Very narrow streets, bright blue and orange tiled roofs, elaborate gates and beautifully adorned doors, everyone different, on even the most modest houses.

I was wandering around taking pictures when this woman (around 50) saw me. She tapped her chest and said "Picture?" Then she took me to her house to show me her garden. I gave her our brochure (thank god we translated it in Korean). She squatted down and read the whole thing while I was standing there taking pictures -- too cute. Oh, and when I got back to the hotel there were about 100 little kids playing in the park -- all in little uniforms (little brown skirts, little yellow suits, pink ones, blue... all different classes all in different uniforms and equally adorable). And this was all before 9:30am.

We met up with a couple of the Rotary leaders for tea. All of a sudden, in entered about 6 young Korean men in black pinstriped suits and sunglasses. I wish I could describe what that feels like!!! Totally surreal. Then we piled into three, very expensive looking vehicles and headed for lunch at Brian's restaurant (one of the young guides... our
English translator, he lived in Seattle for 4 years while going to high school). We are being hosted today by one of the youngest rotary clubs in Pohang. The young guys turned out to be really funny -- we had a great day with them, so many laughs. I have recorded lots of stories in my journal and taken lots of pictures.

I have NEVER seen so much food! For lunch we had a traditional Korean meal -- which consisted of about 20 different dishes (I am NOT kidding!). Everything was amazing. Lots of laughing about how the Korean's stay so slim. They say this is normal for them to eat like this. I am starting to believe them because dinner proved to be the same. Wait until you see the pictures. Platters of sushimi, crab, all kinds of kim chi, tuna, spicy fish, usually some kind of beef dish, noodles, pumpkin soup (yummy!)... followed by fruit for dessert and green tea. They drink this very sweet rice or wheat syrupy drink (I'm not wild about it). Each dish is very healthy, very little fat and no bread... a very small amount of rice. Everything seems to be combined for intestinal health -- seaweed soup is said to 'keep your blood clean', kim chi aids with digestion, etc.

We also had the Posco Steel Tour today. The Koreans are very proud of Posco... it basically saved the country from economic ruin in the late 60's. Pohang has grown in population from 30,000 in 1968 to over 500,000 now, all accredited to Posco. One of their mottos is that "Nature appreciates the way we do business"... hmm I wonder if the sea life and birds appreciated the way they filled the entire bay to build the massive plant.

After the Steel Factory we went to a 1,400 year old Buddhist Temple in the mountains. Oh Hu Temple was named because fish returned to the temple after many years and each of the founders (priests) of the temple believed that they were responsible for the fish returning, so named the temple Me Fish. Duck Guen(another of our hosts) is a Buddhist and he showed us how to prostrate to Buddha. There were many little buildings, different temples housing different gods (Buddha and his students, the Mountain God and Water God, and others). On the grounds people bring their personal Buddha statues (very cute little cartoon like statues) and beads to pray to the gods. I asked what the little colourful shoes that someone left symbolized and was told that they are for a new baby to pray for a long life. So rich. I wish we could have spent more time there...

Another beautiful dinner at a restaurant overlooking the sea -- breathtaking. We are wondering if we will limber up by the time we go home. All of our meals are eaten sitting on the heated floors. It is quite comfortable, but we need a little shifting when our legs start to fall asleep.

They are all so gracious. Someone once told me that Koreans were rude... true, they may not hold doors open, but have treated us like absolute royalty in every other way.

Just one more thought on the restaurant we ate at for lunch... the bathroom had the most incredible sink made of amethyst and heated toilet seats! See what I mean? Unbelievable.

ye pun (beautiful)

More thoughts on Sunday

I've just reread yesterday's entry and the welcome reception at the airport doesn't read as funny as it actually was. The pictures will say it all when I get home.

Thoughts on Seoul -- given that it was Easter Sunday the streets were fairly quiet (4 lanes of traffic going in each direction). Crowded, but not too too crazy. Cars of all shapes and sizes really (I thought they would be smaller), mostly Hyundai (Korean made), BMW, Kia. Buses are lime green, blue or pink. We all expected to see more scooters or motorcycles, but they are not allowed on the highways, so don't work for most people -- also driving a bike in the city is quite dangerous. The day was sunny, but foggy. Our host corrected us that this was not fog, but smog -- the yellow river from China. You see quite a few people wearing masks (maybe one in twenty).

Cherry blossoms everywhere along the main street in the financial district which runs along the Han River. It's not a particularly pretty city... oh, this is frustrating -- how can I describe just how blown away by all of this I am. Smoggy, kind of dingy, but beautiful at the same time. Big colourful signs in Korean everywhere with the odd US chain slipped in (7-11, Dunkin' Doughnuts, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, only saw one McDonalds so far), cherry blossoms, neon and big screens (like in Time Square NY), cute little asian cartoon characters everywhere.

I want to take pictures of all of the people here! Adorable little kids. Older women with big visors and colourful track suits marching along (they have a very purposeful march). Cute little old men. Stylish young people (lots of acid wash). We haven't seen one obese person yet (other than the two Canadian tourists we met at the Gyeongbokgung palace tour yesterday).

We stopped for a walk at Chong.je.chen (sp?) -- a 4km long water walkway that runs through Seoul. The man made waterway took only two years to build -- using water from Han River and ground water. There are lots of bridges and stonework along the way. Great people watching -- lots of families out with their kids. There was an outdoor concert going on with breakdancers and three beautiful, hip girls playing different types of violins (La Vida Loca). Very alive!

Prior to that was lunch at Seoul tower at Namsam Park. The tower is in the centre of the city 380M up with a panoramic view (except we couldn't see a thing because of the fog/smog. We looked ridiculous in our uniforms (blue suits) tromping through this family tourist spot. Again, I can't translate just how goofy the scene really was. We had an amazing buffet lunch -- salad, sashimi, korean noodle... too many yummy things to mention and very healthy.

The sun has come up now, I'm off for a run. We have free time until 11am.

Sunday Night

This blogging is much more challenging than it looks... given that my instructions are in Korean (I know I said that this morning, but I hope to translate just how tricky it is to navigate through this!).

An amazing full day. Breakfast at a Korean restaurant (funny, they even call them Korean restaurants here... even though we are already in Korea and that just should be a given). We sat on cushions on the floor at very low tables. The floor and the wall for leaning on was heated. Breakfast was soup (light broth, mung bean sprouts, chives and an egg) served with all kinds of side dishes -- kim chi, peppers, nutty dipping sauce, spinich, chive something.

We drove an hour and a half to Seoul (too many in the van again). I must mention the van -- soft grey and pink fuzzy interior with blue and yellow little lights all around. Very shaggin' wagonesque. We visited a beautiful palace -- the name escape me right now. In keeping with Feng Shui tradition, in front of the palace is a stream so one can clean the mind with the water before entering. Statues of very friendly looking animals are every where to chase away evil spirits. Suffice it to say, the architecture was amazing, beautiful blossoms (cherry and apricot), sculptures, mountains... ahhh.

Next door was the National Folk Museum where we learned of the Five Blessings Koreans wish for each other: longevity, wealth, health, good virtue and to die without pain. People like to keep the 10 Symbols for longevity around them (in art, on screens, linens, robes, etc.): sun, mountain, stone, water, cloud, turtle, crane, pine tree, herb of eternal life, deer.

Oh there is so much more I want to share... but Janis is waiting for the computer. One more story...

We flew from Seoul to Pohang (just a 45 minute flight) and were greeted at the airport by many Korean men in business suits sporting a big (like 10 feet long) yellow banner with Welcome GSE and all our names on it! They had big bouquets of flowers for each of us. We took way too many pictures with everyone's cameras and then were wisked off in various luxury black vehicles to our hotel. I was absolutely giddy, even though I was alone in a car with a very distinguished gentleman who didn't speak a word of english.

an.nyong.ha.shim.ni.ka