Chew Sock; Daedunsan

Back into the swing of things here in Korea... The lack of posts have been due to stress-related events that are piling up high above our heads. But now we can see again!

Free bottle of wine
with the purchase of
our phones. Awesome!

About a week after our vacation in Thailand we got phones! Finally! Nicole has downloaded an app where she can make calls to U.S.A. for free. However, we have a limited amount of minutes so we can't call all the time. Skype is still 100% free though. Let us know when you want to talk! Sure, the time difference is tricky but we can always work something out. Anyways, if you happen to get a call from either of us our numbers are:
John: +82-010-7685-2324
Nicole: +82-010-7686-2324
Country code, area code, 8-digit number. By the way, our phones are ridiculously large. Two times the size of our old phones. Other apps you can use to talk to us (if you have smart phones): Tango and Kakao Talk. We both have both of those apps. Kakao talk is a much better app for calling than Tango is. But again, Skype still works!

Testing out our cameras - this is our apt

No, not Ricky Martin...
Ricky AND Martin

View from a top floor at the Dong-bu Bus Terminal

No... it's not a real DQ.
(major sad face)

In August we did our best to save our money after spending most of it on Thailand & our phones so we didn't do much of anything. We had some celebration dinners with friends - one birthday & one going away. We also went exploring around a very large bus terminal that has a lot of good shops in it. And Nicole managed to slice the tip of her finger off one day at school. No worries, it's almost 100% healed now.

Door on the floor... anyone
want?

Hanging out with friends
one night & this is what we
were entertained with...

New overhead contraption in Eunhangdong
(old downtown); more pics below

Mad skills with pizza dough

Oops...

The beach we went to hosts the Mud
Festival every year.

By the end of August, we were getting antsy again & decided to go to a beach. Daecheon Beach in Boryeong. It was a little less than a 2 hour bus ride away. It was such a beautiful day. And we met a new friend. She has been teaching in that area for almost 3 years now. She also introduced us to a fantastic restaurant on the beach with breakfast items. We enjoyed a nice lunch & then spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach. It was probably the best day both of us had in a long time.

All kinds of interesting
seating here.

Yummy food from Orange!

Fun water fountains

Yay, beach!

A panoramic view

Laying down & looking up at the sun

Toes in the sand

Playing in the sand

We would've stayed for all of the sunset but
then we would've missed the bus.

...Then we had to go back to work. So what did we do the next weekend...? We went back to the beach. This was the first weekend of September. We knew the weather wasn't going to stay very warm for too much longer so we went again. Actually, the weather even this weekend has been pretty hot. No complaints though! Neither of us is ready for winter. Hopefully autumn will last very long.

Finally! A pizza without corn!
Thank you Pizza Hut!

Overhead contraption in Eunhangdong
lit up at night

Children in their traditional Hanboks

Playing jeg-chagi

Other than our beach adventures, not too much has happened in September until this weekend. We had a 5-day vacation for Chuseok: Korean Thanksgiving, one of 3 major Korean holidays; we've been told it's the most important holiday for Koreans. On Tuesday, Nicole's school celebrated Chuseok (pronounced "chew sock"). All students & foreign teachers wore the traditional clothing, which is Hanboks. The foreign teachers were provided with theirs from some of the students parents. The day also included traditional games, such as tuho (throwing sticks into a bucket, aka, arrow throwing) & jeg-chagi (basically hacky-sack). The students also learned how to bow properly. It's different for boys & girls. The kids looked adorable. At the end of the day, Nicole & a couple other teachers decided to bring their classes together for another traditional game of chicken fighting. That's what the kids were looking forward to the most. It was highly entertaining.

He would rather be chicken fighting!

Boys learning how to bow

Girls learning how to bow

Nicole & 2 of her coworkers in traditional Hanboks too!

Nicole's class

We have enjoyed our holiday vacation. There's a different kind of feeling of having a holiday vacation when you don't also have all of the familial obligations & preparations that come with it. However, this holiday doesn't have any meaning to us; maybe we will feel different when Christmas time comes. Or maybe our American Thanksgiving when we are still working...

John's Chuseok gift from his bosses!

We were dropped off here. Had to walk
about 1 km to get to the cable car.

Ziplining where we were
dropped off.

During this vacation we went hiking for the first time since we arrived here in Korea. It was fantastic. We went to one of the steepest mountains to hike in Korea. It's called Daedunsan. 'San' means mountain, so it can also be called Mount Daedun or Daedun Mountain. Whatever floats your boat. Anyways, it was so much fun. We took a cable car about halfway up (saving us about 90+ minutes) & then climbed the rest of the way - all the way to the top! There was a suspension bridge (50meters long, 81meters high) & very steep stairs (angle approximately 70 degrees with 127 stairs). Those stairs were a tad frightening. Especially if you looked down below through the cracks. But we all made it (6 of us went). When we finally reached the top we were very excited & tired. Going down was slightly harder but we all made it in one piece. It was a long rewarding day.

Can you see the zipline?

Spiderman & Puumba in the same
picture.

Onward with our walking/hiking. That is Daedunsan.

View just after our cable car ride.

A small climb later from the cable car.

John & Joseph wondering when
the picture taking madness will end.

Okay, moving on...

Suspension bridge!

Can you see the stairs above the right of the bridge?

Waiting for the one Korean
guy to keep moving...

The bridge now below us.

Getting closer to the top! (center)

Steep stairs above us!

The bridge way down there now.

Enjoying the view before we go up the stairs.

Hello, steep stairs.

We made it up the stairs!

Amazing view... see the bridge still?

Almost to the summit!

Chris, the photo-bomber.

We have professional photo-bombing friends.

There it is... just a few more steps.

MADE IT!

So beautiful.

We started way down there.

It was a beautiful sunny day.

We have also gone out a couple of times with friends in our 5 day weekend, saw a 4D movie, & made a trip to Costco! We love Costco. So much food!

Though we are sad to see our short vacation end, we are thrilled that our Christmas vacation in Japan is 3 months away. And we have other plans in between that time for some adventures. First one, John's birthday! Now less than a week away.

In other news, we have decided on what we want to do after our first teaching experience is up here. Right now, our plan is to go back to the states in May & spend some significant time there. After that we plan to return to Korea for a new job. We believe that this job will probably start in late August. Most contracts begin in late August or late February. We will hopefully already have our jobs lined up before we return to America. Again, this is our plan as of right now. But most of you know that our plans usually change at the strangest times & nothing actually goes as planned. That's how we ended up here! When significant changes come around, we will do our best to keep you all updated.