Annyoung Hasehyo from Wonju!

My dad is living in Korea for three months teaching at a university, so the first stop on my journey was to pay him a visit. He is living in Wonju, a small town in the middle of South Korea that really reminds me of State College. It is in a valley surrounded by amazingly green mountains.

Welcome sign for my dad at the entrance to the university

My first day here was spent wandering around the university and getting my first exposure to the joys of Korean food. As you may know the main staple in all Korean meals is Kim chi, any form of pickled vegetables. All meals I've had here contain a huge amount of different Kim chi dishes along side the main course. It is also common to eat the meals while sitting on a mat on the floor, something my long American legs are not made for. I have to readjust constanstly to keep my toes from tingling.

An example of a Korean restaurant where you have to take off your shoes and sit on the ground.
A meal with my dad at the Yonsei university cafeteria. Notice the many Kim chi dishes.

The second day we went for a hike in Chiaksen national park. We climbed Nomdebong (bong meaning peak in Korean) where there was a great temple on the side of the mountain. It was a really pleasant hike, not too hard but gorgeous.

View from the peak on Nomdebong
Lanterns in the temple

After this hike, we decided to come back for a second day to make it to the top of the highest peak in the park. Often in Taiwan I found that a hike would be listed as very difficult, only to be a bunch of easy stairs to a small hill. So when we heard the hike to the peak of Birobong was considered extremely difficult, I laughed. Well Korea decided to laugh right back at me because this hike was one of the hardest I have ever done. We climbed to 1200m from sea level up a sharp incline of giant stairs, rock scrambles, and even a few places that had ropes and metal rails to helps you make it up. We actually climbed into the clouds and at the top you couldn't see more than 10 feet away making it very eerie. But the hike was beautiful and I was proud to make it to the top. I was again amazed not only at how green and beautiful Korea is, but also how clean it was. There wasn't a single piece of trash on the trail, and at several spots there were ladles so you could drink the water because it was so fresh.

Victory (or asian shot) at the peak

An example of what we had to climb up

Wonju is located in the center of the country, so one day we also made a trip out to the East Coast. We drove with only a little direction and wandered from beach to beach hitting a few war monuments and tourist attractions along the way.

Because of the continuing tough situation with North Korea, the entire beach is lined with barbed wire, and there are many guard posts stationed along the coast with guns facing out to the water. At first I thought I wasn't allowed to take his picture, so I waved. He waved back and then watched us with his binoculars, but seemed happy enough to be photographed.
This also means that there are many army bases along the coast. We saw this great sign at one beach. Shortly after, I found all the bathrooms to be locked and had to pee in the trees behind a police station. Luckily I didn't get in trouble for exposing too much flesh.
When the Korean war began in 1950, the main attack came over the border between the two countries. But right before this began there was an attack on a beach on the East coast. We found the spot where this attack occurred, and there was a monument to the civilians who lost their lives.
In 1996 a North Korean Submarine tried to land in South Korean, and 25 soldiers came on shore. They ended up all being hunted down and killed, and now the submarine has been turned into a museum. It was build for little asians, so they make you wear a hard hat when you go on board as to not hit your head.
Korean pop music is a huge culture, and I think they also have a ton of great soap operas. Many of them are filmed along the east coast, and in one little tourist stop we found the world largest hour glass to commemorate the filming of the soap opera sandglass. The clock is so big it takes an entire year for all the sand to fall through.

O O O, o o o, octopus, octopus, octopus

Tomorrow I head to Seoul for my last few days in the country!

Travels Commence

Yesterday was my last day of work, and I once again find myself unemployed and free! I had an amazing going away party last night and got to see all the people I love in Taiwan for one last wild night. Tomorrow I leave for my 2 months of backpacking through Southeast Asia. I am taking a quick break from packing up my room to gather my thoughts for the big trip. First of all, it's amazing how much you can accumulate in 9 months. I have SO much more than I came with, and I'm not sure where it all came from. I had to go buy an extra bag to fit all my new Asian clothing. Luckily leggins don't take up too much space in a bag.

I am getting kind of nervous for this trip, but I am so excited at the same time. I have all my plane tickets booked, and my lonely planet guide, and I just plan on exploring with very little plan. It's going to be such a great adventure, and I can't wait for it to begin.

I'm not sure what kind of internet access I will have during my trip, but I will try to post some updates here and on facebook. Here is a quick rundown of my plans:

Sept 6th - Fly to Korea. I will spend some time in Wonju with my Dad doing some hiking and site seeing. I will also spend a few days in Seoul and hopefully check out the DMZ - the no mans land between North and South Korea.

Sept 15th - Fly to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (Saigon). Here I will meet up with Pam Peterson. We'll probably take a boat from Vietnam into Cambodia where we will check out Phnom Penh and Siem Reap (Angor Wat).

Oct 2nd - Fly to Singapore. Here we will meet another friend, and after a day or two Pam will head back home.

Oct 5th - Fly to Kuala Lumpur in peninsular Malaysia. We will spend a few days in and around the city and then head up to the jungles of the Taman Negra.

Oct 13th - Fly to Kota Kinabalu on Borneo Malaysia. Again we will spend some time in the city but also hit up the jungle, the mountain, and the orangutan conservatory.

Oct 23rd - Fly to the Philippines. After a transfer in Manila we will fly down to Boracay and spend some quality time sitting on our butts on the beach.

Oct 30th - I head back to Taiwan to collect my bags and say goodbye to friends.

Nov 2nd - FLY HOME TO STATE COLLEGE!

It's going to be a pretty intense 2 months, and I hope it all goes smoothly!

I want to have you to arrangement in my heart

Some more genius Taiwanese culture for you....

You are a flower to me

Hold on to me, don't go with air.

Words to live by.

Snowman Song

I hope you can handle the cuteness, because sometimes I can't. The song goes...

Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman

Once there was a snowman TALL TALL TALL

In the sun he melted, melted, melted

In the sun he melted, SMALL SMALL SMALL

Ghost Month

The seventh month of the lunar calender is ghost month, a time when the ghosts come up out of the ground and haunt the island of Taiwan for a month. There are many superstitions associated with the month, for example you are not supposed to swim or the ghosts will drown you. I have heard that this is an old tradition designed for protection because the ocean currents are especially strong in the summer. I tried my luck and went swimming this month and somehow survived. One of my co-teachers suggested that maybe I am too tall for the ghosts to drown.

On the 14th day of the month people give offerings to the ghosts and burn paper money outside their homes and businesses. I did not know about this tradition so I was confused when I walked down the street and saw table after table of food and drinks with incense sticks. Even McDonalds had an alter outside, which was a funny contrast between old tradition and the modern world. The tables also had a strange mix of foods. Some had very traditional snacks and some had bags of lays potato chips with a stick on incense coming out of it.

The alter outside the Gloria school

Paper money being burned outside Gloria

I'm kind of a big deal

One of the things I will miss most about Taiwan is the celebrity status I have based off of being a foreigner. White people can get away with almost anything here. Rules do not apply, and usually people will be extra nice to us. I have stopped noticing when crowds of people stare at me, and it is not unusually for random people to stop me on the street and tell me I'm beautiful. Really, how will my ego handle a return to a land where I am normal?

Yesterday I went to get my hair cut with my roommate Katie. Our Taiwanese friend Viola came along to help us and serve as translator. Basically I wanted to make sure the hair dresser didn't get confused and think I wanted a buzz cut. A hair cut in Taiwan is a magical thing. I paid about 15US dollars, and the cut involves a 20 minute head massage while they wash your hair and then a shoulder massage once back in the chair.

The people in the salon were fascinated with both us and our hair. By the end of my haircut there was an audience of 5 people sitting around watching and asking Viola lots and lots of questions about us. At one point one of the guys held up a lock of my hair to his head because he wanted to dye it to match.

Bubble Tea

The Taiwanese often have interesting taste in food, and often these tastes involve weird jellies and goos of strange consistencies. Sometimes these scare me away, but one of my co-teachers recently gave me the most delicious drink. It was a passion fruit green tea. The black circles are the crunchy passion fruit seeds, and at the bottom are tapioca balls and some weird jelly strips. Looks a little crazy, but it was very refreshing.