Tea, Karaoke, and my place!

So we went and had some tea two nights ago with Margret's friend who came to visit (she is teaching in southern South Korea). This is the tea I had. Its Oju....something. I'll get back to you on that one. It is basically honey and a berry mixture that has been watered down and heated. Lets just say I went and bought it the next day.

Here is a small video of the tea place we are at. It is really nice!

Last night we went to the karaoke place again. It was fantastic. Got to sing a lot and...well...had a lot of Soju.

So yesterday and part of the morning (not to long thanks to me talking to my Dad and my Mom talking to me. A bit of unknowning help from Kim) I got really homesick. On top of that I might have had a slight adrenaline rush when I tried to calm myself down. It helped that I got to talk to those three for sure. It didn't help all I did yesterday was the karaoke, tried to learn the Korean Alphabet (it kept reminding me I wasn't home), and work on my window. Today, after talking to those three, I finished my window and I feel pretty good now. I still miss everyone but I know the trick is to keep my mind busy with building things. Here is my homemade window!

It may or may not be hard to see but the bark on the tree was random lines drawn in pencil. The bird his pencil in it two. There are 22 pieces of black paper I outline, cut, and assembled all on freehand. No blueprints nothing. The blue paper is actually two sheets (they are connected with the cross beam. I am happy and it solves my glaring white wall.

So I hope you like my apartment! Toddles!

The Mountain is Conqured once more! Part 2

So blogspot was being a punk so I had to make a part 2. Here is the rest of this. I'm not sure what is north or south anymore. So sorry about that. Its been a while and I should have posted them earlier. Make sure you read the post before you look at this one! The Videos will for sure to tell you what is going on. Hopefully you enjoyed them!

Now when I was going for this picture I didn't have this guy. But I think he adds something to this picture...

In this video I said, "There is Iksan and....the east."

So I actually found one of my students up on this mountain top. It was pretty entertaining. It was really awesome her uncle lived in Canada so his English was great! He is the one that took this for me.

So this randomly popped in my head. I was heading southish and going down hill and immediately though of Treebeard from Lord of the Rings. Yea I know...

Well I hoped you enjoyed the mountain again. Sorry if the videos were crap but I tried to take a bunch so you can see what the pictures can't show. Toddles!

The Mountain is Conqured once more! Part 1

So I concluded I don't do about 80% of what I say I'm going to do. So I thought I'd change that. 2 days ago I climbed the mountain all by myself. It was great and I biked their (6 miles), climbed the mountain (1 mile) and biked back in less that 3 hours. It was really good. Yesterday I went to a tea house again and had something that tasted really good. It is a combination of a berry, honey and sugar. It is supposed to help your throat and make your skin nicer. This is all good (especially the throat part, I have caught a bit of something).

Either way, here is some pictures and videos of the mountain. It was sunnier and nicer. That and since I already took lots of pictures I figured videos would be nice. Here you go! I apologize that it is very windy in the video. I'll try to do something about that next time.

This is an Intro Video to my ride.

This is a video about what you could see along the way. This is mostly about tiny villages.

This is another update later down the road. The roof's I realize are really hard to see. I am sorry about that. It is also near impossible to see the gravestones. I do have a picture of some grave stones later on. The roof I took a picture of the first time I was in the area. I'll make a better attempt at the videoing....I thought I got it.

I made it to the mountain. Now you get to hear my complain about shoe sizes...

So here is that picture of some of the graves stones in the area. They are all over the place. It is kinda neat but creepy as well :)

 The next one is a close up of the mountain and a nice view of the trail I took!

 This is what I have to climb up for a bit of the mountain. I try not to use the railing.

 So these pictures are of the west side of the mountain. Not of Iksan unfortunately. Aren't these lovely? The video shows more of it. Sorry I keep forgetting to zoom out when I take these videos when I point them at me. I'll remember next time!

Caught up!

So I did lots of stuff today. I posted a whole bunch to catch you guys up on what is going on. Blogspot offered a new way to download stuff and it made it very very easy for once. These are the new post:

• Chusok! 9.22.10
• A trip up the mountain!
• Early Chusok at School!
• Sunday's Trip back to Mireuksaji!
• A Trip to Gunsan
• New Downloader! Lots of things to talk about!

To access them you can them by clicking on the word September on the right of this post then click on the first one. The first one "New Downloader! Lots of things to talk about!" followed by "A Trip to Gunsan." Keep following that direction until you end with "Chusok! 9.22.10. " Just thought I'd explain for those who are not used to the internet yet. Its 4am right now. I'm going to bed. See you all later!

-Andrew

Chusok! 9.22.10

We celebrated Chusok today! It was nice. I brought in lots of breaded chicken (same stuff I made in an earlier post). Everyone else brought potatoes with eggs, potato with bread crumbs, sweet potatoes, sweet potato soup (everyone had potatoes...I could have brought corn too...), and cookies. It was very nice. It was also a very very filling meal (and I have leftover chicken for at least 2 or 3 days).

Happy Chusok!

A trip up the mountain!

So on Tuesday we went up to the mountain near the Iskan. Its the same mountain where the temple grounds and museum are at its base. I believe its called Mirksan but I'm not sure. It was beautiful out. Hot but really windy during the bike ride. The mountain had enough shade to walk up but still allowed the wind to go. It took about an hour to climb because some parts had 45 to 90 degree angles with rocks. It was sheer awesome by the way.

A little bathroom stop on the way up.

There was a small eatery on the way up.

Here are all the pathways up the mountain.

This was holy water or something sacred. I did rub it over my head.

Look how beautiful it is. I wish you guys could be here to experience this.

So pretty!

My favorite picture!

 At this point we made it to the top! I hop you enjoy the view!

 

You know all but the lady in black. Her name is Grace. She is the other individual who I've been talking about (maybe not on blogspot but over the phone). She is a very fun person.

I found a flag!

I'm King of the Mountain!!! I should point out that a very nice Korean man bought all of us a Korean version of Powerade. It was very nice of him. He did it out of random. I think he might have been impressed.

Either way, I hope you enjoy all these beautiful sights! Until next time!