A little late but worth the wait!

Sara and I finally ventured outside of our dynamic city of Busan and into the wondrous world of the Seoul Metropolitan area. We ventured north on Parent's Day weekend up to Suwon and Osan, home of an amazing fortress, the US Air Force base in Songtan, and the biggest market in Korea, Osan Market (home to many battles in the Korean War).

We began our journey bright and early, on the KTX train headed for Cheonan Asan. Since it was a holiday, all of the reserved seats were sold out for hours. We were forced to stow away, finding a stop of ground to sit on wherever we could. We ended up finding a perch in between cars 9 and 10. We ran into Ronald Weasley and Harry Potter there as well...(get it, 9 and three quarters?)

We made it out to the fortress in Suwon, not really knowing what to expect. We took a KTX train, the Seoul subway, and a bus to get there. Upon first seeing it, we thought we had traveled so far for nothing, being that where we were dropped off there was only an old wooden building that could not be entered, circled by a high traffic round about. We ventured further into the market area, to find that the fortress didn't just encompass that small area, but almost the entire city of Suwon. We grabbed a map and followed the walls around. It was a beautiful, clear day! It took us about 2 hours to walk the entire thing. Nice little cultural outing for the two of us!




The rest of the weekend we spent next to the Air Force base in Songtan. We ate the most amazing western food, drank way too many free drinks, danced our socks off, and bought things that were totally unnecessary. All in all it was a good weekend while an incredible drunk ride home.

The next week of work was capped by "Funny Zoo Teacher" on Thursday, bringing the cutest mini pig ever! Learned lots about the pig family and how every breed is different...did you know that pigs for bacon have curly tails while the other ones don't? And, there is such a thing as a sheep pig. It has a sheep body with a pig face, which doesn't sound so impressive, but was still odd to see. Here's my new little buddy...
And then came Teacher's Day, my favorite day of the year. I was showered with gifts and goodies and all of the kids were forced to tell me how much they loved me! I totally scored this year, being the only foreign teacher...we're talking GNC, Kiel's, Body Shop...oodles of goodies! Love my kids, love Korea, lovin life!

So that's two more things off of the list! But I have definitely added more...
Here's a revised version...
Hike some mountains (so far we have hiked from Changwon to Jinhae and Jangsan Mountain)
Camp on Geoje Island (고제도)
Mudfest (Boreyeon...July 17th 2010)
Lantern Festival (Jin Ju, October)
Snowboard on Mt Muju
Green Tea Fields (Boseong)
Beomosa Temple (Busan)

Temple Stay
Paragliding
Ziplining (May 23, 2010)
Runs (so far we have run the Breast Cancer 10k in Haeundae and the Daedapo 10k)
Ocheonjang Spa (check)

Spa Land (check)

Rafting

Go to Daegu and actually see the sights...not just the food and boys (this weekend)

explore Changwan

Turtle Ship (Jinhae)

Jagalchi fish market at 5am (Jagalchi, Busan)

Everland themepark (Seoul)

Go to a water park

Firework Festival (Gwangali, Busan, October 2010)

See the sites of Seoul

sit in the "Exciting Zone" at a Lotte Giants baseball game (Sadgik, Busan)

See a Busan Mighty Wings basketball game (Sadgik, Busan)

See a Busan soccer game (Sadgik, Busan)

Stripper Norebong (check)

Screen golf

Suwon Fortress (check)

Jeju Island

Kunsan

Ice fishing Mountain

소락샨 National Park

take silly Korean photos

Drink in a bag...as much as humanly possible

Songjeon Beach

Ulsan

Wine train

Osan (check)

Gwangan Bridge Walk

Ulleong-Do

Dinosaur Museum

Gyeongju

Half Marathon

Make Kimchi

Sokcho

We just keep checking off more and more!

xoxo