all things Spring

This past week at school we had the Korean equivalent of an Easter party, though instead of dying eggs the teachers helped the students shrink-wrap their eggs (brown eggs at that) in multicolored translucent paper...either that or they just colored on them with marker, which actually looked a lot more like real Easter eggs than their shrink-wrapped counterparts. After lunch, the kids went on an Easter egg hunt for their "special" eggs and the student who found the egg wrapped in gold foil won a prize.

kindy bunnies

The hunt is on!

Today we went on yet another field trip to this place called the "Funique House", which was actually located inside of the Korean War Memorial, however odd that is. The whole thing was more like a display for all the goofy kinda stuff you'd see at one of those Spencer's Gift Shops back home. There were weird kitchen gadgets, talking stuffed animals and little naked Buddha figurines that "peed" when you poured water into them, as well as a plethora of other odd junk that no one will ever use for any real practical purpose. I thought it was weird...but the kids seemed to love it.

Wow...they're so amazed.

Rosa A class & the teachers

Afterwards we went outside to see the cherry blossom trees in front of the museum. Oooo...pretty.

lining up to get water

in full bloom

This weekend I'm going to try to get outside and take more pics of the flowers and such if I have time. The cherry blossoms will probably only be blossoming until this next week and then they'll be gone, so I wanna make sure I get some more daytime shots of them before that happens (which I'll be posting on here of course). Also forthcoming is my next "Bad Konglish" installment. Mwahahahahaa...

pics of Bonghwasan

Here's some images of my evening hike up the nearby mountain (which I found out is called Bonghwasan). So basically this is a view of my neighborhood from waaaaaaaay up high. Enjoy.

the path leading up the mountain

view from the top

another view

Seoul Tower in the distance

a clearing on the side of the mountain going back down

who turned out the lights?

I think I found a new favorite place to get away from the hustle of bustle of city life. Josh had actually told me about this place when he was visiting, but I never really got around to checking it out until last night. I spent the weekend with friends doing the usual stuff (TV watching, birthday parties, brunch, what have you) and didn't get back until yesterday evening at about 9:30, though still not very tired and not willing to call it a night just yet. It was a superbly beautiful night out and I didn't exactly feel like spending the remainder of it inside...so I set out on foot to see what I could see around the neighborhood.

The trees here are finally in full bloom and if you look hard enough you can spot several cherry blossom trees along the sidestreets and backroads around this area. Also last night I came across this (I guess) newly-constructed park just off the main road, complete with exercise equipment and badminton courts. That's nothing really out of the ordinary though since it seems like all the parks here have something similar. I did discover this one trail though that veered away from the park which looked like it led up to the top of a nearby mountain that I haven't yet had the chance to explore. This is the one that Josh had told me about that apparently houses a Buddhist temple at the very top. I took a look at the map along the trail just within the boundaries of the park and noted that it was actually a lot bigger than I had previously thought, with several trails leading up to the temple from all sides. It was dark at the point (and somewhat scary) but I decided to make my way up since there were at least a few lights to guide me along. About ten minutes into my hike I noticed that there was no one else around and I hadn't yet seen anyone coming or going along the trail. Not long after that the lights that were allowing me to actually see where I was going went out. At that point I got a little freaked out. I pulled my Nano earphones out of my ears (determined to hear anyone who might be sneaking up behind me) and continued up along the trail as far as my nerve would take me. I gave up after about five minutes.

Luckily the area in which I live is heavily populated so the sky was already very lit up with an orangish-hue that reflected itself off the trail along on which I walked. On the way back down I did end up taking a wrong turn there somewhere and found myself in a completely different spot from where I started. In any case, I know this area like the back of my hand so it wasn't hard for me to find my way back to a familiar street.

In any case, I don't give up so easily. Thus, tonight I'm going back to the mountain, determined to make my way to the top before they turn the lights off on me again. I have to go buy some eggs for this Easter egg dying thing we're having at school tomorrow, but then after that I'm coming back, changing and heading back up the trail. From what I could tell last night the view from the top of the mountain should be awesome so I'll be sure to take some pics and post them here as soon as I get a chance. Hopefully I won't run into any scary ajummas who might chase me back down the trail...I think Josh said that might be a possible hazard. Guess we'll soon see.