Hooked Up

This week I've been totally hooked up and connected. Last Saturday we ran up to Mr. Han's second hand car lot and found this beauty. (Sorry for the poor pictures in our parking garage).

I can't tell you much about it. I know it is a 2007 Kia Sportage with low kilometers, 5-passenger leather interior and that it works great. Mr. Han does a lot of car sales with expat's so he gives you a good price then after 24 months will buy it back at 50%. Let's just say with the money Exxon gives you to help buy and then sell the car when you leave we made out quite nice. And why would we drive anything other than a Kia (or a Hyundai) in Korea?

Isn't it super cute?

Then on Tuesday the hubs came home with this! (Since the company provided him with a basic phone I know he really got this for himself and lets me use it during the day.)

I've never owned such a fancy phone. Again, I can't tell you much about it but I know it is an Adroid and has more features than I could even think of using. We are very excited about the GPS (much needed here), the mapping features (for our hikes and bike rides), internet and even Skype (if I can figure it out). Now I can totally fit in with all the other expat wives. Ha.

Jinju Fortress

Last week a friend and I packed up the kids and headed onto the mainland to a city called Jinju. The drive is just over an hour. They have an amazing antique street filled with tons of historic junk, i mean treasures. There were actually some beautiful trunks that I may have to get my hands on before we leave (like this beauty my friend got here).

After exploring the antiques and trying to keep the little one's hands off the breakables we headed to the fortress along the river. It was beautiful and had hundreds/thousands of years of history...something we American's don't quite understand in our country. The walls surrounding the fortress still remain and most of the buildings are reconstructed originals. Every year they do a lantern festival on the river that we will be attending. Enjoy the photos.

Deokpo Beach

It's a holiday weekend in Korea with their "Memorial Day" on Monday. Unfortunately any travel plans we were making were put to a halt as we found out Ben had a safety meeting on Saturday (which E and I rode in a bus with the other families to meet for lunch) and then has to work on Monday. We decided to spend the evening at the beach to enjoy some of the nice weekend. Deokpo beach is the closest to our home (only 5 mins or so away) but not as nice as some of the beaches on the other side of the island.

It is nice to have a place to let the engineer(s) do their work...

And enjoy the nice scenery and very cold water and maybe finding a treasure or two.

It was also nice to see the huge clean-up crew as there was tons of trash and debris. Koreans do everything in masses.

And finally, we are trying to teach E how to do a peace sign for the camera so she can fit in.

Waterfall

We got hooked up with a playgroup this week. It was refreshing to have other little kids for E to play with. The next day one of the ladies took us for a nice stroll up to a waterfall. I loved it so much we went with daddy for a picnic tonight. (Sometimes I think we're living in a dream.) The water was pretty cold but E kept wanting to scale the wall to the top of the waterfall. A girl after my own heart.

Buddha

So I always pictured Buddha to look a little like this one from China...

Not in Korea. We took a little stroll with friends to a small Buddhist temple up the road. Although small it was very beautiful and ornate.

Guksabong Peak

Today we decided to venture to the mountain side to find a trail to hike. It has been rainy the last couple days so we were ready to get out. We came across this path and started up. We weren't sure how far we'd go but we ended up summiting Guksabong Peak at 462 m (1,516 ft). Korean's don't believe in switchbacks or anything like that so we basically went straight up the mountain. It was so humid today it felt like we were in the rain forest. Unfortunately there were still several clouds (eventually we hiked right into them) because the view would have been incredible from the top. Here are a few photos from the trip.

(Please excuse the sweaty pits...E and I were just doing the Dora "we did it" dance. And yes, I am still wearing a shirt from high school...don't judge).

A Saturday in Korea

This is what I hope a typical Saturday in Korea will be like.

In the morning go on a hike (we can't wait for our shipment to get here with our backpack carrier for E).

Take a rest at a pavilion.

Make it to the top of the hill for a little park and exercise. (These Korean outdoor exercise facilities are great!)

Enjoy the view from the pagoda.

Then dad goes for an extreme mountain bike ride with some other foreigners while mom and E go to the beach. Hopefully there will be many more Saturdays similar to this.