Category: Korea trip 2010

More Fish Market Photos

I thought I’d be finished posting photos from our trip this week but I still have a few more that I’ll post here and there over the next few weeks. But this is the last photo-intensive post. These are from our second trip to the Jagalchi fish market. The first time we went my camera was acting up and I didn’t get any photos so when we were in the neighborhood again we made another quick visit.

These fish mongers were super nice to E and pulled a live crab and octopus out so he could touch them.

This older gentleman bargained with this vendor for quite a while.

A storekeeper makes a joking pass at kidnapping E. E was somewhat unsure about the situation.

We have a lot of stuff going on this weekend. I need to make a batch of cupcakes and wrap presents so we can celebrate E’s 3rd birthday tonight. The three of us usually hang out together on Saturdays but this weekend we’re dividing and conquering: N is attending the BYU-UNLV football game with people from his office and E and I are going to make the trek out to the Overstock.com warehouse store with my mom who’s in town visiting my sister.

Hopefully BYU wins and I find an awesome bargain!

Fun with cousins

I have an aunt and cousins who live in Pusan and luckily we were able to spend some time with them while we were there. We had a lot fun hanging out with my cousin Young-shin, her husband Ji-soo, and their super cute little girl Kon-young. E was besotted with Kon-young and doggedly followed her around everywhere.

Kon-young and E

My cousin Young-shin and her daughter Kon-young

Ji-soo working the grill at a awesome bulgogi restaurant they took us to.

Ji-soo snaps a picture of Kon-Young and E at a buddhist temple.

Young-shin and Ji-soo are thinking about moving to the states, specifically Utah. I hope they’ll be able to make it work out–we’d love to have them close by!

More Temple Photos

I still have quite a few photos from our trip to Korea that I wanted to post so I hope everyone’s not sick of them yet. I’ll be posting some more this week and then wrapping it up.

Like I mentioned before, we visited several Buddhist temples while we were there. These are pictures from our trip to Bulguksa.

The trees were just starting to turn when we were there. I bet they’re stunning right now.

E pretending to be a monster–Rawr!

E is nuts about drums and likes turtles so this was easily his favorite part of the temple.

People stacking rocks for blessings/good luck. E really wanted to get right in there but we were horrified at the idea of him knocking down someone else’s stack so we set him up off to the side with a few rocks of his own.

Looking at these photos is funny because our trip already seems so far away even though it was just a few weeks ago. Coming home to being sick, a messy house, and a lot of work to do for my job jolted me back to reality none too gently. But even still there’s something comforting about getting back to the daily grind.

Korean Stuff Giveaway!

I mentioned last week that I was going to have a small giveaway and here it is! I wanted to find a way to say ‘thank you’ to everyone who stuck out my blogging absence during our trip. It’s nothing spectacular, just a few random cute things I picked up in Korea.

Cute overload: (clockwise from the left): pencils, decorative tape, coin purse, ID-I’m different! gum, and a cellphone dongle/keychain (which is actually Japanese but oh well).

AND, this good-sized plastic tote. These were everywhere in Korea and I thought they seemed pretty handy for shopping or storing projects. This one has a zipper and a side pocket (I stuck the pencils in there so you can see the scale).

Well, that’s it. To enter, leave a comment on this post by midnight next Thursday and I’ll pick a winner at random.

Thanks again for reading!

Yangdong Folk Village

While we were driving around the Korean countryside we stopped by Yangdong Folk Village. Over five hundred years old, it’s a functioning traditional village and the seat of two prominent Korean families. It’s also where N and I first got to know each other; we both lived there for a summer as part of a university study abroad trip way back when.

It was great to be back to the village. It was over ten years ago that we were there and it was even more better than I remembered it. Living there for a summer was a pretty amazing experience–we lived in an traditional compound with three houses (one for the girls, one for the boys, and one for our professor and his family), held our classes outside on the traditional wooden porch, washed our laundry by hand, taught classes at the local elementary school, and bathed outside using camping showers (except for when we could hitch into the next town to go to the bathhouse).

E outside the compound where we lived during our study abroad trip.

Us back where it all began.

The houses we lived in were at the top of a steep hill. I remember the walk being a bit of a pain but the view was/is spectacular.

I love the traditional houses.

The fields were golden with rice almost ready to harvest. When we lived in the village N and some of the boys helped plant rice (and had some leeches stick to their legs).

It was great to stroll around the village and down memory lane. The summer I spent in the village really cemented Korea’s place in my heart (and introduced me to my wonderful husband-to-be!)

E and Buddha = Besties

Well, we’re home (more or less). E came down with a cold the last few days we were in Korea and while he was super good on the flight home he threw up when we landed and hasn’t been feeling well since. Last night was rough because in addition having trouble sleeping due to jet lag and being sick there was a crazy loud rainstorm that kept E (and us) up for half the night.

And then this morning E threw up a few more times and I woke up having caught E’s cold. So yeah, we’re home but not quite up to speed yet.

But…um…PICTURES! There are numerous Buddhist temples around Pusan and we managed to cram in visits to four of them while we were there. These are from our visit to Beomeosa.

There was a festival going on while we were there and the courtyard was full of people praying with the monks and writing down the scripture. The monks would chant a syllable, bow, and then write it down and the worshipers would follow along with every step.

E decided to get in on the chanting/bowing action. He was actually following along and saying the chant which was pretty cute. A bunch of Korean tourists took his picture.

E’s favorite part of every temple visit was seeing Buddha. He loved peeking inside the temple at the statues.

E and Dylan befriended a puppy.

Some of the many statues.

Wandering the grounds.

I really enjoyed visiting the temples. They each had a different feel to them: some were bustling, some were serene but all of them were gorgeous.