Category: travel

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.

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.

Mystery Solved

Today’s our last full day in Korea. We’re going to try and squeeze in one last expedition out this morning and then come back to my in-laws’ house so we can put E down for a nap and I can put my Tetris skillz to good use and cram significantly more into our suitcases than they held on the trip over. (Wish me luck.) And in a weird bit of time-traveling after spending 16+ hours in transit we’ll arrive in Salt Lake a whole 5 minutes before we left Pusan, local time-wise.

I feel badly that posting was mostly nonexistent for most of this trip–I really should have brought a card reader with me so I could have posted photos. But on the plus side I have a ton of stuff to post about next week and even a small giveaway of a few things I picked up in Korea so check back next week.

In the mean time I saw this great article in the NY Times. It’s a feature about the family who lives in the pyramid at the top of Seattle’s Smith Tower. I’ve always wondered what it was like inside the top of the building every time I’ve driven past it. It turns out it’s awesome.


See you next week!

Photographic Evidence

So…I still haven’t found a card reader that will let me download photos from my camera but I have a few pictures N took on his phone.

The first morning we were here E excitedly tore around the house exploring and chasing his cousin Dylan and ran smack into the corner of a table which left the lovely mark you can see on his cheek. It’s healed over now but for a few days everywhere we went concerned ajummas would worriedly point it out to us in case we hadn’t noticed it before. You know, because they’re helpful like that.

These photos were from the Jagalchi fish market which is always an amazing place to wander–so amazing in fact that when my camera was acting up and refusing to work the first time we visited I wheedled N into stopping by yesterday so I could take some photos myself.

It’s about 10am here and we’re getting ready for a car expedition to one of the local Buddhist temples. I love meandering around temple grounds and snapping photos of E so it should be fun.

One Year Older?

We made it! After an epic journey consisting of two international flights (Salt Lake to Tokyo and then Tokyo to Pusan) we arrived in Korea. For the most part E did pretty well. There were a few hours in the middle of the SLC to Tokyo flight where he kind of lost it because he was exhausted but couldn’t fall asleep. But for the most part he held it together remarkably well. And then he slept from Tokyo to Pusan.

The funny thing about our flight over here is that my 30th birthday kind of got swallowed up by the international dateline. We left the U.S. on the morning of my birthday but it was late at night the next day when we arrived in Korea. So…maybe I’m still technically 29? (Just kidding…I actually have no problem with being 30.) I feel remarkably blessed in my life and I’m looking forward to my thirties.

We crammed in a quick birthday celebration before we left. I made a dairy-free chocolate pie which went over well (E couldn’t wait until we got back from Vegas so he had a few slices early).


This is one of the richest dairy-free desserts I’ve had (Thanks to my friend Jenn for recommending it) and I definitely think it’s worth trying if you have dairy-limitations. The idea of using tofu can be kind of off-putting but I added some orange extract and it tasted like a chocolate orange–yum!

Vegas, baby, Vegas!

Sorry for being MIA lately. We got back from Vegas early Monday morning and ever since then I’ve been rushing around like mad trying to wrap things up for our trip to Korea. It doesn’t help that my monthly reports for work are due before before we leave so I had to spent about 6 hours yesterday on them. BUT, that’s not what this post is about.

This was the first time N and I had gone away together without E and it was so much fun. I’ll leave it to N to discuss in detail the concerts we went to but I will say that for me the highlight of the festival was seeing Belle and Sebastian play. Stuart Murdock was ADORABLE and the show was great.

Belle and Sebastian

The two other things I wanted to do besides going to the shows were to sleep in and eat some great food. I had mixed success with sleeping in (due to my pregnant bladder and some vague anxiety about E being okay/the upcoming Korea trip) but got the chance to take a few naps which was great. But the food, well, the food was delicious.

One of our goals for this trip was to go back to Lotus of Siam which has the reputation of being one of the best Thai restaurants in the country. They specialize in northern Thai cuisine and have an extensive menu. We had been before and really enjoyed it and this time was just as good.

Pregnant me ready to eat some Thai food!

Nam Sod Salad

Crispy duck with Chu-Chee sauce (by far my favorite thing–SO good.)

If you like Thai food I’d definitely recommend checking out this place the next time you’re in Vegas. It’s fairly well-known (When we were there Mac McCaughan from Superchunk was at the table next to us.) and pretty busy so you have to make a reservation at least a day before. The restaurant’s located in a dicey Asian strip mall but the food is fantastic and reasonably priced.

In 12 Hours

In less than 12 hours N and I will be touching down in Las Vegas. We had wanted to go to this music festival (The line-up is amazing: Belle and Sebastian! Pavement! Superchunk! etc…) but the tickets sold out in under 2 minutes when they went on sale. But on Monday the festival released a few more tickets and N snagged two of them. So we booked a flight, hotel, and car and now we’re on our way.

I’m looking forward to seeing the bands but being the unhip pregnant lady I am I might be looking forward to 1) sleeping in and 2) eating delicious food just as much.

This weekend is also my church’s general conference. In Utah it’s broadcast on tv so we’ll tape it on the DVR and will probably catch the sessions on Sunday online at the hotel. I’m looking forward to sleeping in and then watching conference from the comfort of a kid-free hotel room.

I’ll have pictures and a report next week. I hope you have a great weekend!