A Wonderful Day in Tongyeong

Yesterday Brandon and I met up with our friends Arnie and Roxy. We started the day by renting two tandem bikes; we rode them down the boardwalk along the water. The view was amazing and the sun was shining so it was a great time. We stopped at a place along the path and had a nice lunch, too. After we returned the bikes, we drove to a Buddhist temple on Mireuksan (the mountain we climbed a few months ago). It was very peaceful there, and also beautiful. Next we headed to Gala Park, which overlooks many of the islands of Tongyeong. The view was incredible! We then headed back into town where we met up with our friend Alice. We all ate a light dinner and walked around window shopping.
Luckily we did all of our outdoor adventures yesterday; today it's rainy and cold. We have plenty of housework to do around here, so we won't get bored!
Also, it's official: We are going to Thailand at the end of December! We will be visiting my friend Min, who studied in the USA for a year when I was in high school. It's quite warm in Thailand, in the 80's, so that will be a plus also! We will be there for 4 days, but don't have any of the other details worked out yet! It will surely be a great Christmas present though!

A view from the bike trail that we took.

Arnie, Brandon, Roxy and Heather! We rode tandem bikes and had a picnic along the boardwalk.

Jinju

On Saturday, we visited Jinju, a town of about 350,000 people. It's about an hour from Tongyeong. We had been to this city one previous time for the Lamp Festival, but everything was crowded at that time and we didn't get to take it in. Yesterday it was pretty much deserted, and quite peaceful. The castle and its grounds are on a hill overlooking the city on one side, and the river on the other. The trees were beautifully colored and it was a great experience. There is also a huge history museum, but once we saw the size of it up close, we knew that we would not have time to conquer all of it in an hour. So, we firugre that we will be back in the future to walk through that.
Today we are going to get some grocery shopping done, and just relax a bit. It's hard to believe that we've been here 4 months already; time is really flying by!

1) B and H b y the big bell inside the Castle Park-Jinju.
2) Entrance to the Castle.
3) H and B down on the river bank.

TKD Festival

Last weekend we watched the Tongyeong Taekwondo Festival. Students from 15 or so TKD schools competed individually all day long. The youngest kids were about 6 or 7, and the oldest were high school students. There were many spectators, as TKD is a native Korean sport. We snapped a few photos in the process!
In the first photo you can see many floral arrangements. Whenever there is a grand-opening or a big event, friends and family bring flowers and/or plants to show support. The whole stage was lined with them!

Fall Photos

1 & 2-Halloween w/ the kindergarten class.
3- B and H at the harb farm.

4 &5- At the park (name unknown)

Halloween & Fieldtrip

On the 31st, both of our schools celebrated Halloween. As the holiday is not normally celebrated in Korea, the schools were the only places partying. Some students dressed up, and there was candy to be had by all!
Saturday we took a fieldtrip with H's school; it was for the kindergartener's and their parents only. We had a two hour bus ride to a famous park, which was peaceful and beautiful. Next, we visited an herb farm. We were treated to an herb lunch, we made herbal soap, and even an herbal candle! It was really a beautiful place and the colorful leaves only added to the scene! There was a pond at the farm, and of course one of the students managed to fall in. Other than that, there were no problems and everyone had a nice time.
We had a rainstorm today, but after it quit the weather was quite comfortable. There are no big plans for us that we know of right now. TKD is still going well, and we are working on getting our brown belts soon!