Mokpo- a day trip...

Mokpo (Mokpo-si) ( Korean 목포, Hanjia 木浦 ) is a major port city in South Jeolla Province , South Korea ,surrounded by hills facing the sea on the southwestern tip of the Korean Peninsula with a population of about 260,000.

The area of Mokpo was controlled by the Mahan confederacy in the 3rd to 2nd century BC and later by the kingdom Baekje (18 BCE – 660 AD) . In 1439 King Sejong of the Joseon Dynasty established the ' Mokpo man-ho ' or Mokpo bay camp to help fight Japanese pirates . There were many battles around Mokpo during the Japanese invasion of 1592 ( Imjin War ) in which the Korean national hero, admiral Yi-Sun-shin fought . The most famous of the battles in the Mokpo area was the battle Myeongryang on October 26, 1597 where admiral Yi-Sun-shin defeated a Japanese force of 133 ships with 13 ships .

from http://mokpo.info/

This weekend we went on a day trip to the city of Mokpo. It is a beautiful port city with an interesting history. We were accompanied by Katherine and Caleb, a couple of friends who teach at a different school in Gwangju. We wanted to go explore some shopping and do a "quick" mountain hike to see some of the beautiful views from Yudal San Park. It was gorgeous! We saw some of the temples, beatiful pagodas, and some really neat carvings on the mountainside on rocks as we trekked down the other side.

The bit I am leaving out is perhaps the best. What started as a pretty little hike turned into quite the conquest to make it up the face of a beautiful mountain. While on the side facing the coasts there were countless sets of stairs in various levels of steepness. The fun came when we tried to find our way to the beach down the other side. We looked around for quite a while and found a break in the railing which began a interesting dirt trail. The trail began with nice ropes to help you down the steeper parts of the rock where there was no hand grips. Later on down the mountain however the ropes became more sparse and the adventure ensued. While Jack enjoyed mimicking Tarzan and swung from trees and ropes we all made our way down. The beach turned out to me about an eighth of a mile of sand stuffed between two ports, several restaurants, and some other businesses. It was worth it though. The one thing I miss most from Florida is the beach. Besides, can you say you scaled a huge mountain today?

노래 방 NORE BANG

Nore Bang (노래 방) is literally translated "singing room." I thought i would devote a short post to one. While in Seoul we visited a Nore Bang. Basically you pay a small amount for 15, 30, or even 60 minutes and have unlimited access to the karaoke equipment. You would think it would stop there. But no. In the room you will find microphones (usually cordless so as not to hinder dancing) song book with English and Korean tunes, lights, the occasional disco ball, and of course some big speakers. Most Koreans go for parties. Karaoke and alcohol are a bad combination. You can usually hear people blasting the latest K-pop or classic 80's rock. It is awesome. I decided to show a few pictures. I hope you enjoy. :)

School birthday fun

As if all the crazy birthday enjoyment during my weekend wasn't enough i was met by the teachers at our school on Tuesday (Monday was a holiday) with a beautiful birthday cake and singing. I think the best part of the day occured when I was greeted by one of my classes with them singing happy birthday (in English I might add). They were so cute, but that wasn't the best part. Later on in the lesson it came to my attention one of the boys had forgotten his book. It is a real offense hereso I started to get on his case. In the midst of my stern talking the whole class simultaneously busted out with the last line of the song: "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!" It was such a clever usage of the song I decide to let it slip this time that he had forgotten his book. Unfortunately, the behavior rubbed off on Jack after I told him the story. Over the last week if he had committed any offense, he just randomly breaks out into the birthday song. I assured him it only worked if he was an adorable eight year old Korean but still he persists. I have to admire his commitment. ha ha Here are a few pictures. Check out the rest on our gallery. You can find the link on the side of this page.

Birthday fun. Seoul, Nikon, and photoshop...

This past week was a milestone for me I suppose. I turned twenty five. As my sister "lovingly" put it, I am half way to fifty. (Thanks Jenn.- by the way, you are half way to sixty) I have never really celebrated my birthday in any large capacity. Given that it is within a week of my sisters and the fact that I am a pastor's kid (meaning we didn;t have a huge amount of money) birthdays were never ranked much higher than a cake and friends or as I got older movies and embarrassing singing at the annual restaraunt of our choosing.

This year we decided to change all that. The weekend before my birthday started out with a trip to Kumho World (금호월두). It is a multi-level store that sells everything from toilets to furniture to instruments. We typically go for the computer section as it is the only retailer that sells Apple products that we have found. We went in and headed straight to our planned sales counter. NIKON. We walked up and the guy kind of didn;t take us seriously until I told him it was my birthday and pointed to the beautiful D90 on the shelf. We purchased a new camera, Two lenses, a cleaning kit, and a travel bag. All of which were really nice and some of which were complimentary from our salesman since we were making such a big purchase. Towards the end of our buying frenzy he handed me a remote and said Happy birthday. It was a great start to the week.

From there we got our stuff together for church on Sunday and left shortly after a quick afternoon lunch with our school principle. We headed to U Square (the bus terminal) and bought our tickets to Seoul. We splurged an extra five bucks each and got the luxury buses. The seats recline a rediculous amount. It is like first class airplane recliner. Nice. We arrived in Seoul around seven and were met at the Seoul Gangnam terminal. One of our friends from university, Ryan, and his super awesome newly wedded wife Christina helped us grab our bags, took us to our Hotel, the Hawaiian, and took us out to a great dinner. It was our first non-"koreanized" Italian food in months. It was amazing! We cant wait to go back.

The weekend progressed and we hit some awesome spots including the palace, Butterfingers (western breakfast joint= amazing), a Nore Bang (Korean Karaoke rooms/bar), an amazing German restaurant, and a stop by a piercing place to get my nose re-done. (SIDE NOTE: I took my other one out for our last church job. I figure why not? It didn't help me keep that job. haha) We ended the week with a sad goodbye and a trip back to the terminal in Seoul. We only walked around for forty minutes looking for the Honam line inside the terminal. :) We caught a bus nearly ten minutes later. At least nine of which were used scrambling to find a bathroom before the three hour trek home to Gwangju. We arrived safely home around three in the morning and hit the sack. Happy birthday to me. haha

It has been great. Playing with my Nikon, editing all the photos with photoshop (cs4) that was gotten for me by our friend Peter, who teaches at the other campus of our school, and just enjoying possibly the biggest birthday celebration I have had to date. So despite the fact that I am half way to fifty, it was a pretty awesome time.

Test week

How I love it. This week we are giving the students monthly tests. It os my favorite and least favorite week of the month. The classes fly by and all I do is sit and write in my journal or play on the computer. If you haven;t guessed already, I am writing this as I am sitting in class. It is so nice. Th epart tthat is the least favorite is at the end of the week, I must turn in monthly report cards. It sucks and I hate it. haha. Oh well. SO far so good. This week I have actually been able to finish up each classes report cards while still in their class. I graded their papers quickly and recorded the grades as fast as possible. I am up to date on all classes. It is awesome. :) I am trying really hard because this weekend Jack and I are planning to go to Seoul. We are leaving Sunday and coming back on Tuesday morning.

We have Monday off for 3.1절 (Samiljeol)- Independence Day, March 1
On this date in 1919, Koreans declared their independence from Japan. The fight for independence was a struggle to preserve the Korean way of life. During the occupation Koreans were forced to give up their Korean names, their language and their food, so other ways to commenorate this day might include cooking a Korean meal or learning a new phrase or Korean song. We thought what better way to celebrate Korea than to visit its capital city and visit some of it's most important land marks.

We will hopefully be visiting the palace as well as the main temple in Seoul. It is a Buddhist temple where foreign Kings/Emperors went to worship. I am not sure if this will be weird or not, but it worth a try. We though about visiting a Korean folk village outside of the city, but we decided we would go at a later date with our friend Seona in Daejon. I am really excited. We are going to celebrate the holiday as well as my 25th birthday. :)

Soju and public displays of nudity

Well, I observed my first public display of nudity last night. Jack and I were walking home and there was a man on the sidewalk up ahead of us. I noticed he was acting weird, but it didn't occur to me that anything else was going on. As we approached a bit closer, we realized that he was just taking a piss right there on the side of the rode. Keep in mind that we do not live in a shady part of town. We live in one of the newest areas of town. It is considered a hip area where college to late twenties people come to hang out. We thought it was hilarious. We were walking along the main strip and there at the walkway overpass was a drunk old man taking a leak.


It isn't good for you to hold it. Long term kidney damage and all. I guess he just takes that idea seriously. :)

Poop Face

So today I had a student call me poop face. I was cracking up at his comment which of course made him mad but he was being super disrespectful despite his inadequacy to come up with a decent cut down. I started to get on to him and his Korean teacher came to the door. He started crying (apparently I can look at a student a certain way and they cry) and then I looked like the jerk. SO now I was called a poop face and actually temporarily felt like a poop face.

I am doing better now. He deserved it, but crying kids have a way of getting sympathy. I just need to be more of a hard ass.