"Surisan" Hike

We have been wanting to hike the Surisan mountains for a while now. The last time we attempted we ended up hiking some other random hills/mountains. That was still a good hike and so was the one we just did. We were told we could hike Surisan from a different subway station, so that's what we tried to do. Once we got off the subway and got out on the street, we could see the huge mountain! To actually find a way to hike the mountain we had to first make a short (10-15 min.) trek up a 12 lane road to cross over. Once that was accomplished we started our hike on what seemed like a path that was purposefully made. Well that path didn't last long, and we began to just climb using a path that went up. :) Man oh man this was tough! We found quite a few "rest areas" to stop at and admire the view. It was so amazing! Right before we made it to the top we almost, literally, ran into a gigantic spider's web! The picture doesn't do justice, but to give you an idea his butt alone was the size of a quarter. I'm not even exaggerating!! It was the largest spider we have ever seen (besides tarantulas)!! When we made it to the top the view was a little strange because here we were, standing on a mountain covered in vegetation and when we looked out our panoramic view was of city buildings backed by more majestic mountains. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time to admire it all because the sun was on its way to begin setting. We didn't actually start hiking until probably around 6 or 6:30 p.m. We finally made it to the top about 8ish and had to quickly begin our descent so we wouldn't be stuck on the mountain when it was dark. Unfortunately, we didn't make out before dark. For about 10 minutes (but actually felt like an eternity), we had to hike in almost complete darkness. We had hoped to come out in a different location than where we started so we could be closer to the subway station, but it turned out that the completely different path we took down brought us out at the exact same spot we entered. It's almost as if we just did a big loop up a mountain side. Weird. We made it safely with no cuts, bruises, sores, or sunburns; just thirsty and dripping with sweat. So, whether we hiked the real Surisan mountains or not, it was a fantastic hike in itself.

A 'New to me' Camera

We recently bought a nice camera that Jeremy has been wanting for awhile. As you can see from the following pictures, it's a nice camera. It's not brand-new, but new to us. Our friend got into photography a little (he takes amazing pictures!), but decided he would sell his camera to us. I guess he wants to buy a different camera?? Either way, we now have a great camera! The weekend we got it, Jeremy would not stop taking pictures! The day we got it, Jeremy played with it so much he ran the battery out. :) He is very much enjoying the camera. Unfortunately for me, I am now no longer behind the camera taking the photos but much of the time the focus of the pictures. I'm going to have to learn to be photogenic! :D

Half yearly wedding anniversary

Saturday was our 1 year 6 month wedding anniversary. I still find these milestones very important so I wanted to celebrate. Jeremy and I had plans for the whole day, but some of them didn't work out because we had too many hours in the day to fill and it was also very, very humid. We went to Itaewon and stopped at the foreign market and Taco Bell. :) Jeremy also took me to the one clothing store where I can actually find clothes at in Itaewon. He was such a great husband! He sat on the couch for probably an hour while I tried on many clothes and modeled them for him. I came out with 7 new articles of clothing. Exciting!! Then we headed to a large park that our manager suggested. It was peaceful walking in it, but because it was so humid we didn't spend long in the park. We rested for a bit on a bench near a man who was practicing the sax-o-ma-phone (saxophone). He was actually pretty good to listen to. From there we were going to go to Banpo Bridge to watch the fountains at night and visit the largest floating islands in the world, but we didn't because we wanted to see the fountains when it was dark to see the colored lights. It gets dark about 8, and we finished the park about 5 something. We didn't think the floating islands would take 3 hours. So we decided to leave those two things for Sunday. Unfortunately, Sunday was a horrendous rain storm. There was no way we were going to go outside in that. We will still visit the bridge and the floating islands, but on a day when it's decent weather. :)

Baseball game

We went to our first baseball game here in Korea on a Saturday. It was the Doosan Bears versus the SK Wyverns. We went with our co-worker Kenny and his friend from the other JLS branch and the native teachers from that branch as well. It was a good day to watch baseball weather wise. We've never been to a professional baseball game before. I knew baseball games last awhile, but gosh, this one seemed forever! It didn't help either that the home team never scored a run. :( Oh well, we still enjoyed it. Also while we were there, behind the scoreboard was tons and tons of smoke. I made a comment early on about it must be a fire. Well, about the 4th or 5th inning, a helicopter carrying a water bucket flew overhead towards the smoke. For like the next 30 minutes to an hour, two helicopters kept flying over us with water. We found out it really was a fire at a big warehouse near a neighborhood. Not sure what was in the warehouse, but the smoke sure was black in the beginning. Before it got too dark to see, there was still smoke rising from the area.

A Scottish and 2 American teachers

dried octopus leg, yuck!

The burning warehouse.

Shut out game!

3-D Trick Eye Museum

We went to a 3-D Trick Eye Museum with our co-worker Kenny. This museum is a little small, but there are so many pictures you can become a part of. It was a lot of fun! There was also a small mirror maze that actually took us a bit to get through. :) We also saw a magician, who was definitely an amateur, but still kind of fun to watch. At the beginning of the museum were about 4 pictures that were almost exactly like "Where's Waldo?". There were sheets with lists of pictures to find within the picture. It looked really tough so we didn't do it. There was a very small 3-D art section, and many of the art pictures were very creepy. They reminded me of characters from scary movies like the 13th ghost and SAW. The eyes and head would follow you as you moved past the picture! Creepy!! Anyways, I hope you enjoy the following pictures! We had a blast doing this.