Children's Day

Hi so here is the post about Children's Day here in Seoul. It is a big holiday here - everyone is off school and work and most families go out and do something special with their kids. I like the idea - the crowds I didn't like so much. But being a guests here in Korea we couldn't really sit and home on this holiday.
John's teacher even told him he would be a bad dad if he didn't take his kids out for Children's Day so out we went.

Netta has been wanting to go to SeoulLand for a long time - maybe since the first time she came to Seoul when she was 6. It is a Disneyland kind of place and my students' parents invited us to join them going there on Children's Day. It is kind of expensive so we passed on taking Olive and John and just Netta and I went with them.
Seoul Land is in the same park as the zoo so John took Olive to the zoo and we met them there. Seoul Land is so busy for Children's Day that they open early to help people beat the crowds. We met our friends at the subway station at 6:50 am and were at the park by 7:30 when they opened.
The first ride we went on was the bumper cars - here is Sang Yoon my student in his yellow car. It was fun!
Next was this crazy contraption that I passed on, it went around and around on something that also went around and around - Netta went alone and loved it.

Then we went on a roller coaster - pretty fun - lots of screaming - I actually can't remember the last time I went on a roller coaster - it was good fun.
This was definitely the highlight of Netta's day. They put kids in these big balls then filled the ball with air and then sent them out on these little ponds of water. Netta had a lot of fun doing this - it had an extra charge but it was totally worth it once we figured out how to make it happen.
Netta in her bumper car. Sorry this one is out of order.

Netta in action - rolling the ball by crawling.
Standing up was hard and only lasted a few seconds - glad I caught this shot.
Another action shot!
So much fun!!
Then we met our friends again and the kids played in the ball pit. By this time the lines were becoming ridiculous and it was only about 10am. The play area did not have lines so the kids played there for awhile. This is Ji Hu my student. She is a lot of fun!
Netta chilling out in the ball pit.
So due to the crazy crowds we left Seoul Land after this and met John at the zoo.
A heron we saw walking from Seoul Land to the zoo.

John with his head in an alligator's mouth at the zoo!

The end..........

spring and lotus lanterns

So spring has finally really arrived in Seoul. There are flowers everywhere. This image of azaleas blooming from rocks is very common in Seoul right now. It is really lovely and had already stuck in my mind as a typical look during the springtime.
More views.....
This is a nice little walk way near my students house. I had a few moments there the other day and it was beautiful and so green...

Well Buddha's Birthday is coming up here and it is a big holiday. I think I have posted pictures of the temples with all of the lanterns. When we climbed Gwanak-san I really wanted one of the lotus lanterns that they were selling but at 30,000 won they were a bit extravagant for us. Luckily for us our local Global Center had a workshop to teach us how to make our own.
Netta and I went together and John was with Olive. It was really nice to have some focused time with my big girl. Here she is working on her lantern. It was quite a process and they came out really beautiful I think. Actually I now realize that I haven't photographed the ones we made. I will do that soon.
Netta gluing...
This is one of the examples they had on the table. So pretty.
Here is a photo of the whole group. There was one brave mom there with 3 small children. I was impressed but also glad that I had only one and a big one at that. They were nice enough to give us extra supplies to take home and share with Olive. Since the workshop Netta has made 2 more lanterns with the extra stuff.
Netta ....... Gotta love that girl!

We also celebrated Children's Day but that is for a different post-- which I will not write until after we get back from our little trip. We are leaving tomorrow to go to Gangwon-do with John's research advisor and his family. It should be fun ---they are great.

I will post about Children's Day and our trip next week.

Tickets home are almost bought---see you all soon.

climbing the mountain

So this is how we began our hike - with thousands of other hikers. Crazy that when you go out into nature you are joined by such a crowd. Life in a big city I suppose.
Here is Netta and her tongue at the pond we passed on our way in. It was lovely with flowers and fish.
Here is John with Olive at the pond. John carried Olive the whole way and it wasn't an easy hike - at one point a Korean woman voiced her awe at John being strong enough to carry her the whole way.


Our cute hikers!
John and Netta next to the stream that we followed up the mountain. It was amazing - Netta said it reminded her of Silver Lake. There were lots of waterfalls and beautiful rocks.
Here is more of the stream!
This place is so close to our house - just a five minute bus ride from our house. The bus was packed with hikers in their Korean hiking gear. Required equipment Makgeolli (Korean rice wine), walking sticks, sitting pads, snacks, hats and special hiking clothes. There is a Family Mart ( like a 7-eleven) at the base of the trail and it was packed - there was barely room to move around.


John putting Olive down so we could have lunch in this lovely spot. We had kimbap (Korean style sushi) and eggs - lots of eggs. We were able to color eggs here thanks to Dahl and Pauline as they sent us a coloring kit. I was worried that the brown eggs we get here would not color well but with Netta at the helm the eggs came out beautiful.
More shots of the falls.
While we were having lunch these guys stopped on the falls took off their shoes and gave their feet a cool soak. Seemed like a good idea - the water was pretty cold though. We didn't indulge.
Flowers and stacked rocks.
Netta at the waterfall.
Checking out the stacked rocks.
Here is a lantern. At some point on the trail we began to see these lanterns. We learned last week that they are hung around the time of Buddha's birthday which is coming up in early May. Some people pay some money (about $30 at this temple - some temples are more expensive) and have their wishes hung from the lanterns during this season. They are really lovely with the flowers.
The girls on a rock.
Blossoms with some amazing stacks of rocks.
I like the shadows here.
So here we are at the temple at the top. We were pretty excited to get there as the last bit of the climb was pretty steep. Netta and John raced up the steps at the end to make the final stretch more fun - I just trudged up. We were all happy and headed straight for the bathrooms - there is not a lot of opportunity to pee in the woods when you are accompanied by such a large crowd.
Close-ups of the lanterns. Olive was happy as she was finally able to get down and walk -she needed to lightly tap each lantern she passed and make it swing.
Here is a shrine with strings of lanterns hung above it.
Looking up into the lanterns.
The temple.
Baby buddhas - some showing their tushes, some their belly buttons - cute huh?
More temple.
View - the photo just doesn't do it justice - it was so cool to see places we have been from so high up.
Netta and the view.

The lanterns with the temple painting - nice.

The trooper Netta. This is on the way home - the hike dragged on a bit when we took a different route home. She had a hard time for awhile but then we gave her this miraculous Korean energy bar. I think it may be made of honey and red beans. It worked like a charm.
I liked this tree root on this rock.
It got pretty windy up there, especially on the way home.
This picture is out of order but a nice shot of all of us near the amazing hermitage on the cliff. It was built in 677. Around the corner from this spot there was a guy with a big poster of this backdrop selling photos of people with it. Kind of strange as the actual shot was just a few feet away...

There was also a lot of venders up on the mountain. Netta got an ice cream when we were near the top and it was so cold it stuck to her tongue. Amazing that people can carry so much weight on their back. All that just to sell maybe $30 worth of ice cream in a day - I guess the work environment is beautiful. They jack the price up a little but not too much really.

So we made it home. We trudged into civilization on the Seoul National University campus with one daughter wet with pee, one with aching feet and two drained parents. We quickly hailed a cab to get home. Our friend Mac helped us order chinese food and had it delivered, that was a good meal.

We were all a bit sore the next day (except Olive) and we're still feeling it today. But it was worth it.....