Well its night for me actually ;) It is currently 11:22pm here while it is 10:22am where all you are (Canada).
So over the past little while, I have done quite a bit. I have (as you may have guessed from the title) visited a Strawberry festivial in Nonsan which is about 2 hours south west of Seoul. I have experienced the anual start of spring with the lovely apperance of the cherry blossoms. I have eaten a full Norweigan dinner (thanks to the amazing skills of my Norway friend -- Christine). I can actually say that I have seen penises larger then me. And finally, I have mark off another of the many, many, many mountain tops here in South Korea -- Suraksan.
But before all of this cool stuff, I will let you know what is up with school life...
So, currently I am experiencing midterm week here at Yonsei. The Korean students are crazy busy. Many of my Korean friends have 23 courses (which turns out to be around 6 to 7 courses when converted to Canadian cradits, in terms of difficulty).
I however, am not experiencing this 'craziness'. I have 5 credits (13 credits in Korea) in which only 3 have exams. = my life is awsome, and not stressed!!
My first exam was on friday. I feel I did great (as always;)) and my next exam is on monday (tomorrow). Then my final one will be on thursday.
So now your probably asking, "well Ty, if you dont have any exams, what the heck are you doing with your free time since you dont have class?"
Good question. Well last week I did nothing other than just hang out.
All of tuesday, wednesday and thirsday I just randomly studied, hung out, ate, etc.
However, after my exam on friday I went out for an awsome lunch with a Korean friend and then ventured the 3.5 hours east of Seoul to Samcheok.
--> Before we get ahead of our selves, let me tell you about Nonsan and the strawberry festival which happend the previous weekend.
Me, Christine and Priscilla decided to head to Nonsan for the strawberry festival one sunday.
This is what we saw as we finally were arriving to the festival = floating strawberries
Giant Strawberry
The Nonsan Strawberry Choir
A happy walking strawberry
The strawberry festival was really neat. We got to have some awsome juices, chocolate covered strawberries and other little makings with strawberries as an ingredient.
After we were done with the strawberry festival, we ventured around the surprisingly large town of Nonsan and came across the Jungang Gonseol Market.
They had everything you would ever need. From hats, to fruit, to meat, to clothing, to bed sheets, to convenience items, to, to, to, ... do I need to continue
During the Nonsan festival, The spring started to bloom and with it, so did cherry blossoms
Now although cherry blossoms are considered a Japanese flower, they are considered among Koreans as well to be the confrimation that spring has arrived.
With the cherry blossoms, azalias (sp?) were also popping up everywhere!
Yonsei covered with cherry blossoms
Last thursday, Christine said invited me and some others to have a Norweigan dinner.
I forget what everything was called but oh man was it delicious.
The saltiness of everything was an excellent surprise!!!
This was my second favorite dish. It was rice cooked in milk with sugar and cinnamon on top. = Yumm
My first favorite was the meat balls she made. I didnt take a picture because I was not sure if you guys could have controlled yourselves.
They were excellent
Christine made three different meals for us all and then served a traditional easter dessert = chocolate!!!
After my exam, MJ and I decided to go grab a bite to eat and play some table hockey.
I was losing pretty badly so then he gave me some free shots.
Then I got so good, I beat him.
Haha poor sucker
Clearly he does not know that prcatice makes perfect!!
Silly Korean (jk)
Yup, 7 - 6 for me
After our intence match of table hockey, hoops and shooting in the arcade room, we decided to go grab some more to eat. Fondue at Baskin Robbins anyone :)
After the little hang out sesh with MJ, I bolted back to residence to meet everyone that was traveling to Samcheok this weekend for the penis park with me.
After the 3.5 hour long bus ride, the excellent chicken dinner and finding the jimjilbang, me Joe and Cristian decided to meet up with a couch surfing group at a local bar...
This was the bar we wound up at and we met some neat people. Brett was the one that I had gotten in contact with (African American dude) and he introduced us to others. The couple viewed in the middle were pretty cool. They were both from the states and had the biggest southern accents I have ever witnessed. They were travelling across the globe and enjoying there time together. Everyone else were english teachers in Samcheok.
The couple actually taught me stuff about Canada.
Did you know puffins are a common bird in Newfoundland?
They are a penguin type bird I guess, check it out.
I guess they come to Newfoundland at a specific time to breed.
They thought I was crazy that I did not know this.
hmm
After that bar, we went to another and they served silkworms
Of course I ate one. They were okay!
The next day, were went to go see what we have been planning all alone
Haesindang Park (a.k.a. 'The Penis Park')
It was a lovely park over looking the Ocean
What you may see below may startle some. If at all you feel uncomfortable viewing wooden, cement or even metal erected Peni, it is recommended that you not go any further.
Viewer discretion advised
The laughing penis
I dont know if I should call this one the black penis or the canon penis
What would you say?
Umm?
So there is a legend behind this park and it goes like this:
Legend of Aebawi and Haesindang
There once lived a young maid who was engaged. One day, the maid took her husband’s boat out to sea to harvest seaweed. Her husband dropped her off at a rock that was at a distance from the beach. After promising to pick her up later, he returned to the beach to do his work. Later, the weather changed, and brought with it strong winds and pummeling waves. The man couldn’t rescue his wife and she ultimately drowned. Since then, the village people caught no fish and some said that it was because of the dead maid. To soothe the spirit of the dead maid, the village people made several wooden carvings and held religious ceremonies on her behalf. After a while, the fish slowly returned and the villagers were able to live comfortably again. The place where the maid died was named Aebawi Rock and the building where the religious ceremony is held twice a year was named Haesindang. The ceremony is still honored today as a traditional folk event.
Priscilla looking through the vagina penis
...
The two little men (get it?)
Natural rock Sculptures that resmeble body parts
Turtle Penis
This was disturbing
Musical Penis
So the Penis park was quite exciting and quite unique. Now there were many more Peni there but these were considered to be the cream of the crop by me.
That night we left back for Seoul
Sunday, there was no internet in the residence, so a group of us decided to go hiking up Suraksan.
This guy was pretty neat. About 1 quarter up the mountain, there was a sitting area.
While we were walking up, we had heard a nice sound in the distance. We wondered what it could be. As we passed through the trees, we noticed this man playing his little woodwind instrument.
As we started to see him, he noticed us and started yelling over at us. so we took some pictures from afar and then made a decision to go on over.
He asked me where I was from and joked around some.
He actually wanted to hear me sing. So I stated to sing O Canada.
He enjoyed it and continued to socialize with us.
All around, Koreans were jocking and having fun.
At the end, I asked him if I could get a picture with him.
Although I dont think he understood that the picture had yet to be taken.
This is me half way up
Again, with every mountain experience I have had, there were many Koreans
Steep and it got worse as we went further
Not quite at the top but a nice scene non the less.
This is Amy, an Australian buddy
So Close,
Although we didnt go becasue there was a line.
Its true, there was that many people at the tip that a line had been created. We didnt want to wait so we started to head back
On our way down, we saw this cool looking rock and did different poses with it.
After hiking, we had a nice snack at one of the many restaurant huts located near the bottom of the hill. We then got on the subway and headed back to Sinchon where we had a Korean BBQ and then headed back to residence.
Which brings me to where I am now. I had a shower, slept and am soing my laundry.
I am about to go get my laundry now, fold it, and then head to bed.
So Thats the end of my day. Hope you enjoy yours!!
