Parks and Flowers and MISERY

Anyang Art Park

My tutor, as soon as it got warm, made the decision to ditch tutoring and go to Anyang Art Park! He's the cool old man you see in all the photos. Haha, no one else wanted to come, so we just went alone... and it was still fun! Good for me, Koreans like photos. 

Anyang Art Park was really nice, with lots of artsy structures to climb on and a tributary of the Han river flowing through it. And the weather was wonderful! Ah, so good to be warm.

Not mine... his. And they're fake, hahaha

Yes... we did get on the little kid toys. 

It was cool just to see what people like to see, really... and to goof off after being cold for so long!

Suri Mountain

With our Ari Leadership class, we had to climb a mountain. Another one of the things we had to do to "unify body and mind." So, we had to climb Suri Mountain, the mountain behind the school. The whole time up we had to be silent and look at our shoes. I'm not kidding. But, it was fine, since it was an easy hike and not too long. 

This is me embracing myself! hahaha...

The view from Suri mountain

Namhan Mountain Fortress


On a gorgeously warm Saturday, me and a few friends took a bus to Namhansanseong, which means Namhan Mountain Fortress. I don't know much about it, actually, but if you want to know look here.

But... It was gorgeous.

 

Me practicing kung fu in this kung fu-ish area.

I just love open markets... they're so colorful! I just don't like the smell of the fish lying around everywhere...

So delicious! Jealous much?

Yeouido Park during Cherry Blossom Time

In Korea, you have to be really fast to see the cherry blossoms when they come in! They're fast to come and fast to leave. I went to this park twice. Once during the Cherry Blossom Festival, another time after it. It was definitely better the second time, since there wasn't a crowd! It was beautiful, as you'll see.

 

 

 

A lovely day with lovely ladies!

Biking Misery. Yes, misery.

The day started with hope. It was raining, yes. It was 5 o'clock in the morning, yes. But still! We were excited because we were going to bike the Han river! We got to the bus in time at 7:30 AM, and then sat there for way too long... That was the first bad sign of disorganization. We were doing part of Tour de Korea under the Korean Tourism organization. They brought us and other foreigners on to add a global look to the opening ceremony. Hahaha.

So we got there... and while they told us we would have to show our passports since the president would be there, we didn't. So someone could have assassinated the South Korean president that day! But, thankfully, no one did.

After the ceremony, some of the students who went got pictures with the president! But I didn't. ㅠㅠ. But instead, I got pictures with these cool guys! Haha. 
Keep in mind that we are miserable already. We are wet and cold.

At the starting line! Where the guide we were supposed to have didn't meet us... and no one told us what to do...
But while we were there, Miguel, my favorite guy in the Spanish government, went over to get food, then motioned over anyone of us who saw. Thankfully, I saw, and I went. The result?

A picture with Lee Myung Pak! The President of South Korea! The only good thing about this day.

So we start biking with only a non-descriptive map to lead us. And we bike. And we are stopped for a snack. And we bike. An we get soaked. And we bike. And we realized that we passed lunch. And we bike back, but are motioned to keep going. So we go on. We go the wrong way. We go back and go the right way. We reach a little stopping point and find out we are 8 km past lunch. We are starving. 

We (we is Miguel and Tatiana and I) keep on biking, though, since we just want to finish. Well, we get lost. So we are so miserable we just decide to camp out in a seemingly empty building.

This is how we feel. Thankfully, the bathrooms have toilet paper and portable heaters! It was amazing! Then I found out my phone wasn't working cause it got wet... ㅠㅠ
 So we try to call people. But this one guy answered, but hung up on us! And the rest of them didn't answer... But this kind man who had an office in the building helped us out! He gave us coffee and invited us into his warm office. 

We just let our bikes sit outside... We didn't care about them anymore.

 Our situation was so ridiculous! We were like hobos, or squatters. I couldn't help but burst out laughing every few minutes. We were lost in a foreign country... no taxis to be seen... no bus stop, no subway station... But then we got someone on the phone! And they sent a bus! And we made it home in one piece, though not very well... But that is one day I will definitely not forget! The poor girl in charge of us cried on the way back... I felt pretty bad. In two ways.

All in all, a crazy experience that was awful, but I wouldn't trade it for anything!


Loving Korea, but very behind on blog posts,
-Rachel


PS. Video, of course! 
I just have to share this one... it's too hilarious. In a sadistic way. Plus its a good song!