Goseong Dinosaur Park

Goseong is about and hour's drive east of Changwon and is located along the coast. On Saturday, Arianne invited Katie and I to go along with her and two friends to a dinosaur park there. We were eager to accept the invitation, particularly after seeing an advertisement for the park on television.



Katie and I made friends with this traditionally-dressed Korean guard.



The park featured a full-scale reproduction of a traditional Korean "turtle ship", the world's earliest example of an armored battle ship. The Koreans used these ships to defeat the Japanese navy in the late 16th century, after the Japanese invaded Korea in their quest to conquer China.


A statue of a Korean soldier with a trident.


This is Jane, a friend of Arianne's. Jane is Korean, but has lived in California for some time. We really enjoyed getting to know her.


Arianne, cutting a ripe persimmon as we sat down to have a midday snack.


We combed the rocky beach for some time looking for dinosaur tracks (the park is famous for, among other things, dinosaur tracks along the shore). We kept running into these creepy little critters... Insect? Crustacean? Who knows?



Katie with Jane, Arianne, and Jennifer. Jennifer is from the U.S. and lives in Tonyeong, not far from the dinosaur park.


The museum at the park featured animatronic dinosaurs in addition to the usual dioramas, placards, etc., that one would normally expect to find.



We also caught a "4-D" movie, which, as you can see, we really enjoyed. The movie was really a 3-D cartoon, all in Korean -not that it mattered. The fourth "D" probably refers to the fact that the seats in the theater convulse, and little bursts of air hit you in strategic areas (face, legs, back of the neck), in correspondence to what is happening on screen. We all had a blast.


Nearby a festival was being held. I was never clear on what exactly it was all about, but there were kites and people dressed in traditional Korean clothes and playing instruments.



Toward evening we walked over to the festival to enjoy some bibmibap.


Dessert: Sweet red bean paste-filled dinosaur cakes.

Haeundae Beach

Last Saturday Katie and I decided to finally go to Busan. We took a cab to the bus stop, then took a bus into Busan, and from there took the subway all the way to Haeundae Beach. Of the beaches in Busan, Haeundae is the most popular, and is widely considered to be the "best" beach in all Korea. During the high season it attracts millions of people from all over Korea and, we have been warned, is best to be avoided. But on Saturday it was really beautiful, and though the weather wasn't hot, it was warm enough to make the beach enjoyable.






We also saw the Busan Aquarium, the largest in Korea. It is located right along the beach. $15 apiece was a bit steep for what the aquarium had to offer, but it was still a lot of fun. For and extra $10 you can scuba dive in the enormous shark tank (pictured). However, we chose to forgo this option...

Strawberries

Last Sunday, Hanbit had a "U Pick Strawberries" group outing after the service. Strawberries are in season right now, and the street market and grocery stores are full of them. Katie and I had been looking forward to the strawberry picking event for a couple of weeks. Fortunately, the weather was beautiful and a lot of people came along.


After the service we had Chinese food with a number of other people from church. The food was probably far more authentic than anything I've ever had, and the restaurant was beautiful. The meal, however, was surprisingly inexpensive.


This is Arianne, the Dutch missionary that often speaks at the Hanbit English service. She has been serving the Lord in Korea for 26 years, and is as friendly and sweet as she looks.


The farm where the event was to take place was about an hour's drive from Changwon. Katie and I rode with Henry, Nancy and Kelly in Henry's car. Katie and I got our first view of Korean farmland, and it was refreshing after spending so much time in the city.


While the area was nowhere near as unpopulated as the rural areas of Colorado, we saw by far the fewest people per square mile yet in Korea.


The strawberry patches were enclosed in long greenhouses.




Katie displays the strawberries she's picked. To fill the styrofoam box, it cost us about $7.00.




Henry snaps a close up of some strawberries to use as a wall paper on his computer's desktop.


Katie with Erica, Michelle and Nancy.


Most of the people in the picture are Hanbit members, though a few were friends who came along just for the strawberry event. I'm standing next to the man who owns the strawberry patches (he's the one in the black shirt). After picking strawberries, we all went to his house for baked sweet potatoes and snacks. It was a great day.

Things We Have

A small, low table (cost: $16). Koreans normally eat on these while sitting. Ours serves mainly as a coffee table.


A small, orange couch. We found it discarded and proudly carried it home a few weeks ago. This couch is very typical of those found in Korean high-rise apartment homes.


A ridiculously complicated thermostat. Our apartment, like most other homes in Korea, is heated beneath the floor. On the one hand, this method of heating is efficient and cozy (especially if you are on the floor most of the time, as are most Koreans). However, it takes a long time to heat a room this way. And when the room finally becomes comfortable, the heating continues even after you've turned it off so that you soon find yourself in a sauna. Note: the button bearing the universal "power" symbol not only turns off the heat, but also the hot water.


An electric fan (cost: $25). Actually, this fan is pretty nifty. It oscillates by means of the front grill slowly rotating. Unlike Katie, I am a painfully light sleeper. The white noise generated by this little fan has been my ticket to a good night's sleep.


A remote control for our air conditioner. What the heck, America? In the U.S. we now have remotes to control our car stereos. The car stereo is, like, twelve inches away. A remote for my air conditioner, however -now this I can use. No more getting up in the middle of the night to adjust the temperature!


A Jetsons phone. When people ring our doorbell, we see an image of them on our phone. It's the phone of tomorrow: today!


A brand-new Daewoo television. The school provided this for us a couple of weeks ago. We appear to have basic cable, and while the majority of channels are in Korean, a few show American movies and sitcoms with Korean subtitles.


A copper tea kettle (cost: $5). Cheap, copper pots and pans of this style can be found everywhere here.


Metal chopsticks and round, Korean-style spoons. To my understanding, Korea is the only Asian country that uses metal chopsticks. They're a bit more tricky than wooden or plastic ones, but you get used to them quickly. The round spoons are used for rice and soup.


A Korean spaceship console. Oh wait, it's the control panel of our washing machine/dryer. Kudos to Katie for figuring this one out. I really don't know how she did it, but she actually manages to wash our clothes with this thing, and has even figured out how to add liquid fabric softener.

1 Month Down, 11 to go

Today marks one month in Changwon, and one month and a week total in Korea. Here's what we've accomplished:
Grocery shopping- between E-Mart and "The Ramp Store" we're good to go.
Korean Cuisine- we've tried some of the more popular dishes and get this-we can order them on our own! Go us!
Furnished living quarters- yes, our apartment is small, but not empty. We have a couch (albeit orange and about as comfortable and similar in size to Barbie's couch, but it's ours). Our place smells like "home" too.
A place to worship- Hanbit!
Friends to worship with- Henry and Nancy have been a huge blessing to us. We truly enjoy their company and hospitality. Not to forget anyone- Arianna, Tad, Christa, Michelle, Kevin, Hannah, Ann, Kelly, John, have all been instrumental in making us feel welcome at Hanbit and in Korea!
Fellow expats to hang out with and crave cheeseburgers with- Kyle and Robyn CANADA, Nancy, Tad, Kelly USA, Arianna NETHERLANDS, Marius SOUTH AFRICA, all help with our sanity. We can freely rant and rave to one another.
A small seedling of a plan once we arrive home- Road Trip!! After we return we hope to buy a new car and take off again... just for a week :) Our destination? Southwestern USA. I have a mean craving for authentic Indian fry bread, and a hankering for the Grand Canyon. As for our other plans? Too soon to reveal anything final, but we are still thinking about furthering our education. And how about a baby? Maybe :)
Love to you all, I'm really missing you today. Thank you for praying for us. We could not be here if it weren't for the love and support from our families.
Katie

This was taken by my dear friend Becky the last week we were in Colorado.

Recreation in Korea

Long before we came to Korea, we read about how serious Koreans are about recreation. This woman, for example, has just been for a hike. Notice the standard pieces of her ensemble: Visor (worn by any woman over 35, when hiking or no), surgical mask (likewise), small (but exorbitantly expensive) backpack, cotton gloves, and several healthy layers of clothing (the temperature was about 65F). This lady would be a perfect specimen of a Korean hiker except that she lacks one important accessory: an expandable fiberglass walking stick. What was she thinking!


A few weeks ago Katie and I went for a little hike ourselves, though I must admit that we were shamefully under-layered and accessory-deficient. Just as we had read before coming to Korea, we found the trail to be pains-takingly manicured. Also, we found strange exercise equipment at regular intervals along the trail. Strange exercise equipment can be found at just about every park or trail in Changwon. The photos we took this day were relatively benign. The machines frequently resemble large jungle gyms or fantastic teeter-totters.


Here, Katie demonstrates the correct use of this piece of equipment. You stand on a round steel disk and swivel your lower body back and forth. Importantly, this helps strengthen the "wacky" muscle group.


We were only a bit surprised to find that this exercise station also possessed a hula hoop. It was simply hanging on a tree. I couldn't resist. Please note that in the U.S., an unguarded hula hoop hanging from a tree would remain there for no more than five minutes. In Korea, after using the hoop for exercise, each person politely replaces it and continues hiking.