Day 71: I Can Breathe!

First off, I want to apologize for the severe delay in updating my blog. The evil computer virus that has entered my helpless computer has taken it over completely, rendering it pretty much useless. I have no computer at the moment! I am at work right now and will have have to restrict my computer time to such until I am able to get my computer repaired. I have no idea how long this will take (I'm going to ask Steven about it) but please bare with me in the meantime!

This past weekend turned out to be one of my best yet here in Korea! On Friday night I made my way over to Brad's place again to spend the weekend there (seems like I'm a regular houseguest there now!) I've been really impressed that I've been able to shorten my travel time down to just over 2 hours, from my door to his. Considering that the journey used to take 3 hours, this is quite a significant improvement! And now I only take 2 busses, and 1 train, whereas before it was 1 bus, 4 trains, and a taxi. Whew...living in a megacity can be exhausting sometimes! We spent Friday night with all of us just hanging out at Brad's watching movies and pigging out on junk food. Good times!

We woke up really early on Saturday because we had plans to travel to Gangwha Island which is just off shore, close to Incheon. We all thought that a day out in nature outside of the city would be nice, and plus it would be cool to see the ocean. I was really excited for this because not only have I not seen the ocean since when I arrived at the airport, but I haven't been outside of the city yet either.

The journey to the island took MUCH longer than we thought it would. Our final destination was actually another smaller island accessed only by ferry from Gangwha Island, and it was not all that far in distance but traffic in the city was slow-moving and we had to keep transferring busses. It took 4 busses, one ferry ride, and about 3 hours to get there! God in that time we could've hopped on the KTX high speed train in Seoul and have been at the *other end of the country* in the same amount of time! It was a long gruelling journey but it was well worth it in the end.

Both islands were really pretty - lots of green hillsides, farmland, and beautiful views of the West Sea. When we got off that last bus I just stopped and took a deep breath....ahhhhh.....I can breathe now! After 2.5 months of breathing nothing but Seoul's polluted city air it was such a pleasure to be out in the fresh air. (My lungs were thanking me!) And it was lush and green and just so *quiet* out there - really lovely! We had lunch at this nearby Korean restaurant and then made our way to the island's temple.

The temple is really the only thing to see on this island, but it's a beautiful temple in a spectacular location so it draws flocks of people from the city every weekend. To get to the temple you have to walk up this long, STEEP road up the side of the mountain. At the top is the temple complex, consisting of one large and 3 small temples. The view of the ocean and surrounding forests from this point is breathtaking! In the complex there was also a grotto - the first one I've ever seen. It was originally a natural cave in the rock but it's been enlarged so that they've been able to build a small temple *inside* the cave, all lit aglow with hundreds of tiny candles. I would've loved to have taken a photo so you could see but because it's a religious centre, with many people inside praying, it would have been extremely disrespectful to have done so.

Behind the large temple we found a staircase leading way way WAY up the side of the mountain. Making our way to the top was quite a strenuous journey but it was so scenic that we didn't mind. All along the staircase are hundreds of colourful lanters which must look absolutely incredible when they're all lit up at night! When we got to the top of the stairs, what lay in waiting made it all worth while!

At the top was a very large image of Buddha carved into the side of the mountain! It's under a large rock overhang that looks like it's going to break off any second, and to get to it you have to walk very carefully along this narrow path. The image is the largest Buddha image I've ever seen, and all along his feet are many candles and presents left for him by the many worshippers who come up to pray and chant. Buddha stares out over the island out to the ocean and it really is a most magical setting for such a sacred site.

We made our way back down to the bottom after this, and even though we had only been at the site for about 2 or 3 hours, we decided that we should head back home because of the long travel time. When we got back down to the temple complex we ran into a class of about 15 kids who were all *absolutely enthralled* to see us foreigners on the island. They surrounded us and stared in amazement, and giggled whenever we attempted Korean or said "Hello!" to them. A few of them spoke a few words of English, and they laughed hysterically when we made funny faces to entertain them. Ahhh, the life of a rock star....er, I mean English Teacher. :-)

It took EVEN LONGER to get home if you can believe it! Traffic on the highways were terrible and it took more than 3 hours just to get back into Seoul (never mind to Insandong!) We all had a nap on the bus hoping that when we woke up we'd be almost in the city. Well we slept for about an hour or so but were so disappointed when we woke up to see that we had barely moved! Gridlock on the highways in Korea can be a real pain the ass!

By the time we got into Seoul we were all very hungry, so we made a b-line to a nearby Outback Steakhouse cause we were all craving a giant fatty Western meal. Outbacks are *extremely popular* in Korea (as are all Tony Romas, TGI Friday's, and any major Western chain) and the wait for a table was an hour.
To kill time we hung out and walked around, and checked out the really cool shopping to be found in Shinchon (the local neighbourhood.) The streets were really busy and alive, and filled with young people as there are at least 3 major universities nearby here. By the time we had dinner we were famished, so it tasted REALLY GOOD!

By the time we got back to Brad's it wasn't even all that late, but we were all pretty tired from our long day travelling so we decided just to have another 'night in.' We watched TV, jammed on the guitar for a bit (well, Brad and Steve did), ate more ice cream (what else is new!) and then went to bed.
I slept like the dead that night - guess my body's not used to breathing fresh clean air anymore!