Daewangam

I don't feel like writing very much this week so I'll let the pictures do more of the talking (a picture is worth 1,000 words, right???).  Trevor and I took a very nice hike (more like walking on dirt paths than hiking) along part of the shoreline.  It was so beautiful and I enjoyed spending a really great day with my best friend just walking along and talking about anything and everything and laughing all day long.  If there's one thing I appreciate most about our Korean life is that I get to do it all with my sweet husband.  With it just being us out here we get to spend a lot of time together and really get to know each other and know each other's strengths and weaknesses and have time to focus on helping each other with our struggles and celebrate our good times.  Enjoy the pictures and here's to many more fun times!

 Really though blogspot, horrible time formatting pictures!  Too annoyed to try and fix it today so this is what you get.  Maybe I can pretend it's like avant-garde art or something

I hate bugs

All the bugs are so big!

Today's topic is one that is undeniably unavoidable.  No matter where you are in the world you will find them.  Inside, outside, on the walls, in the curtains, on the floor, practically everywhere.  It seems like even the houses with the best protection cannot avoid them.  Bugs.  Just as a disclaimer, since I have a scientific husband, technically everything I refer to today is an arthropod but I'll just stick with bug ;). There are only a few people I've ever met who actually like bugs.  From everything I've heard of and experienced here, Koreans especially don't like bugs.  This seems ironic considering the names of bugs in Korean.  A lot of bug names sound much too cute to belong to creepy crawlies.  Let me give you a few examples:

거미 (Pronounced gomie) = spider.  Ya oh it's just a tiny little gomi!
모기 (Pronounced mogie) = mosquito.  I don't know when such a pest deserved a cute name
매미 (Pronounced memmie) = cicada.  I'll talk more about them later
개미 (Pronounced gemmie) = ant. Seriously, I can't be the only one who thinks these names sound cute!

Obviously there are many more bugs I haven't included in this list but this is just an example of the few I've come across while being here.  I started to notice the trend of cute sounding names and want to just prove how cute the bugs AREN'T here.

First off are the gomies (spiders).  There is a specific type of spider that is EVERYWHERE here in the summer time.  Mostly they make their webs in trees or bushes but we do have one living right outside one of our windows.  On average, their total diameter is probably about the size of a half dollar.  I'll leave all the explaining to these pictures.  Yes, these are pictures Trevor took, not just the creepiest thing we could find on the internet. Luckily I haven't seen one inside. I don't know what I would do if they were found inside.

Next come the memmies (cicadas).  Not only do they look like bugs that roamed the earth at the time of dinosaurs (seriously they look so creepy), but they are so incredibly noisy!  They like to spend their time mostly in trees.  They seem practically harmless but they make the list because of the sound they make.  One cicada might not be very loud but they will all start buzzing at the same time.  Here is a short clip you might have seen frequenting Facebook recently to give an example of what I mean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHc288IPFzk.  I'm not sure what it is, but the sounds will come in waves as if there is a big alpha male cicada telling everyone else when they can and can't buzz.  Another creepy thing about cicadas is that they shed off whole layers of their exoskeleton.  I've learned that if it's not black, it's not a real cicada it's just a shed.  The last mentionable quality of a cicada may or may not be true (I certainly hope with all my heart that it's not!).  Supposedly a lot of the cicadas all die around the same time at the end of summer and if it gets windy, the dead cicadas will all start to fall out of the trees like it's raining cicadas!  Gross! Hope it doesn't really happen but we will see!

Our next guests are certainly both creepy and crawly. Centipedes. We have seen regular centipedes and house centipedes.  We've only run across a few here or there but each occurrence is just as horrible as the next.  They like to hide in dark places and when their hiding spot has been revealed or disturbed, they go nuts!  They squirm and skedaddle as quickly as possible to safety.  It's not an easy task killing these guys either.  They take multiple hits with a tennis shoe.  And of course, as it goes here, all of the shoes are safely tucked away at the front door.  We have tried to be more careful not to leave any clothes lying on the floor because that is a prime hiding spot.

This one's from the internet but it's
basically what I've seen

Another honorable mention goes to the bees.  Well I'm not sure exactly if they are technically bees or wasps or what but to me what I've seen look like bees.  They are GIGANTIC bees!!! I'm pretty sure they are about the size of my thumb!  Really though I've seen them fly around collecting pollen or whatnot and they are seriously freaky.  Don't think I want to get stung by one of those bad boys!  They seem easy enough to get along with as long as they aren't bothered too much so I guess that's my game plan.

Last for today are the mogis (mosquitoes).  They have been such a problem for us we had to get a mosquito net to go over our whole bed so we don't get eaten alive while we sleep.  They were most popular at the beginning of the summer.  One of these pictures shows the bottoms of my slippers during one mogi killing spree that took about 5 minutes.  Seriously they are everywhere and they have been such a nuisance!

Well folks, that's it for me.  There's my rampage on one of my least favorite things.  Hope you didn't get grossed out too much!

New Encounters

Looks like a dinosaur!

This past week or so has been full of new adventures some of which have certainly shown us a new view of Korean culture.  If you ever want to know more about a culture, eat with a native and go to the funeral of a native.  That's what we did, at least.

Whale bones!

At work, Trevor is supposed to teach an English conversation class to any interested teachers at the school.  There is only one teacher who actually attends the class.  He is a math teacher who goes by Mr. Lee (so foreigner's like me can pronounce his name correctly ;) ).  Mr. Lee was kind enough to show us around Ulsan and take us out to dinner.  We started the day off going to the town hall to see if we could sign up for some free Korean classes.  Afterwards, Mr. Lee took us to a whale museum where they have facts and artifacts of the whaling industry that was very popular in Korea.  It was cool to see some of the whale bones and get an idea of just how big they are.

Next up was dinner.  Mr. Lee treated us nicely by taking us to shabu shabu (read about it in my early post about food if you can't remember) which is probably one of the longest running meals I've ever had.  It basically has 3 courses which are all boiled individually by the ones eating.  Basically it takes the chef out of the equation and only requires food prep staff ;).  After dinner, in order to digest our large meal, Mr. Lee showed us a path along the main river in Ulsan which lead up to a traditional Korean building which was cool to see especially when it was lit up as the sun was setting.

empty bowl of patbingsu

Since I had never tried it before, Mr. Lee then insisted that we go get some patbingsu which is best described as shaved ice.  Traditional patbingsu has red bean paste and rice which is supposed to taste sweet according to Koreans which is not particularly how I would describe it.  Our patbingsu had oreo cookie crumbles and mango slices with two small scoops of ice cream on top.  I know most of you think that snow cones need syrup for flavoring but Koreans are perfectly content with just the basics.  I think maybe I just prefer creamy to watery ;).  Mr. Lee was so nice to take us around and pay for us to have a fun night!

butterfly the size of my hand so pretty!

Another adventure we had this week was quite an unfortunate one.  A member in our branch sadly passed away so we attended part of a Korean funeral.  To spare any disrespect that might go toward the family of the deceased, I won't go into too much detail because I'm sure that an affair like this does not need to be shared with the general public.  Usually, Korean funerals last 3 days with various ceremonies and paying respect for the dead.  We only went to the last day of this funeral and it was a different experience and the whole time I dreaded doing anything that would be disrespectful.  If you want a more detailed description of went on that day, you can ask me personally.

It ate a piece of our map! Meanie!

To lighten up the mood, I'll transition to something more joyful. This weekend, Trevor and went to a botanical garden here in Ulsan.  It was very pretty and I guess either it's not a popular sight-see or we just happened to go when nobody else was there.  We had to whole park to ourselves!  There were a lot of beautiful flowers and greenery that was a perfect way to just relax with my love! <3 <3 <3

In the gardens there was a building that had a small aviary as well as some reptiles and a few mammals.  Although the rest of the park had been very pleasant, being reptile advocates (especially Trevor), we were somewhat disappointed in the enclosures they had for the reptiles.  Most of them were just glass tanks with the animal and maybe a little food dish.  We had heard that you could hold some of the animals there, but there wasn't a worker there to let us hold them so we had to walk away with sullen heads.  It was easy to regain our happiness though because there was still much beauty to behold.

We came to one place that was a big open grassy field with a few small trees that looked like the beginning of an orchard.  At the top of the hill there were some sleds which I usually associated with snow but there were also a few sleds at the bottom of the hill.  Trevor and I naturally assumed that everyone has a blast racing down the grassy slope on these little sled.  We decided to give it a go.  Luckily I decided to video the ride down.  I think you'll love it!

View from top of the hill

After going through all of the gardens, we decided to walk all the way down to a bus stop instead of taking a taxi which is how we got up there in the first place.  I was glad we did because the way down was just about a scenic as walking through the gardens.  It was such a pretty walk!  We ended up at a place a few bus stops from our apartment and ended the day with some pizza.  It's simple adventures like these where I just get to enjoy nature and Trevor's company that I love the most!

Ok, I know that this is a long post but I will end with one more story.  Another teacher at Trevor's school also wanted to have dinner with us so we decided to have dinner at our house and I would make something American for our new friend.  I decided to make potato soup (with American bacon, of course) along with some broccoli and toast.  I think he liked it because at first he had kind of a small bowl just in case he didn't care for it but it disappeared quickly and he asked if he could go get more.  His second bowl was near to overflowing and it didn't last long either.  I was glad to see that some good old American cookin' could satisfy a Korean around our same age.  After dinner we talked for a while and enjoyed some cream puffs that our guest had brought with him.  I have to have people over for dinner more often!

Readers beware! My next post will most likely be about bugs!