Log22: Wow it's been a while...

Well, I told you I'm bad at this blogging thing.  But I'm still trying.

I can't believe my last post was in September!  At least it was in late September...

Last week my students had midterms all week.  Since I didn't have to proctor, I took the time to travel with a few of my fellow ETAs.  Here is a map of my travels from Oct. 1 to Oct. 10, starting with--naturally--arrow #1:

Temple (arrival point of arrow 3):

Fellow hiker Matt:

Sean from Pitzer, the leader of this wonderful expedition:

The monks all took turns drumming on this giant drum at dinner time:

Look carefully, my fellow Pomona friends:

A 4, and a 7, from the land of the morning calm.  47.

I don't think you're allowed to take pictures.  But I did.

On the way to summiting the tallest mountain in mainland South Korea (arrival point of arrow 4):

This was the easy part of the trek:

You must understand; trails in Korea take you up the mountain. No switchbacks, no long and winding road, just the most direct and quickest way to get up the mountain.  Needless to say, it felt like Stairmaster 3000 for 3.5 hours.

But the stairmaster had its perks of course:

Fellow climbers Matt and Amy:

Sean is in the foreground, and Taylor is nowhere to be seen behind a tree branch.

 Taylor.  Yes.

Very misty, very cloudy.

In the middle of the mountains stood a temple; we could hear one monk chanting from a mile away. 

Not the summit; but we were pretty close to the clouds.  The summit breaks the surface of the clouds and lets one be above them.  Unfortunately however, we couldn't see anything because it was so foggy.  I really wanted witness being above the clouds.  Oh well.  The sites were still magnificent.

Self-picture, with CCR's Fortunate Son keeping me going.

The temple 3/4 of the way up.

View from the temple.

Still on our way up, but let me tell you, it was impressive to be standing above all the other mountain peaks we saw in the distance.

Me post-hike at the base of the trail.  We left at 9:50AM and got back to this place at 5:30PM. My legs were sore for the next three days.

We then went to Jinju to see the lantern festival!  Just imagine hundreds of giant parade floats lit up and floating on a river (arrow 5).

Traveling took the form of buses.  On my way to Mokpo, a port city famous for live octopus and seafood cuisine (arrow 8):

What the hell is that? 

These things were squirming around.  Giant underwater worms.  The sight was...wow I really don't know what to say.

Crab, eel, and giant octopus all in one tank.  Sean and I ate fresh crab stew from this restaurant (we saw them take the crabs out of the tank and cook them.  Sorry vegetarians, but they were caught just  three hours before we strolled into the restaurant, so they were extremely fresh).

With the Mokpo resident Sean.  Dragged him up this hill to see the view.

I don't know.

The caption expressed the children's love for their parents.  I still don't get it.

So, back to the view...

Welcome to the boonies of Korea, Naju: (arrows 7 and 9):

 

More to come...