I'm a bump-a-dump-a-dump-bump

When I was a child I really liked a Fred Penner song called "The Bump." My parents even recorded me singing it. A month ago this song came back to me while we were in Gyeongju. Maybe I wrote a few posts ago how we visited a park with many ancient tombs there. Well, the tombs looked like this: (see picture)...every time I saw one this song came in my head. It brings me back. "I'm a bump-a-dump-a-dump-bump in the middle of the prairie. The land around is flat flat flat..." and I forgot the last part...too bad.

Retreat at Sobaeksan

Last weekend (well I guess it was two weekends ago) the Mennonite Church Canada Witness workers in Korea went on a retreat together. A MC Canada Witness worker from the Philippines also joined us as the guest speaker. It was a really good 4 days with lots of relaxing, discussing, watching movies and some sightseeing.

Here we are visiting the first Confucianist school in Korea. Confucianism is kind of confusing to explain (hence the name) so I'll leave it up to you to research it if you want to know more.
This was one of the classrooms. There were indoor ones as well but I guess on nice days they got to study here. I wish Connexus could get classrooms like this.
Mark got tired of walking. I can't quite explain my actions here, maybe I was standing like that in case he would fall...
Right by the school (I should say it is not used anymore, just a touristy place) was a traditional village with many houses like this. Here is the group together.

We stayed at one of our co-workers host parents country house. It was in a small farming village in the mountains. It was such a beautiful area! We spent a lot of time hanging out in this room.
Here is the outside of the house.
One of the days we went to a riverside beach. Since it's been a dry spring the river was almost nonexistent. You can see a tiny stream in the background. We enjoyed the space to throw a frisbee around. We're playing jackpot in this picture. If you look closely you can see Mark in the red shirt getting the disc right in front of me. I kind of suck at this game.
Still at the beach just enjoying the sun.
After the beach we went to a market to get some more food. Here are some random shots of the market. We see these kind of things a lot...I can't remember if I've posted pictures like this before.

I think these containers are filled with different side dishes like vegetables and fish...maybe some kimchi in there as well.
Here is some dried fish...a lot of it is squid...still not my favorite.
more vegetables:

On Monday was Buddha's birthday. It is a national holiday in Korea and I don't know very much about it. All I know is that lots of lanterns are hung up everywhere, around temples and along streets in towns and cities. They're really pretty at night when they're lit up. So on Buddha's birthday we visited Boseoksa Temple.

We had to climb up a hill to get to it and from the top the view was beautiful!
The last night we went out for some barbecued duck. It was tasty.
As we drove around the area we passed many rice fields as well as ginseng fields. Here is a picture of a ginseng field which is grown in shade.
On Tuesday night we got back to Seoul (Connexus was closed on Tuesday) we were so tired and all craved hamburgers so we went to T.G.I.Fridays. It is an american chain I believe, kind of like Applebees. So most of us ordered hamburgers and after waiting for about 10 minutes the manager came and told us that they only had two hamburger buns left! Can you believe it! It was disapointing but we moved on and still had a good time.

Visitors

Mark and I were so happy to greet our very first visitors in Korea! Mark's parents and brother Jeff arrived in Korea at the end of April. We were so happy to have them here and to show them a bit of our world. Their hotel was pretty close to both our apartment as well as to Connexus so for the few days that we had to work while they were here it was nice that we could still stop in either before work or after work.

Their first full day here (Saturday, April 26) we spent a lot of the day walking and walking. We saw a few major touristy spots and were so tired of walking so we took a city bus tour. Not the most exciting tour I've ever taken but at least we got to sit for a bit. Also that first day we managed to get ourselves a little lost on the subway. After taking the subway for 8 months we get the most confused while having visitors...opps...

The next day we introduced them to our small church community and then went to tour Gyeongbokgong which is the most famous palace in Seoul. Mark and I had been here before (see post Sept.10) but it was nice to be back since I had forgotten most of what I had learned about it and it was such a beautiful day.
After that weekend Mark and I had to go back to work so during the day the Wiehlers had the chance to explore a bit on their own as well as see Connexus and KAC.

On Friday (we had the day off of work!) the five of us took the 4 and a half hour bus ride to Gyeongju which is in the south eastern corner of Korea. Gyeongju is a really traditional city in Korea which used to be the capital of the Silla Dynasty. It has a lot of the traditional Korean buildings and has a very different feeling than Seoul. Our hotel was not right in Gyeongju but in the mountains near a famous Buddhist temple, Bulguksa. We had a beautiful view from our hotel window and we really enjoyed the area.

Here we are at Bulguksa. These little boys were getting their pictures taken and I guess Mark and Jeff were in the background. When they tried to get out of the way of the picture their mom waved for them to get in the picture so here they are.

Here we are in front of the temple. I like my new umbrella. :) After the temple we were looking for a place to eat and it was really strange because it kind of felt like we had entered a ghost town. We were walking through these streets of restaurants and youth hostels and there were no people! I think this was a first for us in Korea. I tried to ask the woman in the restaurant where all the people were and she answered "tomorrow" so I guess all of the people come on the weekends. Who knows.

The next day we took the bus to the ocean to hang out on the beach and to see the famous sea tomb of King Munmu. I was not the nicest beach...it had a lot of rocks and garbage but despite that it was nice to sit by the water for a while and watch the water.

After coming back from the ocean we went on a hike to see a famous Buddha statue on the top of the hill by the temple. It was a bit more tiring when we thought but the walk was really beautiful. Here we are on our way down.
Every night (and maybe some mornings) some of us played Settlers together.
Our last day in Gyeongju we explored some of the city of Gyeongju which began at this park which had a lot of ancient tombs. The tombs were big hills which you can see in the background of this picture. Usually tombs are not this big but since the people were of royalty they got big hills. (This picture is dedicated to Aiden (not in reference to the tombs) :))
More tombs and interesting trees.
This brings our trip to an end. It was so nice to have the Wiehlers here. Jeff is actually still in Korea and also stayed with us for a few days after mom and dad left. He is volunteering on an organic farm these days. We look forward to seeing him again in a couple of weeks.

I just thought I would share some good news with you all. Mark and I both got accepted into education programs starting in September. I'll be going to the University of Winnipeg and Mark will be at the University of Manitoba. I'm actaully kind of excited to be a student again. I say this now...who knows how long this feeling will last after I start.
I hope you are all well!