September - perfect weather, good friends!!

September in Korea brings slightly cooler weather, and much less humidity.  What a difference that makes!!!

Sadly, we said goodbye to our lovely Korean teacher, Hyunjung Lee - she has moved to the US to go to university!!!  We managed to fit in dinner at our place before she left.  Hopefully we will still see Sonya and Jeff from time to time......

Russ is trying to teach us all something new about rice (what else??) - he even had Australian rice ready....

Alice had a trip to Bali in mid-September, with her Habitat for Humanity group at school.  They spent most of the time there building a house.... well, they did do the foundations for 2 houses, so that's pretty good!!!  It was an amazing experience for her!  They worked hard, and also had lots of interaction with the people from the local village.

That's Alice down in the hole ("I dug a hole!"), while Jasmine is doing the work......

While Alice was in Bali, Bronwyn and Matt arrived - Al returned part way through their stay with us.  It was a fun, and busy, 10 days in Korea, then Bron and Matt headed over to Japan for another 10 days!!  Thanks for coming, guys!!!

A piece (well.... 3) of the Berlin Wall (yes, that's right!!) in the middle of Seoul.... 

Out with the Freemans, sampling skewer meat - very nice, now that we've learnt what to order and what NOT to order!!!

Matt at the Seoul Folk Flea Market - checking out the alligator skins and shoes...

The view from the 63 Building (Korea's tallest building) is magnificent - even though it was a bit hazy this day!

I know it's on every tourist brochure, but I love this street!

We even managed to see a baseball game while Bronwyn and Matt were here - the crowd is more entertaining than the players.... We couldn't get seats on the 'home' side, so were sitting on the 'away' side (which happened to be the winning side, as it happened).

The crowd has to be seen to be believed when there's a home run!

We had to have a photo - actually, I MADE them stand there....... 

....but they did the actions to "Gangnam Style" all by themselves!!!

Our visit to Seoraksan was great - it is a very famous, and popular mountain and national park in the north-east of South Korea - beautiful!!!

One of the simple pleasures of life has to be riding along the Han River in Seoul, on a warm Spring day.....

 The Icheon ceramics village was largely deserted when we went, but a fun place to be....

And so life returns to 'normal'...... Russ is travelling, Alice is at school, and I am dividing my time between the school (substitute teaching) and the coffee shops!!!  We are enjoying this warm weather before the cool months arrive - they are just around the corner!  

Life is good, and we are thankful for many things, not least the experiences we are having and the wonderful friends we are making.

Korea War Memorial in Seoul

In August, Leanne Schulz and I visited the War Memorial of Korea - an amazing memorial to Koreans who have fought in wars, and to the people of many countries who fought in the Korean War.

We focused on the Korea War rooms (it's a BIG place!!) and the main Memorial hall - time very well spent, and a place I would recommend to others.

The Statue of Brothers represents 2 brothers, from opposite sides in the war, meeting on the battlefield.  The split in the wall represents the division of the two Koreas - a lot of the monuments have a theme of the hope for reunification.

In the Memorial Hall - a place of reflection on all the wars and the patriotism of the Korean people.

I thought this guy was the person who invented noraebang (Korean kareoke), but it turns out he's holding hand grenades!!!!!

The nations that came an fought with South Korea in the Korean War.  I learned that Australia was the 3rd to join SK, after the US and Britain.

They have a few rooms recognising all the nations that fought - very cool!

The ceiling in the centre of the Memorial Hall.

I have found, since moving to Korea, that I have become interested in the history of Korea, particularly the Korean War.  I'm endlessly fascinated with the stories I've heard of people who lived here at that time, and there are some amazing stories.  A lot of the stories I've heard are 2nd-hand, from the children of people who lived through the war, but they are still very interesting.

Summer in Korea (Part 4) - Jeju Island

25th Wedding Anniversary - We celebrated a little late (3 months) but it was worth the wait!!

Jeju Island is just off the south coast of Korea, and a popular holiday spot for Koreans.  Lots of people honeymoon there (so we raised the average age of the tourists considerably!), and it really is a lovely place.  The island is 75km east to west and 40km north to south - small enough to get around in a couple of days at a very leisurely pace.

A highlight of the island was the Manjanggul Lava Cave, part of an extensive network of lava tubes on Jeju, and the only one that the public is allowed to walk through.  It was very impressive, and also cool enough to provide welcome relief from the summer heat and humidity outside.

The coastline of Jeju is very pretty. Because it is a volcanic island there is a LOT of black volcanic rock around - along the coast, and also around the farms.  We saw many rock walls around small crops, and wondered if there is just so much rock that the farmers don't know what else to do with it!!!!

 There were some white sandy beaches, some black sand beaches and many areas of black rock 'beaches'.  The water was a beautiful blue/aqua colour in some places, reminding me of the water in The Whitsundays (just not as nice for as far, and without the beautiful long beaches).  We managed to find many places with great views!

...and some interesting stone statues.....

We even had a little bit of time with our new friend, Negussie, a scientist from Tanzania who was attending a conference with Russ the following week, on Jeju (it's a tough life for these guys!!!)

A lovely way to start and end our long weekend was at each airport - Gimpo and Jeju.  After the plane was pushed out, the ground staff who had driven/walked out with the aircraft waited, and as the plane started to taxi out, they waved us off - very cute!!