Friday June 19/20th Hello Canada. Happy Father's Day

Hello Canada

We are alive and doing very well. We have been seeing so many amazing sights. We said goodbye to our homestay today and headed off to the Korean Folk village. It was truly a cultural experience. We saw a traditional wedding ceremony, traditional dancers and an acrobat. The dancers were truly graceful yet extremely athletic. We were then off on a 4 hour bus ride to Naksan.

Naksan is on the north eastern shore of Korea along the North Sea. The kids were so excited when we pulled up to the shore of the East Sea and let the kids run on the beach. After being in Seoul and having a tight reign on them due to the business. The population of Korea is approximately 48 million and Seoul has 12 million of that. The wide open space just invited a carefree, burst of running and of course putting their toes in the water. Toes is all we really wanted as we just putting in time until we ate a very very traditional seafood dinner. Dinner was scooped out of an aquarium placed on a cutting board a few cuts and presented to an eager bunch of foreigners. But as perdicted Leevi kept stretching the limit and ended up soaking wet. Initally I was upset as we did not have a change of clothes. But hey, how often will you be 8 years old and on a beach in Korea. It was so fun to watch then stretch their wings.

We found the bus driver thank goodness and did a quick change and were ready for our fare. It's a tough one when you can't recognize many items on the table and the smell of fish is overwhelming. Low appetite for the first time. I tried caviar, can live without , tried a form of sashimi (raw fish) and many many other interesting fishy items. Leevi is truly amazing me. He is willing to try ALMOST anything. He is taking a few more risks than I am. I cannot imagine the cost of the dinner. The spread was shocking! We are being spoiled.

Back on the bus and heading to Sokcho for the night. After a little side trip in the very dark we found our condo's. It was quite cool on the coast so we decided to turn on the heated floor as we were cold. We chared the condo with another couple and he turned on the heat. About 2:00 in the morning I felt like I was being cooked. The heat had been turned up to 30 degrees. Things finally cooled down when we turned off the heat. Needing a shower after the "warm" night I hopped in hoping to wake myself up after my first night on the floor after 4 nights on a soft bed. The bathroom is all bath and have a shower that is not confined to the tub. The entire bathroom is the shower. I held onto the hose praying the water would warm up, no such luck. I tried so hard to keep the gasping under control as I hardly knew my new roommates. It was cold. Leevi was funny to watch as I tried to shower him. He kept backing up and was practically climbing out of the tub. He did gasp without reserve.

The condo was tucked at the bottom of the Seorak Mountain range. With the rain lightly falling down we took a short walk to Young Lang Ho (Lake). The fish were jumping really high as a large white bird skimmed the water hopping to have breakfast with the misty climbing up the mountains. Beautiful! Then back on the bus and off to climb a mountain.

It was raining too hard so we took a cable car up the Seorak Mountain. Again stunning views.
We climbed for about 10 minutes past the drop off zone. Words are inadequate. Lots of concession carts on our way back to the bus. Take your pick tiny corkscrew shells with snails in the boiling in salt water or silk worm boiling and filling the air with a wicked stench filling the air. We all passed. Not sure if that smell will ever leave the memory bank.

Back on the bus for a 5 hour journey to Kyungju City with one stop on the way. Oh yea had to hit one on the trip. A terribly grungy bathroom with yes "squatter potters" This bathroom was worse than all I visited in China. We had a chnace to stop at EMart their version of KMart. The first shopping time we have had. It was fun but a per usual only 1 hour to eat and shop. Still managed to scoop up another suitcase in anticipation of more shopping. We reached our Kyungju around suppertime and stopped to eat. Jessica and Anne showed up with a huge fruit basket for the gang. It was like we had never missed a beat. They came to the condo and stayed for the night. We received permission to visit Leevi's birth city. Jessica and Anne did some negotiating for me. We left at 7:30 along with Lisa and Liam as it was Liam's 8th birthday and he was going to spend it in the city he was born in.

Jessica and ANne took us to many stores to look for a DSI for Leevi and Liam but in this apparently high tech country no DSI's to be found. Leevi was very disappointed but managed to bring himself out of it reasonably quick by a refreshing Vitamin C drink given to us while shopping in a jewelry store. I may make a unique purchase for myself but have to think about it and Jessica and Anne will bring it with them to Canada when they come in July.

The highlight of the day MacDonald's to check their burgers. I had a bulgogi burger and Leevi had a Big Mac. Yes the Big Mac and Fries taste the same.

We were escorted back to Kyungju to the most important Buddist Temple Bulguksa in South Korea. This is a Unesco World Heritage Site. The solid gold budda is one of the most sacred in Buddism. It is comparable to the buddist as the Vatican is to the Catholics. and the It was then off to the grotto Seokgruam. We saw the stone budda that was unearthed 100 years ago. It is guessed to be 1500 years old. Absolutely revered by the buddists. Really quite amazing it is huge and made of white granite. Considered by some to the most perfect example of buudist art or imagine. No pictures allowed. Sorry.

Back to the condo for mandu dumplings. After dinner some blogging and here we are.

It is 11:55 pm and I need to go to bed . I will try to post some pictures.

Love Janet and Leevi