My day at the Soyang Orphanage

I went to the Soyang Orphanage on Gadeok Island with the Busan Volunteer group.

Yajairha and I woke up early and took an hour long subway ride, to get on a bus for 40minutes, to then climb a mountain to make these little kiddos happy for the day! Not only did we make them feel good but they made us feel good in return. There's nothing better than doing some good in this world! Here's our wonderful day!

 

Is this monkey pooping out blood or is it just me?

 

Here's a picture of the island.

We were out of the city! Here is the Korean country side!

Here is the mountain we had to climb.

lol, watch out for the cliffs!

Here is the fountain entering into the orphanage's grounds. The father of the orphanage explained to us that they spend a lot of time trying to make it a beautiful and comfortable place for the kids to live. I think it worked because it was a  very nice place!!

Here are some of the buildings and the basketball court

The stairs to the dormitory.

Tricycle parking and the library.

These are pictures of the kids throughout the years, the orphanage has been around for a very long time.

Yajairha in action painting kids hands with face paint.

I decided to bring nail polish to paint the kids nails but they were MUCH more interested in painting my nails. This little girl was pretty good and very concentrated on what she was doing... but when she was done she took it off and did it again... and again... and again.

At this point a kid had my camera so you will see the volunteers in action playing with the kids.

Doing origami

Climbing and wrestling and riding on the volunteers backs. For real, one little girl was screaming all day because she was so excited about the piggy back rides.   

Here is Terri and I with a Korean volunteer and some of the kids.

Packing up and saying good bye.

Our hike back down the mountain.

Yajairha, Terri and I with the island scenery in the background.

A cute little Korean farm.

Always photo ops.

Korean wheat field.

A statue for a Korean general.

The shipping yards on the way back home!

I dedicate this day to my beautiful cousin Courtney whose birthday it was!!

Day trippin in Gyeongju

This is my cute little day trip to Gyeongju which is a short hour and a half train ride from Busan. Seriously, the US has something wrong with it because we took a train there and it cost me 6,000 won which is the equivalent to $6.00. How amazing would it be if you could travel to Chicago for $6.00?? Victoria you no what im saying here, doesn't it cost you about $40.00 EACH WAY?

Any way... here's the day!

Situated in the southeastern part of Korea, Gyeongju in Gyeongsangbuk-do Province was the capital of the Silla Kingdom (57 BC – AD 935), which was ruled by 56 kings over 992 years, the longest period of any dynasty in the history of Korea. Over the course of almost a thousand years, Silla transformed itself from a small tribal nation to a kingdom occupying more than half of the Korean Peninsula.

Korean Totem poles

This was a crazy techo carriage.

I thought this was awfully picturesque. Cute little traditional Korean home with a bike parked outside!

Cheomseongdae is the oldest astronomical observatory in Asia. The observatory was necessary in the Silla period to aid in agriculture, a key sector. The movement of stars was used to predict the fortune of the nation. The number of stones and floors of Cheomseongdae are symbolic of altitudes.

 

Daereungwon is the largest tumuli (tombs) in Gyeongju. It is a collection of 23 tombs from the Silla period. The area has been turned into a beautiful park where visitors can enjoy a leisurely walk. Cheonmachong is the only tomb in Daereungwon that is opened to the public. Inside, visitors can view the tomb pattern and find burial goods recovered from the tomb.

I cant get this photo to rotate... but a king is in a tomb behind those gates. The park was beautiful.

 

 

Here's the pond!

 

Yajairha, Michael and I looking like models in front of the dead people mountains. Yajairha and I kept having conversations about how we would want our hills to look like. For sure the wouldn't be grassy mounds... she wanted beautiful flowers and I wanted a huge tree on top.

 

According to the historical records of ‘Samguk-sagi,’ Anapji Pond was built during the 14th year of King Munmu (in power 661-681 AD) of the Silla Dynasty (57 BC-935 AD). Small mountains were created inside the palace walls, beautiful flowers were planted, and rare animals were brought in to create an exquisitely exotic garden fit for royalty. The pond was originally built in Wolseung Fortress (erected in 101 AD during the Silla period), but the fortress was destroyed. Anapji Pond has been restored to nearly its former glory.

It was quite a beautiful place! Three really cool buildings, gardens and a pond with coy fish!

 

Bulguksa Temple is the representative relic of Gyeongju and was designated as a World Cultural Asset by UNESCO in 1995. The beauty of the temple itself and the artistic touch of the stone relics are known throughout the world.

This bridge is known as the "white cloud" bridge and it welcomes you as you come into the temple area! It was amazing and beautiful.

The door handle to the temple.

Here are pictures from the top of the stairs to the temple

This stone monument it on the fifty cent piece coin.

Its a pretty amazing temple! I'm so happy we went here!

Me posing with some awesome looking statues.

Our awesome Korean lunch. When is in front of us is our main dish... all the rest of it are sides. Which they give you tons! Its so amazing. I love Korean side dishes.

Us enjoying our lunch... ps. all this food was about ten bucks. :)

Korean Coca-Cola

At the Jimjilbong (the korean bath house)

**Warning this blog post may include funny stories about being naked. If that makes you uncomfortable please don’t read! LOL but I have to tell you its super funny!**

Last week I had the experience of a lifetime. I went to my first Jimjilbong, which is a Korean bath house. This all started at Friday night dinner when we started talking about going to the bath house. I was a little leery about going because well, you have to get naked for pretty much the whole time.  But ce’est la vie! I’m in Korean and off we went.

Rita, Cheryl, Maryann, Peter and I went to Vesta spa, pretty close to my house. The building is very big and there were a few different floors to go to. The first floor was check in and shoe lockers, 2^nd was the ladies floor, 3^rd was co-ed floor with different sauna rooms, 4^th was the men’s floor, and 5^th floor was co-ed roof top patio and hangout rooms.

We started out by changing into our silly pajama, which looked like nurse scrubs, and heading to the roof top patio for a beer to loosen us up. The roof top was amazing! You could see all of Heaundae beach at night with the lights on, Gwanalie Beach and the bridge. Quite frankly it was worth it just for the beautiful view. I still can’t get over that I live here.  When we were done with our beers we went down to lounge in the hot tubs.

 

So when you get to the lady only floor you go to a locker room, it reminded me of a high school gym locker room. There you get naked! It took me about 5 minutes of feeling uncomfortable then I let that all go and embrace the experience.  As American’s were actually quite prudish in the way we feel about our naked bodies. Which is surprising because you have Miley Cyrus half naked thrusting plastic fingers in her va-jay jay and twerking it all over stage. But, most people feel very uncomfortable about nudity and I do have to admit that it was a bit scary at first. But then you see the rest of the ladies… totally naked and guess what, no one cares, no one is looking at you and everyone is just there to relax and enjoy the experience.

So,  You walk through the doors and voila! You are in a big room with 5 different tubs. To your left there was an area with lots of mirrors and seats where Korean women were sitting down, many spread eagle, cleaning themselves, grooming or pretty much anything else you wanted to do. The whole point is to pamper yourself, clean yourself, and groom yourself—totally normal. Well, I skipped that area. I headed straight for the hot tubs. There were a few to choose from all with different temperatures. The first one was warm, then super hot, then normal hot tub hot lined with cedar wood for the smell, then cold, then warm with seats and jets and a cold tub with high powered jets. There is even a hot tub outside on a balcony that is shielded so no one can see but you get the naked, outside in a hot tub feel. You kind of just tub hop. You go from hot to cold then warm. I’m sure there is a way you should do it that’s best for circulation or something but I don’t know these things. This was awesome. I mean hot tubs are nice… but a hot tub naked is even better. You don’t have your swim suit in the way, you feel free, and relaxed. It was just, honestly, better naked.

Then the real fun began. I decided to get exfoliated. You tell the old ladies hey, I want a scrub down and then you enter an area of the spa with plastic covered beds. You lay on the bed and the lady grids up some fresh cucumber and puts it on your face… all while smacking your skin a little. Then she starts the scrub down, first you lay on your back and she does your front side… and I mean your whole front side.. She even grabbed my leg and made me go spread eagle so she could really get in there. It was so awkward and I was trying my hardest not to laugh. Then the lady starts smacking the table and that means to roll over, on your side. Mind you, Your naked, the table is lined with plastic and your slightly slimy from soap… its very slippery and you feel like a slippery seal, I was trying not to slip off the bed. This continues on all your sides… a very intense scrubbing of your skin.. and let me tell you, my butt crack has never been so clean before! I mean who exfoliates that anyway. When it’s all done you know because the old lady throws a bucket of water on you and tells you to get off the bed. I was a little happy that the exfoliation was done because it was a good 30 minutes of scrubbing and it felt like my skin was being completely scratched off. My skin has never been so smooth.

The last thing I did was the high powered waterfall area. You go into a tub and there are 4 high powered jets to stand under. When I say high powered.. I mean high powered but you let it massage your muscles in your back, butt, and calves. It felt really good. I hold all my tension in my right shoulder area so I just let the water try to work that out.

We were all done bathing so we put our cute pajamas back on and headed to the sauna area. There were a lot of different saunas to choose from too. The typical one we are used to, a hot stone room, its really hot and you can lay on the stones and place them on your body too, a warm room for meditation, and a cold room. Then I got a kiwi juice and sat on the balcony to enjoy the view some more. We decided at 2:30 AM it was time to go home (the spa is open 24 hours) and I spelt like a baby! If you ever get the chance to go to a bath house… do it! It was such a funny, interesting, memorable experience.