May Workshop Trip

Wow, What a FANTASTIC couple of days we've had. Each year our bosses take us on two overnight workshop trips. One is in May and the other is usually around September or October. This was our first trip, we were very excited. We had a great time at Gyeongju!

So I don't want to overload you or make my blog SUPER long, so the pictures I don't post here will be on facebook.

We hit the road around 9:00 am on Tuesday morning. This is Mr. Ha. He is head over the Cyber School Department. He drove our van!

We stopped at a fun rest area.... All rest areas here are full of games, food, and people. This particular rest area had batting cages. Brandon hit every ball that came his way. The Koreans that were interested cheered him on. Richard decided he wanted to try his luck at baseball and did a decent job.

We finally arrived at our first destination in Gyeongju, Bulguksa Temple.. It was really big and beautiful. The people were getting things set up for Buddha's Birthday on Friday.

 The awesome Fish Dragon!

 A walk way

 Lanterns and a part of the temple

 Golden Buddha that I probably (try definitely) wasn't allowed to take a picture of.

Climbing the stairs even though they have a warning sign!

Nick and I at the top of the stairs.

 Someone found some random brooms next to the stairs so naturally we pretended to be witches!

The guys wanted an awesome photo too, however it was impossible to get.. This was the best one I had of them. They were jumping and pretending to be ninja's... I'm surprised Nick didn't light himself on fire :) (Sorry Inside Joke) (because Ninjas can't catch you if you're on fire!)

The next place we went was just up the mountain, we drove this crazy curvy road.The sight was so beautiful and worth the small amount of anxiety on the way up. At the top of this mountain was a cave that had a Buddha in it. When we got there the first thing we saw was this really big bell.. Guess  who wanted to ring it.. and not just for the mercy..

 The view!

 Me under some beautiful lanterns and more of the view.

After we saw the cave Buddha we headed off to find a great Korean restaurant.  Nick got the safe choice of food where as I thought I would venture out.  What they ended up bring me was a butt load of sides (as is the natural Korean way) and a goopy soup with a flavor between pleasant and unpleasant and a texture just south of the unpleasant line. (Yes I regret it, move on... I sure did, to potato chips and water)

After we ate lunch we went to this place that had three museums full of the same stuff, so these are the only picture we have.

 Aren't we cute?

We are totally confused about this room.. From what we gather it is a room to take screaming babies because you are suppose to be quiet while looking at the museum stuff. As we were contemplating another member of our group thought of it a different way.. They suggested that if could be used as a baby making room. HAHAHA. (One of the many ways Korea is encouraging it's citizens to build the population)

Moving on.. We went to this really cool burial site of lots of important dead people. How do we know they were important you may ask, well because the bigger the hill the more important you are. I'm convinced that someone just made some really big hills, put some fake "important" names on them and made people pay to come see them. With that said here are a few cool, but dead sites from this place.

There was a burial mound we were allowed to go in.. Inside they had a display of the cross section of the mounds.  The tomb is made up of a room in the center where the dead guy and a bunch of his stuff is put and then they cake on a bunch of flat river stones to build up the bulk of the hill and to top it off they cover it with five meters of dirt icing and grass fondant.  (Hehe baking humor)

 Sadly there wasn't any frogs on the lily pads :(

Next we got back into the car and found our motel which was AMAZING. We had about an hour of free time there and then we ate again. The food here was  SUPER yummy and I was actually full. When we finished we grabbed some ice cream and a couple of taxi's to this really awesome place. I can't remember the name of the place but the pond was called Wolji pond. It was beautiful. We walked around the whole thing. Here are some pictures.

 Can you see Nick?

This is an interesting picture, you may say, but you don't really know the story behind it. Well all day we were around large (when I say large I mean two or three buses worth) groups of children who were on field trips. Well here at this place we had a brilliant idea, Why don't we hide in the bamboo forest area and jump out when they come by. All of us liked the plan but not all followed through. If you know anything about me you know that I have great follow through skills, these kids didn't stand a chance against my skills. Amanda, Nick, and I \hid in there until just the right moment. Then we ran our roaring.. The screams were fantastic, but I am glad laughter followed.

After such an awesome day we went back to the motel and slept. Okay I am lying we went back and played Spot It! (This is an awesome game.. everyone must own it) Then we went to bed.

Nick and I set an alarm but it didn't go off. We got lucky that somehow I woke up 30 minutes before we had to be down to leave.

We went to a few more places and then home. The first place was right across the street from the Gyeongju theme park. I was honestly hoping that was our destination, but it wasn't. We were at the Gyeongju world culture expo park.

 The amusement park :( the good news is we decided as a team that we could rent a van or something and come back soon and play.)

 Me and the Buddha (I was actually allowed to take a picture of this one)

 I'm an ox!

 Nick is a rat!

 So I have seen these trees everywhere. I thought they looked like the Japanese Maple but they are green not purple. I had Nick look it up (of course) and guess what? They are Korean Maples.. I want one

Our trip was a blast and it didn't last long enough. For more Photo fun, see my facebook page!