Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival

What an adventure we had this weekend. We decided a couple of weekends ago to go to the Jinhae Cherry blossom festival with our friends Brandon and Amanda. We signed up with a group called Enjoy Korea, so there was a lot of other foreigners along for the adventure. We woke up at 6:20 am to catch a taxi to the bus station so we could catch the 7:30 bus to Daegu. We got into Daegu around 8:00 and took the subway to meet our new friends. When we arrived we were greeted with AMERICAN muffins and orange juice! (I had a double chocolate chip muffin and Nick had the Cinnamon streusel muffin, both were devoured quickly.) Our buses left later than planned because some people called and were lost. We finally pulled out a little before 10:00 am. 

As we were about to get onto the highway a girl comes to the front of the bus to talk to the girl who was in charge. What happened next was happened so fast and was unexpected. Our bus was hit by a crossover who attempted to cut us off but he didn't give himself enough room. The driver slammed on the brakes and that girl flew forward and hit the dash. The girl was okay, she was at the front of the bus to say that she wasn't feeling good and wanted off the bus. You could tell she was in shock. 

The police were called and everything was taken care of. It didn't take too long before we were on the road again. As you can see in the picture, there are a few important things to note. First, a policeman that is actually doing his job (hard to find in Korea) Second, although you can't see it the policeman has a pink camera! HAHA. Third, note the traffic cones... As soon as the crossover was let go he went through them. Turns out that is why he cut us off. He took the wrong exit. 

We finally hit the road again and made it to Jinhae for the rest of our adventure.

This was the awesome parade!

After the parade we decided we were hungry so we went in search of food. The street was lined with food and fun festival games. Nick decided to take a crack at the shoot game.

He won a light up Minnie bow headband!

I threw darts at some balloons and won a cute little key chain teddy bear. There were a lot of different kinds of games. The one that I found most interesting was hammering a nail. If you got the nail into the wood by three tries you won something. 

So back to food. We were really hungry and people on the street would grab you and pull you into their area trying to get you to eat there. Don't get me wrong, it smelled and looked delicious, but we were in the mood for something else.

What they wanted us to eat:

This pig actually looked yummy..

 These are bugs and they smell really bad!

 These are the cute little swirly shell slug things, I'm not sure what they do with them. YUCK!

Look closely to what this is and if you figure it out leave a comment.

WHAT WE ACTUALLY ATE:

Better don't you think!

After we ate we walked around A LOT! We decided to walk up 365 stairs to the top of a mountain. Thank goodness it had a beautiful view. It was way worth the pain in my legs and feet later on in the evening.

The mountain with the stairs!

 We made it!!

The view was so amazing! I'm so excited we went up. On our way down we decided to be adventurous.  We went down different stairs on the other side of the mountain and found a little park with HUGE hula-hoops. 

I will be the first to tell you that I can't hula-hoop. However, these ginormous ones made it super easy.

Nick and I decided to battle our hula hoops. Watch this video to find out who won!

After we finally made it back down the mountain we decided to find some Cherry blossoms that were still in decent shape. On the way Nick decided to be a cone head.

 

We ran into a dead end.. Turns out we were next to a South Korean Navy base. The gate guard wanted to take pictures with us.

 Brandon and Amanda

The best of the Cherry Blossoms  on the other side of the gate.

Now time for some random pictures:

 Choo Choo!!!!

 Face Painting!

 Nick hammering some dough!

 Kids dressed as fireman and putting out a fire.

 Nick in a cool hat!

 HA this is a funny story, Brandon bought some taffy candy from this gypsy-clown lady. After, she did a little dance for us and tried to Kiss Brandon. It was so funny!

Here is a darling little girl eating ice cream and chilling in her car. Yes it works and she drove it all over the festival.

We had such a great time at the festival. I'm so glad we went! On our ride home we asked if we could be dropped off in Changnyeong because we were going to pass our town. If they weren't able to drop us off we would have caught the 11:00pm bus home (That would have sucked) Lucky our driver agreed to drop us off at our exit on the interstate. We walked down the ramp and passed the toll booth and saw our awesome town sign all lit up!

As we were walking to the bus station we ran across this awesome chicken restaurant.  The smurf is a greenish color, and we can't figure out where the word smoper came from.

We made it back home safely and again we had a great time! I will leave you with this awkward picture.. Me with a coconut. Love you guys!

Wedding Ducks

Easter traditions: I went shopping a few weeks ago to pick up a few things for Easter. I got a kimchi pot as a basket and I also got some traditional Korean wedding ducks. 

 Thanks Mom for the Easter candy, it really made Easter, Easter. I love you!

Korean wedding ducks are given to a bride and groom from a hand picked carver. The carver can only carve one set of ducks in his life. He must be rich, healthy, no divorce in his family, have a  good wife and many children. It isn't the quality of the carving but the purity of the carver that is thought to bring love in the marriage. While he makes the ducks he prays for the couple receiving them and it is said that part of his spirit goes into the ducks and that spirit makes the couple happy.

The beautiful clothe the ducks are wrapped in represents peace, many children, and no separation. The couple is to always keep the ducks in their home. The positions in which the ducks are placed is also important. If they are bill to bill (nose to nose) it means they are happy together. If they are tail to tail or if the noses aren't facing each other it means they are having trouble in their marriage.

At the wedding the ducks are thrown to the bride. If she catches them they will have a boy first, if she doesn't they will have a girl.

I loved the ducks and thought it would be awesome to have them in our house..

So looking at the picture above can you tell which duck is the female one?

Anyways moving on to later in our Saturday....

Adam, Shae, Nick and I went on a hike/walk this afternoon. Adam and Shae have been wanting to take us to the reservoir for sometime now but we waited until it was warm outside. Today was such a beautiful day and the walk was beautiful as well. All of the trees are in bloom, and everything seemed extra amazing. I think this is the prettiest stretch of Korea I have seen since we have been here. Take a look at the pictures and I think you will agree with me.

 We got there and stopped at a little waffle coffee place for something cool to drink. The view was so breath taking we stayed for a little while to soak it all in.

 As we were walking back we walked up a steep hill to check out a cute little cafe called cafe pine and found this awesome bike. A Boss Hoss with a V8 engine, in Korea how odd is that?

The river was lined with cherry trees and as I walked I thought of my grandma and how much she loved beautiful wildflowers and nature... and how much my feet hurt. Six miles later we returned home and ate some tacos for dinner. We so grateful for everything that Heavenly Father has given us.

World Travelers

       Nick and I have decided that we want to travel the world, Why stop at Korea? To help us reach this goal we put in play another idea. Pinning places we have been on a map and therefore see the places we want to go. A while back we bought the two maps below for that purpose. We are not really suppose to put things on the walls so we had to get creative. 

 Step 1: purchase a lot of cork board pieces. 

Step 2: hooks with the sticky pad that when pulled on comes off.

 Step 3: Add maps with cute push pins

 Step 4: Add pins to the places that Nick and  I have been together.

Step 5: Hasn't been completed yet but we hope to add pictures and things so it doesn't look so boring.

We plan to add a lot of pins on this board before we leave Korea.

Okay I know it has been a while since I have written a blog but we have been busy. I feel like I don't even have time to clean my house...I have to schedule weekends just to get it done. We have been here over four months and it feels like time is really flying! Before I go I will share a funny story with you.

     Last Sunday my visiting teachers from church gave me a clear zip-block gallon bag full of homemade chocolate chip cookies. My back pack was full and I didn't want to crush the delicate cookies before they were dunked in milk and devoured. So I carried them in my hands on our trek from church to the bus station. As we finished climbing our way out of the subway we were approached by a very old man who had no teeth and walked funny. We are used to Korean being friendly, but I could tell immediately something was up. He pointed right at MY cookies... MY PRECIOUS COOKIES!!!!! I decided to be nice and gave him ONE, and as soon as that cookie got in his hand he asked for another. Being quick on my toes I made him say a few words in English before he was rewarded with another one of MY cookies. The lesson I learned was that no matter how much I wanted perfect cookies to dunk in milk, crumbs would make a good cereal. 

We will leave you with this picture of our fish waffle iron. YUM!