Ode to Fruit

Oh Fruit.  Where have you been the last few months?  We see you but you are unattainable due to ridiculous high prices. 

How can one watermelon be 16,000W?  How can 24 peaches cost 25,000W?  It just isn't right.

Oh fruit, we can see you and smell you but cannot taste you.  How we miss fruit. 


Florida oranges, lemons and limes 
Melons and grapes that grow on vines
Raspberries and Kiwi's
Bananas that come in bunches

Healthy teeth and healthy gums. 
Publix prices and fruit stands galore. 
Oh Korea, please even the score!

Acceptable prices and happier buyers
Beautiful fruit not going to waste
Children eating less candy, even the criers
Oh Korea, do it post haste!

Apples so vibrant and fresh
Plums crying through their mesh
Peaches with their nectar so sweet
If I cared about Twitter, I'd tweet.

Why, oh why are you so out of reach?
What's up with Korea's upscale fruit?
Too many questions so little time
I'd buy more fruit if they were only a dime.

Ode to Fruit

SamCheok Weekend 8/13-8/15 [Part 2]

Day 2- Sunday

Our adventure began on day 2 of everyone starting out early to Mt. Deokhangsan to hike up the mountain as well as explore the cave that is there: Hwanseongul Cave. 

We hiked a steep 800 or 900 meters to the cave entrance and spent about 2 hours or so exploring the inside of the cave.  A one way entrance/exit system was in place so we began at the entrance and took our time going through.  Something we noticed is that Korean's do not really stop along along the way to take more time to view what is there.  They all just muddle along behind each other and look at everything but don't really look if that makes sense.  Most of our group was stopping and exclaiming about what we were seeing and taking pictures as the Korean's politely pushed past us.



Joseph and I chose to hike up a bit more after the cave and told the others we would meet them at the bottom.  We hiked up about 800 or 900 meters more. It was hard going but we had a great time.

on the way up

isn't this pretty?

we love Korea

cave entrance-the temperature was very cool inside

inside the cave

inside the cave

We finished the with the cave and mountain in the late afternoon and went to SamCheok Beach that night about 8 or 9pm to see what was what and were met with a very crowded and busy beach area.  Apparently a concert was going on as there was a stage set up and being videotaped for Korean TV.  To give you an idea of the type of music they were playing we heard 2 American songs:  The Twist and La Bamba.  Everything else was in Korean.  We were the only foreigners we could see and we were stared at the entire time.  When the Twist and La Bamba was being sung all of us jumped up off the sand and were singing at the top of our lungs and dancing. We got so many stares but we also had many teenagers and a few fathers with their children joining our circle of happiness to sing and dance with us.  It was very enjoyable and relaxing just sitting on the beach with our group talking, the concert going on behind us and watching the waves with the Korean families enjoying a *free?* concert.

Our fun beach night

Something else we noticed was that all along the beach tents were set up.  The beach is set up with various necessities such as toilets, fresh water to brush your teeth or wash dishes (not for drinking) and trash collection set up every few hundred feet or so.  Not sure if you are allowed to sleep overnight but we noticed that most people come to the beach early and set up a tent so as not to get a lot of sun and they eat, take a nap, whatever, all day long then go home very late. 

Returned to town after an exciting but exhausting day and fell into bed and slept. 

Day 3- Monday

A few of our group who went to the beach

SamCheok Beach!  Joseph and I are latest arrivals in South Korea according to the group we went with.  The last time we saw the beach before was about a week before we left.  Some of the others in our group had not seen the sea/ocean or beach in almost a year if not longer so they were extremely excited.  We decided to take the last day and visit the beach and just take it easy.  We went to Home Plus and got supplies and snacks then headed off to the beach.  First, the water is COLD!  For it being about 85 outside and hot, the water was maybe around 70 degrees.  I was the last one in but I am proud to say I got all the way in the water.  Another observation about Korean beach goers:  They usually do not wear bathing suits!  They go in the water wearing their clothes and keeping covered so they do not get too much sun.  A lot of the children were wearing bathing suits but you could visibly see the white sunblock on their legs, arms and faces.  The women were wearing hats, sunglasses, towels on their heads, long sleeve shirts, shorts or pants in the water.  The men were either wearing pants or swimming trunks if they were teenagers/middle aged and the older men were wearing pants or shorts and either short or long sleeve shirts both in and out of the water.  We also noticed a large amount of rafts and floats and people wearing life vests.  The beach was roped off so you were unable to go past about 50 feet out unless you were on a jet ski or in a boat.  The water depth in that space was no deeper than 4 or 5 feet at any place.

Our bus ride home took longer than usual due to heavy traffic.  Just image Thanksgiving weekend traffic on any interstate and you will know how our trip home was. Thankfully we were on a great bus and we didn't have to drive.  We all felt sorry for the bus driver.  We also feel it is worth mentioning we did not see a single car crash during our trip on the bus but we did see a broken down minivan being loaded on a tow-truck with the driver and passengers still inside of the van.  Isn't that illegal in the states?

Overall a fantastic trip and we cannot wait until our next one!

SamCheok Weekend 8/13-8/15 [Part 1]

The town of SamCheok is a very interesting place.  It's main points are the highlights of our weekend there.  A railbike excursion, Haesindang Park (google it you will laugh!), Hwanseongul Cave and SamCheok Beach.  Add 10 other people and we had a very entertaining, sweaty, hot, dirty and fun weekend.



Day 1-Saturday
Saturday morning about 6:30am we meet at the bus terminal to take the bus to SamCheok.  This is about a 4 hour bus ride from Daejeon.  We all climb aboard and begin our journey.  About half way through we stop at the busiest rest stop we have ever been to in our life.  It is about the size of the rest stop on the turnpike in Florida and it's parking lot is about the same size but there are literally about 1,000 people there eating, sleeping in their cars, wandering around and standing in line for the toilet.  Also, we have never seen the line as long to use the ladies restroom.  Surprisingly, the line moves super fast and it's not as bad as it seems.  The driver said we had about 30 minutes until we depart but in reality that is about 15.  Nothing like trying to potty, eat and make it back to a bus in 15 minutes when you didn't know it was going to be 15 minutes. 

Upon arrival in SamCheok we got off the bus and jumped in a taxi to take us to our first stop of the day: Railbiking!  It is exactly what it sounds like.  This excursion cost only 10$ per person and for all of that you get to ride a rail bike 5.4km through pine tree groves, ride along the beach, ride through 3 caves and have a small pit stop to have a beverage and take a few pictures.

beautiful view along the railbike trail

View along the railbike excursion

Outside of one of the 3 tunnels

View from inside one of the three tunnels

After our rail biking we took another cab to Haesindang (Haitian-dang) Park.  This park is on the sea as well and is very interesting.   We will not post pictures here so if you would like to see the pictures post a comment and we will email you the link; but, a warning first: if you offend easily you may not wish to view.  The story behind this park: Once upon a time there was a virgin girl (of course) of the village who was in a boat and died.  The fish stopped coming to this village because of this girl.  The men of the village were very upset because they did not have work and could not feed their families.  One day a man relieved himself in the sea and oh what happened?  The fish came back!  Ever since then the male part has been celebrated in this spot and there is a park to prove it. 

At the end of this day everyone was pleasantly tired and sweaty.  It was a good day.

Paper, Rock, Scissors!

More commonly known to American's as Rock, Paper, Scissors. 

In Korea it is a favorite of students to use this game to settle a wide variety of issues such as: the order the students will use for a game or assignment, to see which student will get to eat the last of a treat, and to see who will read first.  Just about anything is an excuse to use the fun game.

It is played a bit differently as well.  Three rounds are usually played and it is usually the best out of 3 or the last one that decides the winner.  It depends on the children playing. 

All of us who are familiar with that game also are familiar with children arguing and saying to start over or something isn't fair.  Not so in Korea ladies and gentlemen!  The students here play the game and move on.  No arguing, no whining, no cheating.  It is pretty neat to watch it take place here.  The students have a great time playing it and it gets pretty loud and fun watching them do it.  They play, they move on.  Would this ever happen in the States as easy as this?