A Happy Lunar New Year

Lunar New Year has taken me completely by surprise. I must admit that I thought it was going to be business as usual, but this holiday is a huge deal! Its so much fun to have holidays that you aren't used to. It is so funny to think that I used to think nothing of this holiday and of its importance. However, I guess that is life abroad!

We joined some friends of ours for a Lunar New Year lunch earlier in the day. It was scrumptious as usual and a welcome break from the city. They live outside of Danyang in the countryside, and it is absolutely beautiful. Thanks in large part to a nice dusting of 3 inches of snow. The mountains were glowing.



We also met some cute little puppies, named Miss Piggy and Piggy. Due to my Muppet's obsession I was drawn to Miss Piggy. However, once she wizzed on Amy I thought it might be a better idea if I just petted her from afar.



At our friends house we enjoyed a wonderful lunch of rice cake soup and some lovely Korean tempuras. My favorite was the potato tempura. Also, there were several versions of kim chi as well, because some of us (myself) cannot handle the red fire. After lunch we went for a hike in the mountains and it was gorgeous. We even got a tour of a Buddhist temple from Jennifer. I will let the pictures do the talking.
















As if that wasn't pretty enough, later on our way back to the house Jennifer's dad picked us up and took us on a tour of the Woraksan Mountains. We were in awe at how beautiful it was.









It was such a wonderful day. It amazes me how much beautiful scenery can just pick you up. The earth is so beautiful, it is truly such a gift from God! A story of His love for us, and His intricate design.

But of course our day was not over just yet. Amy's birthday is tomorrow, and as many of you know so is Valentine's Day. However, because of the holiday everything is going to be closed. So tonight we decided to get in as much as we could before we were stuck in the house tomorrow all day. We hit up Mr. Pizza and Amy enjoyed some delicious potato wrapped shrimp, while I inhaled some potato and ham cheese pizza. Then when headed over to our favorite coffee shop and had coffee, hot cocoa, and a Belgian waffle that could make a grown man cry!






And tomorrow gets even better! First its breakfast in bed for Amy, and than a couple of surprises that she has no idea are coming! Stay tuned!

Caves, Mountains, and Streams

Lately Amy and I have had pretty heavy hearts. Questions of family health, colds, and the winter blues have taken there toll on the both of us. So yesterday I thought we might need something to take our minds of life for a bit. I came up with the wonderful idea of mountain hiking and some caves. So today we got up early and headed over to Danyang for some much needed adventure.

First up was the Guso Caves. Let me just start this out by saying neither of us was ready for the physical and emotion trials we would endure. As we were entering the caves Amy spotted a dead cave spider, and it was the first official spider we have seen in Korea, Amy was not very happy about it at all.

I was loving the caves it was very beautiful, and quite a hike as well, and than all of a sudden I saw Amy crying and was like what is going on? Well I guess this was her first cave experience and to be honest it was rather tight and quite humid and warm as well (60 degrees). She had a panic attack in the first 10 minutes of us being in the cave after we squeezed through a narrow opening. So I was like oh my goodness, what the heck do I do? So of course I resorted to my Signs training (thank you M. Night) and we fought through the panic attack. It was really scary because she was hyperventilating and I was just trying to get her to settle down and we were in the middle of this crazy cave. We hustled through the rest of the cave and blew through it in 15 minutes, though it should have taken an hour. Here are some of the pictures of the action.











After the craziness at the cave we moved on to find our hiking trail, and just like everything else it was harder than expected. Why does it always look so easy to find on Google Earth? We hiked our way through the countryside and we eventually came upon the entrance to Seoraksan National Park.



The mountain was absolutely beautiful. The trail followed a mountain stream all the way, and the stream was frozen over adding to the beauty of the mountain. It was so beautiful and so peaceful, we even heard birds chirping and the water flowing underneath the ice.


It was our first real experience in the mountains and we loved it. Though the mountain was laced with a layer of ice most of the way up, and there were so many Koreans at points it felt like a stampede. They hiked so quickly and came up on our tails and almost ran us off the path. It's like it was a race to see who could get up and down the mountain first, not a race I wanted any part in. This was especially welcomed as we trekked down praying that we could find one dry stone to rest our weight on. I bit it three separate times, and the last time I got some serious air, and some serious AHHHHS from the Koreans. They were telling me to walk on the dry side and I was. It was like that annoying person who states the obvious (and than one of them in front of us did the same thing... ehehheh).





















But we made it, though my back was about to tear open and my butt was very sorry from the thrashing it endured on the ice. Amy also seemed to sustain sore knees and a pulled muscle from the earlier panic attack. Despite all of this it was a blast, though I think next time we are going to find a mountain that the whole city doesn't know about! But it was nice to relax and enjoy God's beautiful creation, just what we both needed.