Lunch at the Yellow Sea

A little while ago we took a day-trip with some of our fellow teachers to the Yellow Sea. The area is famous for its seafood and so we partook in a wonderful feast of shellfish and soju that lasted a few hours.

The Yellow Sea in the afternoon sun

A little different to the attire we are accustomed to at our Aussies beaches!

Kelly, Sun, Soon and I with our BBQ seafood feast

Fresh from the Yellow Sea (this is about a third of what we were served!)

Seoraksan

A few weeks ago, we spent the weekend in the heights of Seorak Mountain. We'd been told by countless people that this is a Korean must see, especially in Autumn, and so we took the speedy 3.5 hour bus trip from Seoul to Korea's north east coast.

Blessed with some beautiful clear skies and only slightly crisp weather, we had a wonderful weekend in the great outdoors, taking some pleasant strolls amongst the colourful foliage and some more strenuous hikes up hundreds of stairs.

Silhouettes of Seoraksan

Some more of Korea's beautiful autumn colours

A devotee prays at the giant Unification Buddha

The beginning of the hike was flat and relaxing...

...three quarters of the way up, and 800 stairs later, it was getting tough...

...but the views from the top were exhilerating

This tree was absolutely glowing

Trent about to lift-off as the wind picked up at the top of one of Seoraksan's peaks

One of the things that make Seoraksan so special is its position- only 20 minutes drive from the east coast. With the dramatic backdrop of Seoraksan's peaks, the seaside town of Sokcho is also spectacular and, we are told, it actually gets snow on its beaches in winter!

The east sea from Sokcho's rocky coastline

The area's mascot symbolises the mountains and the sea, and the Russian script is a reminder of the city's proximity to Russia's east coast

Pepero Day

Today is Pepero Day - a similar day to Valentine's Day, however, some consider that the origins of Pepero Day lie with Lotte, the company that manufactures Pepero sticks. The idea of the day is to give Pepero sticks to your boyfriend/girlfriend... but, as we found, this also extends to teachers- yeah! Although it maybe a completely manufactured national day, it was still nice to receive something from the kids.

Pepero sticks (and all the rival products on the market) are usually some form of stick cookie covered in chocolate and packaged in a cutesy box.

Our stash of Pepero (... and time for the winter hat- we had our first snowfall on Monday!)

Autumn Hues

We took some snaps of our local area to show you the beautiful autumn colours that we are currently surrounded by. Living out here in the 'burbs we are lucky to have a lot of deciduous trees lining the roads and in nearby parks. We've been told that the leaves have turned later this year due to a longer period of summer heat. We don't mind this at all given that it might mean that the bleak winter that we've heard about is postponed just a little.

Falling leaves caught by pine needles

One of the colourful streets of Muk-il-dong

A blanket of leaves

Senior citizens getting some exercise in the sun

Our apartment block

A spray of colour in our local park