Tomb Of King Muryeong

        Not much new to report. I went up to Seoul during the Chusok holiday and went to Hongdae on a Saturday night which is quite a change from Choenan. I also watched Final Destination 5 during the vacation which was actually a great movie if you are a fan of the franchise if not then will you should probably give it a skip.

        Yesterday I went to Gongju to see the Tomb of King Muryeong which was okay but it was definitely too hot yesterday it was in the low 30s. I am hopeful that these "summer" temperatures will end soon. You can see some of the pictures here the rest are on Facebook. There are a few more places I want to check out in Gongju and will probably do that on Thursday. I don't start work until 5:30 pm and then I'm finished at 7:50. Just got back from watching Shark Tank 3D which was OK but definitely not a deep or thought provoking movie. I will probably update the blog again later on this week.

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Baekje Cultural Land

I haven't updated lately a few too many late Saturday nights as of late which leaves me unmotivated and lazy on Sundays. At school the summer schedule is finally over and now we are back to a normal schedule although in my case I have fewer class because the sixth graders have been moved on to the ACE program which they always do in September so I now have fewer classes and fewer students but pay remains the same. I'm sure as time goes along I'll pick up a few more classes.

I went to Buyeo today and Baekje Cultural Land which takes about an hour and forty minutes to get to from Choenan. Buyeo is a great area because it's a lot more laid back and green making it a perfect area for Sunday escapes from the concrete jungles of a lot of Korean cities. You can check out the rest of the pictures on Facebook. This coming weekend is the Chusok holiday (Korean Thanksgiving) so I'll have Monday and Tuesday off next week making it a four day weekend. The plan as of now is to go to Seoul Saturday night and probably won't do too much during the holiday as it's a horrible travel holiday with most Koreans heading to their hometowns. At least the subway will be a travel option so I'll probably visit some places close to Choenan via the subway. Somehow celebrating Thanksgiving with kimchi and rice is just not the same as having turkey!

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Gongju

Not much new of note although it looks like we may have finally seen the end of the rainy season. The only problem is that it is truly the dog days of summer with temperatures being in the high 20s or low 30s. Only one more week of the summer schedule and then back to sleeping in and hitting the gym in the mornings.

I went to Gongju today and visited the Gongsanseong Fortress(see above pictures) which takes a good couple of hours to walk around and wouldn't you know it but I had a chance encounter with a Korean priest there I guess that's karma or maybe fate since I wasn't in church on Sunday. The rest of the pictures can be found on Facebook.

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Halfway Through Summer Schedule

I haven't blogged anything over the last few weeks as the rainy season not only affects your ability to get out and see Korea but it also leaves you feeling very lazy. As of today the summer schedule is officially half finished. I hate these 9 am starts in the morning. It also looks like it's going to be another rainy weekend. During our summer vacation I did manage to get to Hwaseong City which is just outside of Suwon and went to Yung-Geolleung Tombs(see first three pictures) and Yongjusa Temple (see next three pictures). All pictures can be found on Facebook.

This past Sunday I went to Bongeunsa Temple in Seoul. It was quite busy since it was a Sunday and a really nice place right in the heart of Seoul(see pictures above). The rest of the pictures are on Facebook.

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Buyeo

         It looks like we finally have an end to the rainy season at least for now as they are forecasting good weather for the next ten days or so. It was a pretty uneventful week at work and I'm dreading the summer schedule which will start soon for about a month where I'll have classes starting at 9am in the morning. I'll be finishing by 3 or 4pm in the afternoon but I think it'll be harder to be motivated to go to the gym then usually I just go to the gym when I first wake up in the morning so I'm still half asleep which prevents me from finding excuses not to go. I went out Saturday night and had a good time but getting home at 4am in the morning is less and less appealing as I get older.

         Anyway got up about five hours later at nine and headed to Buyeo. There are a lot of places to check out in the Buyeo area but I only went to one today, Busosanseong Fortress. You can check out the rest of the pictures on Facebook. I'll also finally have health insurance starting next month. I've also started going to a new gym which is much better than my old one although it's a little more expensive. Everything else is great except that I'll have to start using my alarm clocks for a month. Our summer vacation starts at the end of the month which is 5 days long plus we get a long weekend in August so lots of time for sightseeing mixed in with an occasional beverage or two.

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It's Raining Cats

               The rainy season just refuses to go away. More rain forecast for this week and it looks like it's going to rain into next weekend as well. At least the weather cooperated for me on Sunday and I went to Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul. You can check out the rest of the pictures on Facebook. Starting July 20th our schedule changes for about a month and I'll have classes starting at nine am. I guess I'll have to go to the gym after school that month instead of before school. We get a five day vacation at the end of this month well technically it's only a three day vacation for me as I have Saturdays and Sundays off anyway.
               After I got back from Seoul I went to the movie theater and watched Go Yangi (The Cat). It just came out this weekend and I have to say it was a great Korean horror movie. I'll have to check with some of my kids tomorrow so I can clarify a few things about the story.

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End of the Rainy Season?

     It is Sunday afternoon as I write this in the pouring rain but thankfully we get a reprieve this week from the rainy season as it looks like the weather will be a lot nicer this week and most importantly next weekend is supposed to be clear and sunny. Is it next weekend yet?

    We have a couple of new teachers at the school so the boss took us out again this Friday night after work. I`m hoping by the time this Friday rolls around I`ll be obligation free. I got home Saturday morning a little after 3am. I woke up Saturday morning and took advantage of a one day break from the rainy season and went to Sinjeongho Tourist Resort in Asan where they have a huge manmade lake. It was about 32 degrees Celsius on Saturday so while there was some pain involved with a bit of a hangover, sunshine and sweating certainly speeds up the process of removing alcohol from your system. You can check out the rest of the pictures on Facebook.
    With all of the rain we've had lately it gave me a chance to finally finish watching Season 1 of Game of Thrones. If you haven't seen this show you don't know what you are missing. I guess that's it for this week. Time to kick back and watch some UFC.

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