Life updates

A view from the mountain I will be climbing. Photo from Adventure Korea.

It has been a while since I posted with general life news, so here goes. Five days a week of my life are interesting only in the general sense and not in the day-to-day details, so what follows will mostly be about my weekends.

The most exciting news is the upcoming Butterfly Festival! Two weekends from now, my friend Erin and I will be travelling to Jellanam-do (see map) for a butterfly festival and hiking up a mountain! I hope this is a real mountain, not just a hill such as the one I climbed on my first weekend.

Both Erin and I are super-excited for this adventure. I haven't really been out of the Seoul area, so this will be a good chance to get out of the city and into rural, hopefully beautiful Korea. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures (read: steal lots of Erin's much better pictures) and post them here.

This is what Adventure Korea has to say about the trip:

"On the first day, we will go on a hike to Gangcheonsan mountain and Geumsungsan fortress, which is a famous mountain in Jeolla-do, and one of the best mountain in Korea to view autumn crimson leaves. This hike will take 4-5 hours, in which time we'll breath the fresh mountain air and witness the spectacular mountain view. After the hike, we'll move to Damyang town and relax at the famous Bamboo hot spring and have a delicious Sutboolgalbi Gui(grilled pork ribs), drink and chat about the days events.

"On the second day, we'll take part in the Butterfly Festival, which is held in Hampyeong town, a land of green nature and yellow rapeseed flowers. the splendor of spring begins accompanied by beautiful butterflies, Tens of thousands of butterflies, a vast expanse of green fields and yellow rapeseed create a land of fantasy.

"There you'll have a chance to participate in the various hands-on programs like Baby wild boar catching,mudfish catching,going through a labyrinth in the shape of a butterfly,making paper butterflies and much more. You'll also build poles and spirit posts to ward off bad spirits."

In other news:

As I posted earlier, I found a regular Sunday volleyball team to play (practice) with! I will be playing with them again tomorrow. It is already so exciting to have volleyball back in my life, although it's not quite the same as in Vancouver.

I also got my second paycheque on Friday! I'm not sure I can explain the satisfaction of checking your bank balance and seeing millions of currency in your account. Of course, it is equivalent to only a few thousand dollars Canadian, but the psychological effect is thrilling. I have already wired most of my salary to my home account.

That's all the news for now. I'm currently considering my long weekend and summer break options - I'm thinking Japan on the long weekend, and a south-east Asian country such as Thailand for summer break. I'll be sure to update when I know more.