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Awesome Autumn Adventures in Bukhansan National Park
Autumn leaves, rocky trails, AND a giant golden Buddha? Sign me up! Bukhansan National Park is unusual in that Bukhansan (the southernmost mountain within the park) is technically within the city of Seoul. You can reach much of the park utilizing only the Seoul subway system. Perhaps because of this accessibility within a major metropolitan area, Bukhansan made the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s “Most Visited National Park per Unit Area.” We added to those numbers, visiting twice during October to appreciate one of the park’s other distinctives: one of the best places in Seoul to see the changing leaves. Knowing it would be really busy, we…
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U.S. Election Week 2020: A Brief Update from the South Korean Front
“So… Donald Trump is winning the election, right?” Thus began several conversations with our acquaintances here circa Wednesday (EST). As I write this post, ballots are still being counted in a number of key states, and the results of the U.S. Presidential election are unknown. Despite living 14 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, we were disappointed to discover that we are not privy to learning election results any earlier than the rest of the world. We have been following the news closely this week and feel justified in all our efforts to ensure that our ballots would reach Pennsylvania in time to be counted. In other words, I didn’t…
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What is Chuseok? How We Spent Our Autumn Holiday
Chuseok (추석), which literally translates to “Autumn Eve,” is often described as Korea’s Thanksgiving holiday. It is also called Hangawi (한가위), “the great middle of autumn.” A three-day holiday celebrated in September or October each year according to the lunar calendar, Chuseok is one of the two most important holidays of the year and is celebrated in both North and South Korea. (Lunar New Year is the other large, family holiday.) This year, the holiday was a little different as the government raised the level of social distancing guidelines, encouraging Koreans to stay home rather than risk spreading COVID-19 by visiting family around the country. Important Chuseok Traditions Like Thanksgiving,…
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Top 10 Most Surprising Things About South Korea
Just as with any major life event, we approached our Seoul adventure with a certain set of expectations. Because we are planners, we did a lot of research about what to expect and how to acclimate to life here. We are also seasoned travelers and were prepared to experience those things you can’t plan for. We learned when we lived in Canada that even moving to a neighboring country comes with its share of complications. Indeed, every time we have traveled overseas something unexpected has happened. Plan as much as you like, but there will always be surprises! Here are some of the things – both pleasant and unpleasant –…
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Paju Imjingak Peace Gondola, the DMZ, and a New Friend
Did you know that the Korean War has never officially ended? Before the onset of a global pandemic changed everything, many people who heard us talk about the possibility of going to South Korea inevitably asked, “Aren’t you scared of North Korea?” While we haven’t felt afraid, it is an unsettling feeling to live in a country that has existed in an uneasy armistice with its sister nation to the north for 70 years. Currently, the closest you can safely get to North Korea is to visit the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), and the closest such point to us is at Imjingak, about 50km north of Seoul. We were able…
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Anmyeondo Island: A Walk Under the Trees
For our first day in Anmyeondo, we explored the island’s beautiful beaches. On the second day, we wandered in some of its quiet green spaces. I was a little concerned that we had left almost a whole day to seeing the Anmyeondo Island Recreational Forest, as I couldn’t find much about it when researching before this trip. As far as I knew, it was going to be really lame and not worth seeing. This concern intensified when we couldn’t get a bus or a taxi from the hotel on Sunday morning and walked a very sunny 45 minutes to get there, partly along the side of a highway. Well, I…
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Anmyeondo Island: Trekking on the Road of Sunset
Exploring Seoul has nearly endless possibilities and will keep us occupied for a long time to come. However, we are also ready to spread our wings a little more and venture to some sites outside of the city. Our first trip outside of Seoul was a weekend visit to Anmyeondo Island on South Korea’s west coast, south of Seoul in Chungcheongnam-do Province. I found very little information about traveling to and within Anmyeondo, so this whole trip was a bit of a mystery all the way through. Our post is in two parts because given the dearth of online information about visiting the area, I am going to give more…
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Walking to School Uphill Both Ways: Welcome to Gwanaksan
If you’re looking for a campus to keep you fit while you walk to classes, Seoul National University is the place for you! Completed in 1975, the Gwanak Main Campus is built at the base of Gwanak Mountain (Gwanaksan), and as such includes a dizzying number of hills and stairs. The university is so integrated with the mountain that we finished this hike by staggering right onto campus – after viewing it from above at the summit. In order to end up at the university, we started our hike on the other side of the mountain, in the city of Gwacheon (just south of Seoul). Since it was such a…
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“Are You Bored?” Inquiring Minds Want to Know
Since the chemist began working at the lab every day during the first week of September, many of you have asked what on earth the counselor is doing? Here is a ramble through my rambling days, complete with my “real-world” photos. (In other words, I promise to get you back to the chemist’s much prettier photos in the next post!) The truth is, my days look pretty different from my usual life, which is not the easiest transition but is part of the point of this year. What’s the good of living in another country if you try to make your life look exactly the same as it always did?…
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Urban Hiking Challenge on the Baegak Mountain Trail
Before we left the U.S. for South Korea, we told a group of friends that even with our 250-pound luggage weight limit, we were going to make room to pack our hiking boots. Even in COVID times, hiking is still open and (mostly) free. Well, it’s finally cool enough in Seoul to do some real hiking, and those boots are getting a workout! Seoul City Wall We prioritized hiking the Seoul City Wall (Hanyangdoseong) as a way to see as much as we can within the city. The 18.6 km-long wall originally was built in 1396 across the four mountains surrounding Seoul: Baegaksan, Naksan, Namsan and Inwangsan. Called Seoul Fortress…
