Baseball and Temples

Greetings! We had a busy week and attended our first Korean baseball game (and Dan's first baseball game in general) with our Air Force friends. It was very exciting - we were cheering for the KIA Tigers, our home team, and they won 9-3. Korean baseball is much more active than American baseball due to smaller field dimensions and less steroids. It made for an interesting and fun game! Sadly, however, this was one of our last outings with the military guys. A few are leaving Korea and are being shipped out to either Iraq or Afghanistan. We will miss their company.

On Saturday, we decided that we were in need of some sightseeing, and we ventured to our first temple. We went to Eunjeok-san, a local Buddhist temple located at the base of one of the hiking trails in Wolmeyong Park. It was very peaceful and calm, and we were excited to see some of the amazing architecture and painting. After several hours of deep meditation and mental cleansing, we went for an exciting walk on one of the mountain trails. There are a few massive structures located around the mountain. The picture below is the Susi Pagoda and it is a symbol of the city's defenses. This particular structure can be seen from around the city and is especially beautiful to see in the evening.

The Susi Pagoda in Wolmeyong Park. I thought this was particularly nice. It is in the shape of a flame and represents the prosperity and protection of Gunsan (I got that out of a guide book.)


Eunjeok-san Temple in its beautiful courtyard. The weather provided us with a slight misty rain that I thought added to the visit. There were a few other buildings that we were not allowed to enter, but were equally as beautiful. We assumed that these were for the monks living there.


This is the inside of the main temple. The entire temple - both inside and outside - is painted with bright and beautiful colors and with very intricate details. The Buddha statues were made in 1629 - they depict the perfect and well balanced postures that are practiced in Buddhism. I wish I could share all of the photos with you!

We then ventured into the local fish market. Here is a sample of some of the fish/squid/sting rays that they offer. We were not brave enough to buy a fish that we didn't know how to appropriately gut and fillet, so maybe next time.


After our walk, we treated ourselves to dinner. We decided to go for the traditional Korean meal as pictured below. It was delicious. The meat we had is called galbi - and we cooked it at our table and wrapped it in lettuce leaves. All of the sides were delicious - bar a few - one that looked like the skin of a spiny snake-snail hybrid.

The colors of the food are just as good as the food itself! I am grilling - I've become quite the cook over here :)



Here is Dan trying out the spiny skin thing. Naturally - he is much braver than I am. However, I will say that neither of us thought about trying the raw octopus that they brought out, or the flesh colored squiggly substance that accompanied the pieces of raw liver. Sick.

Until next time. We miss you.