Weekend at Dongwasa Temple!!!

You know what? Having a bike in Korea is like having a motorcycle. Okay, its not that bad, but seriously, it gets  serious here. The sidewalks are completely crowded with pedestrians, other bikers, scooters, and...cars. No. Really. It seems like there no parking lots in Korea, and even if there are, why not just park your car on the sidewalk? Will take a picture of this and show you guys. Oh, and yes, there are also scooters. And not the 4-500 dollar kinds you can buy as a kid. I'm talking like, motorcycle scooters. Those aren't too bad cause you can usually see them coming or they honk at you. But yeah, its definitely an experience riding my bike in Korea. But I keep it pretty safe, so don't worry too much everyone! Oh, and I changed the name. My bike is now called the Kimchi Mobile. I figure it should be something Korean right? Anyways, what did we do this weekend? We

 went back to Palgongsang Mountain! Except this time, we actually went to another area. We went to Dongwhasa temple. I probably butchered the spelling of it, but it is a very nice temple. Me and Jenn really liked how peaceful and quiet everything was. She has some more pictures as well, so perhaps she can upload them later. To get there, we went on the city bus tour. For 5 bucks, you can take a tour of Daegu, and get off and on at various stops. Me and Jenn only made two stops, because we had to be in downtown later for a friends birthday. But our first stop was at this temple. The Buddha statue that you see in the first pic is one of the largest (if not the largest) in the world. The brochure said that it had two of the Buddha's original bones inside of the statue, and that it was a gift to Korea given by...Sri Lanka? I'm not too sure. I don't have the brochure on me at the moment. Unfortunately, Jenn and I couldn't get closer than that fence that you see. The plaza area in front of the Buddha is under construction till 2012, which really

 annoyed us! Anyways, after we walked around the temple area, we got back on the city tour bus (it makes circular routes all day) and got off at the Palgong Restaurant area. Here, you can get a taste of authentic Korean style meals. The main dish you see is a stew (like a hot pot) and in it were 3-4 kinds of mushrooms, green vegetables, and barbecue beef (bulgogi). It was incredibly tasty! And we got a pretty interesting array of side dishes. The usual kimchee side dishes, some sweet peanuts, and more. It was a really good meal, and if we ever go back to the area, we would definitely eat there again. Aside from that, the rest of the pictures that you see are just more pictures that we took when we were in the temple area. The angry looking statue was at the entrance, and the temple that you see by the staircase is actually facing the Buddha statue in the earlier picture. We really enjoyed the fresh mountain air and the cool breeze! After our trip to the mountain, we got back to our

 apartments, grabbed some money from the bank, and went to celebrate our friends bday! It's actually kinda funny, because I didn't meet him until I got to Korea, but it turns out that we went to UCI together! Small world huh? We both graduated the same  year, but UCI is a pretty big school so it isn't too strange that I had no idea who he was. We have a bunch of California school alumni here. Jenn and I have met people from Cal State Fullerton, UCI, USF, UC Riverside, and more. It seems like we meet someone from California everytime we go out! We went to a bar called Travelers, which is for foreigners, or we assume so, because everyone in there spoke English, and were obviously not Korean. They do have some of the tastiest burgers I've had here though. Gorilla Burger definitely gets the nod with creativity, but Travelers gets the nod with the taste of their beef. Then we did the usual birthday stuff, and called it a night early because I didn't feel too well. I guess it is my turn to get sick, but luckily its not

 as bad as Jenn's. More like a sore throat I would say. Okay, well nice talking to you all, and I'll see you later! Time for a teachers meeting. Entirely in Korean. That me and the other English teacher must attend. We have no idea why either. Bye! Oh and I apologize if there are any errors in English. I don't really proofread my blogs! (Such a model English teacher!...)