Road Trips with Chip: March (1)

Hi y’all!

These past 2.5 months have been a tad bit busy. My weeks are filled with lesson planning, teaching, boxing, and road trips with Chip (the tiny blue car).

In March, my first Native English Teacher friend, D, moved back to the U.S., after 2 challenging years. We spent her last weekend in Daegu doing what our friend group does best: eating good foods, drinking somaek (Beer and Soju), and singing. D is missed dearly, but she has exciting new adventures in the U.S of A!

In mid-March, my friend A and I began Spanish and Korean lesson exchange. We try to meet twice a week, for 2 hours: 1 hour of her teaching me Korean, 1 hour of me teaching her Spanish. It has been a welcomed challenge, creating a Spanish workbook from scratch. I have a lot to learn, in the language workbook creating line. I have made many mistakes, but A has been a patient student. Learning Korean with A has been exciting. I can now build slightly more complicated sentences!

Upo Wetlands, Changnyeong-gun

I took a short day trip to the Upo Wetlands in Changnyeong region. The wetlands are an hour southeast of my apartment in Daegu. It is a natural habitat for 10 endangered species. There are 4 wetland areas represented in this natural protection area: Upo, Mokpo, Sajipo, and Jjokjibeol.

It is free to enter and walk along the various trails. I was able to see various birds floating or flying freely. My favorite was the Asian Crested Ibis. Their underwings (is that a thing?) are beautiful shades of reds and pinks

I walked around for approximately 3 hours and guarantee I didn’t see all the wetlands. I will be returning.

After the long walk, I went into the local town to eat some 칼국수 (kal guk su: noodle soup) and 전(jeon: Korean savory pancake).

I then drove to an ancient Confucian providential school before heading home for the evening.

Gyeongju

My next day trip included my neighboring Native English Teacher MD. She lives in the apartment below mine and works at the neighboring elementary school. She arrived to Korea in February of 2021, and had no opportunities to see anything outside the city.

We drove to Gyeongju, the ancient royal tombs located an hour and a half east of Daegu.

I had visited this area a few times before, but always as the passenger. We found a good parking spot, and walked around for hours, looking at tombs, and seeing the very popular hanok-style modern shops. We even saw the Cheomseongdae Observatory, which is the oldest existing astronomical observatory in Asia, built in 7^th Century.

We then drove an hour to the coast, so MD could see the sea. We grabbed some coffee, and decided to continue our tour north, to the famous hands of Pohang (Homigot), where we watched the sunset.

We then made our 3 hours journey home. I was happy I could help MD mark off 3 things from her wish list!

Next post will cover the end of March, cherry blossom trip.

Meanwhile, check out the sprucin’ up Gachang is doing!