May 9th - Day with the teachers

Today (may 9th) I spent the day with 4 of the teachers from my school. One of them, Mr Shin, had invited me to spend the day at his house about 2 weeks earlier. I wasn't sure what this meant, but I of course accepted. Well, the day before, he gave me a schedule of what was to happen the following day, and told me 3 other teachers would be coming along. So, one of the teachers picked me up, along with her 7 year old son, and we rode to Mr Shins house. There we met the other 2 teachers, and Mr Shin's adorable 5 year old daughter. We ate fruit and chatted for a bit, then headed off to partake in the day's activities.
Our first stop was a really old temple, of which I forget the name now. We walked around the outskirts of the grounds, where there were really nice totem poles and other various carvings. It was really nice and pretty, and there are tons of pics on my pictures site. I played the Korean version of Rock, Paper, Scissors (called Kai, Bai, Bo) with the little boy while we were walking, and he threw paper every single time, which is funny it its own right. We took a walk up the road to the temple, with the teachers pointing out various things along the way. After a nice hike, we reached the temple, and it was simply gorgeous. All the temples in Korea look pretty much the same, with the same paint schemes and architecture, but this one looked like a little town square, and overlooked a nice vista. After checking out the main area, we headed up a very steep staircase to the top of the area, with another temple, and an incredible view of the area. At the top there was a natural spring, of which we could drink from. Natural spring water tastes amazing, at least here in the Korean mountains. After explloring all the areas, we headed down and ate a traditional Korean lunch of bibimbap, then headed to our next destination.
The next stop was some sort of Flower park/mini zoo/family fun place. We entered through a tunnel of flowers and headed up a steep climb, all the pathways surrounded by flowers. After what seemed liek thousands of different flowers, we reach the top, and I see a bunch of animal cages. The animals that they housed were a baboon, goats, deer, hamsters, what looked like badgers of some kind, birds, a bunny, 2 peacocks, and a baby black bear. No order or reason behind them, but thats Korea for you. The baboon was reaching through the cage to grab at some guys ice cream, and he gave it to him. The baboon proceded to eat the ice cream exactly like a hum being, even tearing off the paper; simply amazing. After walking around the grounds and seeing various statues, flowers, and a pond with a bunch of pinwheels, we headed for the exits. Everyone was hot and tired, and we called it a day.
It was great being with other teachers, and learning from native Koreans about nice places and historical thigns, a real nice cultural experience, one that a simple tourist would not get. One of the teachers and her husband took me out to dinner later that night, then we went to a Nooraebang, which is a a room where you sing karaoke. A good nite, a fun day, and a great experience!