Spring is finally here!

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Alex A-Che

Training

You know what that means! I am challenging myself this year and trying out my first 10K. If anyone knows me, you know I hate exercise. I just never liked it. The closest I get to it is through salsa and other forms of dancing. But Dave and Matt are runners, and like to push me sometimes which is what I need. So the challenge is outdoing myself, since last year I ran the 5 k, got a medal and all (everyone did lol), and was proud of myself! On the other hand, running a 5K here is like a joke, because old ladies and children do it like it’s nothing. So though I was having my own Rocky Balboa moment in my head, so many people were horsing around while they ran. Which is great for them, but not so much for my self esteem lol.

So I’ve been running morning or afternoons, at a track which makes it easier to figure out just how much I’m running. I feel slightly beat up from all this, and the lack of sleep is mostly from going to sleep late and not necessarily getting up in the morning. Seeing ajossis and ajummas running around the track faster then me, pushes me to keep going.

Gyeongju

I’m super excited to be heading to Gyeongju for the race. It will be around the lake and of course be filled with cherry blossom trees. It can’t get better then this! :

Click here for English info on Marathons in Korea: Waeguks got Runs

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Spring Festivals

I really enjoyed the Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival last year. It was so beautiful and the stream just made the site so special! Spring is really short in Korea, especially in Daegu. You have to enjoy it fully before it disappears in a blink of an eye.There are various festivals to be checking out this spring. I hope to at least make 2, but unfortunately my schedule always seems to filling up with one thing or another. Here are links on more info:

Official Korea website – Korea Tourism Information

Korea Travel Notes : Offers Festival and Exhibits Information

The Museum with No Walls – Gyeongju

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Alex A-Che

I love Gyeongju (경주). It’s a beaaaaautiful city to spend the day in. You walk through history, it’s all around you from across the street through every bend on the road. And it’s only an hour away from Daegu! This was the second time I really did the touristy stuff here, as many of your recall it was a sacrifice going to the grotto again simply from the massive motion sickness I experienced last time when the cab driver drove us up the winding road to the top of the mountain. But Jenn and Anna were here, so I threw care to the wind and fell in love with the city again.

Gyeongju is a relic….it was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Silla (57 BC – 935 AD) which ruled most of the Korean Peninsula between the 7th and 9th centuries. AKA mad old, so if you want a good ole’ dose of pure Korean traditional culture, head to Gyeongju.

The cuisine of Gyeongju is generally typical of the cuisine elsewhere in Gyeongsang province: spicy and salty. However, it has distinctive tastes according to region and several local specialties known nationwide. The most famous of these is “Gyeongju bread” or “Hwangnam bread”, a red-bean pastry first baked in 1939 and now sold throughout the country. It’s the last pic in the slide show (it’s not mine – we were so dead tired that I forgot to function by the end of the night when we bought it).

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A weekend in Gyeongju

Posted on November 27, 2010 by Alex A-Che

We visited our friend Jenn who lives in Gyeongju, a hourish away from us. We wanted to go to the Seokguram Grotto. It has a very famous Buddha, and in 1995 was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Of course we had to have our galbi bbq

Sesame leaves are divine

The immediate car accident we got into when we jumped in a cab to go up the mountain. That should have been enough to deter us from continuing. Fools!