Aboretum - adventures in Jinju

On Friday Corinne and I had lunch at Dal Oasis and we both got what we always get - no new adventures there. She's leaving in 2 weeks and I am really going to miss weekly lunches/coffee dates with her. She's been a really good friend and it's nice having someone who is in a similar life position (although she is much more cultured than I).

Camilla on a tree in the playground that we passed on the way to lunch

Cool looking restaurant

During lunch we planned (or tried to plan) our trip on Saturday. One problem was transportation. There used to be a train that stopped very close to the aboretum, but that train station closed when we upgraded to a newer train. Unfortunetly the new train doesn't go there. Corinne tried for over an hour and I ended up having to ask two co-workers for help. Eventually my co-worker Lucy found out how to get there by vus and called me with directions. It was very sweet of her and I should bring her a thank you present, but I forgot about it - whoops.

Friday after work I went to Dallas's house and played Catan with Jayden and Dallas. Dallas technically won, but we didn't notice until after Jayden won. After the first game we decided to play some other card games including Korean "one card" which is like crazy 8s but much meaner since you can play jokers which make the next person pick 15. I ended up with almost the entire deck more than once. I ended up leaving there at 3:30. It was the last night I would see Jayden, so we said goodbye on my walk home. I will really miss him and having lunch dates with him.

The next morning I woke up at 9 and met Corinne for coffee. Then Krista showed up and we went back to the coffee shop. We had to wait 20 minutes for the correct bus and then rode it for about an hour and a half (maybe a little less). We sat on the big bench seat in the back and it was like a roller coaster, we were sliding across seats and once my legs popped off the ground. It was kind of fun though. We got to a little bus station then transferred to another bus - a 001 which we didn't know existed. That bus ride only took about 5 minutes, but a whole bunch of adjumas got on and it must have been market day because they had tons of veggies. They blocked the aisles and sat directly in front of us, so we barely got off the bus. Luckily the driver was nice to us and waited and dropped us off on the side of the road directly in front of the arboretum.

Lady sitting directly in front of me in the aisle

The entire area is quite large and has 4 or so green houses, a small "zoo", a waterfall and a bunch of hiking paths. The first place we went was the tropical greenhouse. On the way we saw a camilla tree and while we were taking pictures we found a broom. Naturally we played witch and jumped off a little wall while riding the broom.

Flying

Field trip that showed up - that's when we walked out

Under a giant palm leaf

After that greenhouse we crossed a Japanese looking bridge and that's when the real picture taking started. Corinne really likes taking pictures of flowers. Her camera died shortly after crossing the bridge so I let her use mine while I used my phone camera.

Me on the bridge - go to my facebook page if you want to see more pictures, although some of these are duplicates

Me and Krista in front of a pink flowered tree doing Korean poses

Taking pictures of taking pictures. Krista had never seen a daffodil before and they made me extremely happy because we have them along the driveway at home and that's how you know it's spring.

After that bridge, we walked across some stepping stones, then went down towards a lake and had a bathroom break in what was a surprisingly clean bathroom. Then we walked along a stream and crossed back and forth between rocks and bridges.

Me and Krista on the bridge across the stream

I made them attempt this - you need more people to get a full fan effect but I applaud their effort

After crossing the bridge, we crossed right back over because the wooden path was full of families having picnics. There were a lot of people there, but this was the only place that felt even slightly crowded. Kids and grandparents and whole families were eating giant boxes of food, playing games and sleeping in pop-up tents. The best was a kid in a power-wheels like car that was remote controlled by the dad. I'm so getting one of those. Then we sat on a bench at the end of the stream and ate our lunch. I had some crackers (I didn't have time to buy real food), Corinne had almonds and dried apricots and Krista had some apples to share so I basically had a decent snack.

Picnickers lined up along the river

After lunch we went to the temperate green house. While we were in there Corinne said she spotted a kid who she thought looked like Dallas in profile. I took a picture later and am pretty sure I freaked out the kid's parents - oh well. I don't really think he looks like Dallas, but it was a funny situation.

Dallas jr. The best part was that he had 2 siblings (a brother and sister) and they all wore this same sweatsuit but in different colors. The brother also had some sort of beekeeper looking hat.

After that greenhouse we went into a topiary garden of sorts with some fairy tales made of flowers and moss. Krista and I saw "The Little Mermaid" and instantly started singing "Part of your world" at a decent volume. Luckily Corinne doesn't care, or at least pretends she doesn't. While we were waiting to take a picture, this little girl was talking to them and held Prince Eric's hand. It was super cute.

She needs better role models

Us copying 2 little Korean girls who performed the Nutcracker before we hopped up

After the topiary garden and tulips, we went to the "zoo". It was mainly cages of birds which was kind of sad. They also had some really cute meerkats, goats, Korean raccoon dogs (I will tell you more about this later) and donkeys.

They had statues of rhinos, but no actual rhinos

Look at the baby's face - he had just fed the donkey a potato chip and that was his reaction when the donkey ate it. His mom had the same reaction about a minute later when she fed the donkey. Donkeys love Pringles apparently.

This vulture was very nice and kept flying around while we were taking pictures. These things are the cutest ugliest animals ever.

After the zoo we climbed a huge set of stairs because they were all over the property and Krista wanted to climb at least one set before we left. Then we walked around the mountain for awhile before we found another green house.

Me and what we deemed "firework" flowers

Us and a bunch of phlox (which I was able to correctly identify - thanks mom and the side of our house)

 On the front side of the green house was super creeptastic Snow White and only 4 creepy dwarfs. Seriously, look at her face!

I will suck out your soul! HI HO!

On the backside of the green house was another small hike up to this waterfall. Krista and I decided to do the Korean heart pose to make our bridge picture more interesting. Then I waited on that bridge while Corinne and Krista climbed up to the top bridge so I could take pictures of them. Then I walked up there and we walked around another mountain path and ended up in some weird rock garden area.

Waterfalls are awesome - even man made ones.

 At that point we had been walking for about 4 plus hours and were ready to go home. We flagged down a cab, who ignored us at first, then followed us out of the park and took us to the bus station. Then we got some snacks at a convenience store - I got an ice cream bar and a kimbap triangle. A man sort of yelled at us when we started to get on the bus, but then we showed him our bus cards and he left us alone. We still aren't sure why he was talking to us because you don't have to buy tickets for the city buses, you just pay the driver directly.

We got home around 5:30 and I took a nap for an hour then met up with the girls again to walk to dinner for a birthday party. It was Heejin's birthday and we went to Dal Oasis again. I got the usual (as did Corinne), but I also tried garlic dipping sauce, so I mixed it up some. Then we sang and had cake and another lady from church played the ukelele while we were singing. Heejin and another friend made a treasure hunt using small pieces of paper they had hidden around the table. On some papers the word "jewel" was written. Other had tasks or missions. I ended up with 2 - a jewel and a mission. My mission was to hug my favorite person. Corinne said, "me" and I said "ok" and hugged her. Some others were to dance the Gangnam style dance, shake hands with someone at another table and make someone laugh. The jewels were little prizes including toe socks (that was my gift), rubber gloves and a bottle of water. It was very fun and I stayed until close to 11 when Brandon drove me home. I was exhausted in a good way and fell asleep almost immediately.

Lighting candles - this cake was really good - chocolate but light and fluffy

Little snacks the owner gave us. Lance and I had a whole debate about what they were supposed to be/taste like because I thought they looked like little chicken legs. We had this debate for like 20 minutes with different ideas (closed off, spicy Bugle was another option) before one of the Koreans was like - the name of the snack is little chicken legs.

Russian nesting doll glass - she will always love you

My toe socks, jewel and mission papers

On Sunday after church we were supposed to do a scavenger hunt that was cancelled last weekend due to rain. Unfortunately, not many people stayed to do it, so we decided to hold off again and instead went to lunch at Beans Farm. I had a cheeseburger, which was good but they took forever and a day to make it. Then Cara, Corinne, Inis, Ilani and I went to a couple of stores. I bought a head band and some shoes (which I think made Dallas sad because I never buy any when I'm with him). After shopping I went home and did dishes and watched about 5 episodes of "New Girl" before I went to sleep. It was a great weekend!