Samchenpo walk with Todd and Chris

I didn't really have plans for Saturday, so I decided to walk around Jinju and clean my house. Luckily, I was playing Words with Friends and talking to my friend Todd on Facebook and he invited me to go walking with him in Samchenpo. I jumped on the chance because it would be a new place and I hadn't seen Todd in awhile.

We tried to get on the same bus, but mine was full, so he hopped on another one. I got to the terminal first and found Chris, who lives in the area and was going to be our guide for the day. We went to Paris Baguette so he could get some breakfast, then we met Todd back at the terminal. He also wanted some breakfast so I walked back to PB with him. The boys ate their snacks, I sun-screened my face, and then we headed out for our walk. Chris and Todd do a lot of hiking, but (lucky for me and not so lucky for him) Todd has tendonitis in his groin and can't do anything too strenuous, so I had a shot of keeping up with them. We headed up some random streets and just trusted Chris that he knew where he was going.

Squash growing on a roof because where else would you grow squash?

After a little while, we arrived at a super cute park area. There were a bunch of girls from Chris's middle school who were doing some sort of project and they all said hello to him. Then we saw some little kids playing in a pond of sorts and felt the water. It was nice and cool and we all wished that we'd had bathing suits. It was super hot and sunny so we were already sweating after only a little while and before we really started the walk. Then we walked through the park and up around a lake area. It was really pretty, but still really hot.

The pond at the park.

Make-shift water slide/rapids that these kids went down.

Another fountain on the other side of the park with a bridge and the parking lot in the background.

A view of the park, including a rose garden path, from above on our walk.

Some beautiful flowers with mountains in the back.

A really nice lake that we walked around - well on one side of it.

Rice fields - it was this green on the walk - no editing was done here!

We got to another little pool area formed in the middle of this river/stream that we walked next to most of the way. Apparently it's pretty full after a good rain, but it hasn't rained in a over a week here (even though the weather says differently) so it wasn't that impressive. There were lots of families and kids playing in the water though and some had some pretty nice picnic set-ups, including a group of ladies sitting under a bridge. After we stopped at the little pool and stuck our arms in, we had a little snack of kimbap that Chris had brought with him. That was one other problem we had - Todd and I both had water bottles, but there was nowhere to fill them up again, so we were both really thirsty. After our snack, we walked a little further to the foot of a hiking trail up the mountain. None of us were up to that hike, so we turned around and took the other path down the hill.

The ladies under the bridge just chillin'.

An empty water run-off drain. It hadn't rained in a week or so, but Chris says this looks really pretty after it rains.

On our way down, a group of about 10 older men shouted at us and asked us to come over and have some soju with them. We walked over and they made some room for us to sit in the little pavilion, then they gave me water at first and then a dixie cup with soju in it. They also offered us sashimi and octopus (which was still moving), but I declined (Chris ate some fish and Todd ate some octopus). They tried to talk to us and with our limited Korean and their limited English we managed to get some info. The guy sitting next to Todd was 70 years old. And one other guy helped to build the school Chris works in. Then one guy told me I had to go on a diet. The old guy said he weighed 80 kilos and that I should weigh 60 so I needed to lose my stomach. So that was fun. Then they told us to go and we said thank you and left. It was very strange and yet totally Korean.

Todd eating octopus. The bowl in front of him has soju in it.

Once we got back to the park, Chris called a taxi and we went back to his apartment to cool off for a little while. He showered and Todd and I sat in front of the ac and drank water and beer to relax. Then we went and ate sam gae tang (chicken soup) for lunch. This place was pretty good and it had some good seeds on top. After lunch and beer, I was sleepy, so Todd and I decided to catch a bus back to Jinju. Chris walked us to the terminal and we got a bus immediately, which was nice. It's only about a 30 minute ride, and Todd actually gets off slightly before me, so we talked for a bit, and then he left. Both of us had sunburn on various parts (mine is really just arms, his was legs and neck) and wanted to take showers and naps. When I got home, I hopped in a cold shower for a few minutes to get all the sweat off and cool down. Then I fell asleep for two hours.

A chicken filled with rice, green onions and seed. It's really good.

I forgot to sunscreen my arms, so I got me some sunburn.

It was a really nice Saturday and I need to do little day trips like that more often. I need to also remember not to be shy and take pictures of people, because the only thing I regret is not getting some pictures of the old Korean guys.

Sunday was back to normal. I cleaned some in the morning and found a centipede in my shower under a bottle of shampoo. I screamed and luckily had a scrub brush and squashed it. Then I went to church and ate pizza with everyone after because we had a town hall meeting and went over some church ideas. Then I went grocery shopping with Ilani and came home and cooked some more lemon chicken, using up all my lemons finally. Then I cleaned up and watched 2 episodes of Franklin & Bash. Later, I walked/ran by the river and met Dallas while he did pull-ups. Then we talked for a bit and he went home and I read. So over all it was a good weekend.

Lemon chicken, brown rice, tomatoes, red bell peppers and cucumber.