수 덕 사 - Suduk Temple

A visit to another Temple. This temple was origionally built in A.D. 500. Its name, 수덕사, is pronounced 'sueduck sa' - sa means temple.

A Jolly Budha, with not just one, but two fingers in its belly.

Group picture on the jolly Budha - Eunju, Fred, Davey, and Reub and I.

Here is one of the oldest buildings that still remains. We had the opportunity to watch a portion of a service taking place in this temple. There was a womens choir and a full congergation sitting on mats worshiping and bowing to Budha. After the service one of the monks walked away talking on his cell phone. We were too slow taking the picture.



Here are some of the Budha statues we passed on the walk up to the temple. They were all either very mad or scary.


All the buildings on the temple grounds are painted with these same vibrant colours.

Spa Castle

I dont think we have anything like this back in Canada. The $40 entrance fee is totally worth every penny. The resort is solely heated by natural hot springs and is complete with a pools, hot tubs, water slides, swim up bars, restaurants, and we must not forget about the heating beds -incubator like.
Here is a picture of Reuben and I in one of the many hot tubs. This particular one was in a cave setting - it even had dry ice machines for effect.


Here are the guys, enjoying the slides and pools outside. It was a nipply day at the park but the water was warm. We couldn't believe that everything was open the weekend before december.



The whole gang, Fred, Eunju, Reub and I, and Davey. Check out these bathing caps. We HAD to wear them. Fred said their purpose is to protect the water from everyones dirty hair - ??? - dont ask, its just the korean way. Every korean was complete with spedo, bathing cap, and goggles.


Eunju and I relaxing in our personal jacuzzi's. I have never been so pruney in my life. A whole day of running back and forth between the water slides and hot tubs - this lasted for a good 6 hours.


Here is Reuben in one of the personal hot tub beds with jets. Each bed's jets were equiped with different presure and positioned jets. It was a dream world for hot tub lovers.

Suh family over for dinner

We had our boss, Sione Suh, and his family over for dinner. Sione, Sarah, Moses (12), and Daniel (8). We cooked them the Korea traditional meal of Bulgoki, which happens to be one of our favorites! Dinner was followed by a 'western dessert' - freshly baked cookies with a scoop if icecream. Mmmm, they were impressed and wanted the recipe. We had a great time. What a loving and gracious family they are.
We ate, chatted, viewed homevideos, and played a traditional Korean game 공기 (gong-ki) - similar to what some of you might know as jacks. The kids play it all the time, but traditionally it was a game for girls. Sarah (the mom) is the champion in the Suh family. Reuben is the champ in the Zuidhof family, but i am determined to overcome him.

The oldest, Moses, is home schooled. He spends all his days at the academy, studying and playing. Reuben tutors Moses one hour everyday in History and Geography. And a couple minutes out of each class i'm pretty sure Reuben tries to sneak in a little Korean lesson from Moses. I teach Moses English listening class once a week. This is one bright kid. Danny is still schooled in the pubic system, and when he is of middleschool age he will be home schooled as well.


Here we are all together after a evening of great fun and fellowship. God has blessed us with a great Christian boss and family!

Happy Pepero Day

November 11th: Happy Pepero Day!

This day was created solely by a candy company. The eleventh day of the eleventh month - 4 sticks 11 11 - now thats something to celebrate! So they manufactured a candy that represented the date's shapes -1111.

Reuben and i received many pepero's from our students. The biggest one i received was from reuben - how sweet! I woke up to a huge 3 foot pepero on the table. The packaging was covered with pink and red hearts and the words 'i love you'.
This is what a typical pepero looks likes. The taste is ok, nothing too special. Some are a little more delicious then others. The candy is a chocolate covered waffer. They are typically covered in dark chocolate, but we had some that were strawberry flavored and some with a cookie crumb coating.

*Please excuse the early morning sleepy eyes and weird looks.

A Fall Day

Reuben and I skippped our morning workout to take a walk and enjoy the beautiful fall weather.

We also took some time to do some serious and very interesting people watching from this bench.

Here is a picture from our apartment of central park. Check out the surrounding trees - they are an array of such beautiful colours.


I took a hike up Surre San - Fall is the busiest time because of the 'changing leaves'. Koreans talk about this so much - its the one piece of nature they can still appreciate in the big city setting.

A look at the city of Sanbon from the top of Surre San.


This is a typical delivery truck. Most small, hole in the wall resturants have a little delivery person thats rides a scooter like this around town. It seems that road and vehical rules dont apply to scooters here. They will drive down the wrong side, thru red lights, in an 's' pattern, and even on the sidewalks with great speed. You always having to be watching out for a moving scooter.