Ulsan City Tour

I am red!! Is the sun here stronger than in Seoul?? No hat today, so my face and neck got lots of sun, along with my arms and the back of my still-white legs. It was an incredibly hot day. I also have a rash on my legs, from the heat and brushing up against weird plants. Yuck! After a shower it's not too itchy.

When I got to church and saw a ton of Korean kids going on the tour with us, I was not particularly happy. I thought this was an English tour for the foreigners!! To a certain extent it turned into "We let you use our facilities, so you have to talk to, teach, and entertain our kids for the day." I'm surrounded by kids all week! I like to avoid them as much as possible on the weekends!!

At the first stop of the day there was a getting to know you game where we interviewed people and got their name, age, address, and job. I felt like I was in the classroom, coaxing answers out of the kids and adults who surrounded me and asked questions faster than I could answer them. You do the math: 50 Koreans, 10 foreigners. AUGH! Stay away from me!! With the kids, it wasn't so bad, especially when they were brave enough to interview me on their own. But one adult came up to me and interrupted a kid like she was more important than the kid. The annoying lady came (the one with an adult's body but a child's mind). Just the little bit of time before and after church is bad enough, but a whole day of her following us around, interrupting our conversations to add stupid comments, etc. was maddening.

However, all-in-all it was a good day. It lasted 10 AM~5 PM. The tour was in Korean, with Kendall reading a few comments that he'd pulled from the internet. I understood a little of the Korean, but the guy's accent was strongly southern, so mostly I heard "left" and "right" so turned to that side and tried to figure out what they were looking at. Kendall was hilarious. Since we had copies of what he was reading from, he had to read so the kids could hear the native English speaker. He added in several not-so-factual parts which left the foreigners roaring with laughter and the kids looking around trying to figure out what was so funny. "And at this place, the queen played volleyball, and soccer, and hockey with her attendants." I sat in the back of the bus with Sarah, Owen, Allan, Kendall, and Shelly. We had fun joking around and flying off of our seats as the bus hit bumps in the road. I felt like one of the cool teenagers as the "adults" and children sat farther up.

The first place we went was Ju-jeon Beach, famous for its black pebble beach. Usually people just wade in the sea, but the heat drove lots of people into the water. Many tents were set up on the beach for families to rest in. Next we went to Daewangam, where we had lunch and the kids did a treasure hunt. Sarah skipped school to come on the tour. Well, sort of skipped. She asked her teacher if she could come, and he said no but she came anyway. She was funny going over the bridge. Apparently she's afraid of heights, so kept asking me if the bridge would fall down, and how it would be better if it were made of stone. No, I think stone would be too heavy!

We were all glad to get back on the bus. After lunch and all of the walking, the air conditioning and the rocking bus put most of the adults to sleep. It took a while to reach the next stop. The narrow winding mountainous coastal road made for a rough ride. (Were there enough adjectives in that sentence?!) Back and forth, forwards and backwards, hitting a bump so flying at least 6 inches off of your seat.......several people weren't feeling well, but I had no problem. I'm sure glad I outgrew the motion sickness!

Third stop was Standing Rock. It took less than 10 minutes to see the 12 meter high rock standing in the middle of the Taehwa River (an inland portion out in the countryside, much smaller than the river is in the city). Many people were wading or swimming in the shallow part.

Last stop were the Petroglyphs in Cheonjeon-Ri, Ulju (National Treasure number 147). I had seen models of them at Munsu Stadium, but the petroglyphs themselves were greatly disappointing. Despite the mountain blocking the sun and the slant of the rock blocking the rain, the carvings have eroded horribly. Surely the heat and cold each year can't help. In another fifty years they probably won't be there at all. The upper part of the rock had pictures and symbols, while the bottom part was newer (how is that possible?) and had what looked like Chinese characters from the Silla period. At the same place on the other side of the stream were some fossilized dinosaur footprints. Most of them looked like plate-sized craters in the ground. We were allowed to walk all over the area--around the footprints and in the footprints. How's that for preserving them?! Danica was a little too close to the stream and slipped in. Less than a minute later one of the little kids fell into a 2-foot deep puddle. The tour guide (a man in his 60s who used to be a teacher) freaked out a bit and ordered everyone away from the slippery ground near the stream. A couple of minutes later he sent everyone back to the bus.

After we got back to church some of us went out to a new Italian restaurant near the University--Kendall, Shelly, Owen, Sarah, Roger and his wife, Allan, and me. After the heat and all of the walking, the food was among the best I've ever had! I arrived home just after 7 PM, and will be going to bed early tonight. I am so tired!