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Snapshots of Summer

Now that we are well into fall, this post feels a bit out-of-place. I had it in my draft folder, nearly ready to go before we left for Hawaii, and then about a million unexpected things came up and I never hit publish.

So anyway, a few highlights from this past summer:

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SEOUL

Incheon | Pentaport Rock Festival

Incheon Penataport Rock Festival 2016 Incheon Penataport Rock Festival 2016Incheon Penataport Rock Festival 2016Incheon Penataport Rock Festival 2016

Every so often an American or English-singing band will have a tour stop in Korea to/from Japan, although usually that happens in Seoul, on a weeknight. In the past year and a half since we have lived in Daegu, I can recall two bands/singers who came to Daegu: Maroon 5 (hell no) and Richard Marx. Though it’s possible I could be confusing Richard Marx with Michael Bolton or Kenny G. In other words, we haven’t attended any concerts since moving to Korea.

Music festivals are our best bet for watching live music by American/English-speaking bands and there have been a few festivals, including the Pentaport Rock Festival, on our summer to-do list for some time. I don’t think we really considered how hot a summer concert would be – especially one in August — when we purchased tickets for the Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival sometime back in April. We certainly weren’t expecting record-breaking temperatures.

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HAWAII MEMENTOS

Polaroids of Hawaii

Hawaii Polaroids

We’re back from Hawaii. It feels like ages ago since we left even though it’s been only a couple weeks. It’s taken me a couple of days to kind of process being back – back from vacation mode but also back from the States. We spent the past weekend holed up on the living room couch, with the kitties (of course), watching movies, eating junk food, and missing Hawaii. Or maybe, just missing the small taste of America we had while in Hawaii.

It’s good to be back *home* though, or at least this version of it. I’m really looking forward to fall here in Korea, if the weather ever decides to cool down, that is. I’m excited to start watching Halloween movies once October rolls around (in two days?! Stay tuned for my upcoming Halloween scary movies list…), for the smell of roasted sweet potatoes on every street corner (my favorite Korean snack), for consuming at least one pumpkin spiced thing, and for camping in our friend’s apple orchard at the end of month.

But first, I have a few summer posts that I meant to hit publish on before leaving for HI. As is always the case, things got pretty hectic before we left. Lots of unexpected things popped up last minute and then we decided we needed to give our house a thorough scrub so we could return to a clean home (does anyone else do this?). Before we knew it we were packing our bags just hours before leaving to catch the train to Seoul.

As you can tell we made it to Hawaii just fine, and maybe this time next year, I’ll finally blog about it. Until then, a few Polaroids taken on 5-yr old expired film, some of my favorites of our entire trip. I need to shoot in film more often.

DAEGU

Daegu | Our First Samsung Lions Baseball Game in Korea

Daegu | Our First Samsung Lions Baseball Game in Korea

This is one of those posts where I start off by listing all of our failed attempts at trying to attend one thing or another, or in this case a Samsung Lions baseball game. Our first attempt occurred some time last year at the old Samsung Lions stadium downtown. We arrived way too late, spent hours sitting in traffic, and then eventually gave up. This year, when the new stadium opened in a less congested part of town, we anticipated shorter lines and easier parking. Wrong and wrong. We arrived over an hour before game time, discovered all the parking lots were full, received some unhelpful flyer showing us other places to park, circled the stadium about a million times, and once again returned home without seeing the baseball game. Finally, we got some sense into us and took public transportation to the park, which was quick and about a million times less frustrating. As they say, third time’s a charm.

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DAEGU OUTDOORS

Daegu | A Natural Water Slide in Palgongsan’s Sutaegol Valley

Daegu | Sutaegol Valley in Palgongsan Daegu | Sutaegol Valley in PalgongsanDaegu | Sutaegol Valley in Palgongsan

Where is “the valley?” I wondered, as I scrolled through photo after photo of smiling Koreans frolicking with inner tubes in an indeterminable outdoor setting. It was the middle of summer and I only had three things on my mind: air conditioning, ice cream, and finding places to escape the heat.

It took a considerable amount of weeding through multiple photo comments in Korean until I finally uncovered a name that I recognized:팔공산. Palgongsan, one of Daegu’s nearby mountains. That tiny morsel of information, combined with hours of googling in both Hangul and Romanized Korean, led me to discover Sutaegol Valley (수태골), where one of Palgongsan’s mountain streams created a natural pool and water slide.

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DAEGU

Daegu | Trap Korea Escape Room

Daegu | TrapKorea Escape Room Daegu | TrapKorea Escape Room

As soon as I discovered the Trap Korea escape room here in Daegu, I begged gently nudged Sly to go with me. It only took about two months of non-stop badgering convincing, but it eventually worked. Plus, it was either go or endure an entire summer of my annoying pestering.

Escape rooms have become really popular lately in Korea, and as someone who loves puzzles, mysteries, and bizarre interior design, I really wanted to see what all the hype was about. A couple years ago I watched a dumb reality show where the reality stars tried to escape from an escape room. First off, the room looked like a walled in cubicle from my very first corporate job and second, the ‘clues’ involved solving easy equations on scraps of paper. It looked like some weird homemade mystery theater type thing my sister and I would have concocted when we were teens. But even that didn’t deter me from wanting to go, if anything, it made me more curious.

Maybe those reality people just went to a really crummy escape room or maybe escape rooms have evolved in the past couple of years because TrapKorea’s website made their rooms look like Hollywood stage sets. To shut me up, Sly finally booked a spot online for the Egyptian room, the easiest of the escape rooms.

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DAEGU

Daegu | A Pool Party at Hotel Interburgo EXCO

Daegu | A Pool Party at Hotel Interburgo EXCO

According to various news reports, this has been one of the hottest summers ever recorded in Korea. It certainly felt that way here in Daegu, which received additional bonus points for being notorious as one of the hottest cities in Korea. We tend to avoid traveling in the summer (too hot, too many people, too expensive), which meant we spent most of our time either standing in tank tops and shorts in front of our blowing A/C unit, or looking for ways to get out of the house to escape the heat.

During the summer months, everyone flocks to one of the seasonal outdoor pools. While the admission price to the public pools are really cheap, they are also super crowded…and loud…and yes, I realize I sound like an old lady. In search of a more chill, laid back, experience (and honestly, one without too many kids), I discovered the pool at the Inter-burgo Hotel, which held weekend pool parties throughout the summer. Located in a somewhat industrial part of town, the Interburgo hotel glimmered like an oasis in an otherwise nondescript area comprised of squat gray warehouse and mysterious stores selling things like pipes and electrical cords.

We were looking for an escape. From the blistering heat. From the pitter patter of tiny feet on slick concrete. From city life. We were looking for a day of sun and relaxation, a mini vacation without having to leave the city.

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Korean National Parks TRAVEL

Travel Guide | Seoraksan National Park

seoraksan_guide_01

Since my travel posts seem to be all over the place, oftentimes across a non-linear time frame, I thought I would attempt to condense them into an online travel guide with links back to the original, more detailed posts. Consider this a work in progress until I figure out the best way to organize all this info! Anyway, here’s my first stab at a travel guide to Seoraksan National ParkThis guide is probably best suited for those who have more than one day in the park, although individually, each hike can be done in a day (or two hikes in one day if you are up early enough!). If you’re not planning on hiking and camping out on the ridge trails/shelters, then I think 2-3 days is a good amount of time to explore at least one side of the park.

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