Trip to Jaechon

We returned to beautiful Jaechon, Korea for the national Rhythmic Gymnastics meet this week. This time Mark came with us! We took him to Eurimji, a reservoir from the Joseon dynasty.

Eurimji has a beautiful waterfall, a (scary) amusement park and paths and pagodas.

Ah yes, sisterly love!

You can see Gryphon's hand sneaking towards Rowan's throat in this picture...this is why I have no nice photos of the girls anymore!!

NO strangling!!

This time we hiked down through the woods to the bottom of the waterfall, it is lovely and so green! Makes me think of Washington.

I know 99% of my blog posts are about food, but the food here is really, really good- I can't help it!! We had ribs for lunch.

The restaurant was an outdoor place with a patio where you grill at your table.

Best part- a trampoline for the kids outside! Mark and I got to relax while they jumped. We had goat stew for dinner, but I have no photos. It was awesome though, if in Jaechon, go have it! its called Yomso Chun-gol. Soooo good.

Next day we went up to the meet at the college. I like the signs.This is a *big* meet- all the rhythmic gymnasts from the whole country come. I keep hoping one of these years we won't be the only non-Koreans, but not this year. Jaechon has pretty much no foreigners, its a small rural city, so we are freaks. ;-)

While Rowan competed, Korea's Beijing Olympian SHin Soo-ji was warming up right by where we were sitting.She stopped her warm up (which was so freaky- her legs go to 270 degrees, I swear!!) to watch Rowan's routines, so that was cool. Rowan got her autograph and a photo when she came up after her routine. I wish I had video of Shin Soo-ji's warm up, but I felt like it would be intruding. Suffice it to say, it was amazing to watch her stretch!
Then we put Gryphon and Mark on the train back to Seoul, Gryphon had school Thursday so she wanted to get back. Typhoon Kompatsu ended up canceling that but they weren't real keen on staying to watch the "big girls" compete and Rowan really wanted too so we stayed by ourselves.
More food-! Rowan and I walked around the town a little and had wonderful Kalguksoo, a noodle soup with clams and oysters in it.
Rowan even ate it, which almost never happens...Rowan eating, that is.So you know it was good!Then we went back to the hotel, where Rowan hung out with the other girls and played DS's in their rooms. It was sooo cute, I really wanted to take a photo but again, didn't want to intrude. In the US at meets all the girls would go from room to room and play and stuff, and it was like that, only in Korea! Hard to explain, but I am so happy she has buddies even if she mostly can't talk to them.
Next day we went to watch the "big girls" (Shin Soo-ji and my favorite, Son Eun-jae) with the other girls. In Korea, girls (and women) call women and girls older than them "Ohni". Rowan is the youngest at the gym she trains at, so everyone is "ohni". She can't call them by their names, but to differentiate *which* ohni she means we have our own slang for the ohnis. From left to right they are Tall Ohni, Jiwon Ohni (we know her name, but she is a year older than Rowan so she can't use it), Rowan, English Ohni (speaks some English).They are all watching Big Ohni (the oldest girl at the gym) compete. Not pictured is Muscle Ohni (has a 12 pack for abs, its wild), and Pretty face Ohni.

A very fun trip and again, such a neat experience to do rhythmic over here in Korea. Its opened a whole new side of Korea that we would never see otherwise. Some days- I wish we'd not ever seen it, I'll be honest. It does get hard, the cultural difference is vast and the problem is that the coaches don't even know HOW vast. But then days like this, its wonderful. Here's to more of the wonderful days!