GOODBYE DONGHAE

Looking at this photo you can tell there are 80 of us, but it doesn't usually feel like that's so.

LIVING HISTORY

I'm still catching up on all the beautiful photos from our Donghae weekend. When we left Donghae to drive back to Jungwon we took a scenic route stopping at two famous traditional Korean houses that are now museums. We got to see the layout of a courtyard style house, see the kitchen with its giant rice pots. I'm afraid I would've been more interested if I wasn't quite so tired and sunburnt at the time. Mostly I remember everything was much smaller, the doors, the rooms, the general space, than we expect today.

The second house had these wonderful 'moving paintings' based on the ancient nature paintings in the museum collection.

My poor picture does not do justice to the sheer quantity and elegance of this lotus pond.

TEMPLE ART

Ceiling of a gazebo on the path to a Buddhist temple outside of Donghae.

This beautiful style of painting in bright colors is a traditional Korean art form.

DONGHAE BEACH

Note the people/inner tubes crashing onto the beach.

I spent literally all of Saturday at the beach. I even ate lunch on the sand. Who could leave?

DONGHAE EXCURSION

Donghae Beach (5 min from our hotel.)

Last weekend we traveled to Donghae on the eastern coast of Korea for a weekend of beaches, beer and Buddhist temples. Mrs. Shim who runs Fulbright in South Korea told us expressly not to work at all while in Donghae. Instead we spent three sunny days hiking, visiting temples, swimming in the ocean, setting off fireworks on the beach, and eating pat bingsu. It was lazy. It was wonderful. And it left me sunburned and reeling at the pace of this last week. Still 100% worth it. I had forgotten that there are oceans outside of San Francisco and they are sunny and they are warm. The beach at Donghae has a strong surf so swimming is only allowed in a small area. On the other hand this meant the beach was awesome for body surfing and tube floating.