Rice Paddies/ Temple Hike part 1

After church last Sunday, one of the professors (an American linguist teaching English) here at the university had a few of us over for lunch (that's him in the front of the line of the first picture). I do want to say that one of the things I have appreciated the most about being here is having the chance to worship with so many people from so many different countries. But that's probably a whole other post. Anyway, after lunch we decided to hike to a small Buddhist temple behind the school. Someone said that it was mostly road, so I didn't change my clothes -- I was just wearing my Sunday dress and my Chacos. It had just rained, so things were pretty muddy, but I didn't think it would be too bad.

The start of the trail, a little (6 inch wide) ridge between fields.

I tripped and fell after taking this self picture.

But then the trail became noticeably overgrown.

And then steep. Poor Lisa (in front of the camera) was wearing flip flop shower shoes.

Then we got to the top of the ridge, where we saw some old gravestones.

More on this hike later. I just wanted to post a few pictures.
To answer Courtney's question about more food description... I can say that Korean food is almost never mushy or soft. Except for greens, everything has a little bit of a crunch. It has lots of salt, garlic, and loads of vinegar. Chilies are in a lot of the foods. Almost nothing is oily. There are not many sweet flavors, either. Occasionally, a meat will have a honey or rice vinegar type sweetness to it, but that's really it.
I am enjoying it a lot, and there have only been a few nights when I thought, "well, I guess I'll just go to bed hungry," but even on those nights, we manage to scrounge up some food.
Tonight most of the teachers are going to go eat at a Western style restaurant downtown (the camp is paying. I probably wouldn't seek that out normally, though after two weeks, I don't feel guilty about maybe wanting a hamburger. Or a salad.) and then we're going to watch some fireworks from the beach. I'll let you know how that goes.