Garden of the Morning Calm...

Fall in Korea can be beautiful but nature can sometimes be elusive to find at times.
Thankfully there are places like the Garden of the Morning Calm to find an oasis of nature.
The area was fairly quiet in the misty morning. Some colors bring back the memories of home in the early mornings, some are uniquely Korean. What else can I expect. It still confounds me how this country has such a love for rapid technological development and still desire the beauty and peace of nature.

 About two hours from Suwon we enter the magical area. So many photo opportunities but just stepping on dirt trails in the shade of pines between hillsides did give me a sense of great peace and a connection to home. Maybe the foliage is a little different, but it's home in a sense. The are maps and trails are fairly straight forward. My friends and I chose the trail marked "Best Way." Seemed like the right way to go for our first trip to the area.

 The park is open year round with different things going on. I think it might be a good idea to try and see the area for more than one season. This is so beautiful that with the Bonsai Garden, Sunken Garden, and a several stream beds with and without water at the moment.

This is Chrysanthemum time and throughout the park you see several tending to the beauty of the garden. Even with so many coming around to look at the beauty of the flowers and foliage, sometimes I see the most beauty in just the day to day life folks have. What a wonderful job really. I want that job in a way.





This was the Pagoda Garden. At first glance it is just a dry rock bed. But when you take an extra few minutes and really look, the entire creek bed is full of stacked rock pagodas. Did I jump in on this of course! But not before I grabbed a quick picture of two locals doing the same thing. It is now one of my favorites because it is very hard to catch photos like this. So you see the beauty, simplicity, and majesty in the pictures above. No blog is complete right now without the Korean observations however.

So as you can see there are things I don't understand. Most of my hometown friends know my love for hats. But even I put the mustache hat down. Warm, for sure. But really Korea. I shook my head at it only to see it last weekend on a much older gentlemen as we walked through Starbucks. Maybe I missed my chance. The second sign is just over a little creek that might be 2 or 3 foot if you fell. I am pretty sure it is warning against falling but to me the picture makes me think maybe we are supposed to push people off really hard. I resisted the urge. The final picture is of the famous corn-po-hotdog. Corn dog with french fries fried together in a giant coagulation of insanity. There was a huge line for these and in true risk taker fashion, Sarah and I went after it. The trouble is in the equality of corn batter, fries, and hotdog. The hotdog is barely noticed in the double batter of the food on a stick. Still...I think that maybe, just maybe, this has great potential. 

Still when it is all said and done the beauty of any GSIS field trip or adventure comes down to the people you spend your time with.
Coming to any new country, requires you to make new decisions about how far you are willing to step out of your box to see what your new world has to offer.
It is also about creating many new friendships with people that you would otherwise never have a chance or reason of meeting. You learn to rely on them. You care for them deeply. You see each other through times when things are hard and in simple celebrations of life. It is always amazing how we as humans can change. Not just because we have to, but we choose to.

To some, three years may seem like a very long time. I have learned that three years really isn't more than a blink of an eye anymore.
What is my great hope is as many of us come to the end of one chapter in Korea and move on to other adventures, these friendships, these memories will always be a part of us. They have shaped and defined us in ways many others may never relate to.
So to Sarah and Amy and to all my family and friends I have met in the past three years, I say thank you. I am such a different person now for knowing you. Oh the stories we could tell.....