Fall adventures!

I cannot believe how fast we flew through October, Halloween has passed, Thanksgiving is in about a week and after that... Christmas!!!  It was a pretty busy month on the school side of life.  We have been taking advantage of our weekends to "relax" a bit and explore! Here are some of the things we have been up to the past few weeks... Don't the the sunny warm looking weather fool you! These pictures are from the beginning of October and the weather was amazing. Now Fall is wrapping up and Winter is just around the corner.

Hwaseong Fortress
Suwon Fortress is located South of Jukjeon. It was about an hour bus/subway/bus ride from where we live. The fortress wall stretch around about 7 miles of the city. You could easily spend the whole day here. We started at the west gate and walk all the way around until we found ourselves back at the west gate as that was the only way we knew how to get ourselves back home again! It was a beautiful walk and there were many things to see along the way. Bonus! We went around Chuseok holiday so there was a parade going on to celebrate and we were able to see the reenactment of the changing of the guards.

Suwon City from the top of the Fortress

Exaggerated Exhaustion 

The Seojandae on the summit of the fortress

Suwon City

Hyowon's Bell - Three Rings for 1,000 won.  1 for gratitude for the love of ones parents, 1 for hope and happiness in ones family and 1 for prayer for self improvement.

Paldalmun Gate

Street Market inside the fortress walls

Beautiful Park near the fortress walls

more stairs....

Fancy Ajumma Trolley Bag

More street market

The selfie pole.... Very popular in Korea right now

How to get there -
Seoul Subway (line 1) Bundang or (Yellow Line) to Suwon Stop. Cross the street and take any of the following buses 2, 7, 7-2, 8, or 13.  It was about a 15+ min ride from the station and you will see the fortress on the right indicating that its time to get off the bus. You will end up at the West Gate (Hwaseomun) taking this route.


Samsung Thunders
We were lucky enough to be invited to our first professional sports game in Korea with our Head Teacher Ms. Kristina and her friend Julie. She has a friend who is one of the players on the team (an SPU grad) so it was fun to cheer him on! The Fans had a lot of energy and there were many prizes that were handed out ranging from Pizza - which we got :)  to Samsung Galaxy phones - which we did not get :(  but it was a fun afternoon none the least!

Global Fest in Itaewon

This was a food fest and then some. For those back home, think of taste of Seattle but with way more people in a smaller space. The main street in Itaewon was closed for the day, International restaurants set up their tents and sampled food and beverages (between $1-5 per taste/dish/drink) We had a goal to try 5 new foods from 5 countries. We were successful and the food was pretty good. In addition to food there was shopping, a parade and a DJ to keep us entertained. Thanks to Ms. Kristina and Ms. Garies for the great afternoon!

Hope you enjoyed!

- The Rudes