A great walk!

Yesterday Jessie and I took a long walk. Now that the weather is nice, but before it gets super hot in the summer, it is the ideal time to get out and about and do some exploring.
Yesterday we took the least popular of the five streets that meet in the center of town and went across the highway towards the mountains, and did a little tour of the area near where Robert and his wife live. It is gorgeous out there! Even on a relatively dreary day with clouds and fog about, it was a great walk. The far side of town has a different view of the mountains than we do, one that is much more rocky and less forested. Also, it appears to be where the money lives, as some of the houses out there are just obscenely large by Korean standards. Basically, they are typical-sized Canadian houses!
There was a highway that we walked on, with lots of windy little roads that you could wander down and get lost. Also, lots of very intimidating loose dogs. Unfortunately, there were many many more dogs who were tied up, on three foot lengths on a driveway, that unfortunately appeared to be their usual situation. It's pretty sad, beautiful dogs tied up so tightly. In Canada, I'm pretty sure that the Korean dog situation would make for a much busier humane society.
Here are some pictures from the walk:

This is one of the branching roads from where we were walking. Up ahead are tiny farmhouses with tiny little plots of land that are cultivated right up to the road. This road parted in to three, each only one car wide, which I'm sure makes for some interesting situations, as most people in this area seemed to drive trucks.

This was one of the biggest houses we saw. Most Korean houses are bungalows that I have seen, and tend to get longer rather than deeper or higher when they get bigger. Most of the small roads are lined with walls like this, but they hay was a new touch. You can see the mountains in behind. The narrow roads with farms right beside reminded me of France and Jessie of Argentina.

If you are reading this, odds are that in the past you have read about our restaurant troubles in Yeongam. Well, we finally got out for some barbecue on the way home. You can see the little portable grill on the right, as well as all of the side dishes that we get brought, on the house, of course. There's more of a meal in side dishes than in the main course! Of course, this restaurant visit was not without troubles. We think they were out of soup (we ordered meat soup and barbecue), and suggested instead we get two orders of barbecue, but we aren't sure, because we just said "Nay" (confusingly, yes) until she brought us food, because we didn't understand.

Now, here's some pictures from our GIC trip last Saturday:

For those of you who though I was exaggerating, here is the assembly line at the wine factory. Yeah, I wasn't exaggerating at all, you can see that now. TRADITIONAL!

This is the temple at Jiri mountain, currently over-run with foreigners. In the foreground is the largest stone lamp in the world. It's 6 meters tall. OOh... Ahhh. In the building in the background are gold Buddhas, that are about the same height. OOh... Ahhh.

Here's Jessie in front of huge statues of what appear to be Buddhist rock stars. Why? No one knows for sure. Here's the bell at Jiri Mountain. There's nothing for scale, but take my word for it, the bell is about my height.

And the newest addition to the apartment:
This wonderful little table is our latest dumpster salvage. It's a little scratched, but it cleaned up really nicely. On top, some roses, the middle, our Celadon vase that was a gift from James Park, and on the bottom, a plat Jessie bought that unfortunately, is not faring too well.