The Hidden Valley Ranch

So this post is actually about a valley next to my town, not the delicious salad dressing. Did I get anyone there? Ha. Lame.

One of the best things about living in my town is that we have mountains (actually more like hills) to the north, and there is a really beautiful valley in those mountains. I had found this valley on a route from my apartment a while ago and was planning to post about it, but two weekends ago my friend Daniel showed me more of the valley near his apartment. It's actually much bigger and better than I though.

I'll just get to the pictures since there's not much more to the story than that we walked around for a while.

On the way there were a few huge praying mantis' in the road, which are common in Korea. These are some of the coolest looking bugs I have ever seen, and this one allowed me to get nice and close for a photo.

There was also this junkyard on the way with this fence around it and some of the biggest spiders I have ever seen. Look a the markings on that guy. Does anybody know what type of spider this is?

This is a tunnel where we walk under a highway to get to the valley. The guy is Daniel.

This is basically what the valley looked like. Just farm after farm in this expansive, beautiful land.

Here is some kind of a lake in the valley. The tiny white objects are people.

This is just a photo I liked with some rice paddies in it.

So this is a giant rock face at the top of a hill. If you look closely, there is a roofline down and to the left from it just a little ways. My friend Daniel went up there a week later, and it turns out that it's actually a Buddhist temple up there. When he went there was a lady there and she served him some tea. I really want to go sometime.

Having something like this valley makes me glad to live in a town with at least a hint of easily accessible natural landscape to explore. I'll post again when I make it up to the temple.

A Bug and a Bum

I was walking into a park on Monday where I like to sit and read, and I witnessed a few interesting occurrences. This park, located near city hall, feels at least slightly secluded from the city thanks to a nice cover of trees.

First, when I walked in I heard this very loud sound that was like a 'WEEEE WEEEE WEEEE WAAAAAAAAA' with the 'WAAAAAAA' decreasing in frequency. It took me a few seconds to realize that these were bugs making this sound. I looked around for bugs, well, mostly listened around, and spotted one on a light post. I watched it as it made this 'weeeee' noise, incredibly loud, then flew away.

The bugs look to be about 1.5 to 2" long. I did manage to snap a few pictures:

Does anyone know what these creatures are? They just make this incredibly loud sound that I can sometimes hear in the morning outside my window.

I should mention, I also caught another interesting sight. I found a man passed out on a park bench with a giant bottle of soju next to him. It was noon, mind you. Actually, this isn't completely uncommon.