Daegu's Social Media Foreign Press

I've been holding out on some good news until I could update the post with pictures, but now I am totally ready to say that... 

I have been selected to work with Daegu's Social Media Citizen and Foreign Press!

The position is through Daegu's Metropolitan Government, and I am very excited to be involved. This is the press release from their posting, found here. An added bonus? My best friend, Rui, was selected as well!  

On Saturday, they invited us to Daegu's City Hall for a Welcoming Ceremony. Most of it was in Korean, luckily they had a translator available for Asif, the other foreigner, and I.  

They presented us with a letter of commission, stating what we were selected to do and signed by the mayor of Daegu. Here is Rui accepting his!

Just like graduation day, I am trying to multi-task - shake hands and accept the letter at the same time. Only this is Korea, so you add a little bow in on top of everything. It went more smoothly than I expected! Haha.

Then we watched a video about Daegu's goals and progress thus far. It was interesting to hear about the ways Daegu was setting itself apart as a global city, as I had seen many of the featured events already, such as the International Opera Festival and International Body Painting Festival. It also talked about the transportation hub in Daegu, and the ease of access around the country - which I had realized long ago, it was one of the primary reasons I decided to more to Daegu all those months ago - February 2010! I was sad to see the IAAF games featured, since my visit to the US made the timing of the games impossible for me to really appreciate fully! Overall it made me excited for the next year of events.

This is the translator going over key points with Asif. 

Links to the pages I will be working with: Facebook and Blogspot

This is the man who runs a company contracted by Daegu to run their social media currently. I wish I could have actually had his speech translated word-for-word, as I think it would have been very enlightening. 

Everyone around the desk, there were an array of cameras at this event!

Outside of City Hall, Rui and I posed for a quick picture. 

I will be sure to update my blog when my posts are featured on Global Daegu's Blog and Facebook page. Looking forward to a new channel to inform other foreigners about all Daegu has to offer!

For more pictures of the Ceremony, check out this site: link.

Manbulsa Temple

Chevelle and I made a day trip to Yeongcheon to check out Manbulsa. From Dong Daegu Station, it should only be a 35 minute train ride each way. The stop is on the slow train line on the way to Gyeongju.Of course, we had serious train issues and it took about two hours each way, BUT, hopefully you will be better at the train lines than we were! 

 It is a relatively new temple, and the style is a lot more gaudy than most I have seen in Korea. The notable draw was a huge golden Buddha and golden pagodas. You can read more about the history and details at Dale's Korean Temple Adventure blog, found here: link.

From the station, we grabbed a taxi for around 15,000 won each way. The ride was quick and they knew exactly where we were headed. 

For those not living in Korea, "san" means mountain, and "sa" means temple. Therefore, Manbulsa means  Manbul Temple, and Manbulsan means Manbul Mountain. I suspect that they refer to it as Manbulsan on the signs because the temple is on the mountain of the same name. 

  

We went the weekend of Children's Day, and they were changing the thousands of red bandanas. 

So many tiny little Buddhas. 

Chevelle posing, this should show you some scale!

The giant gold Buddha is up a little hill, but nothing strenuous or requiring hiking boots.

This Buddha is huge. It reminded me of the one I saw in Songnisan National Park (link).

There were rows of these smaller - slightly less than "life-sized" - golden Buddhas all around the temple. 

The little trail.

Decorations up for Buddha's birthday possibly? It is on May 28.

Namhae

Mike and I took a daytrip to beautiful Namhae a few weeks ago. There are regular buses running from Jinju to Namhae. Once there we grabbed a cab and headed towards the coast, stopping our driver to let us off near the water. 

These really reminded me of the women in Tongyeong.

Mike and I

American Village! 

America's ambassador, Mickey Mouse. 

The Statue of Liberty and houses with more western style architecture. 

Five minutes of hiking, fifteen minutes of walking up a paved road led us to...

A little temple! 

I love the cherry blossoms in season all over Korea. 

I love that many temples in Korea are actually occupied by residents.