Bear Bites Bere... Saturday, May 14

I got bit by a bear, no lie, and here's proof...
Despite the "Keep your hands out" warning signs and the "Do not touch the bears" signs plastered over the cage, I stuck my hand in. I stuck my hand into the cage and instantly the baby bear was drawn to my hand like it was a delish fish. I should note here that I did so only after Snickers did it and he did it not once, not twice, but three times.
And considering this particular cub was only a month old, I thought "What's the worst that could happen?!" His teeth were tiny and were few but boy were they sharp... yikes. I think I was more shocked of just how sharp as opposed to the pain. Needless to say, Snickers laughed at me and now my line "I got bit by a bear" is sure to beat any story my coworkers can dig up... hahaha.

But let me backtrack for a bit here; tell you how exactly I found myself with my hand in a bear's mouth...

As you know, the other day a surprise wedding ceremony was held for Snickers and I, well today I scored yet another surprise when Snickers rolled over and told me he had taken today off.

"We're going on a mini honeymoon" he told me, "and it's a beautiful place that is a mix of a favorite place of yours plus luxury and exoticness!" And it was exactly like he had said it'd be. He took me to Bear Tree, a tucked-away gem of a place here in Cheonan that I had never heard of.
From my understanding of the story, the large land use to be owned by a wealthy family here in Cheonan and one day a friend of the family gave them a live baby bear. With time the bear got bigger, obviously, so their home turned into a kind of mini bear zoo.


But they kept the bear private until their late anniversary -- I think it was their 40th or 45th -- when they finally finished creating this bear zoo and opened it to the public. They no longer live there and now their once occupied property is occupied by about 80 bears and various massive gardens for whom spectators come daily to see.

The grounds were stunning and I'm a huge fan of zoos so it was both exotic and luxurious as Snickers had mentioned earlier. I felt sorry for the bears though -- as I do for other animals at the zoo -- so many of them kept in such a confined area but I always enjoy seeing them and watching how they interact with each other and the spectators. It's a love/hate relationship I have for zoos. But anyways, I must admit it was a pretty cool place -- someone's house and property turned into one massive bear zoo.
We joked about today's day date being a mini honeymoon which was very fitting for Thursday's wedding with my mini-Korean daycare kids, but the truth of the matter is that today we were celebrating something very special.

We were celebrating our 2 year first kiss.

Yup, two years ago Snickers and I first kissed so today while we were at the bear park we totally took a walk down memory lane chatting and giggling over the whole turn of events that occured from this very day two years ago.

The bear park turned out to be quite a perfect day date spot and may very well go down in my books as one of my favourite places in Korea. We ended our little trip to the bear park by giving each other one massive bear hug... and a bear hug to the biggest teddy bear I've ever seen!!!
And with all these bears around us we just had to take one home. Snickers was certain he could smuggle the little finger-biting one in his jacket but ended up agreeing to simply buy a stuffed bear. We bought two moon bears -- a type of bear found here in Korea. Soon these two little bears will be making an international journey over to Canada where they'll be greeted by two overly smiley young girls -- my oldest brother's two daughters. In a couple of week's my two little nieces are expecting a little brother or sister so Snickers and I thought we'd send them some love from Korea and a little gift to congrats them on the new addition to the family.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
What's special about today to you?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Love is like an earthquake-unpredictable, a little scary, but when the hard part is over you realize how lucky you truly are.
-- Author Unknown