last last weekend

So, finally, here is the update about my mini-vacation to Mt. Sorak with the rest of the teachers last weekend. Like I said before, it was a blast and it was totally what I needed right now since it's been a while since I had any kind of relaxing vacation.

So last Saturday me andall the other teachers from Cardiff in addition to our director piled into one of the Cardiff buses and headed out to the east coast of South Korea where we were staying just below Mt. Sorak and just next to the beach. The trip out there was fun, minus the nausiating Korean music which was played multiple times over along the way (think Michael Bolton, only Korean...ick). Once we got there we unloaded our stuff and headed to the nearby water park for some tidal wave, water slide and hot springs fun. I must say my favorite part of the park was the hot springs just cause there were so many different kinds to choose from. My favorite was the neon green colored one which was actually infused with lemon and jasmine.

After the waterpark we came back to the condo and some of us rested while others played card games for a bit. We then went out to eat to this place known for its samgyetang (Korean ginseng chicken) which was excellent. After dinner we came back and played several drinking games of Mafia, which is this who-dun-it type of guessing game. Once we finished with that, we went to a norae-bang (karaoke room), though I didn't get to sing cause my voice was still completely hoarse from being sick.

The next day we went out for lunch to this seafood place along the shore and then we headed to beach after that. All of us decided to take a chartered speed boat ride around the shore which was absolutely crazy but totally fun! The boat seemed on the verge of tipping over several times, but I guess the guy driving knew what he was doing cause we never did. We spent the next hour or so just playing around in the waves and seeing who could stand up the longest without moving on falling over. It was fun goofing around like that with all the other teachers. After the beach, we decided to spend the rest pf our time hiking around the nearby mountain range. First, we took a cable car up to the top and then we came back down and hiked up to a nearby waterfall. By that time it was pretty late so we packed up our stuff and headed back to Seoul. Traffic on the way back was a complete nightmare, and what only had originally been a four hour car ride there took at least seven hours coming home. We didn't get back to school until about 11:30pm.

All in all, it was definitely a fun weekend and I really got to know a lot of the other teachers that I wouldn't otherwise have much chance to talk to on a daily basis since they work upstairs. I'm really glad the director decided to take us on this trip though...she's so awesome!

In other news Adam and I are having a great time here so far. I took him around to a million different places yeaterday though for the rest of the week he'll have to wander around on his own since I teach during the day. We'll continue to meet up in the evenings though, and I think tomorrow night we're going to go out for some dak kalbi which is marinated grilled chicken that you grill yourself at the table. I've never had it before so it should be interesting trying to figure out what we're supposed to do. Hopefully we won't muck it up too much.

Anyway, that's all for now. And here's some pics...

all of us in front of Waterpia (the waterpark)

at dinner

playing cards

at the norae-bang

braving the waves

beautiful Mt. Sorak

the entrance to the Buddhist temple at the foot of Mt. Sorak

the obligatory statue of Buddha

the view from the top of the cable car station

taking a break on the way to the waterfall

the director is the one in the red hat...like I said, she's cool

the waterfall