Four Seasons Gangneung

... goodyness! Obviously as this is very strenuous, we left and ventured into the cold air to find the all important cupcake shop which is a girls dream!!! Against the black backdrop of the evening, it was beautifully colourful, decorated and you can smell the chocolate and sweetness :) Ended up having just two (and attempted to avoid the 'nutritional' breakdown of each cookie) but this was good enough for me!
Final stop of our evening was yet more ...

... bus from there. It took about half an hour to get there from Mukho, passing some forested hills and small villages. It was my first real look at the Korean countryside, and I was a little more impressed with what I saw here than on the train south to Pohang.

Luck was on my side in Gangneung, and there was a direct bus leaving for Suwon just ten minutes after I arrived. The girls helped me get a ticket and then ...

Na n uur en n half se busrit vanaf Wonju laai ek ons fietsies uit die bus by ganeung central bus terminal. Dis eenvoudig, ek vou die twee fietsies oop en ons begin trap nadat ek uitgevis het watterkant die strand toe le. teen n steilopdraende ,nadat n ou man met Willemien geraas het oor sy n steegie wat teen die berg oploop afneem besluit ons op n taxi.

Die huurmotor laai ons by die plaaslike meer af.Dis waarskynlik n opgedamde lagune (lagoon ...

... about 10 different classes, where the lesson plans, and even the subject material, are all mine. It's up to me to get a class of shy, overworked, Korean girls to speak as much English as possible in just 1-2 hours a week.

The OTHER job is at an elementary school. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I help teach 1st and 2nd graders learn English. I have way more help with this. Not only do I have a Korean co-teacher who speaks English, I also have the homeroom ...

After Sokcho and Seoraksan National Park, we went a bit further South to an area called Gangneung to a beach called Gyeongpoe. We stayed in a cruise ship that was built on land, serving as a hotel. It was quite expensive. We opted for a traditional Korean room for the experience. That means an ondol instead of a western bed. An ondol is a mat on the floor. Anyways, after a day of hiking, we realised that ...

Korea, to sum up briefly... Oct. 31 - After finishing grad school (yay!!), we headed to Seoul to celebrate. Though some think it was due to being Halloween, I like to think that everyone around decided to dress up for my graduation and party! My good friends here dressed up and partied hard and we had a great time celebrating and enjoying our fill of good coffee, Pakistani and Brazilian food, and late night ...

Later than planned, as always. I wanted to tell the story of Sokcho and Seorak National Park over the long weekend, but now my memory is slightly fuzzy as it is already Wednesday and we got BEVVED last night... But I will try my best. Sokcho is a port city on the east coast which is where we headed for BEACH and MOUNTAINS. Woop! Unfortunately the weather was absolutely horrible on Friday, Korea National Day, celebrating 60 years of the Japanese ...

Native English Speaking Teachers (as we're called) were invited to this festival about 3 hours drive east of Seoul for a cultural experience. By bus it was 4.5 hours though! This fesitval actually takes place over a month with various events tied to traditional relious activities to promote a good harvest. Me and the other teachers went the Korean holiday weekend of Fri Jun 6th - Sun Jun 8th (several groups ...

I didn't melt! Although it was close. I did wake up a couple times in the middle of the night roasting, so I sat on the window sill until I was good and numb, so I could gently thaw as I fell asleep. The "mats" that they had for us to lay on were only 60 cm long, the distance from my waist to my neck, so my legs were cooking. Anyway, today was amazing! The day started with JeongBin taking me to the fish market right on the shore so I could see ...

... things get hot! We've all had moments here where we forgot to turn them off, and as we step into our apartment, we are hopping across the floors trying to make it to the bed in as few steps as possible. Two of my co-workers don't have driers, only washers, so when the cycle is finished, they just crank up the floor, lay the clothes down, and after flipping them like burgers every so often, they are completely dry. We'll see what happens!