Holiday Inn Alpensia Pyeongcha Pyeongchang

... and my favouritest moment of the day was Diana saying "Hey look, Toronto is only 553 miles away" ...? from South Korea, REALLY?! hehehehe but actually it was a sign indicating that Toronto's tower is 553 METERS high!! Funny!
So we skipped straight past the science area and the skyjump platform to the Sky Lounge cocktail bar which started with an innocent (expensive) 5000Won coffee and an icecream and fruit platter for me and turned into ...

... went straight to a local restaurant where Andrew had been invited to a private birthday party. He had eaten there with friends from taekwondo the night before, got to know the owners when there was a lock-in, and managed to get us all invited to the owner's son's 19th birthday dinner. It was a small do: a meal with the family, us 3 EPIK teachers, and Andrew's friends from taekwondo, who are both in the military. It was great fun, lots of soju and beer and laughter. One ...

... first trip there I wasn't sure how much to spend so I called my friend, Shin, who is one of the secretaries and who I keep accidentally referring to as 'my secretary' rather than 'the secretary at my school', for advice. She told me to take a photo of the coat I liked, just because she was interested. So I sent her a photo of the coat that I'd ordered for the following weekend. On the Monday morning she came to say: 'I don't like'. Ha! I love people's honesty here! Sunny said I ...

... friends living all over Gangwon-do because I wouldn't be hanging out with my Korean friends at the weekends anyway!

I have been very lucky with my co-teachers. They are all fantastic people, and Sunny, Mrs Shin the secretary, and Su Jin the special needs teacher and my neighbour, in particular have all made me feel extremely welcome and they are true friends. I have got to know them well thanks to our weekly language exchange where we all speak English until someone ...

... a pretty unique experience. I'd spent a lot of time in temples in Cambodia, but this was a little different. It not only cleared my mind and prepared me for the hike, but also served as a taster for what the 'temple stay' program in Korea was all about, which was something Ania and I wanted to do.

Choe Hong Chael stayed with me for about 20 minutes as we passed a rushing rock strewn river and a kaleidoscope of colours before reaching Seryeom Pokpo, a ...

... I was also slightly confused, apparently it’s not really done for women to drink with men, and so at dinner I took the quarter shot poured by the principal and sipped it, as we had been told to do on the bus over here by Alex-the-*******-Wonju-coordinator-male -chauvinist... I think the female teachers all had a shot each because we did ‘konbei’, but they didn’t accept any top-ups so I decided not to either. I couldn’t help feeling I might have offended ...

... stoepie oop.

Ons cupachinos kom. Daar is hartjie gemaak met die wit room op die koffie kleur skuim in die bruin koppies. Ons kry ook elk n koekie verniet, "service" soos die Koreane dit noem as jy ietse meer kry as waarvoor jy betaal het.

Later die middag trap ons die fietse verder langs die lang sbree strand af. Dis nou wat mens lekker noem dink ek in my stillegheid. Later ry ons dorp uit op die sypaadjie van 'n stil straat wat tussen bos ...

... other palace pictures on have on this blog. The next day we visited a couple of historic sites.  One of them was a rock formation.  There is a legend of a young maiden who when getting a drink of water from a bucket, sees the sun in the bucket.  She tries to scoop it out unsuccessfully.  For some reason (sorry, I don't remember the whole story), she becomes pregnant.  Since she is not married, her and ...

... out how much things would cost, I became aware of another cultural difference. I found some hotels online that were $70 a night. I thought this was awesome, especially split between three people. He, however, thought it was outrageous. He explained that if we stayed in a motel, it would only be about $30, or $10 a piece. He said "no fancy room, but we only sleeping, i think no problem." Oh, ok. I get that. So I asked it it was just ...

... the estuary. I followed, after judging that he'd make it. Pete jumped in right behind me, the only one without a board, but he had swim-fins. Half-way across, I guess one of Pete's fins came off, and in that second that he grabbed it and put it back on, he was gone. I was almost to the other side, and saw him just being taken out like a bobber. Swooosh, and he was in the surf, still moving quickly out. I heard him yelling something. Alright, I ...