Monday, April 17, 2006

Well, I had a pretty good weekend.
Saturday I went to Costco with my Korean friend, Jay. She was one of the Korean English teachers that I worked with the last time I was here. She has a membership for Costco. Yay!!! REAL cheese (as opposed to the processed cheese that is pretty much all you can find in Korea), Cheerios, Pizza Bagel Bites, seedless green grapes, etc... all things that are hard to find elsewhere in Korea.
Then we had a nice dinner at the Outback Steakhouse... they are everywhere in Korea.

Today I got up nice and early. I went on an Adventure Korea (http://www.adventurekorea.com/) wilderness hiking trip with Dearbhla (from Ireland). It was a 2.5 hour bus ride to our destination. We went to Balgyosan (san is mountain in Korean) in Gangwon province and did a bit of mountain climbing (998m). There are two very beautiful waterfalls along the way. We basically followed the stream.
I can tell you... I am extremely unfit right now, after sitting around home for a few months doing nothing. I am hurting now... all of me. I guess everyone is to some extent. At least I wasn't the last one to the top. :)
On the way back down (after we passed all of the steeper parts) we did a wild ginseng search (fake ginseng plants hidden or "planted" for us to find) I spotted two of the 4 as soon as we stopped. I only claimed the first one because I didn't want to be selfish (there were only 4 to find and a whole group of us). For finding the fake one, I got a real wild ginseng... worth around $100!!! Yay. Then we headed to the bus to go to our BBQ location that was prepared for us... basically we stood around the tables, or bbq and picked at what ever there was with our chopsticks. We all wandered from table to bbq to other bbq, etc.
After eating, we made a little stone pagoda. Every stone you put on, you are supposed to make a wish.
Well, I am beat... I need to get a good sleep tonight if I am actually going be able to stand tomorrow.

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