So over the long weekend a group of us decided to venture to the East side of korea to the Seoraksan Mountain and visit nearby Sockho Chitty (City) to have a dip in the East/Japanese Sea. Koreans call it the East Sea while a lot of other countries call it the Japanese Sea , if you remember the Korean War and the invasion of Japan into Korea for a long ass time, Koreans are not too too happy with Japan, this is why they are adamant about it being the EAST SEA.

Of course since WE planned this trip, once we got to Seoul Friday night we packed it in early since we had to wake up at 6am to get our 7 am bus, we didnt buy tickets before hand, we just assumed we would get a seat. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH NO! My father told me never to assume because : it makes an ASS out of U and ME.

So what do we get for making this assumption, not catching the 7 am bus but having to wait for the 1pm. I think this trip is going great already!!!

So we went to a nearby temple of some old Kings that died a long time ago, and got buried in big mounds of  dirt, we were not too thrilled to be seeing dirt with old people in them right then.

Trees around the old dead kings.

All in all the temple was nice,but we slightly annoyed that we had to wait that long to catch our bus to start our trip.

Some stone sculptures of goats around one of the burial sites. Beats me why you would want to be guarded by goats for eternity, I would want bears and lions and tigers......something more viscous than a goat

Stone guy giving us the cold shoulder

These may be horses, mules or asses, not sure, I actually just wanted to say asses, now I did, TWICE!!!!

So we get our 1pm bus, and since the day was off to a wonderful start it seems that it should keep going that way right? Of Course because thats just our luck.The bus takes 6 hours to get there, and we are all tired, cranky, sweaty and just want to get to our place. So when we arrive we jet to the beach and crack some brews open and let the party begin. My buddies Rylan and Will enjoying their victory drinks.

The reason why we came all this way was to hike up Seoraksan mountain, we were told it has amazing views and great hikes. You be the judge from the following pictures.

Rylan, Will, Ara and myself with some buddah in the background.

Make sure to stretch it out, dont wan to pull a hammie half up the mountain.

Either breathing in the fresh mountain air, or "adding" to it with my own fragrance, hehehe

These guys were so excited we finally ended up coming to the mountain,

Getting a little sassy with golden buddah

Rylan doing the "V"  sign. Tons of Koreans do this in pictures, its actually because it stands for Victory, as in when Korea got its independence back from Japan, so since the 50s its been ingrained in their minds to keep the tradition alive

Wait wait wait

We are going up there?????

Some writing on the walls of some rocks

I have been here for about 6 months, so of course I am fluent in Korean and it states : "Prease, no pictures of locks"

Umm yea I guess we are going all the way up there

By a large rock with writing on it

Here it says " Prease, for the Rove of God, dont stand next to lock and take picta"

So after a million or so steps, yes I counted, we got to the top of the summit and this is a small town that we could see.

More summit pictures

Okay Ready! One.....Two.....click!
- Wait you didnt say three!

Wow what a bad smile

Rylan cheesing

Will and Ara to the other side of the summit

What I was looking at coming down the mountain, the back of Rylans head

Took about 45 mins to come up these stairs, and only 10 to go down, it was pretty rough going up.

At the base of the rock, still have 3 kilometers to go till we are at the base of the mountain

Korean rock climbers

Another trail that lead to a water fall

This trail was a lot easier

At the water fall

Okay so I was expecting something a little more, but oh well

Dried up river bed, that we decided to go into and cool off for a bit

"river"

The new gang that I hiked down from the waterfall from

We got yelled at for being in the "river" more like big puddles

Later that night after a nice shower and some korean BBQ

And the sparklers come out

That was the weekend in a nutshell. Monday we had off and were going to hike some more but it was rainy and overcast, so we headed home early. All in all Sundays hike made up for all the headache that the trip was. I hope this post wasnt too lengthy and shows you some of the natural beauty of Korea!

A really quick one before I have to teach. But on those days where the boss is riding you hard, the phone never stops ringing, customers seem to be pissy-er than ever, just remember :

Korea has it right!

 Today is a double post because you just never know what you are getting yourself into when it comes to kids. After lunch I was hanging around my room, and hearing all the kids playing and running around in the hallways, when it got silent for a bit, which is never a good thing. There was a little piter-pater coming from next door. Which is what I thought was the First and Second Grade room. It is clearly not. Instead it was:

THE ONE AND ONLY MIDANG ELEMENTARY 1st/2nd GRADE GIRL

SALON

 

 Their test subjects, umm I mean clients where the very unruly kindergartners. Which I was very surprised that it was possible for them to sit still for that long.

 Sophia styling Gloria's hair, with little baby Susan in the same chair.

 Veteran Stylist Juju cutting the worlds fastest man, Joon's hair.

 The Salons owner Julie strangling? I mean embracing Charles.

 Trying to wiggle free.

 Snip snip snip.

 The final product.

 Wait you messed it up Charles, more spit and elbow grease to control the cow lick.

 Shouting at Joon who is running around and causing a scene, disturbing poor Crystal.

 Oh crap they are on to me, the Savagely brute Sophia coming for me to get out. Mean while Little Baby Susan waits for her new up-doo.

Nothing goes better with a new hair cut than a mouth full of juicy caramel candy.

An odd similarity between Little baby Susan and comic book action hero Astro Boy?