“Tomorrow you should bring your hiking shoes.”

Yes, “Tomorrow you should bring your hiking shoes.” I was told this as I left school on Tuesday, for Wednesday because as a school (the staff) we were heading to Hwawangsan Mountain- about an hour outside of Daegu in a town called Changnyeong-gun, for bonding time together over hiking.http://www.san.go.kr/english/info/gyeongsang_hawangsan.jsp I love hiking, and haven’t gotten around to it so far living here so I was very excited. This day ended up being not so warm…actually cold, I of course have been so used to sweating my ass off everyday that I didn’t bring my jacket. So in the 30 minutes I had to spare before we would leave I ran home and got my jacket and returned with a few minutes to spare.

We left at about 1:30…. and got back at 8:30…so tired.

Yun and Jong Mi before boarding the bus.

My Co Teacher and I, Yun. She is so cute : )

The map of the trails. This is where there was a park ranger type person who told us where to go. Yep, he sent us on the advanced hikers trail.

Yun looking at how much we had already climbed up. Then she looks the other way and realizes that we are not close!

We needed a break. 5th grade, my co teacher and the practical course teacher.

Awesome. This part of the trek you had to cover your face and walk through grass that was taller than us.

Group photo! Not everyone, but most of the people who made it to the top. Then we ate ice cream hehe.

I made it : )

The hike itself was somewhat laughable. It wasn’t hiking to me, it was mountain climbing! You needed to hold onto to ropes and would walking on cliffs. There were a few points where I felt really uneasy about the trail and like I might fall down the mountain. At another point we were lost : ( We weren’t sure whether to go left or right so they asked me to use my loud voice to call out to the group that was about 20 minutes in front of us. They didn’t hear us though…Once we met up with everyone at the top of the mountain, naturally, there was an ice cream and coffee vendor. The main teacher who puts these events together bought everyone ice cream. We started our descend. My legs were so tired they were shaking and then OF COURSE…I trip and fall. If they all weren’t already worrying about me for some reason or another NOW they were haha. It was highly embarrassing. At the bottom we ate Bee Bim Bop- yummy. It was good even though for lunch we had bee bim bop as well. I’ll eat it anytime. The van ride home felt long. I wanted to sleep but someone wanted to watch baseball VERY loud on the TV. One of my co teacher gave me a coupon to go to a spa. I thought yes, of course! Then I remembered that they are all nude- I want to go to one of those spas but maybe not the first time with my co teachers? I don’t think we are at the right stage in our relationship to be naked around each other haha. It was such an eventful day!!!

That hike really tested me, it came at a perfect time since Jeff and I have made a plan of attack on how to be healthy. We will be exercising every night together or apart in our apartments. We are also limiting the amount of times that we go out and eat greasy or fried food. Also, no street food : ( I somehow found a way around that! I went out for kimbap with my teacher and Jong Mi and we had ddukbokki- spicy dduk.

Ddukbokki, spicy dduk and usually has fish patty in it as well. So delicious!!!

Work is going well, I only struggle with the 6th graders because their curriculum is inappropriate for them and then they misbehave. I can’t blame them- its so terrible and boring. I’m tired of listening and repeating and seeing the end result that they aren’t learning anything. Its hard to put a lot of effort into something that you know isn’t working and is just wasting time…

In other news, my blog got 90 hits the other day! This is very exciting because I thought that I only had a few people who cared what was happening in South Korea, hopefully my experiences can shine some light on what its like to be a public school teacher in South Korea.  I do have to give some credit to Jimmy from Strange Lands though- he linked my blog on his blog!! Thank you!!!

NEXT- really, I will go through our trip to Seoul!!