Songnisan

My weekend at Songnisan was absolutely amazing. It was the first time I actually felt like I was in Korea. Up until now I've been living on a college campus and that is exactly what it feels like...college. This trip got me so excited to travel around the country and go sightseeing and do other touristy things. We left early Friday morning and traveled 4 hours by bus to Songnisan. When we got there they gave us lunch and then we went to listen to a lecture on Buddhism given by an American Buddhist monk living in Korea. Unfortunately we were all completely exhausted by that point (due to the fact that we had gone drinking, dancing and noraebang-ing the night before) so I didn't actually hear most of his lecture. I was too busy shaking my legs and pinching myself and doing everything humanly possible to keep myself from falling asleep. After his lecture though, he and his student took us on a tour of the temples. It was so incredible. As you can see in the pictures below, the buildings were beautiful and the big golden Buddha was pretty impressive. We also got to watch some sort of ritual drumming by the monks who live there. Friday night we had an awesome Korean dinner and then watched Arrested Development in my room all night (sidenote: My hotel room had no beds or airconditioning or shower curtain...our beds were thin mats with round bean pillows and a blanket. I'm learning that contrary to previous beliefs, I can sleep anywhere if I'm tired enough). Saturday me and group of my favorite people chose to go hiking since it was our "free day". We decided to hike to one of the peaks on our map, which I believe is the highest peak in the area. I had visions of only being gone a few hours and hiking up dirt paths that were maybe a little steep at times. Boy was I wrong. We ended up being gone 6 hours, hiking around 16 km, and the whole time walking up and down rocks in the form of stairs....so pretty much I walked up and down stairs for 6 hours straight. There were a few times on the way up I either wanted to cry, turn around, or just sit and wait for a helicopter to come and rescue me. But somehow I made it to the top, and it was totally worth it. The views were spectacular, and we met some interesting asians up there (i.e. Kanye/Jerry Garcia man...see below. Another sidenote: Korean hikers are hardcore. They are all decked out in their performance gear and backpacks and have hiking poles that resemble ski poles...very intense) After we hung out on the peak for a while, we hiked over to another peak that was a while away, and then back down the mountain. On the way down, we stopped at 2 different waterfalls to go swimming. I can only imagine what the local Korean hikers were thinking when they saw a dozen half naked Americans playing in the water, which we later found out was illegal because it is supposedly drinking water. Oops! Regardless, it was the highlight of the entire trip. At one of the waterfalls, the water went off of the cliff far enough away so that you could go and sit under the waterfall. That was the coolest experience...a bunch of us huddled behind a waterfall together. I wish I could've taken a picture. Anyway, Saturday night my hiking group and I all went out to a place called "Mexican Chicken" and ate fried chicken and Korean pizza (which almost always has corn on it...weird) and drank some too. So needless to say, it was very depressing coming home and having to go back to studying and writing lesson plans and all of that fun stuff. Well, its almost 2am and I have to get up and teach my first lesson tomorrow at Camp Fulbright. Enjoy the pictures (I took almost 200, so these are just a small sampling of them)!

one of our monk tour guides. he was from the czech republic (is that even a country still?)
and spoke like 5 different languages...very cool.

where the hell are our beds?...

...oh, they're in the closet!

Nik & the monk had the same exact sneakers

I still can't get over how beautiful the mountains are

Seth & I

giving Buddha a high-five

at the temple: monks performing a drumming ritual with the buddha in the background.

enjoying some real Korean food

at the beginning of our 6 hr hike

with my roommates @ the top of the mountain

still amazed that I made it to the top

Fulbrighters at the very top

Kelly & Keeran

beautiful view from the peak

Kanye West meets Jerry Garcia meets the grandfather from the 3 ninjas

playing in the waterfalls...by far the highlight of the whole weekend