Sokcho Vacation!

This last week, we had our first vacation since Christmas. Whew, that was a long seven months! I was starting to miss my school days of having long breaks during the year (including for deer hunting) as well as three months off in the summer. Although the Korean schools have a month break right now, the hogwans do not. Instead, we have intensives. Intensives are two, fifty minute specialized classes that are added into our regular class schedule, but are not required. After our class' regular 100 minute class, they go to their intensive class with another teacher. The intensives usually focus on grammar and writing since ELL's struggle in these areas the most. But, we also have a debate intensive for the GT3's and GT4's. Unfortunately, I didn't get the debate skills my brother did, so I let that class go. Instead, I teach a low level grammar class. Jon is teaching two intensive classes for GT1. From what I hear through the wall that separates our rooms, he has fun with them and likes having a change in the schedule. Our work hours are also earlier for this month. Usually, our work hours are 2-9 PM, now they are 9:40-7; so almost normal hours. There are definitely benefits to both and I definitely enjoy getting off work when there's still daylight to go! Intensives are usually a crazy and busy time of the year and we were definitely in need of a break, especially after not having one for seven months.

At first, we wanted to travel overseas, but because of the swine flu, we were advised not to leave the country. So, we decided it would be good to travel outside of Seoul to the sea and country of Korea. I discovered a city called Sokcho, which is on the East Sea, not too far from the DMZ, but has lots of great seafood and beaches. We also had company because Michael and Sarah had the same vacation as us, so we all traveled together! To get to Sokcho, we took an express bus and it took about 4 hours to get there, unfortunately on the way back, it took 5 hours because of traffic. We stayed in Sokcho from Monday-Friday at The House Hostel. I was so excited to find this place because it had great reviews, great prices, and was basically a bed and breakfast which most are rare in a hostel. The cost was less than $30 a night for your own room, tv, AC, and bathroom. The hostel was great and Mr. Yoo, the owner was very kind and helpful. Everyday, he would answer any questions and give us directions as well as give us bottled water and a beach mat. The hostel provided free laundry, free bike use, a common room and kitchen, and a breakfast of toast, tea, coffee, and cereal. Here are some pictures from the hostel.

Part of the porch from the kitchen

Entry and Communal Room

Kitchen

The area in which we stayed was also right outside of Seoraksan National Park. This park is full of beautiful mountains covered with lots of trees and jagged rock popping out in the sky. Driving through the mountains was wonderful because there was mist hovering over the tops; it was so gorgeous that it looked unreal. We were planning on hiking some of the trails during the week, but I realized I forgot my inhaler and was worried about aggravating my asthma with the climbing. I was upset about this, but it ended up being fine just relaxing on the beach. Jon and I are hoping to go back during a three day weekend in October to hike and take-in the beautiful fall leaves. Because we didn't hike, I didn't have any pictures of the mountains. But I still want to show you what they looked like, so here are some pics courtesy of Google images.

So, you can see the kind of view that we had on our travels; pretty nice. The main request of us four travelers was to have a beach to relax at and we definitely accomplished this. We spent some time on two beaches, one being small and at night with basically no one there. But, the other one we spent most of our days at and was covered with Koreans and their sun-protection tents. Even though it was busy, we were able to have fun in the fairly cold water and relax on the shore. In the water, we either played volleyball or body surfed on the big waves. On shore, Sarah and I took some cat naps and chatted while our guys played in the water or made sand castles. We had a lot of fun watching Jon and Mike play and enjoy the sea.

Jon trying to stay warm in the cold water.

Jon, Michael, and Sarah doing some body-surfing.

The beginnings of the first sand castle.

The end of the second sand castle that took a couple of hours
working with hands, feet, and a Frisbee.

My favorite picture of Sarah after the men in Speedo's came up to talk to her. They said in English, "I am a native Korea speaker". Sarah, "That's nice." Speedo men, "It was a joke." Sarah, "Ummm, oh, okay."
By the way, Speedo's are a huge deal in Korea, everyone has them.

One other exciting thing that happened on the beach was watching a fishing boat drop their nets and then later drag them in on shore. I ran over when they were pulling up the net as at least a hundred Koreans were surrounding it trying to help and grab fish out of the net. This was pretty fun because I was in the front and in the middle of all the action. I have never seen people grab fish as fast as I have in Korea. Even while swimming, if they saw tiny fish, they would collect them and eat them later.

Our last night in Sokcho, we went out for some fresh crab. Mr. Yoo suggested an underground fish market where the locals go to eat. This market was full of small, open restaurants vying for your attention to their tubs full of fish, crab, shellfish, and eel.

The start of our meal.

The adjuma showing us how to tear the crab correctly

The end of our meal.

The underground fish market.

There are many other fun stories from the trip, but this is already a huge post. I wanted to give you an overview of where we went and what we did. I hope you enjoyed the pictures and videos of our little Korean vacation.