Two weekends of fun!

I know it's been awhile since my last post, so I will try to fill you all in on my past two weekends in Korea. Last weekend, I went hiking with Meredith and one of her friends that is teaching in Korea too. We went to Bukhansan Mountain, which is just north of Seoul. I haven't been hiking that many times, but my hiking experiences in Wales aren't really on the top of my favorites list, so I was just a little nervous as we started this adventure. Meredith, however, put my mind at ease saying she had heard that hiking in Korea was like taking a walk, paved stairs and everything. At the end of the day, I would have to say that Meredith was wrong, and it was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be!

Our hike started out pretty easy. There was a path/paved road for quite awhile. There were even some little restaurants and shops along the way. We stopped to eat some lunch at this little clearing where there were a lot of people taking a break. After lunch, we kept on going, getting lost only once or twice. Luckily for us, Koreans are very nice people and want to help you out in any way they can. We had a couple tell us to follow them... but we were just a bit slower than them, so we had to slow it down a little and find our own way after that! Towards the top is where it started getting a lot harder! Walking along the path turned to climbing up the rocks, and I started getting pretty nervous! From this point on, there were these rope cables staked into the ground that we had to use to pull ourselves up. I used these at ALL times for fear that I would slide down the mountain (which I thought was likely to happen at any point!) Anyway, thankfully we all made it to the top. The view was amazing! We could see most of Seoul and all the mountains surrounding it! Words cannot describe how beautiful it was. It made the whole 7 hour hike worth it!

This past weekend wasn't quite as adventurous. Friday was girls night! One of our friends had all the girls over to her apartment for some food and games! The girls that I've met are all so nice, and it was a great night just hanging out with all of them. Our game of Taboo got cut a little short when one of the neighbors knocked on the door telling us we were being too loud, so we had to move girls night somewhere else. It was a really fun, but very late night!

On Saturday, Meredith and I went to Dongdaemun with two other girls that we met here. Dongdaemun is one of the shopping districts in Seoul. I was looking for a new purse, but had to settle for a scarf! On our way back to Guri, we stumbled on a fashion show and a dance contest! We watched both for awhile. When we were at the dance contest, the MC looked over in our direction and says, "Foreigner... Hello! Nice to meet you!" I start looking around, and of course he's talking to me, the tallest one in the crowd with semi-blonde hair! He procedds to tell me that the dancer group that was just on are 19 with no girlfriends, and then asks me if I know the dance and if I want to come up on stage to dance! Had I known the dance, I probably would have gone on stage, but the girls that went on stage were so serious about their dance moves... I would have been booed off the stage in a heartbeat! It was a fun day, and I'm sure I'll be back there soon to do some more shopping!

I'm having a lot of fun, meeting a lot of new people, and learning a lot about the culture here. I hope everyone back home is doing great! I heard it snowed in Iowa this past weekend! Crazy! I hope you are all staying warm!