Sobaeksan

Sobeaksan!!!!
Well Saturday started early, Me Kelsea and Leah took a train at 830am to near the Mt. and from there we took a cab. The cab driver was awesome. He literally took us as far up the Mt. as a car could go. Which I was ok with because I don’t like walking u paved paths. Not only did he shave an hour off the hike he was trying to speak English and it was cute. After we got out he asked for a picture with him and told us to call him personally when we got done.  The hike was about 2 hours to the top and it was really steep. But it was very beautiful. You could see how high you were progressing thought the trees and every now and then we would just stop in amazement. The paths are never simple paths. There always make up of rock turned into stairs, or sometimes steep stairs. But there is no easy hike path. That would take days. The top was nothing short of spectacular. 1439 meters which is 4721 feet. The view was 360 degrees. We were on what seemed to be just a grassy hill that high up. There was not a tree to obstruct the view. The way down was to say the least steep. Your toes become pressed to the front of your shoes and they start to hurt but its worth it. On the way down we noticed a cave on the side of the mt. I was about to lower myself in when I realized how big it was. And I think I saw bats. Without anyone there to be like hey lets go. I decided that it probably wasn’t he smartest. When we reached the bottom there was nice campsite area which I hope to use before I leave this beautiful land and that is where we called our taxi guy. He was happy to come pick us up. It was a great adventure that I will be doing again. Hopefully sooner than later, cold and snow can’t stop me.

Extension
For those don’t know I have decided to extend. What does that mean??? Well I was originally going to come home in late December. The 31^st to be exact. I decided that I haven’t done nearly enough and to come home to a rushed environment and not get to experience chirstmas would be hard. So I will be here until July. I will be able to do a lot more of everything, including hiking. I will be teaching as the same school with the same kids. Which I am looking forward to. But I will be home in July don’t worry. There are some great people back home I have to get back to.
 

Gumi
The weekend after Sobeaksan I want to Gumi. It is a little bigger than Andong with better shopping and nightlife. It was a lot of fun. I got a new sweater, it was cold and I needed it. I will be able to use it for school and stay warm and it looks good. It stretched out a little which is good. But there is nothing wrong with this guy looking good. I know people aren’t used to it.






 Then there was a night hike with the climbing crew that was awesome. We left at 7pm which is already dark out and went to a mt. called Gallasan. Its small only about 530 meters and took around 2 hours to complete.  We were all geared up in headlamps and winter gear because it went below freezing. But we will now be doing this every Wednesday. It was a lot of fun and great exercise.
 

One of the coolest things of this week though was I went to Ddols my favorite coffee shop. The owners were walking out the door as I arrived because they were closing early. It was her dad’s birthday party. So they were like come along. So I went with them and experienced a Korean Birthday party. Lots of food, singing and cake. Similar to ours but we sat on the floor. It was in a real Korean house that the Grandpa built with his own hands. It was beautiful.  

Next is Jeju!!!!