It is Upon the Horizon

30 days, 1month left until my return to my home...

This is said with mixed emotions, for the sake of this blog I won't go too much into detail about the circumstances of what goes thru my mind. I will say this, though, because of present political circumstances the past few weeks have been a whirlwind of emotions. I fear the once peaceful home of Atlanta will no longer be as it once was, and I fear the oncoming actions that are in our future. But most importantly, I fear for my family, their safety is above all.

Anyhow, this blog is meant to showcase my adventures my abroad, but my emotions from said circumstance put me in a sort of depression that resulted in my shunning away from many of my friends and acquaintances for enough time to raise worry and inquire my well-being. However, I have some friends to thank for pulling me out of my "funk" and help to put a smile on my face.

One of which being, I recently took my last big "vacation", which was going on a two day hiking adventure near the mountain range of Sokcho. I was very excited about this trip for a multitude of reasons one of which being, this is the place I caught my Farfecth'd when I last ventured to Sokcho with my German Friend during the Chuseok Holiday!

The group I was with consisted of 3 guys, 3 chicks, One American, two Germans, 1 Chilean, 1 Peruvian, and 1 Moroccan, so pretty diverse to say the least! Not to mention the big group we went with consisted of people from almost everywhere from England to Canada to Spain even India! I had a chance to talk to a good number of these people and almost all of them were teachers instructing English. Their stories from living in Korea for 3+ years proved to be hysterical! Plus, they gave alot of useful hints and tips, one guy from California who is Mexican/Japanese referred me to a very delicious milkshake that is sold at almost every convenience store for nearly $1.20! It has become my new addiction, I just wish I would have known about it earlier since the weather is so cool now!

Our first day hiking consisted of a somewhat easy trail and taking lots of pictures and lots of outloud singing, that night we checked into a hotel located within the Mountain Range Park. This Hotel also had a spring, the girls and guys were separated of course, but it was kind of funny. The girls were squabbling about the thought of getting naked in front of other women, meanwhile the guys, including myself, were just like "you what to hit the jacuzzi or the mineral bathe first?" Being naked in a bathhouse no longer seems like such a huge thing to me now, I reflect on the first time I went to a bathhouse during my first month of living in Seoul and thinking to myself "how can anyone get used to this?!"

After dinner and about 2 hours in the Hot Springs, we all retired to our room. We shared a HUGE room consisting of 6 floor matts and equal number of pillows and blankets, we were spaced out enough they we had appropriate "wiggle room" but I could feel abit of tension when we were choosing placings to sleep. Ultimately, i was the one to break the ice "so does anyone have any weird sleeping habits they would like to share with the group before we sleep?!" which iniiated a sequence of embarassing sleeping stories and "I don't think I sore but I have been told I do's." By than we were comfortable enough to just pick a spot to fall into without any particular order.

The next day we awoke early to set off on another hike, which was filled with equally beautiful sights and scenes. I was thankful for coming on this venture, since I had heard so much good things about the Korean countryside during the fall season and I was pleased to see the rumors lived up to their name. The vibrant reds, shocking hues of yellow and orange, all seemed to dance in perfect harmony with the rough mountain texture and the sound of the lovely stream as it slinked its way to the ocean.

I don't believe I will be going off any more big adventures during the remainder of my time here in Korea. I seem to be having alot of upcoming projects and Finals fast approaching upon the horizon and as much as I would love to venture to Kyoto Japan or Tokyo Japan. I will just have to save that for another day so I can focus my efforts on school.