beautiful weekend in gangwondo

i was amazed and excited to see lush forested mountains and fields as i stared outside the window of the bus to gangwondo province on friday. this past weekend proved to be a much needed reprieve from my catatonic life in seoul. the valleys donning so many happy shades of green were just unbelievably beautiful.

i am, however, kicking myself for having forgotten to bring my camera along. so no album of the bucholic landscape yet, though i think i’ll try to steal my friend’s pictures on facebook… for now, my tepid descriptions will have to do. korea’s foliage is a lot like that of the east coast of the states. so imagine a lot of conifers and deciduous trees, but along valleys of pyramidal green mountains. i think i can safely say that it was a much prettier sight than that of any place i’ve been to in quite some time. there were endless, endless valleys of green mountains! so gorgeous. and so CLEAN! it was definitely a lot cleaner and greener than i had ever expected it to be, and much more so than even say, bear mountain, the shenandoah, western mass or any other mountain i’ve ever been to in the recent past… i don’t know, but it was really amazing. and amazingly different from seoul. i was in awe the entire 3-hour bus ride over there.

i went with a couple of other fairly new teachers i met a week ago. three women and a gay dude, a very girly outing it was. it was the best weekend i’ve had so far here. we stayed at one of the girls’ friend’s apartments in donghae, which is a beach town cradled by mountains on two sides.

our trip was rife with outdoorsy hedonism. on saturday, we went for a nice, fairly easy hike. the mountains here in korea are full of cute little, glistening streams. they’re again SO CLEAN! unlike the streams in the states that are often muddy or cushioned with dirt (not to imply they’re necessarily due to pollution or other environmentally unsound reasons), these streams were crystal clear, quite pebbly and embedded with small rock.. children were playing in the water and families were chillin and picnicking on the banks.

we stopped a couple of times to dip in the water and slide down a sloping rock.

we then took a peek into a buddhist temple at the foot of the mountain on the way back down, and had a nice, vegetarian dinner nearby afterwards.

more pictures to come when i collect my friend’s pictures into my own album.

that evening, we chilled at the apartment, played drinking games, roamed around town drinking soju cocktails, met some other teachers chillin outside a ministop (7-eleven equivalent), and noraebang-ed (karaoked) till about 3 am. this was my first time karaokeing in korea, and probably only 3rd time ever in my life. fun times were had. the next morning, we took a cab over to mansan, supposedly one of the nicest beach in korea and baked for a couple of hours.

i still have to update you all on the previous couple of weeks and thoughts i’ve had. as for today, i hung out with my friend carissa again (one of the people i went to gangwondo with) and went to see a fortress and a free music concert (awesome) about 45 minutes from seoul where she lives. i know, i know, i hate writing posts just listing things that i’ve done too, so i’ll definitely update substantially again soon.

this is a really beautiful country. and i’m glad i got to experience some place other than seoul. i can’t thank my friend enough for inviting me along on this trip. on a side note, i think i’ve figured out why i’ve been dissatisfied with the city so much as of late, and that is that i don’t really like where i live. i live in gangnam which is the equivalent of the upper east side in nyc. commercial, rich, and pretentious. but for the most part, i think i’m slowly getting used to life here finally. i only have 3 more weeks left, and by that point, i’m sure i’ll be sad to leave this place and the friends i’ve made… but it’s too soon to feel nostalgic already..