Sokcho: Sorak Mountain & the East Sea

Last weekend friends and I decided it would be a nice weekend to get out of Seoul and go to the east coast of the country. Sokcho is this beautiful beach town and harbor where one can go to escape the madness that is Seoul. It is known for Sorak mountain, one of the most famous and tallest in Korea, and for its incredible seafood.
We take a bus Saturday morning which as I've started to realize, is not always the best time to get out of Seoul. The trip to Sokcho can take about 2.5 hours, but for us it took over 4. I actually typically enjoy bus rides, that is unless they are stop and go, stop and go. That is actually the opposite of enjoyment.

We arrive and try to stay at this adorable little hostel called "My House" only to find out that it has no vacancy.

"My House's" dog (it's a REAL dog--not one of those rat like dogs I see so much of in Seoul!!)

So we cross the street and book rooms at this nice love motel. Mikyong, Amber, Mal, John, Beth and I walk around the wharf, admiring all the fishing boats and fishermen cleaning out and organizing their nets. This woman, gutting and cleaning out a fish for her restaurant

Next stop: food. We walk around a bit looking for a place that looks inviting and opt for this little family owned seafood place. We sit on the floor of what appears to be someone's living room, decorated in a cheesy 90's love theme. We have one of our Korean friends with us, Mikyong, which is always very helpful when trying to do most things in Korea, like ordering food, especially when there is no picture menu. Next thing you know, we've got plates full of sauteed octopus, and grilled whole fish--eyeballs and all. The octopus was alright, not really my thing, but the grilled fish was uh-maz-ing. It was cooked perfectly so it just fell right off the bone and was so juicy!

Fish anyone?

How bout these?

Then we got some GS (convenience mart) beers and walked around the town to the lighthouse and pier. The view of the ocean was just incredible.Beth, Mallory, myself, Amber and Mykyong on the pier

If you looked out, you could see nothing but the sky meeting the ocean. Then, we were lucky enough to witness one of the most ridiculous sunsets I have ever seen. I have some pictures, but they don't do it any justice. The color of the sky was red. Amber and Mykyong admiring the sunset

After walking around the pier and fish market for a bit, we decide time for more food. We opt for our favorite: galbi (korean bbq.) I tried to order some beef galbi from our server, but she wasn't having it. So, she grabbed my arm, and showed me where the food bar was and motioned for me to get my own. AMAZING! An all you can eat--all your choice galbi place! At the meat bar there was fish, beef, pork, chicken, seafood and more. Needless to say we ate a lot. We did make the mistake however of somehow having 3 bottles of Soju with our dinner. Soju is a beast. It's basically vodka that you can get for about $2/bottle. Many Koreans often drink Soju out of shot glasses when out to dinner...along with their beer. The thing with Soju is that somehow it sneaks up on you. First you think you're doin just fine, eating galbi, chatting it up, drinking...next thing you know...you get up to go to the bathroom, and you can barely walk! Nevertheless, much fun was had, however I was in bed that night by 10:30pm and didn't move until 10am the next morning. :D Thank you SOJU.

We spend Sunday morning at this darling little coffee shop right in town.We drink lattes, eat muffins, and just enjoy sitting at this place amongst each other. Alas, it is time to head to the mountain-- that is the reason for the trip, after all.

Incredible views

We arrive at the mountain with about ten thousand other fellow hikers. Apparently, this time of year is a really popular time to hike the mountain, being that the leaves are changing and all.
There are many different hiking options. Everything from a one hour hike, to a seven hour, top of the mountain hike. We opt for a two hour hike as we have to catch the bus back to Seoul later that evening. The hike is beautiful. The trees offer an eclectic array of colors including reds, oranges, yellows, golds, browns and greens. There are streams and waterfalls and walls of rock surrounding us. We hike up to this famous waterfall and sit on the rock and relax. Amber and I try to climb some rock, which isn't exactly successful, but still fun. On our way back down we stop for some makgeolli and pajeon. I feel so Korean, sitting at a picnic table, on the middle of a mountain, drinking rice wine alcohol, eating seafood pancake with friends. I LOVE it.
We take the bus back to Sokcho and look for a place for dinner. We end up at one of these tents, right on the harbor, where we sit on plastic chairs, and cook our fish on makeshift grills.

Our dinner, pre-cooked

Jung gun, our grill master--don't mess with his grill.

We are eating fish RIGHT out of the water. The raw octopus we get is actually still moving a bit. (gross.) But the grilled fish, was majusayo (delicious.)

Fish right off the grill, rip a piece off, dip it in some sea salt, and voila!

And we head back to the bus to begin the trek back to Seoul. Goodbye Sokcho and East Sea. Thanks for an enjoyable weekend.

Annual Picnic

Every year at my school, the kindergarten class goes on a fall picnic. This was our field trip for October. It was the first time we'd been required to do something for the school on a weekend. The picnic was scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 9th from 9am-5pm. YES. ALL DAY SATURDAY. I found that most of my coworkers were complaining about this "extra" time demand from the school, but to be honest, I was looking forward to it. A day out of Seoul, at a huge arboretum and park, picnic with Korean food, hanging out with my coworkers (who I love,) and getting to play with my lil kindys?? Sounds like an excellent way to spend a Saturday.
Unfortunately getting out of Seoul was slightly horrendous as the traffic on a weekend here is about four times what it is in Chicago. It took us two hours to get to a destination which should've taken 40 minutes. That's always fun when you're on a bus with lots of kids and the traffic is stop and go and the sun is beating on your face. But I digress.

We get there and the first activity is picking sweet potatoes! Yes, the lil munchkins are basically going to farm. So the owner of the land and some of his coworkers give a lesson to all the kiddies on how to properly pick potatoes. And then they give them all their own hoes. Yes, they give a bunch of 5 year-olds, hand-held, sharp, dangerous hoes and tell them to go to work on the potatoes. The boys--workin for it!

I was more fearful about the hoeing for some kids as opposed to others. However, somehow I feel as though in Korea, even when things seem completely backasswards to me, they always seem to work out. So anyway, away they go, finding the stems, hoeing away at the ground, and pulling out huge sweet potatoes. Tony gettin after it

Willy, showing off his first potato!

They were SO proud!! It was really cute. The best part--the kids got to take their potatoes home.

Next stop: arboretum for lunch. Field trip lunches are always enjoyable. Mostly because I get to try all this homemade Korean food. The kids are so sweet and incredibly generous...always offering you a roll of their kimbop while their tiny little mouths are overflowing with rice. This time, one of my kindy moms made us bulgogi and japchae......Ummm yum?! Then after they eat their lunches they all pull out these ridiculous snacks and then we get to try all those too. Thanks mommies.Brandy and I with Rosemary class

Post lunch the kids and teachers alike get to run free. It is the most gorgeous fall day, with only a couple of puffy clouds floating throughout the blue sky. Then the kids get a tour of one of the farm's greenhouses. Following that we move onto the next major activity: making soap.Getting a lesson on soap making

Denny and his soap (can you tell he's the biggest trouble maker I have??)

The kids got to pick what colors, shapes, and scent they'd like to make their soap. I made some too.

Afterward it's back to the picnic area for snack time. Yes, more funky snacks like chips of all sorts (including shrimp and squid flavored ones,) fruit, cookies, chocolate dipped pretzels, etc. Annnnddddd it's time to run around again, burn off some of that energy. It's a good thing too because we left shortly after that and almost every tyke on the bus was asleep within five minutes. And we are free and I am happy. I believe it was a great day had by all.Rosie and Erica posing for the camera

My sweet lil June hiding between some rocks