Shingok Teachers on their rafting adventure.
Friday, July 07, 2006
Sunday, July 02, 2006
White water rafting
Saturday 24th of June and the teachers from ECC Shingok embarked on an adventure through "Adventure Korea".
It began with an early morning subway ride to Hongik University station. Not too much of a struggle for Clare and I. It was more of a struggle for some others in our party who were out that morning watching the Korean's play the Swiss. A big game for Korea. They needed to win to make it out of the prelimnary pool. The subways on the way in were loaded with depressed half sober Koreans wearing their red shirts. The loss made me wonder what all the vendors in Korea were going to do with all the red t-shirts printed with World Cup 2006 slogans. "Korea Fighting". I am certainly glad that the annoying 'Champion' theme song won't be played for another four years.
We were lucky to have made it on the trip as we arrived 15 minutes late for the connecting bus. A miscalculation in how long it would take to get from Uijongbu made us a bit late. Thankfully, Dave was at the bus earlier and prevented them from leaving without us.
We traveled North towards the DMZ into some beautiful country. South Korea is very mountainous but if there is any flat land the Koreans are trying to grow something on it. Strips beside the road between pavements and buildings become pumpkin patches.
The area leading into the river had quite a few rice paddy fields. The first that I have seen. All the rice plants in perfect rows. Interestingly enough Korea cannot grow enough rice to feed it's own people. Hence, the tenacity to grow anything anywhere.
Unfortunately, our camera is not waterproof so we couldn't take pictures from the raft. We spent a good 2 and a half hours on the raft and went through some fun rapids. In the quiet spots the raft guide would show us games to play that usually involved me falling out of the raft. I swallowed a good portion of North Korean water. I hope that the radioactivity was watered down somewhat!
We stopped at one area and drank water from a spring. Across from the spring was a sheer cliff which during heavy rains has thousands of tiny waterfalls tumbling down.
After the rafting we had a buffet lunch and then went to a different river area to let about 15 people bungee jump. I would have gone except that the jump was about 1/2 the size of the one in Queenstown.
We hung out in pretty horrible heat. Unable to swim due to a 15 meter bolder trek, not really wanting to swim because there was visible scum on top of the water. Although, the scum didn't deter a few agashi's from fishing. It was a popular picnic spot with a different group of agashi's who cooked a lunch on makeshift stoves and drank soju out of the back of their car. It seems to be a common activity groups of older people hanging out on the weekends. They gather in parks to sing nori bang or to eat in the sun. I couldn't help but wonder how long this particular group had know each other. Whether they have lived in this area so close to North Korea for their whole lives and what they had seen happen in their life times.
The rafting trip wound up at about 6pm and we cruised back into Seoul. We crawled into bed with sore arms from rowing and some water in my ears. A few teachers sported nice sunburns to remember the day.
It began with an early morning subway ride to Hongik University station. Not too much of a struggle for Clare and I. It was more of a struggle for some others in our party who were out that morning watching the Korean's play the Swiss. A big game for Korea. They needed to win to make it out of the prelimnary pool. The subways on the way in were loaded with depressed half sober Koreans wearing their red shirts. The loss made me wonder what all the vendors in Korea were going to do with all the red t-shirts printed with World Cup 2006 slogans. "Korea Fighting". I am certainly glad that the annoying 'Champion' theme song won't be played for another four years.
We were lucky to have made it on the trip as we arrived 15 minutes late for the connecting bus. A miscalculation in how long it would take to get from Uijongbu made us a bit late. Thankfully, Dave was at the bus earlier and prevented them from leaving without us.
We traveled North towards the DMZ into some beautiful country. South Korea is very mountainous but if there is any flat land the Koreans are trying to grow something on it. Strips beside the road between pavements and buildings become pumpkin patches.
The area leading into the river had quite a few rice paddy fields. The first that I have seen. All the rice plants in perfect rows. Interestingly enough Korea cannot grow enough rice to feed it's own people. Hence, the tenacity to grow anything anywhere.
Unfortunately, our camera is not waterproof so we couldn't take pictures from the raft. We spent a good 2 and a half hours on the raft and went through some fun rapids. In the quiet spots the raft guide would show us games to play that usually involved me falling out of the raft. I swallowed a good portion of North Korean water. I hope that the radioactivity was watered down somewhat!
We stopped at one area and drank water from a spring. Across from the spring was a sheer cliff which during heavy rains has thousands of tiny waterfalls tumbling down.
After the rafting we had a buffet lunch and then went to a different river area to let about 15 people bungee jump. I would have gone except that the jump was about 1/2 the size of the one in Queenstown.
We hung out in pretty horrible heat. Unable to swim due to a 15 meter bolder trek, not really wanting to swim because there was visible scum on top of the water. Although, the scum didn't deter a few agashi's from fishing. It was a popular picnic spot with a different group of agashi's who cooked a lunch on makeshift stoves and drank soju out of the back of their car. It seems to be a common activity groups of older people hanging out on the weekends. They gather in parks to sing nori bang or to eat in the sun. I couldn't help but wonder how long this particular group had know each other. Whether they have lived in this area so close to North Korea for their whole lives and what they had seen happen in their life times.
The rafting trip wound up at about 6pm and we cruised back into Seoul. We crawled into bed with sore arms from rowing and some water in my ears. A few teachers sported nice sunburns to remember the day.
Birthday celebrations
My first overseas birthday happened this year. Countdown to thirty! In recent years I haven't had family around to celebrate with me so the only real change was the friends I was with.
The tradition at school is to get a birthday cake from the other teachers and be "surprised" between classes. Clare organised a yummy pineapple sponge cake which was presented to me after having tiny explosive streamers fired at me on my way into the office.
The weekend was busy with birthday events. On Saturday Clare and I went for a picnic with Seoul Sisters at a forest in Seoul. It was a nice day and the favourite activity was sticking our feet in the artificial stream that was running beside our picnic spot. The area also had some deer and a viewing bridge into the river to see big fish. It was nice to look at some animal life for a while. Jessie and Rebecka also gave me a cake! Two cakes I know! Due to the world cup fever here the cake came with special "red devil" horns that I got to wear the whole afternoon instead of a birthday hat.
That night Clare and I ate at my fav Italian place which was excellent.
On Sunday more eating in Seoul with brunch with all the teachers. I thought that the teachers wouldn't make it as they had been out until 4 and 5am that morning. Luckily they had stayed in Seoul overnight and they all made it to the brunch!
I'll leave you with a few pics of the day.
Clare and I at dinner in the Italian Restaurant.
Clare up the top of artifical waterfall in Seoul Forrest. She blends in well. :)
Seoul Sisters in "Young Guns" formation walking to Seoul Forrest from the subway station.
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