Sokcho Weekend

Last weekend KAEC took all of the ETAs to Sokcho for a three day weekend of Korean history and culture, with a little vacation sprinkled in. It was such a fantastic adventure. Sokcho is on the opposite coast from where we are now. Which means we crossed the boundary line of the river! I don't know why but everyone got really excited when we crossed over. I even took a picture. It is on the eastern coast in the northern part of the country. The trip there was beautiful. The landscape is very similar to the surroundings of my town. The tall green mountains and the wide blue rivers. It is inspiring to get that little taste of my grant year on the long bus ride to and from Sokcho.
Though the bus ride was uneventful, the rest stop wasn't. If you are ever in South Korea, one of the things you have to experience is the rest stops. They aren't like what they are in the US. They are an adventure in of themselves. First thing is they are larger than you would think, with some inside and some outside areas. While there is a bathroom, the main focus of these rest stops is the shops and the food. There are shops (including a clothing store) and all of these places to get the iconic Korean food that you can only get at rest stops. You might be able to get them elsewhere, but that is what our teacher told us in Korean class. It was still early, so I didn't get any food, but a lot of the other ETAs did, and they were so happy with their choices.

Once we got there, we were treated to lunch with a view of the ocean. We all wanted so bad to get in. The temperatures outside all weekend were in the upper 90s

. After lunch, we listened to a lecture about Buddhism by oddly enough, a monk who thirty or forty years prior was a Jewish guy from Philly. But it was fascinating the things that he talked about. The different ideas of what Buddhism represents, where it comes from and the history of Buddhism in context through India, China, Korea and Japan. We went to Naksan Temple (낙산사) afterward to explore and to watch a nightly ritual. We even ate dinner there. It was surprisingly good. I also helped do the dishes for all 80 of us. The Temple was beautiful. The flowers, the stones, the buildings and the statues are all so beautiful. After the temple, some of us decided to go down to the beach and hand out. It was a beautiful night, and so many people were out just having fun and hanging out. There were even some fireworks. Apparently, this is a regular thing. 

Day two we a lot less hectic. I spent the day enjoying the beach (though I did manage to get a bit burned). It was wonderful. The water was cold and refreshing, and I was surrounded by my new friends. It was very relaxing. I also got to take note of how Koreans do the beach. Many of them are in more clothing than I am used to, like swim shirts and shorts, as well as hats and even on floats. I don't think I had ever seen so many floats in the ocean before. That night for dinner, we were taken to a Korean meal, only we didn't have to sit on the floor. But it was so delicious, and it was so cool. After dinner, a small group of us decided to walk to the North Korean Refugee Village. This is a tiny little island that is inhabited by refugees from North Korea who settled there after the Korean war when they weren't allowed to return home. It was a cute little town with lots of shops and adorable ajummas trying to sell you their food. One was so sweet. We were taking a selfie, and she asked if she could take the picture for us. I'm pretty sure she really just wanted to reposition us in front of her restaurant, but it was adorable and sweet.

On Sunday, we had to check out early and head home. On the way home, we stopped at Ojukheon (오죽헌) and Seongyojang (선교장). These are estates of significant people in Korean history. Ojukheon is the home of a mother and son who are both on Korean money. These places were so beautiful, but it was so hot that I didn't take very many photos. I was very thankful for the inside portions of the museums, but I did love looking at the old Korean architecture. It was so much fun. We finished our weekend out with yet another traditional Korean meal, except this time we went all out. We sat on the floor and had to take our shoes off. It was really cool, and I tried a bunch of food that I have no idea what I ate. Some of it was good, and some weren't. But it was fun attempting to eat it. We then proceeded to spend several hours on the bus on the ride home because we kept hitting traffic.



The whole cohort of ETAs, 80 strong, plus our 6 awesome OCTs on the misterablely hot day.