My first hike in Korea

Last night, a few of the Gwangju EPIK teachers went out for dinner and drinks in downtown Gwangju, which is a fantastic area. It was super duper fun and it was a nice way to get to know my fellow teachers a bit better. I didn’t spend much time talking to the guys, but the girls are great. They’re so nice and I’m glad that they’re my new friends! A couple of them are actually younger than me! And here, I thought I was surrounded by all older people.

We went to eat at a Japanese (?) restaurant and had some bottles of soju and hite. The food was pretty good and the drinks were good as well. I was afraid that the alcohol would creep up on me as I have been told it would, but I think that’s if you drink A LOT of it. I only had about 4 shots of soju and half of the bottle of beer. Not too much.

After we ate, the girls walked around the shops and the boys decided to go into a bar called the Soju Room. However, they left as soon as the people there told them that they had to order 20,000 won worth of food. No thanks! We just ate! They ran into us as we left one of the shops and we stood around waiting for 2 of the girls who had become lost because they were being nosy and wanting to see what was going on with these two women who were chasing down another woman who had apparently stolen something from their store. We lost them for a good 15 minutes and we all finally reunited and went to a place called the WaBar. It was a western bar with a large assortment of alcohol from around the globe. I stuck to my one Korean Cass. I was stuffed; I couldn’t consume any more calories. I got to talking to the girls and I really do like all of them. They’re a diverse group – one girl is from Ohio, another from South Africa, Ireland, and New Zealand. As for the boys, two of them are the boyfriends of two of the girls so they’re also from Ohio and New Zealand. The other boy is from England, so we’ve pretty much covered the world. We left the bar around 1am ish? I wasn’t even tired, but the night must come to an end.

So today, I went on my first hike in Korea!! I was extremely excited because y’all know I love hiking! or maybe you don’t, but now you do! So I went with one of the other EPIK teachers who had done the hike yesterday, but we took a different route this time. It was tough! It’s definitely unlike the hikes that I do in LA. I was actually surrounded by NATURE and walking on leaves and dirt and not on a paved road, which I enjoyed even though it was a bit scary because of its slipperiness. Okay, well there were distinct trails too, so don’t go thinking I was off in some random forest, haha. The view at the end was phenomenal – a panoramic view of the city. It was gorgeous. It was also the PERFECT day for a hike. The weather has been really cold and even rainy, but today was really the perfect day. I was able to wear shorts! On the way up, you get hot and sweaty, but once you reach the top, there’s a nice breeze to cool you down, but not too cool because the sun is still warm against your skin. Absolutely perfect! Can’t wait to do the hike again!