Sokcho (it was a while ago)

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Since I last spoke with you are Seoraksan, and said I would update you on the next day, it has been quite a while. We, as you may have seen, had a friend pass away and we have just been really drained/lazy at the end of the day. I know I have used that excuse before, but we really have been. We are feeling the 6 month mark and we have been fairly homesick this week since we didn't get to have Thanksgiving Dinner. Also, when we went to Costco to get groceries it was full of Christmas decorations and that made us think about being home as well. I also really miss our cats... alot.

Anyways... so since I waiting so long to update you, I think this will be shorter than I first anticpated the Sokcho entry to be.

We finished hiking down the mountain the same day that we hiked up and then we were off to some hotel that we didn't know where it was or what the name was or even the person who booked it for us. We also were trying to travel on a strict budget, but $30 for one night is definietly more than $5. So, we threw that out the window. We got to the hotel with a few glitches with passing the phone back and forth between us and the cabbie so we could figure it all out. When we got through the door the woman knew who we were and gave us our keys right away. We gladly took them and made our very sore and tired bodies get us up the stairs. The room was what I was expecting, which is sad to say; dirty, small, smelly and hot. We didn't see the air-con on the wall, so we cooked all night. I was happy to see a bathtub though since we do not have one in our apartment. Well, I was excited till I saw I had to clean it before getting into it. There was no way my legs were going to let me pass up that opportunity. So, I cleaned the couple hairs out of it and scrubbed some scum off the side (sorry I know that is gross, but I think it is much better than the love foam and everything in the last hotel) and I made Kyle clean it a second time, then I filled it with hot water to let it sit, drained it and then ran it again to take my bath.

Sadly.... there was only used soap in the room and I was not going to use that... so I shaved off the top layer all around the soap, scrubbed it under the water in the sink for a while and then used it (I really had no choice, we were dirty and we didn't have soap). So, feeling just as dirty after the bath as I did before, but a little less stiff we tried to order pizza. The woman at the front ordered us a seafood pizza, which I couldn't eat because it had parts of the tails on the shrimp (or I imagined it because I am scared to react again) and I ended up trying to make Ramen while the guys tried to eat the pizza. Disappointing. It was expensive too. Then we crashed. We woke up around 9:30am and were so sore we could barely move. We left the hotel and went to explore Sokcho for a while. I wasn't feeling well, so I wanted to keep it short and then go home, but we didn't and ended up staying the night.

We ate lunch that day at E-Mart food court and had some nice deep fried chicken and we narrowly avoided a rainstorm.

We walked on the beach (really only in one small spot and then turned around and went to the lookout area) and got sand in my shoes. The boys were feeling adventurous again after this, so we caught a cab and headed over to the lighthouse. As soon as I saw the stairs I wasn't going up there considering I was barely able to bend my knees, but Kyle mustered up the strength and the will to bend his knees and went up with Matt. We went for coffee at "Cafe Rich" and then went to the condo after a bit of a debate.

The condo/resort we stayed in was nothing special, like a budget hotel from home, but it was really nice compared to the other places we stayed in (my boss' husband arranged it for us and have us his membership card to get it). We had some good food from the market downstairs and slowly made our way around to see the place and since we were so sore, we sat inside, watched batman and went to bed.

Next day, very sore again. Was glad we explored Sokcho because of the pictures we got and it was nice to smell the East Sea/Sea of Japan, but was anxious to get home. Matt said some really true in his blog, so I am going to quote it here since I am too lazy to write my own blurb and my eyes and fingers are getting sore, "... you can never quite forget that this is a country at war, between the barbed wire, snipers nests, jets/apache helicopters overhead everyday, and ever present military bases and soldiers you always have small reminders." We still hear helicopters everyday and see apaches and cargo planes and today air sirens were going crazy and people in megaphones and everything. Just practicing, but still, it's always there and when you don't understand the language you just have to look around and see if anyone else is panicking and follow their lead. There is also barbed wire everywhere and army bases around every corner it feels like and lookouts on the hills and the beaches with holes for sniper rifles and so on and so on.

Okay, I am ending there and going to add some photos. Enjoy!!

PS: on a different note, Kyle and I have booked our days off for our vacation here in Korea, we are off from Jan 24-Feb 8, so if anyone wants to come and visit that would be the time. We are going to go down the coast and make our way to Jeju Island (the tropical/resort island in Korea) and then come home again. We would come back to Canada for that time, but we are trying to take a vacation (short) right after we finish our contracts and are going to save money for that. If anyone is feeling generous, in the means of $2000, we will come home and see you!!! No pressure. We will be home 3 months after that, so its all good.

PPS: Kyle is doing well at his school. A couple hard days here and there, but I can see he is starting to feel a bit more upbeat again. He is really busy and still getting a lot of extra work put on him, but hanging in there. I help him out by doing his curriculum planning for him when I get home early every night and I help him plan on the weekends. Lightens his load so we can get out and spend more time together and he is less stressed. Terri, his coworker, is finished next week and going back to Australia and they have a new teacher from the UK coming and then Ryan, another coworker, is done 3 weeks after that and they don't have a replacement for him yet. Things are stressful in that sense at his work and they are getting nervous about what will happen if they don't find a replacement!! We will let you know how that goes. Kyle is really scared Princeton will either close or they will be working a lot of overtime and Kyle's won't be able to do it mentally or physically.

Okay... I am going.... I think there was more I wanted to update on, but blogger just posted my blog on its own and I had to come back into it and edit it to add this, so I think it is trying to tell me something.

Good night. We love you and miss you all.

Eleni.... we really miss you a lot. ((((((((((((((((((((((((ELENI)))))))))))))))))))))) (thats a hug for you from us)