On the weekend of December 15th, we went on another "Adventure Korea" trip. If you have read past posts about some of the trips we have taken like Mud Festival and White Water Rafting/Bungee Jumping, then you may remember us mentioning the tour company we went with, Adventure Korea. They run trips to various mountains, festivals, events, and tourist spots in and mostly outside of Seoul. The trips are for foreigners in Korea and are usually a reasonable price. This weekend we went about 2.5/3 hours outside of Seoul to a ski and snowboarding resort called Phoenix Park. It was a really impressive resort, complete with an indoor/outdoor hot springs spa, pools, a bowling alley, lots of food selections (yeah, North American goodness!) and restaurants and pubs. We slept in a room with 6 other people, and we all had our own bunk beds!
We rented our equipment first and then headed to the hills. Ian, Melissa and I all got afternoon and night passes, along with a bunch of other people we met. I didn't go boarding last winter, so I was a little nervous about my skill level, but overall I was actually surprised with myself! It was super fun and the hills were a lot bigger than we expected. The scenery was beautiful, with loads of mountains in the distance and a nice bright sun. For the afternoon, it was pretty much Ian, Melissa, a friend named Sarah and me. We met a really cool guy from South Africa named Louis, for those of you who know our friend Pat Davis from Laurier, he actually looks a bit like him, except his blond hair is a bit longer. It was his first time seeing snow, and he was so excited to hear that we have had the opportunity to make snowmen every winter for our entire lives! It was funny. Really nice guy though.
After our afternoon of snowboarding, we had a two hour break before night skiing, so we went into the lobby of the hostel and asked people around us if they wanted to help us make a room of eight. Our room ended up consisting of Ian and I, 2 Korean girls, Sarah, Melissa, a girl named Susan and another guy named Ian, who we found out lives really close to us. We hung out there for a while, and then the group of us who bought the night pass peeled our tired bodies off the bunk beds where we had been lounging and had to the slopes, stopping for some nasty microwaved hamburgers on the way. (I couldn't' bring myself to eat it.... I tried, and failed. Ian, on the other hand, ate two.)
Night boarding was a lot of fun, and it ended up me me, Ian, Melissa and our new friend Ian. The slopes were a lot icier and faster at night, even though our rented boards were not waxed!!! It was probably a good thing! The one thing that was a downer was that I lost my camera. My baby :( However I did buy the exact same model at a Canon store right before Christmas for A LOT cheaper than I bought it in Canada for! And I got a whole bunch of extra stuff with it.
Anyway, the next morning some of our group when to the Hot Springs spa and other lounged. We packed up, grabbed our bags, some grub (Popeye's Chicken?! Haha) and got back on the back. Ian and I prepared ourselves for the long ride by taking out our Nintendo DS (we each bought one in Tokyo) and kicking off our shoes. The ride home was the best and shortest yet! *(Usually traffic in Korea on Sunday heading back into Seoul is RIDICULOUS!)
So that was a really fun weekend! Hopefully you guys have had some good boarding/skiing experiences this winter too! Hope you guys are all enjoying the holidays! Miss you!
P.S. Alright, so Meaghan wanted me to mention the Beavertails, because she saw my pictures and thought they were worth mentioning. The truth is 1- I wrote this blog on two different dates and didn't re-read all of what I wrote before, and didn't want to repeat myself, thinking I had already written about it. 2- I had some awesome pictures of the Beavertails on my camera, which I lost later that night. I don't want to even think about it because it makes me sick :( Some maybe that is why I didn't mention it... Oh, who cares! But anyway, new camera is bought (exact same) so all is well.
So here you are Megs :)
Anyway, there was a "True Canadian Beavertails" vendor at the slopes. Melissa, Ian and I, being the only Canadians other than Sarah who we lost that afternoon, were extremely excited. We immediately charged up to the vendor and demanded some freshly made Beavertails. The man who worked there went on to tell us in broken English how he went to Ottawa after he heard his Beavertails weren't good to get the right formula down. So he improved his Beavertail potion and brought it back to Korea with him. (Or so the story goes) Turns out, as he handed us the "Beavertails" that they were warmed up buns with no top, drizzled in warm chocolate. (You could also get nuts, blueberry sauce and some other kind. Strange!) They were fine, but DEFINITELY not a true Beaver Tail! We laughed as the chocolate froze on Melissa's "Beavertail" because it was so cold out, and also because it was pretty much chocolate freezing onto a bun.
To check out the pictures from Snowboarding, Christmas and School, check out: http://wluca.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2131547&l=0dd3c&id=187905622
XOXO- Miss Ya'll!
P.P.S... Did I mention that there were big screen tv's on the main hills?! Welcome to Korea! The town the resort was in is where they actually wanted to have the Olympics, so it was pretty nice!! Apparently they are trying again! See the picture at the top to see the big screens!
