While I was still taking my medicine, I felt okay enough to go back to the zoo with my friends.  We had a pretty interesting ride there, people not feeling well and going home, getting on the wrong trains and off at the wrong subway stations, but eventually we made it there! 

We were supposed to go on a ferry ride along the Han River at night, but we took too long getting there, so we just took a walk instead. Not exactly the most successful night, but it was still fun.  

After classes last week, a few friends and I went hiking in Seoraksan National Park.  Its about 3 hours away from Seoul, and its soooo nice.  It was just four of us, but anymore would have been hard to coordinate.  We left the dorms at about 6:00 am, and took the bus to the East coast of Korea, got on a city bus, then ended up in the park at about 10:30.  When we first got there, we took a cable car to the top of the mountain, unfortunately it was so foggy at the top that we couldn’t see anything.  But the background being completely white makes it a little scary I guess.

With the Korean flag at the summit! There was a small gift shop at the top of the mountain and the guy kept trying to get us to buy some kind of gold piece to prove we had been to the top, but instead we just had him take our picture to prove it.  After we took the cable car back down, we visited the giant Buddha statue at the park in honor of Buddha’s Birthday (which was May 10).  Lots of people were praying and buying prayer candles, so we decided to do it too.  We bought a candle and simply asked that we’d be able to meet each other again someday.  We all signed it, wrote the date and then lit it in the glass case they display the candles in.  I’m not sure what word I’m looking for, but it was something I’ll remember for a long time. 

Just so you can get an idea of how tall it really is the glass cases where the candles are is taller than I am! It stands taller than most of the trees there! We followed a path that was supposed to take us to a cave.  We were a little disappointed at first, because we were just walking on flat ground for about 2 kilometers, but we finally got to an area that was so pretty. The water was so clear, and the rocks were massive.  It was a really breathtaking place.

Most places asked us to stay off the rocks, but we climbed around on the few places that didn’t have any signs asking us not to. It was just so pretty it was hard to stay away.  Still a little disappointed that we were walking on a flat path, we walked on the rocks a little more then kept going on the path. Finally we started having to actually hike. When we got to the top of section we used stairs to climb, we got to see the whole valley, which was incredible.

The last .4 km or whatever it was was brutal.  It was a direct climb up, and I thought I was going to die a few times, but it was a good hike.  The “cave” they were talking about was really just a tiny hole in the side of the mountain where they had 3 more small Buddha statues where people can pray.  After such a hard hike up, it was a little bit of a let down, but it was still nice to see. We had planned on camping at the park, but it was raining and all the tents and sleeping bags had been rented out, so instead we came back to Seoul at about 1:00am. It was a long day.

The rest of the weekend we just relaxed and enjoyed our time together. My time here is coming to an end quickly! A little over 5 weeks left until I’m back in State College! Its gonna go fast.