Seoraksan National Park and Sokcho beach

I spent the weekend on the east coast of Korea with three of my co-workers. We went hiking in Seoraksan, a picturesque mountainous national park and stayed a night in Sokcho, a quiet touristy beach town. The weather was actually quite nice for once and it was wonderful to breath cleaner air. It's really nice to get out of the city and explore some new areas of the country. Sokcho has a much older feel than where I live. There are many more quaint, individual, traditional style houses and the pace of life is slower and more relaxed. It's off season for tourism right now, so there were very few people around, but I got the feeling that in the summer the beach and town are crowded with loads of tourists from Seoul and beyond. Here are some pictures. Enjoy!

Here are a few pictures of my Christmas weekend at Sanjung Lake in central Korea. Seven teachers at my school stayed in this lovely cabin in the woods for a couple nights. It was so great to get away from tall buildings and chill out at this beautiful spot. It was definitely not Christmas as usual, but I think we made the best of it.

Here is the address of my school in case anyone happens to feel like sending me something:

6F Vision Plaza,975-2, Hwajeong-Dong, Duckyang-Gu, Goyang-shi, KyeongGi Do, South Korea412-270

We went on a picnic today with the three kindergarten classes at my school. It was at a national park that is home to the tombs of several Korean princes and other important people. For the majority of the field trip, the P.E. teacher had the kids do all sorts of excercises on a grassy area below the tomb of prince Munhyo. The rest of us mostly just hung out and were entertained by the kids doing stretches with multi-colored elastic ropes, playing a chaotic version of flag football, and throwing giant bouncy balls at each other in a game of dodgeball. Our boss then had all the teachers play relay races as our students cheered us on. I think it was mostly for the opportunity to take lots of pictures of us looking rediculous to send to the kids' parents. It was really nice to hang out in a park on actual grass, surrounded by trees, and open spaces. I think the kids had a blast. When they're at school they rarely have the opportunity to play outside in the fresh air, something kids in West take for granted I think.
The rest of the day I only had to actually teach 2 classes because the students in the rest of my classes took tests. I've been a bit under the weather recently so I was glad it was an easy day.

The view of the harbor from my hotel room in Sanya.

Temple at Nanshan Park, Hainan Island, China