Trip to Yangpyeong

Hey guys ! 

A week ago we had our culture lesson - day with our school and we headed to Yangpyeong, a city / county in Gyeonggi-province, to the right from Seoul, about a 2 hour drive away. We met in the morning and took a bus (with a TV so we could watch PSY's performance during the drive, so typical Korea) to the middle of nothing. We literally drove through mountains. The view was breathtaking though, and it was nice to see Korean countryside for a change. 

ps. picture heavy post ahead.

We stopped to eat at a rest stop that had a Korean food - buffet. They had everything from rice to fried stuff, soups and, honestly, things I didn't even recognize. We then continued to Yongmunsa - temple to watch fall colors. It was absolutely the best part of the day, even though that was what I was looking forward the least in that trip. The whole place was like straight from a fairy tale book. The amateur photographer inside me started squealing when we arrived because it was simply just too pretty.

We hiked up to the temple, ate ice cream, took a lot of group pictures and just chilled with our teacher. Who is, by the way, the best teacher I've ever had. She's probably around 50 years old but her mind is more like a 20 year old's, so we all get along with her super well. We watch the same dramas with her (and then talk about it with our class during class, and fangirl over the good looking actors, hahah) and joke around all the time. And most of the time it's the teacher who starts it, even when it comes to the dirty jokes, which is absolutely hilarious. So needless to say our class has a great team spirit, and getting together outside the classroom and getting to spend a day together was amazing. Almost amazing as the scenery.

This tree is a "Ginkgo tree"or a "Maidenhair tree". It was huuuge. Snapped this slightly blurry picture just to show you guys how incredibly big it was, compared to that Korean lady standing next to it taking a picture. 

After hiking up to the temple and then coming back down we had half an hour to kill before our bus left to the next destination so our teacher took us to Drink 막걸리, or Makgeolli, Korean rice wine / liquor. Drinking at 3pm with your teacher definitely made it to my list of weirdest moments ever. I'm not a huge fan of Makgeolli to be honest, so I was more excited about the 파전, Pajeon, Korean pancake with onions and vegetables. 

Our next and last stop was riding railbikes! A lot more fun that it seems, and every time we went downhill it felt like riding a legit roller coaster. I was riding one with our teacher and 2 of my classmates and we were just yelling nonsense and singing Christmas songs during the ride and acting like a bunch of 12 year olds (as some of you who follow me on snapchat may have noticed..). But it was crazy fun and I would do it again aaanytime. They taught us how to use the breaks but we just kept bumping into the railbike in front of us on purpose and laughing at it. So mature.

This was my last Culture class! In 4 weeks I will be done with language school for good. It feels kinda weird and honestly a bit scary to think that next spring is the real deal - I'm gonna have to study in a university in Korea, in Korean. To all you maybe considering Hanyang university for studying Korean, do it. This has been amazing, all the teachers are professional yet really chill and they know how to do their job. It's also effective - When I came here I knew how to introduce myself in Korean, now I'm writing essays about politics and gay rights. So yes, ten times yes, I would recommend Hanyang university. 

Now I need to get back to packing, because tomorrow I am moving to a goshiwon (a hotel type of a oneroom thing) for the next 3 weeks before my family flies to Korea for 5 days and I get to stay at a hotel in Myeongdong with them. I'm weirdly super excited about it, even though I've been living here for almost a year I feel like I'm going to Korea for a vacation too, hahah~ 

Have a good Monday everyone ! 
xx,
Julia