A Day in the Life: October 22
A day in the life of a currently over-worked English teacher. We had a “seminar day” which my school used as a field trip day with the kinder students and their families!
7am Getting on the subway, the station is dead on a Saturday morning…
After eating some breakfast and waiting for the bus, the teachers arrived at the park that is nearby the mountain. All the fall colors came out to greet us.
Now we play the waiting game. I wandered around in the woods and found this pretty tree blanketing the trail.
The kids finally show up and they play a game with their families. They had to stack a pile of rocks as high as they can without it falling. You see little rock piles along trails in Korea when you’re hiking. They say if you add a rock to the pile and make a wish it will come true if the pile doesn’t fall; however, if the pile falls your wish and the other wishes won’t come true.
I was impressed by this rock stacking.
Mommy helps daughter count her stickers that she has won over the course of the day.
Alright teacher it’s time to go, she leads the way with her balloon.
After lunch and a long bus and subway ride, my friend Jamie and I head to the crowded streets of the toy market to find Halloween costumes.
It’s only 5pm but I’m sick and exhausted so this is the end of my day…
My wonderful boyfriend brought home some sandwiches for dinner and after a cup of Theraflu, I try to reclaim the sleep that was taken from me. Goodnight. 
Seoraksan National Park:Getting There
Seoraksan National Park is located in the northeastern part of Korea. It’s close to Sokcho Gangwon-do which is just south of the 38th parallel. We started our trip at Seoul’s Express Bus Terminal right off line 3. We took a bus from there and it only cost 17,000 won per person one way. So it’s about 34,000 won round trip. It’s a 3 hour bus ride and you go up into the mountain because my ears were popping like crazy. They take one 15 minute rest stop along the way and we almost missed the bus! It was a scary moment but the bus stop as we were running towards it! Once in Sokcho we wandered around looking for a city bus stop that would take us in the direction of Seoraksan. We finally found it after some walking and it was just across the street from the bus terminal so I felt really dumb. It’s a 30 min bus ride (taking city bus no. 7 or 7-1) the last stop is Seoraksan National Park.
There is an ATM just outside the entrance and I recommend getting some cash before going in the park because most little vendors in the park don’t take card. We paid the around 3,000 won each to enter the park and started the search for our hotel. I booked us a room at the Seoraksan Tourist Hotel. The hotel is actually located in the park which was pretty cool. The hotel is easy to find once you walk into the park and it’s right next to the cable cars that take you up to Gwongeumseong Fortress. Every room has a great view from the balcony of the cable car and the top of the Buddha statue. Manager of the hotel was super nice and spoke great English. He gave us a map and a run down of the Sinheungsa Temple Area.
