Gyeongju

This lovely city needed two visits this spring! Once was with students and their families, the second was with my Pohang family (slash really great friends) for some great sight-seeing.

March 31:

Ricky (I've posted a few diary entries of his) invited me to Gyeongju with his mom, neighbor (also my student) and her brother and mother and their public school teacher (who happens to be a good friend of mine) to check out the trick art museum there. It's an art museum of sorts, where the paintings are designed for you to be a part of. So you get photos of these awesome 3-D looking pieces of artwork with you in them. We had a lot of fun!

After looking at all the art we rode this 4-D action ride twice. Then headed to a restaurant for a delicious lunch. Next was Bomun Lake for a chilly boat ride. We got snacks then went to another little place to get some more group photos. It was a really fun day and I genuinely enjoy spending time with my students outside of school even if it requires that I wake up insanely early on the weekends.

Us and our lovely students.

Don't want to drown!

The lovely mothers.

One of my favorites of Sarah.

Ricky was a good sport!

April 14:

A few weeks later I went back to Gyeongju to look at the beautiful Cherry Blossom trees. The city is filled with hundreds of these trees that bloom every April but only keep their pretty blossoms for a few weeks and then they're gone. I missed it last year so this trip was a must do for 2012.

The night before, after several drinks, my friends and I agreed to ride there with a Korean acquaintance in his van. The next morning after only a few hours of sleep, the idea didn't sound as good as it had the night before when we agreed to meet at noon. At 2:30 we all finally show up, ready for the outing. The ride there was... well, kind of miserable. Twelve people in the twelve person van on winding roads...

Once we got there and had our picnic lunch we all felt a bit better. The views were gorgeous and my friends had a blast acting like children riding go-karts.

We didn't make it home until almost 10 p.m. but the day was fun and well worth it.

The crew.

Our delicious picnic.

We held up traffic for at least five minutes but this shot was well worth it!