Muju

The second weekend in December I got to go to Muju Ski Resort with some friends from here in Sangju. It was a lot of fun but sooo very cold! (The resort thermometer said -8C, but I think it may have been colder still... we'd been getting down to -10C here in Sangju that week.. or maybe it just felt colder since we were rolling around in the snow!)Jessica and Julian organized the trip for us, Dan and his friend Lina from a nearby town came, and Simon who had only been in Korea about a week or so at the time came along as well (he just started teaching at one of the Hagwons in Sangju.) Jessica managed to rent a van for us to drive over in- no small feat with the language barriers and such here- which saved us from having to take like 3 buses and a ton of time to get to the resort. And the van having the built in GPS that all the cars here seem to have gave us step by step instructions on how to get to our destination, warned us of upcoming tolls, and yelled at us (in German no less!) anytime our speed got above limit or we'd somehow veered off course! Amazing stuff this technology! We were able to rent ski clothes and equipment from a little shop once we got near the resort. Lina is from Oregon and used to teach snowboarding lessons there, so Dan, Simon, and I all decided that instead of learning to ski we would let her show us how to snowboard. I had been snowboarding once before about 5 years ago and done fairly well, but I think my beginner's luck has worn off! It was a very fun day, but I don't think you could call what I did snowboarding so much as falling down a snow covered mountain repeatedly with a snowboard strapped to my feet :) The guys did much better than I and were making full runs by the end of the day. We stayed for the night skiing session as well which was beautiful being out there in the dark with all the stars... but by the end of our 8 hours that first day I was definitely ready for a rest! We all had rooms next to each other in a hotel right there at the resort which was very nice. We were going to try to go to the outdoor hot springs that they have at the hotel, but unfortunately by the time we finished night skiing we were too late to make it there, so we just hung out in one of the rooms for a while before crashing for the night. An authentic Korean experience- our neighbors were barbecuing inside a room down the hall from us! As a result, the hallway and our rooms were all a little smoky and smelled of pork :) There were no beds in the hotel just a blanket to lay down on the floor so between that and my day of, umm tumbling, I was pretty sore by the next morning. Everyone else wanted to ski a second day but I decided to play photographer and enjoy some nice sightseeing and lodge time instead :) I was able to get a ticket to ride the enclosed gondola to the top of the mountain, see the other part of the resort and have lunch with my friends before they made their last run down the mountain. I don't think they really intended it to be their last run so early, but a bit of a blizzard hit as they were going down and you could hardly see 2' in front of your face. I was definitely glad not to be struggling along with them then! So we all bundled up back in the van and made it back to Sangju in time for an early night before teaching the next day... and only a little sore :)