Anyway, without further ado, here's a minimalistic chronicle of the cabin trip my coworkers and I took this weekend.
But first, we begin in Suji, near the huge (and hugely expensive) Shinsege Mall. This is an upper-crust kind of place - for example, they're just about to open a Louis Vuitton boutique. This is at one end of the luxurious under-street walkway. After coming up a set of escalators (mind you, this is all just to cross underneath the street, not inside the mall or anything), you are greeted by this charming little waterfall setup. I had to take a picture because I liked the post-modern feel of the bareness of the blocks and the use of concrete and plain tile, combined with the old-fashioned style in which the little turtles were carved:
They appeared to be made out of some kind of fake jade, but I appreciated the little detail that they added to the very 1970's Po-mo thing the whole waterfall setup had going on. In fact, if I were feeling academic (and I am), I would speculate that this waterfall isn't a half-bad symbol for where Korea finds itself today - an increasingly powerful country in the modern era, participating and participating quite well in the trappings of now-a-days, leading the world in electronics and communications technology. However, perched upon all that post-modern uniformity is a small reminder of the strong traditions and proud heritage that still support this country. In fact, since being here, I've become appraised of a bit of Korean history that relates to turtles, which I will in transition share with you here. In 1592, when Korea was under siege from the invading Japanese, the impressive armadas of Hideyoshi Daimyo (the then-leader of a newly unified Japan) provided one of the most significant threats to Korea's sovereignty. The Koreans were severely outnumbered on the water, yet success in this area was crucial. The innovative Korean Admiral Yi Sun-san came up with the Turtle Ships, low-riding warships that were equipped with armored and spiked plating that completely covered the deck of the ship, causing them to resemble snapping turtles and giving them their name. These were essentially the first "submarines," enclosed although they were unable to actually submerge. They were armed with dragon heads on the prow that not only added psychological warfare to the boat's arsenal, but also actually emitted toxic gas that occluded the ship's position and allowed it to use its other unique weapon - an extension in the rear of the ship that could ram into enemy boats. Also the dragon's head could be armed with a long-range Korean cannon to take down ships from a distance, in addition to the usual deployment of eleven to fifteen side-mounted cannons. These Turtle Ships were an invaluable addition to the Korean flotilla and inflicted costly wounds upon Hideyoshi's armada.
Returning to the present tense, we have a very modern institution: a typical example of a Lotte Mart, the flagship establishment of Lotte corporation. This is the Lotte mart in Suji, about three blocks from the hagwon I teach at. This behemoth is about five floors of partitioned purchasing pleasure. The first floor is a grocery store, about as big as any you'd find here (although falling a bit short of your average Cub Foods or Rainbow Supermarket), I'd say it's about comparable to the grocery section of a Super Target. It's a good place to stock up on anything you can't find at your local market (Sing Sing Market for me), or if you want some of those same things at a cheaper price. My best finds include liters of skim milk that come with free vegetable juice and a box of cereal that came with a free nalgene-style water bottle taped to the outside of it. Good cereal, too. The second floor is divided into sections - there's a department-style store that takes up most of the floor, including clothing, electronics and home appliances. There's also a little instrument store, where I found this little gem:
Reform Pianos? Drat. Where can I find the Orthodox Pianos? Anyhow, on the third floor of Lotte Mart (which foreign locals lovingly refer to as "Scrotte Mart") are several more little shops, including a T.G.I. Friday's and a pet store. It's kind of like a mall that's all owned by one huge company.But you didn't come here today to hear about my life in Suji, did you? You came with the promise of hearing about the Korean countryside and my adventures with my coworkers.
Ok.
Eight of us hopped into J-Bomb's van at about 2:20 on Saturday afternoon. It took us half an hour to get to Lotte Mart. I should mention something. That's about 3 BLOCKS. The traffic was absolutely insane on the part of the highway that goes from downtown Suji to over where Lotte mart is. Once we got out of downtown, it was smooth sailing, however, and soon we left the bustle of Suji for the rolling mountainous countryside of regions south of Seoul. Korea is about 77% mountains, and it really shows. The narrow valleys between the gorgeous peaks were at first filled with sky-rise apartments much like the ones we left behind in Suji, only less omnipresent, but those soon gave way to smaller housing complexes and gravel pits and eventually, finally, gloriously, open country and farmland. We passed the exit for "Everland," Korea's largest theme park, and I made a note that it's pretty dang close to Suji and I should visit sometime soon. We eventually made a pit stop at some sort of weird restaurant/rest stop/zoo, where I of course snapped some pictures of the animals in their cages. They had quite a variety, from this proud peacock to a huge hare to, um... 
Rottweilers? Ok, I guess that makes sense. These little puppies and their rather dejected-looking mom were penned up between the Hare and a bunch of exotic-looking fowl. Dad was in a cage next-door, and the intrepid puppies had found one peg of the cage bars between them that was bent up enough to crawl though. It was kind of sad. Anyhow, after we all got back in the van, we continued up into the mountains and through several small towns (and over several speed bumps that send my head into the roof of the van on two occasions. Finally, we came to the resort, which was much nicer than I had anticipated. There were a couple of very friendly (insistently so) dogs that wouldn't leave us alone the whole time, and the owner was very friendly as well. We began by playing some soccer in the small field by the house, climbed trees and played a game of kickball. The cabin came equipped with a set of badminton rackets and a shuttlecock, so that saw some use as well. All in all, at first, there were nine of us at the cabin: Myself, Matt, Bobby, Korean teachers Ross, Kelly and J-bomb, and secretaries Han-sun, Somi and Eun-jin. Later we were joined by Yakubu, Mr. Lee (the big boss), Mr. Park (the lead supervisor), Jay (the director and organizer of classes), Mr. Lee's girlfriend (who used to be a secretary) and another teacher. Here's a picture of the cabin:
As you can see, it's two stories, with plenty of lovely windows and seating available. This picture was taken when we first arrived, it was probably around 6 or so in the afternoon. When all the others arrived, we started playing some Presidents and Assholes, and we even taught Mr. Lee how to play. Nothing like being able to call your boss a "Vice-asshole." We had a wonderful dinner of Galbi (which is lettuce, rice and grilled meat, held in the palm of your hand) and grilled shrimp, cooked by Mr. Lee and Ross. The next few pictures won't require as much description, so I'll probably just caption them as I show them.
Here's a view of the other side of the cabin. That's Mr. Park on the left, then Somi and Eun-Jin. The TV there has a karaoke machine built in to the DVD player, which we utilized later in the evening.
Here's Yakubu and Bobby (in front) and Matt on the other side of the table.
Here's the gang playing a Korean drinking game called "3 6 9" You count around the circle, clapping instead of saying any numbers that contain 3, 6 or 9. The fact that we were allowed to count in either Korean or English complicated matters significantly, and plans were laid to get people to mess up.The next day, after a night of karaoke and games and lots of fun, we packed up and got ready to head out to the mountains.
Here's another picture of everybody in the field outside our cabin. That's Matt over near the soccer ball. The two actually looking at me are Ross and J-Bomb, from the left. Behind Ross is Bobby. On the far side of the triangle of girls is Eun-jin, the closest is Somi, and the one holding her hands together is Han-sun.
Han-sun and Somi in front of a mountain by the cabin.
Here's the gang underneath a gate at the entrance to the path going up a mountain. We "climbed" this mountain to the top of the paved path, which was very beautiful and ran alongside a mountain stream. At the top was this marvel, presented in three parts!
This Ginkgo tree is over 1,100 years old! They know this because it was a gift to the emperor of Korea at the time, and has lived ever since. It's also monstrously huge! At the top of the mountain path was also this lovely shrine:
We also got to drink some delicious cold fresh mountain spring water and generally be touristy. This was kind of new for the secretaries, as well, since although they are all from Korea they are big-time city girls. They even wore heels to hike up the mountain. Whoops.
We stopped to play around in the stream for a while on the way down. I made a traveler's shrine:
Anyone who passes this shrine may now add a rock to the top and make a wish! Good stuff. Finally, down at the bottom of the mountain we indulged in a somewhat more modern pleasure:
That's right, a viking ride. You can see Matt, Eun-jin and Ross enjoying it on the other side.
After the ride, we piled back into the car, stopped for some bibibap for lunch/dinner and made a long, long, slow ride back to Suji - it took five hours. Much of this was spent crammed in a corner of the van fitfully sleeping while listening to Con Brio. All in all, a fantastic weekend.
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