Sara Loves South Korea: Chusok Here We Come!!!!

I finally got a chance to put some photos up from Chusok. We had soooo much fun! There were about 12 of us who went, along with a baby, and 2 dogs. The ride there was pretty rough- the dogs were puking the whole way and we managed to get kind of lost. We had been driving for about 45 minutes when we passed Suji again.... Back to where we started. We arrived on Friday night pretty late and kind of just chilled out and had some snacks before bed.

Saturday was an action packed day! We first suited up to play a rousing game of paintball in some tiny wooded area. It was sooo hot and the paintball field was pretty small and lame, but we still managed to have tons of fun. I got shot in the leg and bruised a bit!

After paintball, we spent the remainder of the day on the dock chilling out and watching our crew attempt to wakeboard. I watched Grace, Jay, and David biff out and get a face full of water about a million times but I didn't mind because I was getting to be out on a boat. When it came time for Kelly to try, she got right up!!! My god, that girl is a strong one! She was super psyched and all about wakeboarding, so I am pretty happy for her athletic ability.

Later Saturday afternoon, some of us got a nice wakeboard show from one of the semi-pro wakeboarder guys who was hanging out at the dock. We took the nice wakeboard boat for a spin for that ride and blasted some crazy pumped up Korean tunes. Gotta love it!

Also, I got to go for a ride on the flying fish, this blown up raft thing that bounces on top of the water and into the air. Grace and I went together and basically screamed and laughed and squealed the entire ride. Soooo fun!!!!

Saturday night, we barbecued American food- hamburgers and hotdogs with a side of pasta salad. On Sunday, we went for a ride with the ATV's, which ended up being kind of aweful for me. The girls all went first and we followed around the Korean guide up and down hills and into the woods. My stupid ATV kept dying going up hills. It would die as I got towards the top of the hill and start rolling backwards, which was soooooo scary!!!!!!!!! After it rolled down a hill with me on it for the third time, I got off and wanted to quit because I was near tears and freaked out. Well, at least I can say I had a new experience I guess.

On Sunday, I somehow got convinced it was a good idea to try my hand at wakeboarding. Everyone else in our group was like "Boy, I am nervous, I sure hope I can do this." And then they totally got up on the wakeboard the second or third try. I, on the other hand, got a face full of water like ten times in a row. I was miserable, felt as if my arms had been pulled out of their sockets, and like my spine had been pulled apart from my hips. Everyone kept cheering me on so I eventually got up but man it was hard work! My forearms hurt soo badly the next two days that I couldn't even open up a soda can or bust open my ramen package. Pathetic, huh?

Sunday night we barbecued our Korean meal on the deck near the water and had a rousing bout of karaoke right there on the riverside. I know I am a terrible singer but somehow when I am drinking, I think it will be alright. Its all in good fun I suppose, but I think Clarence might have videotaped some of our performances. How horrifying!

The ride on Monday was aweful. The roads are bumpy and incredibly curvy and then traffic is stop and go. More like step on the gas and slam on the breaks. And I was hung over and sitting in the back of the van. Geeeee, didn't I feel cool when we had to pull over so I could get sick in a gas station bathroom? Lesson learned- I don't bounce back like I used to in the good ol' days.

All in all, Chusok was pretty damn amazing. We spent about $240 bucks each and it got us tons of activities for the weekend, all the food we could eat, drinks, our stay at the pension, and our way to and from our destination. Gotta love how cheap travel is here!!!!

Hanging out and eating snacks late Friday evening when we arrived at our pension.

Snacks galore and cheese balls!

The paint ballfield. Not too great but hey, it was a fun time.

Target practice?

The paintball field again.

Hanging out in the pension. Everyone looks tired!!!

Lindsay counting to ten.

Kelly is a really not so great hammock that grazed the ground.

Grace and her dogs at the boat docks.

Homemade kimbap. Thanks Grace and Sydney!

The pension- ours is the one with all of the laundry hanging from it.

Some scraggly but cute mutt that was hanging out there on the docks all weekend. There were three of them and I felt sooo bad for them being chained up all weekend long with no food or water and a foot long chain.