There's not much to say about Wednsday. We woke up late, checked out of the hotel, and spent the rest of the day trying to figure out Amara's work visa situation (We ended up having to purchase another tourist visa, as we did not have the documents necessary to get the work one). At about 5pm, we jumped on a bus and headed for the rural town of Gapyeong, in Geonggi-do province.
Once we arrived, Ryan met us at the bus station. He and his girlfriend Meeyan treated us to a delicious pork Kalbi dish. The room we ate in was very traditional - we even sat on the floor. We then went back to Ryan's to sleep.
The next day, we woke up early and visited Ryan at the public school where he works. First, we met him for a nice mondu meal and then we co-taught his class with him. It was interesting to compare and contrast Korean and Chinese students. That evening we had drank some Soju at the local watering hole.
Gapyeong is beautiful town of 50,000, with mountains surrounding on all sides. We took a nice long walk through the country (taking many pictures, of course!). We stumbled upon some interesting animals, also - the ones that I remember most would definetly be the spiders, which were HUGE.
Gapyeong is also very traditional - the locals are extremely nationalistic and are not as foreign-friendly as those in Seoul. Unlike Seoul, this town has not been heavily influenced by Western culture. No American resturants here! Not even a McDonalds! We enjoyed staying in Gapyeong. It was good to experience life in a rural town.
Our last full day in Gapyeong was spent on Nami Island. It was an interesting island. The whole place is covered with art work and random sculptors. We enjoyed meeting some of the other foreign teachers who live in the area. The best part of traveling! We met someone from Canada, South Africa, and Australia!
On our final day in Gapyeong, we hiked up a mountain that gave us a beautiful view of the town. It was a nice climb. The mountains in this area of Korea are beautiful. Finally, we hopped on the bus back to Seoul to spend our last night in Korea before returning home.
Again, we had trouble trying to fly home. A typhoon (another one) hit Shanghai the day we were trying to come home. So we spent 12 hours in the airport because of delays. This was quite aggrevating of course. All in all, we enjoyed our time in Korea. Korean life and culture is so different from Shanghai's; it was a nice change. Check out our pictures and videos! We took many!
