YongPyong

http://www.yongpyong.co.kr/eng/index.asp

YongPyong ski resort is a great resort for beginners up to experts. There are many slopes to ski on no matter what your level is. I am a beginner, so naturally I started on the beginner slopes. I worked my way from the bottom to the top, and then eventually to the intermediate slope . It was so much fun though!

First off, if you go during the winter, you have to book your hotel weeks in advance. I booked mine on a Monday, we were to leave that Friday. Because of this, we weren't able to stay in the hostel on the resort, but instead stayed at a cheap hotel in the town near the resort. This is great because it was ALOT cheaper and we got our own rooms with bathrooms. The hotel we stayed at was named Green N Blue hotel. http://greennblue.co.kr/ The owner speaks English and is actually trying to become a citizen in Vancouver, Canada. Don't expect much if you decide to stay here, it's not that nice, but the owner was so friendly. There is also a free shuttle that goes throughout the whole town that runs every 10-15 minutes and takes you straight to the resort. For three people to share a room, it was 80,000won a night. There was one King bed and a couch that folded out into a single bed. They also print you the bus schedule for the day.

To get to the hotel we took an express bus to Seoul first, stayed overnight, then headed out. It took about 3 hours to arrive in the city. It was freezing but we decided to check out the resort anyway. When we got there, all the excitement came to us and we decided to do some night skiing. It was soooo much fun!

Ski rental, snowboard rental, ski lift and/or gondola, ski/snowboard wear prices are all listed on the website. They also have a list of the condos and hotels on the resort and you can make a reservation right from their website.

To give you an idea of the prices:

Ski rentals for Evening + Night skiing: 24,000 won

Snowboard rentals for Evening + Night boarding: 30,000 won

Ski wear: about 25,000 for Evening + Night

The ski lift and gondola prices were the most expensive. This is where you can pay 500 won to store your clothes, purses, shoes, etc all day. Once you open the locker though, you will have to pay 500 again to use it.

The mega green slope. The light was reflecting off the snow so brightly.

My Apartment

This is where I live!!

This is the inside of the place I am living at:

And the bathroom:

There is no bathtub. The shower head is just sitting on the wall and I have the whole bathroom to shower in. As you can see, the shampoo and soap is there on the wall. It's quite nice.

It is quite big for one person, in my opinion. When I was told I was in rural South Korea, I envisioned farms everywhere and that I would be able to learn how to grow rice . That is not the case here. My studio apartment is very clean, with a kitchen, fridge, and TV. I got my internet and TV set up Saturday so it is like home now. There is no microwave so I have to cook everything, which is fine. I just have to adjust to the prices and different vegetables offered here.

This is my breakfast:

Yesterday I met some other foreigners that are also in the same area teaching English. We met in the city; this is the road I take to enter the city:

One of the teachers was really nice and showed me around the rest of the city, since I only stuck to the main road. He showed me the Goseong Market, which was so great! They had so many different vegetables, fruits, and even a fish market!! There were so many different kinds of seafood, and freshly caught too. They de-scale it and gut it in front of you.

In South Korea

It is my third day here in Goseong, South Korea. Here are some images from my plane flight and from the motel of my first night.

So far, Korea is great and everyone is really friendly. I think because I look asian they don't assume that I am a foreigner, though I know I dress like one. I don't know many Korean words, only "Hello" and "Thank you". That is enough to get by on so far. Here is my first Korean meal:

It was just a collection of small dishes, but we couldn't finish all of it, it was so much! My co-teacher took me to this traditional restaurant for dinner Friday, my first whole day in Korea. It was small and hard to find, so I don't know if I would be able to return to it, but it is in the same area as the supermarket. Maybe when I get more accustomed to the area I will be able to eat here again. We sat on cushions on the floor. I wasn't used to eating with chopsticks and a spoon, I still find it redundant and strange, but I'll get used to it.

My co-teacher tells me this type of meal used to be only for the upper class and royalty. The lower classes would only get about 4-5 small dishes to eat from. Anyway, it was so delicious!