Seoraksan and Sokcho

work Friday ended as it usually does, with that instant relief and short intake of breath that lets you know that you have once again achieved freedom through tenacity and skill, thrown almost effortlessly at unsuspecting Korean children for five days in a row.....and so there was a bus to catch at 10:55pm.....one with the heat cranked to 'melt and ooze into the floor' temperatures.....4 hours later, a swift, biting wind ushered us from the bus into the cold starry night of Sokcho beach.....we ambled down several nearly empty streets until a middle-aged Korean woman got our attention and pulled us into a hotel room.....it ended up being enormous and overlooked the ocean.....it also cost $30 for three of us to stay the night

we awoke in the morning to sunlight and seagulls.....that turned out to be pigeons.....found a city bus that for 90 cents (like all city buses) ushered us into Seoraksan National Park.....the view from the base of the mountains was incredible.....a cable car brought us to the summit of a central mountain.....many Korean men clammered up some rocks and cliff faces and shouted, gesticulating wildly into the open air.....i through out my usual 'anniyong haseyo' and wandered out to some further cliffs.....bored with the volume of people at this peak, i decided to design a trail of my own up to other cliffs and peaks, clearly indicated by the metal pipe fences and 'no trail'/'do not trespass' signs.....from there, fewer voices were heard, and many unmarked areas were available to explore.....only when the sun ducked behind the mountains and the ominous 'last call' for the tram down forced a premature end to the mission.....we were late.....almost 45 minutes late, but the tram driver waited

back in Sokcho we toured several hofs and found our way to a local dive, away from youth and Americanized establishments.....here, there were authentic raw dead things consumed, and the owner attempted to show Groove Holmes how to fight properly.....mistakingly punching Groove Holmes in the face, he apologized, and showed him some extra shifty moves in compensation.....the night/morning somehow ended at a nuraebang, singing at the top of our lungs into echoey microphones for no particular reason at all, other than hey, we're in a nuraebang..........late morning arrived, one last hazy, lethargic trip to the beach and then a six hour 'operation: pass-out' bus ride back into Seoul, and ready to teach