Rafting and Deokjeok-do

August 15th was Korean independence day, and we had no school, so Brady and I, along with our friends Enda, Una, and Tara went rafting.  We went back to the place Brady and I had gone at the end of July.  We drove up Tuesday night and camped near the rafting place.  It was raining pretty steadily, but Brady and I have a tarp so we set up a shelter where people could hang out without getting wet.  On Wednesday we headed to the rafting place around noon.  It only takes two hours to get down the river, so we started in the early afternoon.  It was the same route that we did last time, but much, much rainier.  It was pretty warm out, but I still got a little cold after a while.  I couldn't believe how heavily it was raining.  When we were done they let us take hot showers, then we got some lunch and headed home.

Last weekend we went to an island called Deokjeok-do.  "Do" means island in Korean, so if it's at the end of the name of a place you know it's an island.  Deokjeokdo is about 50km off the west coast.  We had to leave early Saturday morning to catch the 8:30am ferry.  We went with Brady's college friend Stefan, who lives in Seoul, and his co-worker Tyler.  The island is fairly big, but not many people live there and it's not very built-up.  We were able to camp right near the beach, in some trees, and there didn't seem to be anyone else camping around.  When we arrived it was starting to get windy and rainy, and the sky looked ominous.  Again, we had the tarp so we set up a shelter and had lunch under it.

  Then the weather got a bit clearer and we went for a hike.

The hike took a couple hours, and was nice.  There was a big group of Koreans at the top having a picnic.  They have elaborate picnics.  They'll bring stoves, even just on a day trip, and cook a bunch of food, drink some makgeolli, really go all out.  And they always want to share.  That's one of my favorite parts about Korea, is how people always want to share their food and drink and snacks with you.  These people gave us each a shot of this stuff they called wine, but it tasted more like brandy, and ddeok.  Ddeok is...it's hard to explain.  It's a dessert, and it's sort of chewy pasta stuff made of rice, filled with something sweet or nuts.  I think it's gross, but I nibbled on it to be polite.



After the hike the weather was really nice, so we hung out on the beach for a few hours....

And watched this guy ride his bike into the ocean...

Then we made dinner on the beach. 

Today, August 28th, school was canceled because there's a typhoon coming through.  I asked several people if school in Korea ever gets canceled, and they said never.  It was supposed to be the worst in Suwon around 3-4, but it's 4:40 right now and it's been really mild.  I'm disappointed because I like big storms, but I'm really happy we got a surprise day off from school.