Seoraksan, Halloween, the election and other various ramblings

Before my mom harasses me any more about the lack of blog posts, I will attempt to spit one out.  I don't know where the time goes, but it goes somewhere, and in that time I have neglected my posting.  I've been here over two months.  It's now officially my life and at times I feel the honeymoon has worn off, but I'm still enjoying myself.  

Two weekends ago I went to Seoraksan National Park on the east coast of South Korea.  Saying the area was beautiful is not doing it justice in any way.  So I'll let my pictures speak for themselves:

I also have some more pictures you can see here.

We started off the trip in a stressful state because we missed our bus to Sokcho.  We gave it a good try by running through the subway stations Home Alone style, but we missed the bus by ten minutes.  Luckily we got tickets for a bus departing an hour later.  

On Saturday we hiked to the top of Ulsanbawi, a mountain in Seoraksan.  With my fear of heights and no experience climbing that high before, it was a bit unnerving, but I am glad to say I accomplished the hike.  It was incredibly crowded at the park and the hike up was more dangerous because of Koreans shoving than anything else.  At the top of the mountain it was windy, cold, and anticlimactic.  The hike up had much more beautiful views.  

While in Korea, I've realized how much I love Halloween.  The past two weeks were devoted to Halloween lesson plans in the classroom whether my students liked it or not.  I showed videos from A Nightmare Before Christmas, Michael Jackson's Thriller and the like.  Koreans do not celebrate Halloween, so we received many funny looks on Friday night when we walked to the bar.  I went the easy route and dressed up in a toga (my bed sheet).  I was impressed with many of the costumes people pulled together because there aren't many options here in Korea.  

Today is a very exciting day as everyone knows--election day!  I will not hear about results until tomorrow afternoon, but I am looking forward to it nevertheless.  Many of the Korean teachers were asking me about the election today.  No matter how much I travel, it still amazes me how much more everyone knows about the United States' political system than Americans know about any other country.  It seems like many Koreans want Obama to win, or at least expect him to.  Peter, my co-teacher, supports McCain.  That does not surprise me because he seems rather conservative.  He wondered how Americans could think Obama could run a country when he is so young.  I said the opposite could and is being said about McCain.  Peter also likes McCain's Vietnam War stories.  One of the teachers who can barely say five words in English spoke to me for a good ten minutes about Obama's ideas for change.  Also many of my students have asked me (or had teachers translate for them) whether I voted.  Overall there's a great sense of anticipation even over here.  I can only imagine what it's like at home.  I'm streaming the Current right now (seriously, streaming online radio is one of the best inventions ever) and all of their songs have to do with the election.  Good stuff.