Nami Island: Done Tripping

As part of a 'team building' exercise, GEC Teachers (along with some public school teachers) used Saturday to go on a retreat to Nami Island, situated east of Seoul - around the center of South Korea. It was yet another early morning for me, making it nearly three weeks since i've been able to sleep in at all. It's starting to take its toll, but i'm not one to turn down a free trip.

We met in front of the dormitory at 8:20am, which didn't seem to agree very well with some of the teachers that only got home at around 3:30am. Now now, have no fears, i'm not *that* irresponsible.. I got home at the very respectable hour of 1:30am, the night before. The bus pulled in, and Kay (our HR Manager) had an Egg McMuffin meal ready for everyone (served with coke). Yummeh. The trip was going to be about three hours, so it was good to get everyone fed.

This had to be one of the coolest buses i'd ever been on, though. I've mentioned Korean Karaoke before, the singing-room 'Noraebongs'. Well, we dubbed this the 'Noraebus'. While singing on a bus isn't really a new concept, having a Karaoke Machine on one was a spin that can only be labelled as awesome.












Nami Island itself was small, but very beautiful. We had to take a ferry to get there, and there was literally a lineup of hundreds of people waiting to get on it. It got its name from General Nami, a Korean General who died, in the 1400s, while he was only 27. The shape of the island is that of a leaf, and it was actually not at all an Island until the construction of the Cheongpyeong Dam on its river.

When we arrived, we had some free time to explore the island. Here's a selection of photos from that:






Randomly throughout the day, a few kids asked us (foreigners) to take pictures with them, with our arms over our head, shaped like an M - which apparently represents a heart. There must've been some type of contest, or scavenger hunt, but it was kind of bizzare. So for the last group of kids that asked me, I pretended like I thought that they wanted me to take a pictures of them. So I did. This is them saying 'no! no!' haha. --->

We then had some team-based activities, such as three-legged races and a relay race. It was alright, but the problem with having a bunch of tired/hungover teachers is that they're (we're) not a very energetic bunch. So the logical step after that, for me, was a well-earned nap time. I didn't doze off for too long, with the sun still shining brightly, but it felt nice to lay there for awhile. The temperature here is getting colder, but still reasonably warm.

Finally, we headed back onto the ferry, and to a nearby Galbi (Korean BBQ) restaurant. Steven, the school director, made sure that everyone had more than enough Chicken (mm), Soju, and Beer to make the bus ride interesting. We had some more Karaoke on the bus, and all and all, it was a pretty awesome day. I managed to get a whopping 11 hours of sleep last night, and i'm still tired as heck, so i'll probably call it an early night tonight as well.

For all the folks back home, have a very happy Thanksgiving, and all the best from Korea.

Pour la famille, je vous aimes beaucoup, je pense à vous, et j'espère que tout va bien. C'est sans-doute plus difficile cette année sans la tradition annuelle avec Grand-Maman, mais elle est certainement avec nous dans nos pensées. Buvez un verre de bière pour moi en son honneure! Prenez bien-soins de vous.

Cheers.