Hiking with My Co-teachers

Last Wednesday my school had an open house of sorts where parents could come and watch their students in class and provide feedback to the teachers. This day was very important to many of the teachers and they worked very hard to put together a really, really strong lesson plan. The school then wanted to reward the teachers for their efforts so all after school classes were cancelled allowing the teachers to go on a school-organized hiking trip!

All of the teachers left school around 2:00 and we drove about 30 minutes to a famous hiking trail in Hwacheon. At the top of the trail was a natural spring and the Koreans believe drinking the water is very good for your health. The direct translation for the spring is actually ‘medicine water’. We were very fortunate to have a beautiful day- it was mid sixties and sunny! The trail was beautiful although it was pretty short. We reached the spring in about 30 minutes. I arrived at the spring in the first group with the younger male teachers and after waiting a little bit for the other teachers we decided to hike a little further on a neighboring mountain.

The natural spring

We then carved our own path up to a set up rocks that the Korean teachers called man rocks. I’m not quite sure how accurate that is though because the teachers had trouble translating the name. Getting to the rocks was a little bit difficult since it was really steep and slippery but after we made it up there we were all glad we made the trek.

Amy and I with some of our co-teachers at the 'man rock'

After we finished hiking all of the teachers drove to a nearby restaurant where we ate 삼계탕, which is a chicken stew/porridge. Basically they take a small chicken and stuff it with sticky rice, ginseng, a bean, and ginger and then boil it in a stew/porridge made with sesame. It cooks for a really long time until the chicken practically falls off the bone. Needless to say, it was absolutely delicious! After the meal we all parted ways but it was a great afternoon and I’m so glad the school planned the trip!

Also, in case you missed it a photo of my really, really rural town was in the American news. Although, of course it's because of the soldiers! I guess that's what happens when you live 6 miles from the DMZ. And yes, this is pretty typical of what I see every morning walking to school.