Briana Land: 2005-10-16

CONGRATULATIONS TO SARAH AND JEREMY!

My two friends and former housemates Sarah and Jeremy are getting married! So if you know them, tell them Congrats. I am so happy for you guys! I am sending my love all the way from Korea- I heart you friend. Here's to the future, and one for the past--->

AHHH! Too much has happened

Wow, way to much has happened since my last post. There has been the usual going out and noribongs, but there have been many new developments as well. First of all, I went paragliding! It was awesome. We planned to go on Saturday so we left very early in the morning and took a bus to Pyong-Chang (spelling?). It was about 3 hours south of Seoul in the mountains. We hiked up the mountain for about 1 hour, finally getting to the top. What a beautiful sight. Nothing but mountains and farmland as far as the eye can see. Unfortunatly, after much waiting we found out it was too windy to fly that day. The company that we went though (Johnathan Sky) offererd 2 options: 1) go back to Seoul Saturday night, get a refund, reschedule, or 2)spend the night in the small town, pay 20,000 won extra for 3 more meals and 1 night stay in a rented apartment. We made the obvious choice; #2. We spent the night playing cards and drinking with the Korean paragliders that were to be our guides the next day. Really great guys! One even ended up staying the night! They hardly knew any English, so it was great for our group of teachers to show them how to play kings and listen to them rap in Korean when it came to "Nine, nine, bust a rhyme." Our apartment was above a small Korean restaurant with 3 tables in it, so for breakfast (spicy soup and eggs) we just went downstairs.
Day two was the big day. This time we drove up the mountain (lazy) and arrived early in the morning. The view was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. It looked as though we were above the clouds. We were so excited to find out we would be diving into a pillow. I was third to go in our group of 8. Strapped to my Korean guilde, I ran as fast as possible right off the mountain. I can't describe the feeling in words. I was not scared at all. We floated above the clouds for a while, and then sunk into them. There was some time when all I could see was white around me, like I was living in a dream. This was my moment of clarity; it was very Zen. Then the fog started to clear, and I could see the ground below. My guide did a trick called the "toilet bowl" on the way down where you spin aroung in a circle really fast. It was sweet! The landing was good too! I landed on my feet!
I also waded in the Pyong Chang River later in the day. They make bottled water from this river that they sell all over Korea. It was the clearest river I have ever seen!
In this case a picture us worth a thousand words, so check them out!