Way-gook-in' it up in Korea!: Boseong Green Tea Fields & Cheon-gwan Mountain

This weekend I spent with my host family. I tried to sleep in on Saturday (set my alarm for 7:30, oh boy!) but ended up being woken up at 6 anyway, by the clinking of dishes in the kitchen and the other noises my host family makes when they get ready for school. :-( I stayed in bed until 7:30, dozing off a few more times. I went swimming and came back to make french toast only to find no eggs. :-( Yes, my Saturday morning was off to a bad start.

I spent the rest of my morning and afternoon working on grad school applications, had instant ramen noodles with my host family for lunch, and then at 3 we headed off for a 2 day trip.

First stop was Boseong Green Tea fields. They were quite beautiful! Pretty much it's rows and rows of green tea bushes going up the mountain. I guess in the spring the walk along the rows and clip the fresh buds/leaves and this makes the best tea. Anyway, we climbed up, took a gander, took quite a few pictures, and then hopped back in the van to head off to my host mom's mom's house. We picked her up and then drove about 20 minutes into the town near her village. We ate at a meat restaurant and the beef was AMAZING!! I guess this area is famous for its beef. Usually when towns or countries claim they have better meat than other places, I can't really tell the difference. But this time I most definitely could!

After dinner we headed back for dinner. I read (and finished) my book while the others were watching Korean TV. Then time for bed, I was told that I would sleep in a room with the mom and grandma. And the 2 boys would sleep with the dad in another. Ok, that's all good. Then Jun-eun, the youngest, came in our room and my host mom told me something about he'd be sleeping in here since he was sick and she'd sleep in the other room. Ok, so they wanted me to get sick or what? Both boys were coughing all over all weekend, so I'll feel super lucky if I wake up tomorrow healthy. Anyway, the night was pretty rough what with the grandma snoring, Jun-eun's coughing, the loud ass grandfather clock, them trying to take the grandfather clock pendulum off so it'd be quiet, and the grandma turning on the lights several times and feeding Jun-eun some kind of tea. Oh my, good times. I had forgotten how awkward it was when I visited the grandparents' houses over Chuseok. This one doesn't ahve a sink or shower in the bathroom, just tubs of water that I don't understand how to use, so don't! :-P

The next morning we woke up and had bfast, and other wasting of time until 10am when we jumped back in the van and headed to Cheon-gwan Mountain. The hike was pretty steep and challenging, but it was beautiful weather today and beautiful views!! It took about 4.5 hours for our hike and then we headed back to the grandma's house to load up the van (quite litearally, it was loaded) with kimchi, a 40kilo bag of rice, fish, and tons and tons of other Korean food. After the back axel was all weighted down, we headed for home. All feeling quite exhausted after our hike. I think I've reached my max on hiking for awhile (Seoraksan last Sat, Jirisan Thur, Suncheon Bay Fri, and Cheon-gwansan today!).

Boseong Green Tea fields