International Night and Trip to Gyeoungju

Well Saturday was a relaxed day. I woke up and ate breakfast, and relaxed until about 10:30. We had an international talent night presentation that evening, so we met at 10:30 to work out what we'd do. We hashed out a plan and by lunch were ready to go. That afternoon we watched a Korean movie, Blood Rain, about a paper ship sinking and the arsonist responsible being unknown. It was a little slow, and I slept through some of it :) We re-met at 3:30 and had our stage practice at 4. We worked out kinks until dinner. After dinner we had our presentation. There were 11 groups in all, and we came in 2nd place--which was where I would have voted us; one performance was just WAY better than the rest, and needless to say they won 1st. A lot of groups resorted to dancing, which was a little sad to see the American culture dominate the scene, when I know there are a lot of talented Koreans that could have done other stuff. Oh well :/

Sunday we left for Gyeongju, a city in the south east. We had to drive for about 6 hours, which was ok because we ride mad deep in charter buses and my bus buddy is great! We stopped at a Korean village and enjoyed seeing the old houses and way of life. I got a lot of good gifts for the family here :p We arrived at a really NICE restaurant (probably $30 a person) in Gyeongju and enjoyed a Korean dinner. After that we drove to the hotel, the Hyundai Hotel (yes, the car company). We arrived to our luxurious rooms and discovered the place. A group of us headed out to a little pub called the "Titanic," which was a ship outside. We enjoyed a little drinks, some more than others. I got back to the room and hit the sack!

Monday was our tour day of some pretty cool places. We visited Kyongju, which was an ancient buddhist temple. It was fascinating to see the old architecture and intricate design of the buildings, but sad to see that people actually believe a golden statue can bring them salvation. We also saw the Seokguram Grotto, which was another little temple thing that supposedly illustrates the history of buddha and his defeating the ancient gods. After that we headed to an ancient burial ground where Kings and important people were buried. These mounds were quite large, as you'll be able to see from the photos.

After the mounds we headed to the beach with the prospect of soft sand and warm water! Not :( We got there and I ran out of the bus eager to hit the water. Only to my sadness, the water was freezing. The temperature was 55 degrees. Probably the coldest water I've been in in my life! But after 5 minutes or so it felt good :) We stayed there, on a rocky beach (little sand :/) for a little longer and loaded up the buses. We returned to the hotel to clean up, and headed out to dinner. That evening we had a club reserved, and a complimentary Hike (Korean beer) to boot! I stayed there until about 2, dancing and playing pool. I hit the sack and woke up the next day, ate breakfast, and loaded the bus. I didn't feel too good, with a headache and stomach issues. (Not due to a "hangover," as I did not consume excessive alcohol, but rather the smoky atmosphere!) I tried to sleep it out, rather unsuccessfully. We stopped at the Hyundai shipbuilding plant, which was MASSIVE. This plant we were at made 80% of the big ships in the world, right there in Ulson, South Korea.

More to come later! Thanks for reading and leave those comments! 벤자민