No words can describe how incredible my weekend was.  But I'll try nonetheless.  Friday was Cheusok, Korean Thanksgiving.  It's not as big as TG in the States, but it is heavily marketed in stores as they break out large boxes of packaged goods including liquor, spam and oil, pears, grapes and the list goes on and on.  Our Hagwon only gave us Friday off, while the public schools all had between 2-5 days vacation.  I was a little upset about our lack of vacation, but I think I made up for it very well. 
     Friday morning started out with a bang; literally.  Bryan was knocking on my door before 9am, wanting to do a little snorkeling.  I was resistant at first, just because I was groggy, but he finally talked me into it.  We drove down to this spot in Bomok, 2 towns east where I ride my bike.  It's kind of a peninsula that reaches out towards Seopsom, one of the islands where I dive.  We geared up, and went in near the little boat launch area.  The water was stirred close to shore, but the farther we go, the clearer it became.  Visibility was 20m plus, and the snorkeling was amazing.  We were diving down to reefs, looking under overhangs and finding tons of fish.  There were more of these minnow-sized amazing neon blue fish than I'd ever seen before.  Schools and schools of sardines and other small fish continuously surrounded us and moved on.  There was so much to see, that we kept our swim going about 400-500m, all the way to the island, where we met up with Tanja and some of Big Blue 33's divers for the day.  Bryan and I walked around the island a little bit just to relax, snuck a little fresh water from the dive crew, and then headed back. 
     Seogwipo and been getting rain for a few days at this point, and Friday was one of the first sunny and crystal clear days in awhile.  I'd been to Eongtto Falls once previously, and it had not been falling.  On a hunch, I decided to head out there.  I ran into Rob, Marian and Brett, who decided to join Bryan and myself on the trip.  After a short 10 minute drive up the mountain and west, we arrived at the parking lot which was full of cars.  This had to be a good sign.  And it was.  Eongtto was falling with a good force.  We climbed around taking pictures, and even made it into the cave where we encountered a couple bats.  After we'd taken enough pictures, we scrambled over the fence, across the rocks and to the edge of the pool at the base of the falls.  It was such a nice day that we really had no choice.  We had to swim. 

The swim was incredibly relaxing, and so inviting, that a Korean man decided to jump in and join as.  We even had our own cameraman.  There was some man from a Korean website that was taking picture of foreigners enjoying Jeju.  He hit the jackpot when he ran into us and must have taken 100 pictures.  After Eongtto, I headed home, showered, cleaned up, made dinner and prepared for the next adventure;  climbing Halla-san (the tallest mountain in Korea) at 2am, to get to the top by 6, in order to watch the sunrise. 
     Hiking the volcano at night is highly frowned upon, and not allowed at all by Koreans.  I knew that a few of my friends had already made the ascent, so I figured we'd give it a try.  Justin (who was maybe even more into the idea than I was), Rob, Marian and myself, after much debate, decided to leave our building by 1:45am.  We arrived at Songpannak, the longest trail around 2:15 and started the trek.  <CLICK ON THE TINY 'READ MORE' BELOW TO CONTINUE>

The trail was approximately 9.5km one way, and was supposed to take between 4 and 4.5 hours to hike.  Spirits were high at the beginning, and the weather was fine.  It was a crisp, clear night, with a glowing full moon peaking out between the tree tops.  The trails was mixed with occasional wood steps and tons of ankle-breaking rocks.  We only made 2-5 minute stops on the way up, and one brief break to take a drink from a mountain spring and take a picture of a pygmy deer.  The hike was painful, and only got worse when we hit the last 200m where the cone of the volcano gets incredibly steep.  Rob and I broke away from the other 2 and hauled up the last bit.  Rob admittedly faster than myself, but he's basically the British Energizer bunny.  As we approached the top, I kept hearing these strange howling noises.  Winds were well over 25kts, so I figured my ears were playing tricks on me.  Boy was I wrong.  At the summit were no less than 40 Korean 'Special Forces' soldiers.  (I put that in quotations because I was bigger than the majority of the soldiers.  Height and muscle.)  When they finished their chanting, they decided it was time for a photo shoot.  There was still about 10 minutes or so to go before the sunrise, so we succumbed to the calls of 'handsome man, photo!'.  The troops whipped out their pink cameras and while apparently freezing, took dozens and dozens of pictures of and with us. 

The sunrise was absolutely incredible, and a sight I will never forget.  The sun seemed to shoot a beam straight up into the clouds creating a single highlight amongst the pinks, oranges and reds of the sky even before it fully rose.  The oreums appeared like miniature volcanoes, dotting the island and emerging slowing from the morning mist.  We spent around an hour up there, leaving just before frostbite set in.  The hike down felt about 7 times as long as the hike up, not even do to our ramien and bathroom breaks.  At the base, we all rested, drank a beer and reflected.  We were all sore and felt like we'd been on the mountain for days, but we were all ridiculously happy.  We were the only foreigners to climb that morning, and it was easily one of the clearest days of the year.  I'm sure none of us will forget that adventure.   (More pictures of the 2nd pictures page)
   And it doesn't stop there...

Since it was such a beautiful day, and we were done by 11am, we decided a nice trip to Jungmun beach was in store.  Not giving ourselves time to grow too tired, we headed home, changed and jumped right back in the van.  Rob, Marian and I left for the beach quickly, with Justin opting for a nap.  The water was crystal clear, the ocean fairly calm, and the sun shining brightly.  Rob was asleep within 5 minutes of laying out, and I pumped up my air mattress, grabbed a beer and tied myself to a buoy. 

 I spent a good couple of hours on that mattress drifting in and out of consciousness and soaking up the last rays of what still feels like summer.  Jungmun was followed up by a delicious burger and beer at Geckos and some much deserved sleep. 
  Sunday included another trip to the beach, after I slept in, plus a stop at the 5-day market.  I picked up a couple items at the market, spent some more time drifting in the ocean, and even played a little volleyball.   
     It really was one of the most memorable and breath-taking weekends of my life.  Just wish Lauran could have shared it with me.