순천 (Suncheon City) Trip with Kerry and Ryun

Last weekend, we took a trip to Suncheon in the southwest part of Korea. It's about a 5 hour ride from Seoul. Our friend Kerry's hometown is located there, so she invited us to stay in her family's apartment for the weekend.

Kerry kept referring to Suncheon as the "country" so we were expecting farms and pigs. But really, it's a pretty big, urban area. It seemed to me like it was bigger than St. Louis city. Her family has a home in a high rise apartment building.

Here's a shot of us the first night hanging out there... me, Kerry, and Ryun. Ryun is Kerry's boyfriend and a Korean American. He is basically fluent in Korean so you can imagine how jealous I am. :)

We've seen many things locked up (and surprisingly not locked up) around Korea. But Mark thought this little kid's scooter locked to the railing was so hilarious. It actually was... because the scooter looked like it'd been around since 1962. I think the bike lock would probably cost more than the scooter.

The next day, we met some of Kerry's friends. Here Kerry is with her best friend and her boyfriend. Her best friend was so sweet... before we came to Korea, we would hear about how hospitable Koreans can be, and we definitely saw this this weekend. Kerry's friends wouldn't let us pay for any meals.

After lunch, they took us sightseeing to an eco-park. It was basically a marsh with a walking path through it. We could see all sorts of critters... little crabs, slugs, and bugs in the mud.

Here's the group walking on the path. As you can see, the scenery was absolutely gorgeous. It really was nice to get out of Seoul and breathe the fresh air for the weekend.

This is one of my favorite pics Mark took from the trip. So pretty!

Next, they took us to a beach. Unfortunately, it was a rocky beach, so there wasn't any sand... but Mark and Ryun had a lot of fun competing in the game "who can pick up big rocks and throw them further."

Then that night, we met up with the rest of Kerry's friends. Kerry is super-animated and outgoing and it was so funny that all of her friends are the exact same as her! Here's the group shot at the Nolaebang.

The next day we met the whole group at one of the coolest restaurants I've ever been in. There was a little lake with fountains in the middle, and the restaurant wrapped around it. The walls were entirely glass, so we spent the entire meal looking at this:

After lunch, we all went to "the valley" to hang out. It is basically a little creek with rocks. We spent time hanging out on the rocks and chatting (as much as we could with my limited Korean and their limited English). These girls got vicious throwing each other in the creek though! At one point two girls were fighting and one had the other's head and was dunking it face first in the stream. Not sure if I'd have any friends back home left if I tried that on a float trip... :)

Here's a last shot of Mark and me...

All in all, it was a really fun weekend and a nice change of pace from the hectic Seoul lifestyle. Hopefully we can squeeze in a few more weekend trips like this. Anyone else have any little weekend getaways planned?