매애

"Baa"

Just from that you can probably guess what this blog post is about...well, vaguely :). This weekend, my friend planned a day trip to 강원도 Gangwon-do, where we checked out a sheep farm, a mineral spring, and an herb farm. As usual with these trips, the actual bus trip itself took much longer than actually exploring the places but as usual with these trips, there's no time for bonding with friends like bus time!

Our first stop, the sheep farm, was, well, not too full of sheep, as maybe it was because of the weather? I'm not sure, but for some reason the sheep were in their pens rather than roaming the pastures. Still, because of the blue skies above and the somewhat chilly, but in the comfortable range, weather, we had fun wandering the scenery and taking pictures with the sheep and amongst ourselves.
Hehe is it just me or are they smiling like anime characters?

Our group!
Yup that's a patch of snow. Not quite my idea of the end of April...
Buds :D Kevin, Kana, Henry, and Xue Qing.
Ah, wouldn't it be nice to lie on the field and just watch the clouds float by? ^^
Jump!
Kick!

After that, we went to a restaurant for lunch where we had 황태찜 (a spicy pollack dish) after arguing with the ajumma for about a minute or two that we would be able to handle the spiciness (which, ironically, did not turn out that spicy in the end). Ah, one of the things about some Koreans is how they will assume that if you're not Korean you can't handle spiciness, when there are many cultures that are abundant with spicy food, but that's stereotypes for you ^^. I also got the other day, "Oh, using chopsticks must be difficult for you."
황태찜

But, moving on to the second place! The mineral spring was a short trip, but we tried the mineral water there from the spring and it tasted pretty gross...pretty much like water filled with a LOT of metal. On the bright side, it's supposed to protect against cancer, swine flu, and other diseases ^^. We also had a bit of fun here taking pictures with Kevin being a monkey hehe.
Our last destination was 허브나라 herb farm, which had very pretty gardens and had a delicious bakery that sold yummy herb pastries and delicious herb jam that I decided to buy as a souvenir :). There were also herb aromas and other neat products, not to mention we were able to take some nice pictures there =].
One thing that's been really nice is how we've all developed from Level 4 when we all first met (well I entered a bit late as quite a few had known each other since Level 2 ^^) but how we've reached the point that we can all talk to each other in Korean as if it's our language and how it's not awkward even to speak to our English-speaking buddies in Korean too! It's fostered a new kind of bond I've definitely never experienced before and has led to some lifelong friends =]. It just makes me sad that I'll be going back home soon and leaving them, unsure of when I'll see them next :'(. If only the world were just a bit smaller! It's at least metaphorically become so in recent times, what with all the travel and foreign exchange. Woo for Light Fellowship! :)