Bugok Hawaii vacation.

I just got back from my vacation to Hawaii. Don't get worried, I was never a "Geek in America" for even a second this weekend. No, this was a Korean resort deceptively titled "Bugok Hawaii" that, while not featuring any Hula girls, had pleanty of other distractions to keep the school staff and a large group of students occupied.

I was awakened at 9 am(!) and told that I needed to get ready because we were leaving in a half hour. This was news to me because I had been told that we expected a departure around 2 pm, of course, I'm probably always the last person to know/figure something out so I wasn't totally surprised. Still, with a general lack of time to get my affairs in order, I was unable to post anything yesterday, which broke my multimonth posting streak. Bummer.

After grabbing everything I could, the students and staff headed for the charter bus. I got a seat with Sun-ye, who was just as tired as I was and I had the intention of sleeping through the bus drive if possible.

This was of course NOT the case, as somehow I got put into the center of several games, including an violent version of "3-6-9" which I had not seen before. Min-gi, one of the students in Lion class had her 2 high school sisters with her for the trip, and I think they had crushes on me. Wouldn't be the only people either...I'm getting ahead of myself.

So, after we arrived and checked in, we ate and took a tour of the taxidermy exhibit they had. Next we prepared to go swimming in the large indoor heated pool. When you are looking after 50 or so odd kids, everything takes a little longer, and I spent a large amount of my time simply waiting around while the kids got ready for this or that activity.

I went with Penguin teacher and the children to go swimming. Too bad I was the only adult willing to actually go and swim with the kids. Maybe the other people on the staff were as weary of the kiddie pool as I was, so they opted to catch up on some sleep.

I don't even want to consider why it was a little warmer than all the other pools(shudder). Since the kiddie pool was surrounded by a moat like pool that wasn't heated. I spent time swimming laps (difficult since the water was shallow) and retrieving odd floatation device that got into the pool.

After we retrieved most of the kids and posed for pictures, we headed back and got prepared for sledding. While I was sitting outside the room for the kids to get ready, a foreigner happened to walk by and I casually said "Hello." He invited me out for a smoke, which I declined, but I went out and talked.

He said his name was Shawn and that he was from Canada. He was finishing up a year teaching High school, and that the staff in his school was going to the resort for the famous hot spring baths they have here. He told me he had a girlfriend in Thailand, and that he was looking to traveling and such. I asked him about his stay in Korea and he told me the standard foreigner style details.

The conversation stuck me as odd as when we departed he AGAIN mentioned that I should check out the hot spring baths sometime tonight, as he was only going to here tonight and then be leaving to move out of his current place of employment. Confused, I told him I'd consider it if my itinerary wasn't full and then headed back upstairs.

Once all the kids got into their coats, we were put on a special shuttle bus for a night time trip up the "road to hell" as it was called. No kidding, this road was lined with scenes of what I was told was a form of "Buddhist Hell". That concept completely confused the heck out of me, I didn't know Buddhist's had a hell, but this clearly wasn't a nice place to make any sort of journey.

The kids and I stared in awe as large stone demons were terrorizing unfortunate souls along the path...the classics were well represented, with some people in pots, some people getting their tongues ripped out, and the ever nice "sandwich of spikes" crushing someone. At the end of the pathway was a large standing Buddah, so I assume the two were related. So much for whoever said Buddhists don't prostletize in my Religion 101 class, ::huff::.

We reached the top and were treated to a large ice covered hill and a huge stack of intertubes. The manager came out and showed us the proper procedure for the downhill trip, and we all grabbed a 'tube and walked up the slope via a long astroturf trail. We had races and some good general fun while some fireworks went off for us to watch in the night sky. Good clean fun, and it was the best sledding I've done for a long time (it's not that Ohio is exactly known for hills and all).

After the sledding, I thought that our night was over, but alas, I was mistaken. We had an elaborate Christmas pagent to attend as well. The student's parents who had arrived on the bus that left the school at 2, (A miscommunication on someone's part to me about the trip) met us in the reception hall. The children did their song and dance routines that I had seen them practicing all through out last week.

Eventually the entire teaching staff (myself included) was dragged out on stage to address the sizeable crowd. Talk about embarrassing, I was forced to dance in front of all the parents and students in some sort of sick contest for applause. I played some rather weird Korean party games at the request of the rest of the school staff, but when I saw the children were getting dragged off the bed, I jumped at the opportunity to leave.

I was stuck sharing a room with 10 other Korean boys. A word of advice: If you want a good night's sleep, don't EVER do this. We slept in a traditional Korean room, which meant no beds, only a light mattress to unfold onto the floor and crash on. During the night I had to clean up a vomitting child (figures he'd be sleeping next to me too, but everyone was lucky he didn't make a large mess) and I also had to wrestle a kid back in bed that somehow managed to wiggle around the entire room.

Needless to say, I got absolutely NO sleep and was groggy in the morning. I was a tad upset when I got down to our breakfast meal to see traditional Korean food only. I had my heart set on a Contiental breakfast for some reason and the rice I forced down tasted bitter with my resentment of the general lack of bagels and such.

I found out at breakfast that Shawn's proposition to visit the "hot spring baths" might not entirely have been on the level because in a Korean bath, while it's seperated by gender, but done entirely nude. Looks like that was my first ever gay proposition...girlfriend in Thailand indeed!

We walked a botanical garden, posing for pictures of coure along the way, and toured the MOST DEPRESSING ZOO, EVER. I am normally don't like seeing animals in cages , but Cincinnat's zoo is world reknown and tolerable for me walk through without being depressed about the animal's life in captivity. This zoo was something entirely different. It was lots of bars and boredom for the poor animals, and it soured my grumpy mood even more.

After the walk in the MOST DEPRESSING ZOO,EVER, we were given some tickets for the amusement park rides so we could ride for free. The Korean teacher's worked their mojo and got one of the directors of the park to give us all sorts of free rides, which is normally a good thing....

Except the types of rides they have here are generally of the "puke-tastic" variety. I can deal with most rides, Hell I was a carny back in the day, but I don't do the "spinning, rocking" style rides well. Seeing as how I wasn't really given a choice about the subject, I was dragged from ride to ride, despite my protests about how sick it was going to make me.

Some of the rides I had never seen before, and probably for good reason, as I could only see "LAWSUIT" written over them if they were in the States. An example was this large round spinning ride, where everyone sits on the inside, facing each other towards the middle. In action I can only describe it like being in a giant washing machine, as the operator actively spins and shakes it while it is elevated to get you to loose your grip on the railings that lined the top of the seat. Everyone was able to hold on while I rode, but I came off feeling sore and battered.

I fared well until the "Viking ship" ride, but after that I had a general feeling of quesiness that didn't leave me. Feeling under the weather, and I skipped lunch in favor of a walk. After the "fun" of the amusement park, we eventually took more pictures and got in the bus again for the long ride home. I was allowed to sleep on the way home since the Korean teachers felt bad about taking me on rides I told them would make me sick eventually, and after the second rest stop I was able to eat again. I got back and literally collapsed on my bed to catch up on sleep. I realized I needed to get up because I wasn't going to be able to sleep through the entire night, and got up to go the the PC-bong to write this very LONGWINDED post.

Believe it or not, I've left out some details, but I took some pictures so I will try to fill in some of the blanks with the next Picture set. Overall, not a bad trip, and certainly not one I will forget.