The Countdown Begins!

"They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself." -Andy Warhol

Looking back at the last ten months of my life amazes me! As the above quote implies, if you want your life to be different you have to do something about it yourself. Yes, time does change some things, but true changes come from within. You have to test yourself to see how far your courage, heart, and mind can take you. Mine has taken me across the world!


I now have two short months left in this mind-boggling country we call South Korea! While I am more than anxious to see my friends and family back home in Texas, I also feel bittersweet about leaving here. The independent side of me wanted to originally do two years here to make the most of my time (and save more money), but the family side of me wants to go home to be near the people I love the most, as well as officially begin my Texas teaching career.


I feel that just coming over here has helped me learn to make better decisions with my life. Just as moving here was like a "new beginning with a clean slate," I feel like going back to Texas will also be a new start for me. I feel as if I lived the past couple years for other people and not myself. But since I moved here I've had alot of alone time that gave me the opportunity to work on myself. And now I feel that I am ready to move forward and make important life changes that will set me up for a successful future!


So, as for the rest of my time here, I intend to see a couple more places that I haven't had the opportunity to go to yet. In our contract we are given 8 work days off in the summer and 10 in the winter. Since I wanted to add more money to my savings account, I have made the decision to not go anywhere outside of Korea for my winter vacation. While China & Thailand were amazing this summer, and I would love to visit a new country, I feel like I should finish seeing things here in Korea and save some money.

From the above map with 9 provinces, I have visited 6 of them. I have been to Seoul & a small town near there for a music festival in Gyeonggi-do, snowboarding & hiking in Gangwon-do, visited a friend in Chungcheongbuk-do, had orientation in Jeollabuk-do, went on a field trip & to the cherry blossom festival in Gyeongsangnam-do, and I live in Gyeongsangbuk-do! So of course I have visited many places in the last province. While I would have loved to have visited Jeju-do, I feel like visiting it in the winter would not be as fun as a summer trip. As for the other provinces, hopefully I can do a bit of research & visit some of them before I leave!

As of right now I'm assuming my "stay-cation" as I call it will be after the lunar new year. My school has only informed me that I will be teaching solo classes (no co-teacher to translate English to Korean) for the first three weeks of January. After that I have no idea what I will be doing in terms of teaching, because my school of course hasn't told me anything!! I'm not sure they even know what they will be doing, lol. 

Also, during the first week of January I will be working a winter English camp at the elementary school next door to my school. Their foreign teacher had to leave earlier than expected, so they asked if I could come over after I finish my winter classes at my school, to assist with their afternoon lesson plans. The best part is that they have already made all the lesson plans, so I will be getting paid just to help out!! 

Another opportunity I've been presented with is to help out a friend who works at a hagwon (private school) during my vacation time. She wants an extra 3 days to travel, so she has offered to pay me to cover for her at work! Now of course this is taking time out of my personal vacation, but I figured since I'm not going out of the country, I can spare 3 days of it for some extra money! Nothing has been confirmed yet, but hopefully I will get to do it!

As for this moment, I am at work waiting to start my next class. This week we only have to work today and a half-day tomorrow. After our half-day tomorrow we have a teacher's lunch outing. Tomorrow is also my birthday, so I hope the teacher's don't make me take too many soju shots at lunch because I have dinner plans with my friends in Daegu tomorrow night! haha! Now I just have to decide what to do with my free time Wednesday to Friday! Then Friday evening begins our trip to Muju resort to celebrate New Years!

That's all for now!

XOXO,

Amanda

Christmas Festivities

Well, it's Christmas night, and here I sit in my apartment. I had an amazing weekend spent with some great friends! Our Friday night Secret Santa party was a success. Jinae hosted it at her place in Daegu and we all enjoyed hanging out, listening to Christmas music, exchanging presents, and of course, drinking wine! I ended up getting a great gift too! I got a new book to read, a red scarf, and some other small stuff...my secret santa did well! Here's a couple pics of most of us...there were 11 girls total:

GIFT EXCHANGE

OUR CHEFS FOR THE NIGHT...SHANNON & SOPHIA

Saturday took me, Kristin, Maggie, and Sophia back to Gumi for a Christmas dinner at one of the restaurants here. Before the dinner they wanted to see some shops downtown, so we wandered around a bit in an attempt to shop. We also go to see some dance performances in front of the train station. It was sooo cold yesterday, and it even snowed! But, we were in Daegu that morning so we missed the actual snow. We just saw the remainder on the ground when we got here. I'm sure I will be seeing enough snow soon enough!!

ON THE TRAIN TO GUMI

 WHAT BETTER WAY TO CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS

THAN WITH K-POP DANCING?!

DINNER @ WAEGOOK COOK RESTAURANT :)

 SOPHIA & KRISTIN

 ME & MAGGIE

 THESE LADIES WERE HAVING 

A GREAT TIME ! LOL

After eating dinner, we had the bright idea of taking the train back to Daegu to go out and celebrate Christmas. To be honest there's not many places to go in Gumi, and we knew the rest of our friends would be out in Daegu. The result of that was us having a pretty great time, and 3 of us taking a train back to Gumi around 6am! Then when we woke up today Sophia (who has been playing chef all weekend) made us cream cheese stuffed french toast! I've never had it before and it was sooo good! I'm not sure if I can eat normal french toast anymore, lol. 

 AT THE TRAIN STATION, HUDDLING LIKE 

PENGUINS TO STAY WARM!!

 HEADING BACK TO DAEGU, LOL

That brings me to where I am now. Realizing how fast this time has gone since I've been here! It's my first time to be away from my family during the holidays, but I managed pretty well! Thanks to my friends! And I can't believe I only have two months left in Korea. I can remember when I had two months left in Texas before I moved here. At that time I could hardly grasp the concept of what my life would be like in Korea. I must say it has surpassed everything I pictured it to be! I mean yes, Korea's culture is definitely peculiar, but overall I didn't expect to make so many close friends! I knew I'd make friends of course, but I never imagined we'd become so close. Pretty much like a second family! A few of us were together this weekend when we skyped with our loved ones back home. It was fun to see my friends' family and friends, as well as for my mother to see mine this morning when I skyped with her :)


I have a feeling these next two months will fly by way too fast! And what sucks is that all of my friends have different vacation schedules for their jobs so I won't see alot of them for awhile. Gotta make the time we have left count! Alright, I'm gonna switch to a new post to talk about my plans for the rest of my time here! For now it's bed time! Hopefully I can continue my writings tomorrow at work. Until then...I hope all of my family & friends had a great Christmas weekend & didn't miss me too much! Can't wait to see everyone soon!! LOVE YOU ALL!!


XOXO,
Amanda

December Craziness!

For the past three weeks, I have lived my life differently. The difference I speak of is the result of the snowboarding trip I went on the first weekend of December. As most people may know, I fractured my right wrist about 10 minutes into snowboarding...if even that long! LOL! I laugh now, but it did hurt like hell when it happened. Luckily, one of my friends, Cindy, was behind me on the hill so she saw what happened and stopped to sit with me while I waited for the emergency crew to come fetch me. The ride down the hill was interesting because they strapped me to a board and a guy skied down to the bottom. Apparently, many people saw me because a random girl told me later, "Oh, so you're the "famous" girl!" Haha! Out of about 180 something people on the trip, I think there were 3 of us who got injured enough to go to the hospital. One of the guys messed up his shoulder/collar bone and the other guy broke two fingers. Eish!!

I was fortunate enough to have someone in our group of friends who spoke Korean to ride with me to the hospital. I also got to experience my first, and hopefully only, ambulance ride! On a good note, the whole experience (assistance in the first-aid clinic at the resort, ambulance ride, shot of morphine, x-rays, splint, sling, & pain meds) cost me only 35,000WON ($35)! I can only imagine what that would have cost back in America! Gotta love Korean insurance!

When I was in junior high I fractured my left wrist practicing for cheer-leading tryouts. I fell doing a cartwheel in the ditch of my front yard, lol. I remember thinking at that time, "Damn, I wish it was my right arm so that I don't have to do my school work!" Well, it looks like I got my wish! However, it's not as cool or fun as I thought it would be! Luckily I don't have to write many things, but typing one handed for the first couple weeks wasn't super easy! The first week of the injury left me in a splint that went up past my elbow. It just about drove me crazy not being able to bend my elbow! But, once they put me in a short splint, things got better. And now I'm in my bright green cast (they only give green-colored casts in Korea for no apparent reason) and I can type fairly quickly and precise, as well as use my computer mouse with the "right-handed" settings once again! It's weird, I actually got used to doing things left-handed for awhile! 


Well, I may as well sum up the rest of December...the weekend after snowboarding I went to a friend's 80's themed b-day party. It was rather humorous that after we left the party, we went downtown, and hardly any of my friends recognized me in what I was wearing. With the high ponytail in a scrunchy, big glasses, baggy sweater, leggings, & leg warmers...I guess I pulled of the 80's disguise pretty well!

Then this past weekend we were able to go to the army base once again for an amazing dinner! Since some of the soldiers have to work this coming weekend, we celebrated Christmas a week early with lots of great food, a present exchange, & games. This time we played taboo (which I sucked at!) and of course, the "friendly" game of Spoons! 

That brings me to this weekend. After a busy week of work (I had my open class & started my planning for January classes) I am happy today is Friday! Tonight the girls are getting together in Daegu to do a "Secret Santa" gift exchange. Then Saturday some of the girls are coming to my place in Gumi to go to yet again another Christmas dinner at a restaurant. Hopefully we can make it to the orphanage on Sunday as well. Even though I wish I was home with my family for Christmas, I'm happy I have a great group of friends here to celebrate with!

Then next Tuesday I'm meeting up with a group of friends to celebrate my 26th birthday! It's gonna be weird not celebrating with Jenna & Leigha! I've spent nearly all of my birthdays since high school with my two best friends! But, I'm sure I will have an awesome birthday here! :) Especially since I'm off work from Wednesday to Sunday! For new years eve weekend my friends wanted to go to a ski resort for snowboarding & skiing. Obviously I wont be partaking in those events, but I still wanted to go to the resort to relax, play in the snow, & bring in the new year with everyone.

That's all for now! Hoping this work day flies by! I intend to write a post soon about stuff that's been going on at work with wrapping up the fall semester, winter camp, & winter classes. As well as discuss other happenings in my life! Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!!

XOXO,

Amanda

Just A Box

"Attempt easy tasks as if they were difficult, and difficult as if they were easy; in the one case that confidence may not fall asleep, in the other that it may not be dismayed."     --- Baltasar Gracian 

In preparation for moving back to Texas (at the end of February), I decided to pack up a box to send home on the boat. Shipping stuff back by boat takes about 2-3 months, but it is MUCH cheaper than sending it via airmail. So, the other week I went to the post office and bought the biggest box they offered, took it home, packed it up, and then taped the hell out of it!! I heard that the boxes get pretty roughed up so I wanted to ensure that it survived the journey.

I asked my co-teacher if he could assist me by coming by my house one evening to pick up the box and keep in it his car so that we could take it to the post office the next day. He agreed to come by last night and since I had an after-school class I stayed at the school until he was also off of work (he had two after-school classes).

By the time we left school it was dark because it was nearly 6pm. On the way to my place he asked if I would like to join him for dinner. Of course I said yes because it's been awhile since we got to just hang out and talk. It's funny how in Korea, asking a favor turns into the person offering even more things, such as dinner. Every time we've gone out to dinner in the past he always immediately says, "my treat" because he knows I'm going to say that it's my turn to pay for it. But, in Korean culture it is common that the oldest male pays for dinner. This makes it impossible for me to return the favor of dinner. I'd love to host a dinner at my apartment for some of my co-teachers, but alas my apartment is the size of a shoe box! 

Dinner conversation usually brings up many interesting topics. Every once in awhile (usually after one bottle of Soju between us) he'll ask me a couple personal questions. Of course, he leads this with asking if he can ask a personal question, lol. So this time he asked, "Since you've been in Korea, have you had the opportunity to find any sort of love here?" My response? Laughter! I honestly wasn't trying to laugh at his question, but it just sorta happened as I thought back to all the experiences I've had these last 9 months with foreigners in general. 

The foreigner community in Korea is very similar to any small town back in Texas. It's full of gossip, everyone knows everyone, and everyone know's everyone's business whether they want to or not. Something I've found unique to the situation of dating in Korea is the extra (somewhat valid) excuses, such as, "I just got out of a relationship before I came here, so I'm not looking for anything serious (aka they just want to have sex)" and "I've decided not to date anyone during my time here in Korea because it would make it too difficult when the time comes for me to leave (aka they also just want to have sex)." My attempt at explaining this to him was humorous in itself. I summed it up with, "I've been able to experience the dating world, and no I have not found love." LOL.

Also during dinner he informed me that "some of the students" told him the name of the teacher who I thought was the most handsome at our school. He then said that that particular teacher has always wanted to go out to dinner with me sometime. I switched the topic by saying all of the teachers who enjoy drinking should get together and go out for dinner/drinks before I leave. Sneaky middle-schoolers! They forced me to choose one "handsome" teacher and tell them who it was so I randomly picked a teacher. I don't even know half of my staff's names, lol.

Moving on to today. I'm sitting in my classroom (I don't begin classes until 11:20am on Wednesdays) and my desk phone rings. It's my co-teacher saying "Amanda, you must come to auditorium right away for yearbook picture." GREAT! Thanks for the advance warning, lol. So, I throw on some make-up in an attempt to look half-decent (I stopped wearing make-up to work a long time ago) and stroll outside into the rain to go take my picture. After the photographer was so kind to make sure I looked perfect (he kept pushing my hair out of my face, lol) Mr. Bahn says, "Let's go take your box to the post office."

I run back through the rain to grab my wallet from my classroom, then we drive down the road to the post office. He carries my ginormous box inside and tells the post-office workers what I'd like to do. They immediately say something in Korean that gives Mr.Bahn a concerned look on his face. He looks to me and says, "Your box is too big in size and weight." 

Lovely! So, in other words I had wasted an hour organizing the contents of the box, as well as taping every single inch of it! The next thing I know all of my stuff is laid out on the post office floor as we attempt to re-organize it into two boxes. Of course they didn't put as much tape as I would have liked, but I let the professionals do their job. Eventually they came up with a total cost and we rushed back to the school just in time for our classes. With insurance for both boxes it cost me about $80 to ship them to America.

What started out as "just a box" turned into many things. It led to an evening of hanging out with my co-teacher, as well as a 45 minute dilemma at the post office. Seems like the easiest tasks turn out to be way more than that! :)

XOXO,

Amanda

Breaking Bad Habits

"Habit, if not resisted, soon becomes necessity." -- St. Augustine

So, I have decided to give up my bad habit of getting on Facebook. I realized that I spent entirely too much time doing absolutely nothing! I mean I loved the site for keeping in contact with family and friends back home, and adding the new friends I met here in Korea, but at the same time I despised the site for consuming so much of my day!


I am well aware that I was not forced to spend that much time on it, but sitting in front of a computer at work all day made it far to easy to just hop off and on of the site all throughout the day. Also, since I don't have a couch at my apartment I find myself sitting at my desk alot. I started working out at the gym a few weeks ago, so I figured I'd try to spend more time there in the evenings than sitting in my apartment. Overall, I can't complain about all the free time I have living here in Korea, I just needed to adjust some things!


As far as other updates in my life, the last couple weekends have been spent in Daegu just hanging out with friends. Two weekends ago was my friend Lea's birthday, so we went out for dinner in Daegu Saturday night.

And this past weekend was of course spent celebrating Thanksgiving! While I wished I could have been home hanging out with the family at my parents house like we do every Thanksgiving, I was happy that I got to spend it with some great friends here! My girls in Daegu were invited to the army base where the guys cooked us teachers an amazing meal! I don't think they forgot any of the traditional foods. It was great! What was even more fun was that we played monopoly (which was turned into a drinking game, lol) and then afterwards we played spoons! Seeing as spoons is a game my family loves, I was so happy to be spending Thanksgiving just hanging out with friends. Of course, we went downtown afterwards! Here's a few pics:

ME & SOPHIA

PLAYING SPOONS!

YES, KRISTIN TOOK A PIE DOWNTOWN LOL

The following day was spent just taking it easy with the girls. We went to a cafe which I discovered has amazing yogurt smoothies and giant apple-cinnamon muffins! Then we ended our day with a late lunch/dinner at the Indian restaurant we love. I think all of us are obsessed with this place and we freaked out when we thought it had shut down. Turns out it had moved locations, lol. I never thought I'd be such a fan of Indian food, but then again I've discovered lots of new things that I love since moving to Korea!

As for next weekend I will be doing yet again another "first!" I am going snowboarding at a resort near Seoul! I'm going with a bunch of my friends through an organized group, so I'm curious to see how it all turns out. I signed up early so I got a discount price atleast! I just hope I don't injure myself too bad snowboarding! Lol. Anyone who knows me, knows how uncoordinated and clumsy I can be at times! Wish me luck!!

Alright, that's it for now. Maybe since I quit Facebook, I will be updating more on here!

XOXO,

Amanda

Work = Free Time

So, my school has yet again surprised me with the following convo:

Co-teacher: "Did you hear about today?" (a scary question, because you can never tell if it's gonna be a good thing or a bad thing, lol)

Me: "Umm...no. What is happening today?"

Co-teacher: "Grade 1 of high school will not be here. They are going on a field trip."

Me: "So, I don't have class today?"

Co-teacher: "No."

Me: "Ok." (with a look of concern on the outside & cheering on the inside, haha!)

I was convinced today would be horrible considering I hit the "off" button on my I-touch alarm instead of "snooze" and woke up with 3 minutes to spare, BUT it has turned out well!

I have spent most of my "work day" catching up on favorite television shows (How I Met Your Mother & Being Erica), watching random YouTube videos, playing "words with friends", skyping with Dewayne, Sarah, & Owen (who is soo cute & makes me want to get home even faster to meet him), listening to music, and of course the usual chatting/facebooking. 

Now I've decided to turn the day into productiveness. I've already found a lesson plan for next week, since my speaking tests are almost complete. That is, if any of my students will come to class. Seems that lately they have way more important things to do than come learn English. It used to bother me (the ever-changing schedule) but now I'm so used to it that it doesn't phase me. In fact I enjoy my free time at my desk. While it may bother some people to sit at a desk, I figure if I'm getting paid to decide how I wish to use my free time, then that's ok with me! 

And now that I've done some actual work, I figured I'd take the time to update my blog completely. Nothing too crazy, but I did have a nice random weekend recently.

Last weekend I went to Busan where I got the chance to finally go to the aquarium on Saturday. Of course, the only reason I wanted to go there was to see the PENGUINS! It cost me a whole 18,000Won ($18) but I think I got my money's worth. It would have been even more awesome if I had got to go inside and hang out with the penguins...but maybe some day. 

Ironically, earlier today I was looking at a YouTube video that a friend had posted about amazing marriage proposals, which led to watching more linked videos. AND I came across the best one yet...in my opinion:

Haha, like I said, that's the best one to me because it involves penguins of course! (And she got to go inside with them!) Moving on to other creatures I discovered in the aquarium:

Cool Jellyfish

 Happy Stingray

 Sand Fish?

 Shark Attack!

 Coral

After the aquarium I went to a salon that my friends recommended. The last time I attempted a haircut in Korea, it turned out bad! A trim turned into "I'm gonna cut your hair up to your chin" lol. So, to be safe I went to a lady who used to cut hair in Canada and even did hair for some TV shows there. She forgot to write down my appointment, so I got a discount...AND my hair turned out just how I wanted. You can hardly tell I got it cut, but that's what I wanted...a trim! 

Sunday was my random day spent with a friend who lives near Haeundae Beach. We started the day early with a mini-hike through a trail in some woods. The trail led to the best part...the ocean! Which next led us somehow to some random railroad tracks, lol.

Makes me wish I lived near the ocean

 Playing on the tracks :)

 Shortly before this picture, we had a train sneak 

up on us, so we snapped this picture fast, lol 

So the first picture above was taken by my crappy camera, but the rest are from my friend's camera. I really need to save some money for a professional camera! Anyways, we ended up taking random pictures throughout the day and I even learned a few camera tricks. This is the result of our photo session:

My attempt at "fake jumping" off a cliff

Then I got to be the photographer :)

After our random walking adventure Scottie wanted to go to a gaming expo. Korea loves their video games, and this event definitely showed how much they do. Lines of people everywhere just to play one game! But, they were giving out alot of free stuff! So, of course we stood in line a couple times as well.

Turns out I really suck at most of these games! They weren't like the old school Mario Cart or Mortal Kombat, lol. After the gaming expo I made the journey back to Gumi, which sums up my random weekend! 

Now it's time to work on my writing. A group of friends here are doing the 50,000 word challenge for the month of November, and while I would love to do that, I have chosen to do a more personal writing challenge. That is to see how far I can write a story by the end of the year. So far I'm at around 5,000 words! If I ever finish it, I'll post it on my Tumblr Blog that's focused on poetry, quotations, and other stuff I find interesting.

http://tuneurmind.tumblr.com/archive

K, that's all for now! Back to "work" for me! :)

XOXO,

Amanda

Hiking Adventure #2

So, thanks to Korea's equivalent of the S.A.T test being taken last Thursday, I was given the day off. Which reminds me how thankful I am that in America the S.A.T doesn't hold as much weight as it does here in Korea. I mean yes, the S.A.T determines if you go to college, but here in Korea it essentially determines your whole life. Mess up on the test and you just let not only your parents down, but your school and friends as well.


The parents even pray for their child's success on the test for something like 100 nights, every night, before the test. No flights were allowed to take place during the test time and if the students woke up late for the test, they got escorted by the police to the testing site. It was serious business here last Thursday.


On a lighter note, I chose to spend my day off in the mountains. I had been wanting to hike Geumosan (Gumi Mtn.) for a second time for awhile now. The first time I went was in the summer and the humidity about killed my friend and I. So, before it became too cold to hike, I decided I'd make the best use of my day off. What also encouraged me to go was that a friend of mine had posted some pictures of the beautiful fall foliage.


Even though it was really tempting to go back to sleep when I woke up at 7am that morning, I managed to get out of bed and start my day. I packed my mini-backpack with some fruit & water and headed towards the mountain. Since the mountain is about a 30 minute walk from my place, I chose to taxi it there. I wanted to start fresh from the bottom and see how fast I could make it to the summit. Yes, I timed myself on my I-touch, lol.

Since I've moved to Korea, I still have yet to become used to using kilograms, kilometers, etc. So I looked up the conversion and 3.3km is equal to a tiny bit over 2 miles. While 2 miles doesn't sound bad, keep in mind that parts of this mountain have you literally climbing straight up...using rocks like ladders. There are some pretty intense parts where you just look ahead and say to yourself, "How the hell am I going to make it up that?" But you do! And you say the exact same thing at the next blockade, but you somehow make it to the very top and it's all worth it!


So, here are some pics of from the beginning of the hike. It starts out fairly simple with a couple small uphill walks, then quite a few wooden steps, followed by some stone steps. The fall foliage was beautiful.

The first stopping point is the waterfall, which is as the sign says, 1.2km into the hike. It's your reward after the first set of hills and steps. However, I couldn't resist checking out the view from the cave, so I took about a 15 minute detour to go see it. The cave itself isn't spectacular, it's just a good view spot. Here are pics of the waterfall, the view from the cave, and the windy path you take to get up there.

After resting at the waterfall for a few minutes, it was time to start trekking up what seems like the "never ending" stairs. I should have counted to see if it was close to the 900 step part of the hike I did in Sokcho. Here are the stairs, followed by an example of how odd the rocks look at some points of the hike, and then a picture of the last easy part of the hike before the tough journey to the summit.

Along with an amazing view of the city of Gumi, you also get to take a picture with this rock. Purely for proof that you went all the way to the top. Other than that, not much else at the summit, lol. My time to the top ended up being 2 hours, after taking out the detour to the cave. Don't have anything to compare it to since I didn't time myself the first time, but I felt pretty proud of myself for only taking a couple stops to rest.

After soaking in the scene at the top of the mountain, it was time to head back down. You'd think going back down would be easier, and while it is faster, it definitely takes a toll on your knees and toes. This time was even more difficult because it was pretty muddy. I nearly slipped about ten times, but I survived! Actually to be honest, I did fall once but not in a muddy area, lol. It was when I was coming back down the steep path of the cave. I didn't quite have the grip I thought I did with my feet and landed on my bottom. I also bumped into the rail at the cave. So one bruised arm and scraped hand from trying to stop my fall were minor injuries compared to the ones I was imagining having on my hike down the mountain, lol. Here are a few pics of my journey back down. 

Once I made it back to the waterfall area I stopped to take some artsy pics, or should I say, tried to take some artsy pictures. 

After hiking I had a misleading burst of energy. I felt like I could have gone on a nice run after completing my task for the day. This is what led me to deciding to walk back to my apartment. As I said, it's about a 30 minute walk, which turns out to seem much longer after hiking, lol. About half way through the walk back home I had my eyes peeled for a taxi. Alas, it was meant for me to walk. I made it back to apartment and didn't move for a good hour or so. 

Here are a couple pictures of the view from the lake near the mountain to give you an idea of how far up I was. I was where the towers are in the pictures:

I ended my day off with a nice trip to the sauna to relax with a couple friends. Afterwards Ali cooked us a meal, which we followed with dessert at a nice little cafe that serves amazing mojitos and cheesecake! So, we split a cheesecake and I enjoyed a blackberry mojito. So strong, but so good! Eating blackberries reminded me of picking dewberries with my grandmother growing up. She would make the best cobbler, pies, and jams from them! :)

That sums up my day off from work! 

XOXO,

Amanda