We woke up really early in the morning to prepare. Mum's panicky personality forced me to wake up all bleary-eyed and we were the first to reach the hotel lobby. I remember the temperature outside was -7 degrees Celsius when it was still dark. We had to walk quite a bit to get to the restaurant for breakfast and I was grateful for the ski clothes which were warmer than my own clothes.

We later went up to the top of the mountain by the gondola. We shared a gondola with Yik Keat's family (the couple could be considered part of our group of four since we always sit together during meals). Too bad no one could see out of the window while we were making our way up since the glass was all fogged up by frost. The view was beautiful at the top. Everyone played with the think snow and took pictures. I didn't bring my camera unfortunately so I couldn't take any photographs while at the top.

After spending some time with the thick snow, our group went down to collect our skis. Andy helped to estimate our sizes and the skis were heavy. It was then on to our mini ski lesson with teacher Andy. Andy taught us well but I'm quite horrible at skiing, I must admit. Sure it was fun skiing down the slope, but I got bored after a while and it was a tiring climb back up the slope. Half the time I was busy helping people up and falling down anyway. In fact, mum and I were the first to head back to the hotel since I perspired a lot. I was honestly grossed out by my sweat and I decided to head back early to shower instead. I even managed to shampoo my hair twice even with a glass cup to splash water. After checking out, we returned our ski outfits and goggles to the rental shop (not before having our lunch first though!) Lunch was nice: Mushroom hotpot.

The next event was the sauna: Blue Canyon Water Themepark. I heard there are water slides and swimming pools inside. Unfortunately, mum and I didn't go and there were also a few who did not want to go too. We then spent the two hours together. There were a pair of siblings at the bowling alley and all of us just sat at the back watching them play. I mostly listened to the adults' chat.

Dinner was barbeque again and it was good. But because we were on the road for a long time, I was kinda groggy and nauseous. We then checked into Class 300 Hotel after braving the cold outside. The hotel was the best I stayed in throughout the entire week in South Korea. The first thing that came to my mind when I went into the room was: 완자 진짜 대박!! The toilet even flushes automatically!!

8 December 2010

The next morning Andy asked us to meet at the restaurant in the hotel instead of the lobby. We wanted to catch the sunrise but unfortunately, because it was too cloudy, everyone could only watch the sky brighten without actually seeing a sunrise. Breakfast was good though. After checking out, we left for Mount Sorak National Park.

It was beautiful! Because it snowed heavily in the area the day before, the path was slippery and dangerous. But the white snow made the scene look so ethereal! We ascended to the top half of one of the mountains by cable car, before going further up by foot. I didn't go all the way up to the peak though, since I found it too slippery. I stopped at the end of the steps with my mum with another mother from the tour group (I later found out that the lady was Bosco's and Kyle's mother). I wouldn't have problems going up actually, it's just that I was more worried about the coming down part.

After we went down, we visited a temple. It was built in the shape of the Buddha. We could hear the monk's chanting resounding from the belly of the statue. True enough, when we went in, there was a monk inside. There was a booth at the entrance for Buddhists to buy talismans. There was also another booth further out with candles for people to write well wishes on them. It was quite interesting since I usually only see those candles in dramas. It was my first time seeing it. We then left for Nami Island after lunch.

It was snowing when we got to the jetty! Everyone was so excited because they were hoping to see snow. It's pretty. Likewise, Nami Island was breathtaking, with its beauty further accented by the white layer of snow. We first went to the spot where the two leads of the famous Winter Sonata posed. I never watched the drama but it was funny when Andy taught a couple just how to do the exact pose as shown in the show.

There was free time afterwards for us to walk around the island. I saw a little house with two white dogs inside. I'm usually really scared of animals but because they were in the enclosure, I went over to give them a greeting. One dog actually came over and wanted to open the door to get out - maybe it wanted to play with me? The door was locked unfortunately. My new friends and I made do with staring at each other and smiling, if dogs could smile.

As I was walking about, I saw Ming Jun sitting at some frozen pond trying to bash a hole into the water underneath the sheet of ice. It made me wonder if the Han river freezes over during winter. Oh and Yik Keat made a huge snowball. He was collecting snow for his snowball since we arrived at Nami Island. The end product was actually much bigger than the one in the photo I took with him. I think he left it on the island before we left.

Dinner that day was at an eatery near the jetty. It was some vegetable with pork thing. Delicious! Later that night, because a few people wanted to go shopping, Andy brought the whole group to Dongdaemun. Mum and I got lost instead (just like in Everland), and used the 'trial and error' method to find the correct door to leave. We smartly went out when it was snowing heavily outside. I managed to take a pretty jerky video of the whole thing. The best part was when Andy later said that the weather forecast predicted that it would snow heavily but it did not. Little did he know that it did snow heavily but the whole thing lasted for a few minutes.