it is the traveler only who is foreign: A Little Visit to the Countryside...

Today we headed out of the city and into the mountains for a little school staff excursion. Two teachers are leaving to return to America next week, and the school's tradition is to treat them to a great meal with the full staff. This time, they decided also to have a picnic and head out of the city for a little fun.

Unfortunately, it's been raining since last night, so the picnic and rumored hiking (the school's owner is a pretty active mountaineer), was off. But what we did get was still great company, great food, and a beautiful little excursion into the hilly rural Korea.

The restaurant we went to was nearly 2 hours outside of Pohang, so we made a few short stops along the way. The first was at a rest station on the seaside in an area that is apparently very well known for their delicious crab. It's been windy and rainy all day, so as you can see, the waves were quite large...

I was of course expecting a grand restaurant hall, or something, since we traveled hours to get there, but in fact, the place we stopped for lunch was more akin to an actual hole in the wall. Not that it was dingy or dirty, but it was very out of the way and inconspicuous; I didn't even realize we had arrived at the place when the car stopped.

But, as with previous dinners with work, the food did not disappoint. We drank fresh sparkling spring water and apple wine that, according to our Korean coworkers, "keeps you young forever". Then came the food; what a feast! First was chicken bulgogi patties and sesame salad, then grilled chicken wings, then a feast of banchan, and then a delicious chicken soup. The food and drink just kept coming! Ahh, it was all so delicious, definitely worth a drive out of the city.