The first thing of the day was a hike up a mountain to see a palace. I was slightly confused, wondering what it would really be like because a hike could mean a lot of things. It could mean just a trail in a wooded area, or it could be actually having to climb big rocks and things like that. I was under the assumption that it wouldn’t be extremely physically taxing, but it had been raining a lot last night so there was some worry about the trail being muddy and/or slippery in some places.

From the beginning, it was nothing crazy. The most we had to do was step up some slightly big rocks, nothing more. Something we learned on the way was that hiking is taken rather seriously in Korea. People spend a lot of money on uniforms and walking sticks to go hiking, and it is quite popular too. I can understand why, because the trail was really nice. The whole way up, we were obviously surrounded by trees and plants, but in the middle there was a stream coming down the mountain. Sometimes we would be climbing up the right side of the tree, other times the left.

That brought the challenge to the hike. We didn’t know we would be getting wet, until we got to a point in the trail where it literally looked like there was just a small lake between where we were and where the trail continued. This is where I was worried about slipping and falling, I was extremely worried about slipping and being completely drenched. However, I was able to make it through without ever falling in the water.

We had to do a similar task a few times, crossing over some water. At most, I had to step in ankle deep water to avoid stepping on a sketchy looking rock, but I’ll take having wet socks over everything being soaked. Despite the small challenge of the hike, which was also rather lengthy and tiring, we made it to the top, where we were met with something that was absolutely worth the climb.

At the top, we found a beautiful palace. However, the climbing was not over. We could continue going up, this time fortunately by stairs, to see a huge carving in a massive rock. After taking some pictures and catching our breath from the climb, it was time to go back down.

After eating lunch and a break at the hotel, we went to cooking class, where we would be cooking bibimbap, which means “mixed rice”. I had never tried this dish, although it looked very simple yet delicious. After watching the instructor go through making the dish, it was me and my partners turn to try.

I had never really cooked in the past, so as you can guess it did not go amazing. My knife skills definitely have a lot of work to do, as well as not rushing things. There may have been a few times where I forgot to oil the pan, and also I have some difficulties with using the proper heat. Cooking the egg was a bit of a struggle, but nothing flipping it over couldn’t fix. Despite the difficulties, thanks to it being such an easy dish to prepare it still came out really good. It has definitely been one of my favorite meals we’ve had in Korea so far.