Skiing at Vivaldi Park

This weekend I went skiing with all the teachers from school, some of the Korean teachers, and a few of our other Korean friends. It was amazing!

In Canada our weekend would have cost approximately $250+, with lift tickets, transportation, food and accommodation. In Korea, everything (including bus there and back, snowsuits, board rental, lift tickets, accommodation, food and alcohol) cost less than 100,000 won ($92.13 CAD)!

Early Saturday morning we board a bus going straight from Yatap Station to Vivaldi Park. I knew it would be a good trip when I saw who was sponsoring our bus.


Vivaldi Park is an hour and a half from Seoul in Gangwan Province. We arrived at 8:00am, and were picked up by the board rental shop, who drove us to their store and outfitted everyone with boots, pants, jackets, goggles and boards/skis. These guys were amazing. After we picked up all our stuff, they drove us back to the ski hill and dropped off our bags and coats at our pension (a mix of a cottage and motel). When we were finished for the day, they picked us up again and drove us to the pension, and picked us up this morning and drove us to the bus!

The rental place.


My handy butt and knee pads (which did not help my knees)


Bonnie putting on her knee pads with the help of the guy from the rental shop.


Once we were suited up, we were ready to hit the hill!


Getting ready to board.



I did get better, but fell A LOT, and always on the same place on my knees. After the bunny hill, Jessica, Young Heon and Hyun Il took the gondola to the very top.


I'm sad because the line is so long. Young Heon is not impressed, and I'm not sure how Hyun Il feels about the situation.


Before going on, I'm sure you're wondering how we met our Korean friends. Jessica takes Kung Fu at a Korean Club in Yatap, and met Young Heon through that. He is good friends with Hyun Il, and we've gotten to know both of them. I'm doing a language exchange with Young Heon, to help him with his English, and to improve my Korean.


Seen from above, the lines for the lifts were crazy long.


At the top, the "Sky Lounge".

Jessica getting ready to board.

Jessica is the most experienced boarder and was so much help while I was learning. She stayed with us all day even though we were very slow. What a good friend.


The view of the resort (at which we did NOT stay).


Our pension was a short drive from the hill. The area was very rural, and it was a nice change from the constant noise and light of Bundang and Seoul. I can't wait for Spring to come, so everything stops being so grey and brown.

A temple and ancestral burial plots.


A field of some sort. Rice?


Our pension.


The pension consisted of two rooms, with no furniture (very Korean). We sat on the floors, which were delightfully warm thanks to Ondol floor heating. () We slept on traditional Korean style beds, which are thin mattresses rolled out onto the floor with a blanket on top. I'm starting to get used to the hardness of mattresses here, so it wasn't too bad, but laying directly on the hot floor made it hard to sleep.



We left the pension Sunday afternoon, and a few of us stayed at the hill to eat lunch and play some games. We rode the bumper cars, bowled and played home-made Apples to Apples.

You may not be pregnant in Korea (or at least on the bumper cars).


Steph is very excited about bumper cars.


At the indoor amusement park/mall, they had these bear/lion cars that you could ride around. It was good fun.


We bowled, and I lost. I did manage however, to beat my goal of 47 points.


Much love from South Korea!


It was a great weekend, and I hope to try boarding again before the weather warms up. Updates soon.