Snowboarding at Yongpyeong

On Saturday, I went snowboarding with some friends and co-workers. My co-teacher Jiwon and I were talking about snowboarding and we decided it's a rigorous and expensive sport, but so much fun! Rigorous because you will get hurt. Expensive because even though we got discounts on our bus tickets, lift tickets, and rentals by using 3rd party rental shops, we easily spent 100,000 Korean won each. But fun because the feeling of riding down the slopes is exhilirating. Especially if you don't fall. ;)

It was only my 3rd time snowboarding, so I fell a lot. I fell on my butt several times, but it's not my butt that's sore right now. It's my neck, arms, and chest. I fell forward a few times and when I fell, I fell hard. So hard that I got the wind knocked out of me all 3 times. I couldn't breathe and my chest hurt. It felt like an anxiety attack. It passed and I was able to get back up again. The 3rd time really scared me, so I was more cautious after that. You can't be too careful when you're learning how to snowboard though. You have to be gutsy and be okay with getting hurt. I was trying to learn how to make turns, but I was too scared to snowboard backwards. It scared me to think that I would probably fall, so I would get up but panic and fall backwards. I'll master it another time. In the meantime, it makes me want to improve my yoga skills. I was never good at balancing forward or backward, so I know what area to work on.

Yongpyeong resort has shuttle buses that depart from different cities (i.e. Seoul, Suwon, Bundang, etc.). The Suwon bus left at 6:20am and got to Yongpyeong in 2 hours. Then we called the rental store to pick us up. They took us to their store where we tried on our boots, rental clothes, and picked up miscellaneous items like gloves and socks. Their accessories were all overpriced, so I'd recommend buying them at Homeplus or Emart before the trip. They also rent goggles if you don't want your own pair. It was convenient because the rental store picked us up, dropped us off, and came back to pick up the rentals at no extra charge! We even got a bigger discount for making a reservation on the phone. We left Yongpyeong on the 7pm bus, but we really could have made the 5pm bus. Note to self: Rental stores allow customers to leave the rental equipment in a pile without meeting the person. Customer service in Korea is so awesome sometimes. ^^b

EDIT with pictures

sooyun uhnnie, sunmi, jiwon, and me (where was Danielle??)

yongpyeong cream cheese stuffed pretzel