Rest and Relaxation

We had one final day, which happened to be Easter Sunday, before our course started and we decided to make it day of rest and relaxation at the hotel.  We got up later than the days before, got ready a bit more leisurely, and went down to breakfast.  Stephanie and Ruth decided to make spa appointments for the afternoon and we all headed up to the roof of the hotel to enjoy the pool.  Since I don't swim (or I should say, I don't know how to swim), I opted for a lounge chair in the sun.  About twenty or thirty minutes after I took the sunny spot I was feeling the full effects of the sun and decided the shade would be a better place from which to read and write postcards.  I should note that the pool was on the 25th floor of the hotel and from this height you could still hear the traffic and honking from below.  Here are a couple of shots of the city I took from way up above:

The other ladies swam and before they got out I opted to sit on the edge with my legs in the water and chat.  Being a science teacher who knows full well about radiation, I should have been smart and lathered up with sun screen.  As you can imagine, the burn started to appear minutes after we left the pool deck.  My thirty minutes in the sun, plus time spent on the pool's edge turned my white Oregon skin lobster red.  Overall, my legs were worse off and after examining the damage in the hotel room I was glad I hadn't scheduled an appointment for a massage!  


It was nice to have a couple of hours to myself to start a new book (Frances Mayes' A Year in the World) and take a nap.  In fact, it was really nice to just have a down day.  Usually when I'm in a new place I feel a sort of obligation to spend every free moment sightseeing, but this trip reinforced the notion that it is okay not to see and do everything!  I think I'll probably be applying that to vacations in the future, especially in sunny Asian countries.


When Ruth and Steph got back from the spa we decided to go out for an early dinner at the new Hard Rock Cafe (this is pretty much a staple for me in any city).  This particular Hard Rock has a full stage for bands to perform and we saw advertisements for a high school battle of the bands that would take place there sometime in May--how cool is that! 

I think I've been to the Hard Rock Cafe in nearly every country I've visited!

The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent watching My Life in Ruins, Junior Master Chef, and Wit in our hotel room--we fully appreciated having some english channels that aren't available in Korea:).  On Monday morning our course was to begin and we wanted to be up bright and early.