I climbed to the top of a mountain and survived!

The temple half way up the mountain was surrounded by wish lanterns, beautiful!
ENDLESS STAIRS!

The view from the top, WOW

650M UP!

Take that Rock mountain!

Last weekend got me in the spirit of going out so I tried to keep the good times rolling this week. On Tuesday I had one of those moments were you truely feel the joy and rewards for all of your hard work. Also the independence that making and having your own money as opposed to living off a student line or any other line of credit for that matter. I made an appointment to have a deep cleansing facial and felaxing back massage after school. To be honest I was kind of nervous. Because I had no idea if I should expect the spas here to be like the ones in Canada. But it was actually very similar in style and aesthetic and also much smaller and more intimate than I expected. I won`t go into the details, but I had NOOOOOOO idea that a facial involved sssssssooooooooooo many steps, toners,scrubs, gels, tools and peels?!?! The most off putting part was that i couldn't relax as much because I kept wondering "What the HELL are they going to do next?" The massage howeer was a different story and if I wasn't relaxed before that I was a large pile of mush by the time I left the spa!

But no rest for the wicked because on Wednesday afternoon, I joined several of the other teachers on a hiking trip to a mountain aptly named "Rock Mountain". Ok, I consider myself to be in fairly good shape, but this was something completely different. I grew up going on nature walks and I thought i knew what to expect, but this was not it. Indeed ROCK MOUNTAIN.... it was like 2 hours of trying to sprint uphill over large boulders! I say sprint, not walk because the teachers leading the hike were obviously quite experienced. I am never going to laugh at bad swimmers again!!!!!!!! It was killer and right when I was about the get bitter I saw these mountaineers leading a BLIND coupple up the hill followed by a VERY elderly coupple and I thought "YOU SHOULD REALLY SHUT UP NOW!!!!!" Even the blind guy is a better hiker than you. NOT in an extremely long time have I breathed that hard, nor have I ever sweat quite so much I believe. But I made it. They dragged me up kicking and screaming and my leg muscles were actually twitching and wobbling when we got to the top, but i made it. AFTER I CAUGHT MY BREATH AND THE SIGHT I FELT AWSOME! What I wasn`t expecting was the sheer terror I experience climbing DOWN the other side! The hike up was hard. The hike down was scarry!!!! There were guide ropes and metal spikes to place your feet in the particularly treacherous areas, but all in all it was the speed at which my party both ascended and descended the mountain which left me breathless. MAN, HIKING HERE AINT NO NATURE WALK!!!!! But it is fun in a painfully concentrated, sweaty kind of way. Nice. Most def worth it though! Enjoy the pics!