The next morning I woke up early and tried to sneak out to the beach for an early solitary walk.  It was not to be.  The mother woke up and came with me.  It was a nice morning, though.  

We then had a small breakfast, and the father said that we would do some sightseeing.  (The father seemed super peeved that his wife had decided on a small breakfast.  He kept asking her what he was going to eat.  She named the things that were in the kitchen, and he whined the whole time he was eating his cereal...with chopsticks...out of a dixie cup.) I changed out of my swimsuit and dress into jeans and a tshirt, and we headed to the lighthouse I had seen from the beach.  The father and I climbed up.  It gave us a nice view, which I totally have pictures of...but not here.  (I'm at work.  We have no classes all day today because of exams.  I'll put pictures up later.)  I was definitely regretting the small breakfast.  We got in the car and headed to Seoraksan, one of the most beautiful peaks in South Korea and one that I was really excited to see.  The father kept complaining that he was  hungry.  He said to his wife at one point "Hey!  I'm hungry!" in English.  (Her English is pretty poor -- a couple steps above my Korean.)  I expected her to laugh or say "So?" but she reached down and looked through a couple bags until she found dried seaweed for him to snack on, handing him one piece at a time.  The whole vacation, she was totally fine with her daughter and husband asking her at all times for food.  She would just calmly get up, ask what they wanted, and start to peel fruit or heat leftovers.  I told them at one point that American mothers would just say "You're hungry?  Well, there's the kitchen.  You have two hands!"  They laughed.  They thought that was hilarious.  Then the mother said (I think a little sadly), "No, Korean mothers can't do that."

At Seoraksan, we drove up the mountain for about an hour, watching the hikers in their neon outfits walk by and gazing at a mountain stream through the car windows.  Then, the father decided there was too much traffic, and we drove back to down for lunch.  Lunch was THIS

Amazing!  After we ate the crab, the mother scooped our leftover rice into the head of the crab, which held juices and all sorts of other things inside.  She mixed the juices and the rice, and then we ate it.  It was delicious.  Mmmmm crab brain.

We went swimming again in the afternoon, and then went back to the hotel to shower.  The parents told me we would be having two dinners that night, chicken at the hotel and then soup.  I was really confused as to why we would have two dinners until I realized it was because the daughter was refusing to eat at the restaurant we were going to.  After we ate the chicken, the father was trying to get everyone out the door.  The daughter was bouncing up and down on the bed, showing no signs of getting ready to go.  I was sitting right behind her, and we had been rough-housing all weekend, so I pulled her down to the bed.  She sat up, pulled her knees up, put her head down, and started whimpering.  Oh my gosh, I hurt her.  She looked really hurt, and she wasn't responding to me at all.  The mother came over and touched her on the back.  The girl crawled into her mom's lap and continued whimpering.  I was getting really scared.  The mom started to rock the girl back and forth, and the girl started to cry.  I was asking if she was ok, and the mom kept saying she was, but the girl was crying!  The mom started to pet her daughter's hair, and at that, the daughter started screaming.  Loud. I haven't heard screaming like this since the last time my younger sister was refused a toy at Toys R Us.  When she was three.  Three, not nine.  Relieved, I started to relax a little.  The crying and soothing went on for about twenty minutes, with me wavering back and forth between worrying if they were real tears and annoyance at realizing once again they were fake.  Finally, the girl calmed down, told her mom that she didn't like being surprised like that, smoothed her hair, and said "Let's go" expectantly in Korean.  The dad, mom, and I all laughed.  I was incredibly relieved to finally be absolutely certain she wasn't hurt.  When we laughed, the girl cried again for twenty minutes.  When we finally left, the mother explained that the girl is their only daughter, and so she is like a baby.

We have an uneventful dinner, go on a viking boat ride, which the daughter loves, and which looked out over the beach and some fireworks.  We took a last walk on the beach, saw some men drawing these lighted boats into the water, and went to bed (well, after several hours of TV).  I was determined to wake up early the next morning and take a long walk on the beach by myself.