SNU Buddy, a group of awesome people, was only able to take 99 people to the paintball and rafting event. Because we have about 500 people total, we had to register by commenting on a signup post on Facebook. Nick (Exchange, Australia), Sandon (Exchange, Australia), and I met up together to make sure that all three of us would make it. When the clock struck seven, all three of us rushed to comment on the post. Nick was the first to comment. I came in third. Sandon, on the other hand, was certain that he was first to comment. Well he wasn’t wrong. He was first to comment on the wrong post. [LOL! And the sad thing is that he wasn’t the only one…] Fortunately, Nick was quick to notice it and Sandon was able to safely register as number 51.
The bus that took us to the location left pretty early in the morning. To be honest, we had no idea where it was taking us to. Sandon checked Google map a couple of times and we were getting closer and closer to North Korea every time. We were joking that we would be rafting to North Korea. Well… we weren’t wrong. [Or were we?] Our destination, some beautiful location up in the mountain, was just a bit over 9 miles away from the border between North and South Korea. [Exciting, ye?]
Because there were about 100 of us (including the SNU buddies), we were divided into 4 teams. Nick, Sandon, and I were on the same team. [Unfortunate, yes. Sandon and I were so ready to rekt Nick. But friendly fire can be activated, ye? LOL.] It took quite a long time to get set up. We were given vests and shirts first and then were moved to the field by team. That took about an hour for no reason. [But probably because there were so many of us.] My team was the last to arrive at the field and they were in the middle of explaining the rules of the game. We arrived right in time to hear “your objective is to terminate everyone”. I guess that’s all we need to know right? But no. We spent another hour or so learning how to use the guns and the rules of the game.
Fast forward to the actual games. We all played 2 games each.
First game, I was blessed with the worst way to die… I was “terminated” because I ran out of bullets… Regardless, we were the victors.
Second game was a lot better. I learned from the first game and I used my bullets wisely. But unfortunately, we lost and was placed second overall. [SANDON AND JULIE (Exchange, US)! I’M BLAMING YOU BOTH FOR DOING THE SUICIDE SQUAD!]
The games were about 5 minutes each but the setup was hours. It was still fun though. However, it was nowhere near rafting. Rafting was legit the bomb dot com. The setup for rafting was quick and easy. The lesson we learned from the instructor was that if we were to fall and drown, just die by ourselves instead of grabbing and pulling someone else together as well. As soon as he said that, I went “OH HELL NAWH, IF I’M GOING DOWN I’M TAKING THE WHOLE TEAM DOWN WITH ME!”
Anyways… after getting our equipment, we took the bus uphill and got ready to go into the water. Our instructor was this 20 years old dude who was really cool. He allowed us to jump into the water right after the first drop, which made us the only team to freely swim in the water at the start. We cooled ourselves in the water for about 10 minutes then we hopped back on and began rafting again.
After about 10 minutes of relaxing and enjoying the beautiful views, and sometimes struggling with the currents, we reached a cliff where we were able to get a bit crazy. The cliff was about 4 meters above sea level so it wasn’t that bad. But I was scared still though. I’m afraid of heights and do not know how to swim. This combo is deadly for cliff jumping, but you know what. I manned the hell up and jumped. [#noregrets] I have to say, it was the best part of the entire trip. The thrill, the excitement, the anxiety, the laughs, and the pain for landing on the wrong parts of the body… they were all great memories. It was a great experience that needs to be repeated. Well… except for the part that we were freezing as soon as we got out of the water after the jump. It was then followed another 10 minutes of enjoying the view and fighting the currents, but this time we were shivering…
We got home quite late that night. Though I was able to sleep for a bit on the bus ride, I was still exhausted. It was worth though. Both paintball and rafting were ridiculously fun. On top of that, the fact that we were so close to North Korea made it even more exciting. It’s an experience that I would need to seek for a repeat.
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