The First "Hike"

Hi!

Last weekend I did end up going hiking.  It was an experience.  I went with one of the girls, and I specifically said, 'I want to ease into it, so no more than two hours and none of the rope or cable areas.'  I was told that there were areas that were very difficult, and that you required a rope or steel pegs hammered into the mountain to climb there.  To me that sounded to much like rock climbing, and I had no interest in that.  I was told there was the easy path, without the mild rock climbing, and the hard path, with it.  So, we started up the path toward the mountain.  It was going well.  There was beautiful scenery, which I had to enjoy often because I wasn't used to the elevation.

It was a challenging "hike", but at times was quite enjoyable.  There was a Buddhist temple on the mountain and we decided we would hike up to it.  Part way up the mountain I found a ski machine.  I found this hilarious.  There is nothing like climbing an hour up a mountain before you decide to really exercise.  You do get a nice view, but I think the climbing is good enough.  I, of course, had to get on it and get a picture.  You're welcome. 

With a little help from some Korean hikers, we eventually found our way to the temple.  There was a small stream, and with the view it was lovely, a great place to meditate.  This where the journey really took a turn. I asked one of the Korean hikers if we could go up to the temple.  He said no, but pointed to some stairs that ran up beside it.  We decided to get a look of the view from up there.  After a rest he followed us up.  We were debating on heading back down and he waved for us to follow him.  I didn't want to be impolite since he had helped us earlier and was still helping  us, and I figured he was going to show us how to meet up with the path that had split with ours before the temple.  Meaning, we would do a short loop and head back down the way we came.  It was not to be.

We climbed up rock stair after rock stair until my legs could hardly lift me.  The Koreans are like frickin' goats on the mountain, so the man, who was 50 or 60 years old, was getting further and further ahead of us. Every now and then he would pause to wait for us, which gave him a rest, but because we were trying to catch up there was no rest for us.  We kept saying we're almost there, we're almost there.  We weren't.  That man was too fast for us, and finally he left us behind.  There were many people on the mountain, I think this is their favorite past-time, so whenever one or a group past us they would guide us for a while.  Meanwhile, we were just saying how this was a sick, sick joke, and surely we must almost be at the top.  There must have been five times we thought we were about to be at the top, only to find another peak when we climbed high enough.

Eventually though, we did finally make it to the top.  Oh, the joy!  There were two arrows, one pointing to the direction we came from, and the other pointing the opposite direction.  After all of that I sure as heck wasn't going to climb down the way I had come up.  I had wanted to complete the loop and join the path we had split from, so, we chose the path going in the opposite direction.  This was our second mistake.  The first mistake was following the Korean man above the temple.  It started easily enough.  My energy was renewed at not having to climb anymore, and going down was fun for 10 minutes.  The mountain was very steep, and we had to use a rope in short spurts to get down it.  The first few times weren't bad, but then it got even more steep, and they switched to steal pegs and cables.  We then had to repel down the cliff, again only for short sections at a time, but there were about three of these sections where there was a meter or so that you could not get a foothold.  It was basically a shear drop for that meter (which then turns  to a slightly less shear drop with a small foothold), and I have long legs, but in those three sections they were not long enough.  Those three spots really took the fun out of that and by the time were were done the steep section we just wanted to be off the mountain, but we were only half way down it. 

Down and down we went, feeling like we weren't getting any closer to ground level.  It was still a steep decline, but we didn't require ropes or anything.  There was one place where I had to stop myself from  rolling down the path by catching a tree, or falling into it, whatever you want to call it.  I also fell on my rear a ways further down the mountain.  Down and down we went, until we finally made it down the mountain.  We came to the entrance of the mountain and we had no idea where we were.  There was a map and it looked like we were at the other end of the city.  I asked a man where the train station was and he said it wasn't far. That was a relief, things were turning up.  We asked him the time and he told us.  Our two hour hike had turned into a four hour hike.  He asked us what area we lived in and we told him and he said that was the station he was taking us to.  We were two blocks away from where we entered the mountain.  We were so exhausted we were just relieved we were so close to home.

So, the moral of the story.......I'm not going past the temple again.

My first trip to Seoul

Hi everyone!

Today I went to Seoul.  It was pretty great.  It is much cleaner than where I am, with wider streets, and more modern buildings.  It was a 50 minute train ride, but it went very fast and it is definitely worth doing often.  I went with one of the other new teachers here, so it took us a minute to figure out where we were going (we were looking for the tourist center to get maps and information), but then we found it very easy to get around.  We had to cross a creek to get to the center and it was beautiful.  I snapped a picture on the bridge.



The tourist center was a delightful surprise.  They had English maps of Korea, and Seoul.  They also had information on cooking and language classes.  We were also impressed by the other services they offered for free.  You could make origami of traditional clothes, calligraphy, and ,what we were most excited about but did not do today, we could dress up in traditional dresses and get our picture taken.  We will definitely do that soon.  They also had some beautiful and inexpensive souvenirs and nick-knacks.  There was also a section devoted to K-pop, which I know Margaret will be excited to hear.  We were very excited when we left there, and made sure we remembered the way back.

After a quick lunch we headed to one of the palaces in the city, the Deoksugung.  It was beautiful, even though things haven't really started to bloom.  It will be amazing in the spring and summer.  The best part, it only cost a dollar to wander the grounds and look around.  To see the art gallery, and something else it was only $5.  We plan on going back many times.  There are also four other palaces in Seoul that we have to check out.  There was a pond surrounded by trees, and many buildings with ornately painted ceilings.  We couldn't go inside of the buildings, but we were able to look inside.  It was incredibly peaceful there, especially when you consider that it is in the middle of such a large city.  You could barely hear the traffic or anything, but the birds chirping.  It was very enjoyable.

After that we tried to check out a small market, but there really wasn't much to see there so we headed back to the train.  The market was outside of Seoul, and I felt slightly conspicuous there.  As we got back on the train we received quite a few looks, or stares.  Most days I don't find that the case, that I'm something out of the ordinary.  I actually find that I stare at Westerners more than the Koreans.  I'm just so surprised to see them.  I don't see many in my day to day business, so now when I do I'm like 'Holy crap! There's a westerner', it's kind of funny, though I'm not completely sure why I find it so surprising.  Perhaps, I feel I blend in with the Koreans, who knows.

I really only get to do things on my weekends, so I don't have much to report during the week but I may do one to two posts a weekend depending on what I've got going on.  I'm supposed to attempt hiking for the first time tomorrow morning so you may hear from me again, if not have a great week.

My first few weeks in Korea

Hi everyone!
So much has happened in the last few weeks that I don't really know where to begin.  I started writing down some things earlier in the week, but there was so much that had already happened and it was too long for one post.  So, I think I'm just going to pick up from today, but I will probably refer to things that have happened since I have been here.

I am here with two other new teachers, who are from the U.S., and it is nice to have others going through all of this with me.  We have been spending a lot of time together, figuring out the job, food, and shopping.  The job has been very overwhelming so far.  The first few days we just audited classes, but there was a constant barrage of information.  This last week we started teaching.  The preschool classes are challenging, and only occasionally discouraging.  It is difficult to make 12 six year olds, who don't speak English, to move in the same direction, but as the week went it did get easier, not easy, but easier.  The elementary classes are much more enjoyable at the moment.  They are easier to communicate with, and are in regular school as well, so they know how to behave in class, for the most part.  During the week there wasn't much time to do much but walk to school, work, eat and walk home again, but as the weeks go by that should change.

The apartment is a 20 minute slow to moderate walk from the school.  I enjoy it, though it has been a little cool out.  Between the walk, school, and climbing all the stairs (3 flights to my apartment, and up and down a flight multiple times a day at school), I'm feeling pretty exhausted by the end of my day.  I am still looking forward to hiking, although from what I hear it is not so much hiking as it is easy rock climbing.  Apparently there are ropes and steel pegs that I will need to use to climb up in some areas.  Hiking is very big here.  There are stores everywhere that are selling hiking equipment (clothes, shoes, bags, hats, etc.), and there are also departments in department stores.

I haven't done much sight seeing yet.  I'm just getting to know my way around the city.  Last weekend we checked out part of downtown, the mall, which was very expensive, and the underground shopping mall, which was less expensive.  Today some of the other teachers showed us around downtown.  We went into a cafe that was pretty cool.  There were smoking and non-smoking sections.  The non-smoking was full, so we went to the smoking, luckily no one was smoking.  The booth was HUGE, it could have fit 10-14 people depending on there size.  There were only five of us so we got to spread out.  We had to take our shoes off out side of the booth (not uncommon in certain restaurants) and basically crawl in.  The seat of the booth was purple velour or something like it, and the seat part of it extended under the entire table, so you stretch out your legs when needed.  There was a curtain to close off our booth from the rest of the cafe, and there was a button to call the waitress when needed.  It was quite enjoyable, I definitely think it will be a favorite spot.

Many of you are probably wondering about the food.  I'm being fairly brave, but there is still a lot that I'm not brave enough to try.  Rice and kimchi are a staple, meaning there is some version of it at every meal.  The kimchi is usually very spicy, but I do try to have a few pieces every meal.  It is supposed to grow on you, and be very healthy.  Koreans do pork up right.  I've had it a few different ways and it is usually very good.  There aren't a lot of vegetables, and what they do have is usually pickled.  The most common vegetable pickled and unpickled is cabbage.  I'm not a cabbage fan, but some of the dressings make it downright edible.  So far, I haven't really cooked anything.  The school provides lunch for us, and in the evenings we usually eat out.  It's interesting what you can get here in regard to western food.  Last night we ordered pizza and it had corn on it.  Unusual, and unexpected, but it did provide a pop of flavour and I would eat it again.  Koreans have modified pizza in other ways as well, but I don't care for it.  I can't really explain it because I don't really know what they do, but there is a dark brown sauce (black bean, soy, I don't know) drizzled on it, and this thick strip of something, that I don't care for, all over it.  There was also a restaurant that put sugar instead of salt on its' fries.  The first few bites weren't too bad, but then it started to get to me.  This was the only place I've found so far that does this, thank goodness.

And for Amanda F, I am currently washing a load of laundry, and will be doing another tomorrow.  Plus, I have some dishes to wash, and I need to do a serious cleaning of my apartment tomorrow.  Some things never change.

Signing out, from the future (it is Saturday night here), dun dun dun.