Road Trippin'

After a fun filled night with some new friends, the next morning I woke up at 7 AM on a SUNDAY to meet up with my friend Stella. I would have put up a huge fuss about the meeting time, if she spoke English, but phone conversations with here are short and to the point. Where and when, then yes or no, not much room for debate. She wanted me to join her on a road trip to some Buddhist temples in Deajong, about a 2 hour car ride away. I didn't totally know what I was agreeing to at the time, but it is much more of an adventure that way. Basically I was meeting with her, and we could have been going to a junk yard, but thank goodness, we weren't. It was a beautiful day, and it made me realize how much I missed being behind the wheel of a car. There is something about listening to music while driving that I find so enjoyable, but sadly I no longer own a car, or even have a Korean drivers liscense for that matter, so it will be some time before I experience that pleasure again. If you could put the peddel to the metal while blaring some Journey for me the next time you get behind the wheel, it would bring a smile to my face. Okay, so Stella and I were enjoying the open road when we finally saw the mountain we were heading too. I still had no idea what was coming, but when we pulled up there was a female monk waiting for us. As a joke Stella told me it was her mother, but jokes from people who know don't speak how good english well, really just mess with your head. Then we walked into an apartment building, or what looked like an apartment building, went up to the second floor, and wham! We were right in the middle of a Buddhist ceremony. We sat down on pads laid on the floor, and there we would stay for what seemed like an eternity. I thought it was too rude to look at my watch, so I can't give you exact times, but I felt like I sat there, Indian style, for 2 months.
For the rest of the time Monks chanted, beat drums, threw rice, people prayed, lit candles, bowed, stood, and bowed again. I didn't know what the heck was going on. The entire time we were just faced towards these walls of paper, until the time of the ceremony where they tear the paper down to expose one huge golden statue of the Buddha, and like a million little golden statues of some other icon. Besides being uncomfortable some of the cool parts of the ceremony were when they brought this string around, having everyone hold a peace. Then they wrapped the end of it around the statue before cutting the string you were holding. Stella told me the string is like an Angel, that's a simple translation, but I'm sure it's something like that. Also, after the ceremony we ate dinner right there on the floor we were just praying on. It was a good meal, and all the food was just blessed, so I think it had to be healthy. After the meal was over everyone helped clean up, and then Stella and I went to the mountain to see some famous temples. Overall it was a really interesting day. I certainly felt out of place at times, but I'm starting to think that isn't such a bad thing. If you don't put yourself in different situations every once in a while, everything you do will seem the same.

That should be the end of the story but sadly I was introduced to another very common occurence in Korea...the car accident. Korean drivers are well, lets just say I don't hear anyone calling them the best in the world. I think Stella seems like a pretty good driver too (despite all the driving stereotypes that work against here: Asain, woman, etc..), but with that being said, we did get into a fender-bender on the ride home. Everyone was okay, but I thought you might all want to rubberneck at the damage.
Their Damage.






Our Damage

First Hiking Experience

If you didn't know it, hiking is like the national pastime in Korea. It seems like everyone enjoys it, this is of course besides the few over weight kids I saw this day crying who looked like they would much rather be playing video games, but besides a few exceptions, there is nothing but widespread love for the outdoors here.
Monday was a half-day for the schools physical fitness testing. We were to come in, teach one class, then hang out till lunch while the other teachers had to conduct the tests. Students 40 times, sit-ups, push-ups, and all that other nostalgic analization of our inadequacies. It was always the damn pull-ups that kept me from being the top percent.
All the teachers got off after lunch and we decided to go hiking. After asking every teacher I had come to know in the month here if they were going hiking, and getting NO's from all of them, I really started second guessing this idea. This realization seemed to make the weather get colder, maybe it's too cold to hike? Or it looked like it was going to rain, and I don't want to hiking in the rain. Or I didn't have good enough hiking clothes and I wouldn't fit in. I didn't know where to meet, when to meet, or whom I was meeting with to go hiking. It's amazing how many excuses our mind will make for us to avoid us from looking bad. Luckily I was able to suck it up and head back to the school at 2 where about 15 men were waiting with hiking sticks in hand. I really only knew one of them, and he didn't speak any English. I was the only English speaker. I again was considering pulling a hamstring to get out of a potentially awkward situation. Thank god I didn't. Only moments later Rachel came around the corner, and after a rousing cheer by all the Korean men, she instantly doubled the number of English speakers in the group. She then shared her uneasiness with me about being the only woman in the group, haha, minutes later another woman showed up. We had no more excuses, we were going to make the best of this situation.That is exactly what we did.
I truly love the outdoors. We hiked two mountains this day, one small and one decently big. What exactly does that mean? I'm not sure I don't know the names or sizes of the mountains we climbed, I couldn't be bothered with details, I was having too much fun. After reaching the peak of Mountain #1 we were rewarded with a wonderful view, and even better, a Snickers. These guys come prepared. I hadn't had a full size Snickers bar since I was dressed as Dracula for Halloween back in '01. The view mixed with that combination of chocolate, caramel, and peanuts was a recipe for ecstasy. I was on cloud nine. I also found another place to work out. Believe it or not there are benches, weights, and lifting machines out in the open on the hiking route of this mountain, and many other mountains too. I think Rachel put it best when she said, "Can you believe that? A country that actually promotes physical fitness?" It's also amazing that no one trashes this stuff or steals it. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of it, I was too dumb struck, but I will be back, and you will see it. Rachel and me were still just talking to ourselves mainly at this point, and we're plenty good company on our own, but it only got better and better. The more we hiked the more pictures I took, and the more people became social. A few Korean words thrown out here and there by myself got great positive responses from the group, and it got them trying to use some English too. We reached the top of the second mountain and it made the view from the first seem like the bunny hill. The scenery was amazing in every direction. Mountains as far as you can see, and not an inch of open space in the valleys that lay between them. It seemed like a sea of apartment buildings. After taking a million pictures, getting a good work out, and having some laughs I was more then content to pack up and head home at around 4. Well that's not how they roll.
On our way down the mountain we stopped and people started emptying out there backpacks, which up until now I figured were full of serious hiking equipment...I was a bit off. Everyone was carrying around food, and alcohol for the descent party. Haha.








Right off the trail with our paper cups, and wooden chop sticks; we dined and drank without a care in the world. The alcohol only loosened people’s tongues more, and we all started talking to each other, in Koreanglish. Laughing, joking, cheersing, and what not. It was around that moment where I asked Rachel what we might be doing if we didn't come, or what we'd be doing back in the states. Her response...watching TV. Sad but true. I'm so happy I decided to go hiking today, and even happier that I decided to try something different by coming to Korea.
As if all of that wasn't enough, we still had more to do and see. After finishing our food and drink, we finished the climb down and it led us to a college campus. I love college campuses. This one was exceptionally beautiful too. Possibly the second best in all of Korea with over 50,000 students. It reminded me of a mixture between Penn State and North Carolina, and anything that reminds me of Penn State instantly makes me happy.
Also being surrounded by women my own age wasn't so bad either, I even heard some English conversation. After a small tour of the campus, we then went to dinner. More food, drink, and fun followed. Then we followed that restaurant with a bar. Then that bar with a taxi ride home where I invited another teacher over for some late night drinks.
Everyone was really awesome, and everyone really opened up as the day went along, myself included. I must have heard lines like "We friends", "I happy", "Much fun" 50 different times. This day really seemed like 4 separate days put together, and it is days like these that I live for. Meeting people, making new friends, creating strong friendships, having new experiences, and seeing the world...it was a full day in every sense of the word. Please check out the complete days pic's on my Picasa photo album link. However, all good things come to an end. I know you thought this entry might not, but it has done just that....Now.

P.S. - Me and Rachel are now "Honorary Hiking Club Members"...ok now it's over.