Last weekend I went paintballing with a fellow teacher from my school through adverturekorea.com. We went out into a forest, northwest of Seoul, with 50 or so other foreigners. Everyone was pumped to shoot some guns and have some healthy battles. It was a little shocking to see so many trees and breath fresh air, seeing how it has been over a month now that I've last had a deep breath of Washington air.
Paintballing was a whole lot of fun, lasting about 3 hours. The games included team elimination and capture the flag, starting with 25 vs. 25 and dropping in size to 5 vs. 5 at the very end.
This past Saturday, together with four other people, I made a hike to the top of Mt. Bukhansan, about an hour and half from where I live. The mountain nestles right against Seoul, but to the northwest of the city, whereas I live in the southeast. I had no idea before coming here, but Koreans are obsessed with hiking. South Korea is covered with mountains, taking up about 70% of the land, so there is no shortage of trails to tackle. But these people take it to a professional level, wearing the latest hiking clothes, backpacks with hiking poles, and everything else that comes along with climbing Mt. Everest. During the weekends, Seoulites flee the city to get some exercise and spend time in Buddhist temples littered all over these mountains.
The hike started simple enough, a steady but gradual climb up with lots of other hikers. The first half hour was spent weaving through tiny streets sandwitched between korean barbecue stands and little restaurants. Eventually, we were making our way up, enjoying the changing colors that fall brings to the trees. Whenever we took breaks, Koreans would stop to talk to us, practice their English, and brag about their children and their accomplishments. One elderly couple, that had spent 15 years living in Philadelphia, beamed about their son scoring perfectly on the SAT's and graduating from Carnegie Mellon. I guess parents are the same the world over; they love their kids, especially if they have something to brag about.
After about 3 hours of an increasingly vertical climb, using a cable as the only thing keeping us from falling down the steep slope, we made it to the top, 830 meters above sea level, 4 kilometers from the bottom to the top. The view was absolutely breathtaking and unlike anything I've ever seen. The city of Seoul and its suburbs seemed to stretch endlessly, only to be curbed by other mountains. The pictures don't serve justice to the amazing experience of being on top of this mountain. Needless to say, I'm going to hiking again soon.
This is the mountain at the start of the hike.
A description for ya
These food stands are all over Korea, and this trail was no exception. This lady was making some sort of pork bbq and dumplings on skewers. I'm trying lots of new food with mixed success. Unfortunately, even my stomach can't always process everything...gotta be careful.
These are kimchi pots. The pots stay outside and ferment for a few weeks or months until they are ready to be served!
One of the Buddhist temples we saw along the way.
The inside of the temple. I've been told Koreans come to these to meditate during their hikes. No one was inside when I looked.
A part of Seoul.
It was really windy and cold at the peak. The pole behind us is a South Korean flag waving in the wind.
Near the top.
I uploaded two short videos from the hike.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om28ifJ_vNo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l4YEfUzvq8
After the hike, we went to TGI Fridays because a few of us have been missing American food (myself being one of those people). It was like being right at home! Burgers, quesadillas, mac and cheese bites, etc. They even split the bill, which is the first time I've ever seen it dong in Korea.
I went to an English speaking church, Jubilee Church, with two of the girls from my hagwon on Sunday. Everyone there was in their 20's and 30's and it really wasn't very different from modern non-denominational churches back home. A band playing and leading worship and one sermon, led by a Korean-American that grew up in Philadelphia. Half of the people there were Korean-Americans and the other half were regular Americans/Canadians/westerners teaching English here. There are other churches here that have English services. The next one I plan on checking out is the largest church in the world in membership.
A few last tidbits. Don't write a Korean's name using a red-ink pen, its considered bad luck, as I found out at school today. Also, having facial, arm, or leg hair is proving to be problem. My kindergartners love touching my leg hair especially, then jumping back in excitement. Now they're moving on to tugging and pulling the hairs on my toes, and that's not cool at all.
I'm sitting in a coffee shop right now, called Tom N Toms Coffee and there is a large flyer near the doorway advertising the 2009 Korea International Music Festival. The reason it caught my eye was because of the Ukrainian trident as one of the sponsors. Here's the website, http://www.kimf.or.kr/eng/index.asp. This isn't the first time I've run into Ukraine here, I've met a few guys that are from Ukraine dancing hip hop for a few weeks in Korea. Small world.
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