"Mountain Trekking - Me Happy!"

No, Korea hasn't diminished my English speaking ability - that was just the quote of the weekend (from a Korean.) But before I get to the origin of that quote, I'm going to have to keep you in suspense as I tell you about my crazy busy weekend, which was full of friends, fun, fresh fall air, and...foliage. Yes, foliage.

First of all - I hope you all had a great weekend, and I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving this week! This past week I've been thinking about how exciting Thanksgiving week has been for me the past four years - five days off from swimming and home for nearly a full week was pretty appealing. (I mean, I still had to swim when I went home otherwise I'd pay for it the following Monday - but I could at least choose my practice times.) Going home to Mankato and catching up with friends and family was always a highlight of my year - it will be very sad and strange not to be there this year. You will all just have to send me many e-mails instead :) I have to work on Thanksgiving this year, of course, but on Saturday a group of friends are getting together and attempting to have a Thanksgiving potluck - Korea style. I scored some canned pumpkin when I was in Seoul last month, so this week I'll bust that out and share the love with my fellow westerners. (I just realized how much slang I used in that sentence - ever since my friend and I designed a lesson on English slang we've been realizing just how much we use it in our daily conversations. That's your homework this week: think over how much slang you use every day.)

So, on Friday my friend and I 'studied' for our Korean quiz the next morning at Starbucks...and by the end of the night we determined that we're actually really terrible at studying together because we usually end up just chatting about how funny our students are. So, as a result I had to wake up super early on Saturday morning and do some last minute cramming before heading out on a morning field trip to the Damyang Metasequoia trail. Translation: Damyang is a place, a little town about 15 miles north of the city, and the Metaseqoia trail is basically a walking/biking path that is 

surrounded by Metasequoia trees - the fall colors were absolutely spectacular especially when the morning sun hit the trees just right. We were escorted by a Korean friend of my friend Sokhom's - he is an amateur photographer and graciously invited us along to do a mini photo shoot for him and his assistant, just for practice. We had fun posing and being silly for the camera and the pictures turned out great.

We got back just in time for our Korean class at 10:30 (the quiz went well, don't worry) and we went through the next chapter at rapid speed. I am really enjoying learning Korean - it's fun to be able to pick out words and phrases that my students and coworkers say. We are getting into more complicated grammar now, so I have to study quite a bit this week, but it's amazing how much of it I have already been using in the past few weeks - well worth the studying.

After Korean class it was time to meet up and head to the orphanage - we didn't do too much this week, but instead planned ahead for the next couple of months, when we will start more of a proper English class for the girls. It's hard to plan for the orphanage, since most of it is go with the flow, but I'm excited to do some more teaching, especially when the students are so adorable. (I mean, my middle schoolers are adorable too, but they are a bit older - the orphanage girls are cute little elementary aged students.)

After the orphanage we headed back to the GIC for the weekly 'GIC talk,' which is an hour lecture done by a volunteer presenter about a variety of topics - from politics to history to culture to upcoming events. This particular one was entitled "Tears of Fire," about the Bangladesh genocide in 1971. The objective of the talk (done by a Bengali woman currently living in Gwangju) was simply to inform people and provide facts about what happened, to raise awareness and support for the Bengali people as they continue to try to recover from the horrors of 1971. I encourage you to look up a bit about Bangladesh when you have some time -I learned so much from the presentation, and though much of it was shocking and tragic I think it was good to learn about and be aware of. The GIC talks are another way for the Gwangju community, both foreign and Korean, to interact and get together - I look forward to attending more talks.

After the GIC talk I had a bit of time before meeting up with some friends from Mokpo who came to town for a birthday dinner, so I did some shopping and wandering, enjoying the great fall weather. After a fantastic dinner at a popular Western restaurant the birthday crew was planning to go out on the town. I was so tired so I declined and headed home to drop off my stuff and crash, but after thinking it over I decided to go out for a little while, even though I had plans to go hiking in the morning. The plan was to meet up with some different friends before the birthday friends, who were in a different part of the city, then head home, but the night somehow evolved into an all night dance party, which was a ton of fun.

Even though hiking was the last thing I felt like doing when I woke up the next morning (quite a bit later than planned, I'm afraid) I scolded myself for being lazy and reminded myself that this was probably the last day I had to go to the nearby mountain and see the fall colors, as next weekend I will be out of town. After my harsh self-reprimand, I pulled myself out of bed, threw on some appropriate hiking clothes, grabbed some money, my camera, and phone, and headed out. I instantly felt better when I walked out the door into the fresh fall air (well, some of that was also due to the ibuprofen I popped on my way out,) and after stopping for coffee I felt good as new. It took me two bus changes to get out to the hiking site, and I enjoyed looking at the fall leaves out of the window.

Once I actually got to one of the many start points, (I should back up - I was at Muedung Mountain, which is due east of the city just by a few miles. It is one of the more popular mountains in Korea, with tons of trails leading up to the 1187 meter summit - I can give you some more history later, as it has a lot of historical importance and value.) as I got off the bus I realized I didn't really have any idea what I was doing - I knew some friends who had hiked it a few weeks before, and they told me a little about it, but as I had a time constraint I was worried that I wouldn't make it back in time to catch the bus for my hour long commute back to meet a friend. I decided to just start heading up, and enjoy as much as I could before turning around and making it back to the bus an hour before I had to meet my friend. With that, I picked the most popular looking trail and started my hike.

So imagine the perfect cool fall day, hiking up a fairly isolated trail on the side of a mountain right outside the city. The sun was shining in between patches of clouds, (at least, when I started it was - it got cloudy by late afternoon) I had some birds keeping me company here and there, (birds are a rarity in the city) and there was beautiful scenery all around. It was so quiet and peaceful, and the incline was gradual enough to keep my heart rate up, but not too difficult. I would either pass or be passed by Koreans decked out in their hiking gear here and there. Standard Korean hiking gear: black Gore-tex style pants, hiking shoes, black long sleeved Underarmor like shirts, with brightly colored vests or jackets on top, special backpacks, and sometimes gloves and hiking poles. Oh, and usually some kind of hat. Picture the entire hiking clothing, gear, and accessories section at Cabela's, put it on one person, and you've got yourself a Korean hiker. I've included a picture a little later on in the post to assist your imagination.

So, about an hour into my hike I was just about at my turn around time - I figured it would take me a little less time to descend, but I had some cushion time built in just in case - I was pretty close to the summit and wanted to see how close I could get, hoping for some neat pictures along the way. I had been trailing behind an older couple for a little while (no pun intended) and when they stopped at a resting point (a big slab of rock, in this case) they pulled out some water and drinks from their backpack. As I passed them on the trail, the man made a hand gesture for me to stop, and then he offered me a can of cold coffee and gestured for me to sit and break with them. I didn't want to offend them, and I'm such a sucker for coffee that I smiled, said thank you in Korean, and accepted. After a little bit of sitting around - I busied myself by taking pictures while they were chatting with some other hikers - they gestured to me to keep heading up with them. I decided to test out the very handy Korean I had learned just the other day: telling time. I somehow was able to communicate with them and ask how much farther it was to the top. I explained that I had to be back at the bottom in time to catch the bus. They said it was only about a half hour more to the summit - I knew it was pushing it, but I figured I had built in some extra cushion time, and they were being so nice I would have felt bad heading back down right then. So, I agreed (so glad I did) and continued on. Between their limited English and my limited Korean we were able to chat a little bit - I found out they live in Gwangju as well and near the same area as me. I said I was from America and he asked "San Francisco? New York?" I said "Aniyo (no), Minn-e-so-ta" and demonstrated that it was pretty much in the middle of San Fran and NYC - can't leave Minnesota out in the cold. (ooh, no pun intended there either, but from what I hear about ice and snow this weekend it is actually quite appropriate, no?)

We continued up the way, picking up another couple on the way (who very kindly shared their apples with me - we did a lot of pausing and snacking during the half hour up.) The man kept checking his watch for me, and we ended up ducking under a blocked up section to take a shortcut directly to the top. My anxiety of making it back in time vanished as soon as we reached the summit - it was incredible. Unfortunately, it was pretty cloudy at that point, so visibility was limited, but it was such a neat, beautiful open space that overlooked the city, the mountain valley, and the mountains beyond. While I was admiring (they didn't need to understand English to see I was impressed) and taking pictures, they offered to take pictures for me as well.) I could hear them chatting about me, and checking their watches. Finally it was decided that the couple would personally drive me home to ensure that we would have enough time for the picnic they had prepared - "Gi-na...aniyo bus-uh (no bus) home. My car - home o-ship (home 5:00)." And I therefore became a Korean adoptee and their personal responsibility in order to make sure I enjoyed the mountain and got home in time. They toured me around the summit, pointing out landmarks below, then we had our picnic with snacks and drinks. They knew a faster way down that the way we went up, which was more of a service road - judging by the amount of people that were heading back down with us it seemed to be pretty standard to hike on the trails to the summit, then just walk the service road back down. The road was lined with bright red, orange, and gold trees on the left, with views of the mountain valley on the right. My new friend summed it up perfectly as we neared the bottom (in English) "mountain trekking - me happy!" I wholeheartedly agreed with him - it was hard not to be in a good mood when you are surrounded by great views and fresh, crisp, mountain air.

Side note: as we walked back down to the start point, I received personal Korean tutoring from my new friend. It went a little something like this:

Him:"Gi-na"

Me: "Ne" (prounounced 'nay,' which means yes)

Him: (points to object, such as a tree) "Na-mu"

Me: "Na-mu"

Him: "Aniyo. Naaa-mu"

Me: "Naaa-mu" Then, "tree"

Him: "tree. O.K."

Silence...

Five minutes later,

"Gi-na"

"Ne" (insert a different nature-y vocabulary word, and continue. Repeat for an hour.)

A bit of a Korean overload, but it made the time pass by quickly. Between my Korean education and the scenery I had a great time, and, true to their word, I made it back just in time. (For those of you a bit concerned at my accepting a ride from perfect strangers in a foreign country, let me reassure you that Korea is one of the safest places I have ever been - 99 percent of the people are trusting and honest, and I've never felt uncomfortable or unsafe. It's well known among the foreign community how safe it can be here. I always keep an eye out, but when they offered I trusted my instinct and was just fine - I'm safe, I promise!) They dropped me off right in front of my bus stop, and after thanking and saying goodbye to my new friends I jumped on my connecting bus to head over to Chonnam University, the popular university district near my place.

Chonnam, or Chon-dae, for short (dae-hak-yo means university, so I learned that they just shorten it to Chon-dae when referring to the general) was hopping and busy. The area across the street from campus was full of coffee shops, restaurants, and shops. After meeting up with my friend for coffee I ended up meeting up with the same friends from the night before who were in the area. We got a guided tour around the campus by one of our Korean friends, and I am anxious to return in the daytime to see the ponds and little plaza like areas that we saw, interspersed between the university buildings. which I'm sure look beautiful in the fall colors. It was a pleasantly cool night out; perfect for a walk - I can see myself returning to Chon-dae quite often, as I learned it is only about a 20 minute walk from my area. It was fun being on a college campus again - I miss it.

I think the best part of my weekend was that so much of it was spontaneous and unplanned - everything ended up working out perfectly and I wouldn't have had it any other way. I'm normally such a planner and scheduler that it was a nice change to just go with the flow - funny how things always work out, planned or unplanned. As always, it went by too fast, and now I have to start thinking ahead for Thanksgiving and - yikes - Christmas plans. My goodness, how time has been flying. I wish you all a great week and hope you stay warm and safe!