2) I'm ridiculously obsessed with hiking.
3) Korea becomes weirder and weirder the longer I'm here.
Last weekend I went hiking near my apartment, at Mt. Apsan. (Technically just Mt. Ap, as "san" means mountain, so saying Mt. Apsan is redundant....) I went with 3 friends. We packed lunches, headed 'up,' and just soaked in a day of nature, no street noises, and the occasional Kenny G song softly streaming from speakers disguised as rocks along the path. (I have video for proof- and will post it if I can figure out how). As we were hiking we came across an obstacle course. We had fun walking across rope bridges, swinging on rope swings, and just generally reveling in the weirdness that none of us had ever seen- except for in Korea. I mean really. You'd never see a ridiculous obstacle course (well-maintained) set up on the middle of a mountain in the US, anywhere. If anyone has seen this, I stand corrected. It was the kind of thing I came to Korea to see.
Middle of the mountain- I cannot figure this out. Those are my friends Alina- from Russia- she's here studying, and Jessica, from Long Island- she's here teaching also.Last week at work was just like every week. Not much to note except that I have a really funny list going of all the things I hear my students say that make me giggle. I think I'll post it all at one time once it gets good and long. Kind of like my quote book, for those of you familiar with that. Kind of related- it's been really hot here now, around 80 every day, so I've been wearing short sleeves (we aren't allowed to wear tanktops, which REALLY narrows down my choices to about 4 different shirts to wear a week). I've previously mentioned how my students are blown away by my freckles. They simply do not understand what they are. This week I received, "Ohhhhh! Teach-eerrrrr!" (deliberate pointing to my arms) "Burn, Teacher? Fire? Burn?"
They think I was burned badly in a fire, and my freckles are the aftermath. I then drew a picture of the sun on the board, pointed at my skin, and tried to convey that in the same way the sun gives most people a tan, it simply leaves me pale with millions of tiny brown dots everywhere. Their looks of confusion told me that had no idea what I meant, and at this moment my director popped her head in the door and I said "Jenis, can you PLEASE explain to these kids what freckles are so they stop looking at me like this!!!"
Tuesday was another fieldtrip for our Kindergarten classes (we typically go on one a month). We went to an amusement park in Daegu. The kids were extremely excited for this! It was hard to keep them contained. We were able to take them on a log ride, a mini roller coaster, the carousel, a car ride where they all got to drive little fake cars, and a couple other small rides. It was fun, but we only had a couple hours there so the teachers weren't able to go on anything we wanted to go on! I'm sorry, but I love amusement parks!
Kelly- obviously displeased with the carousel.
Jaden- One of my kindergarten students proudly displaying Bugle fingers.Today I went hiking again in Gyeongju (about an hour bus ride away- costs about 3 bucks to get there). We got off the bus at the station, then piled into a cab, hoping he'd understand our remedial Korean speaking. He did, and dropped us off at the base of Mt. Namsan (again, technically Mt. Nam). We followed a trail up and down and around, just guessing where to go, venturing off the trail every now and then. We saw a temple, a pagoda, people praying, people resting, and 2 women hiking in high heels. Seriously... and at the point that we passed them, they were nowhere near the bottom of the mountain, so they'd been hiking in heels, and I mean like stilettos, for at least a couple kilometers. One of them had a strand of pearls neatly hugging her neck as well. There really are signs here saying "NO HIGH HEELS." They chose not to pay heed apparently. When we finally got to the other side of the mountain, we'd seemingly forgotten the part where we wouldn't have a clue how to get back to the bus station. After some glancing around, no cabs/ buses/ signs in sight, we decided we'd try hitch-hiking. So thumbs out! The first guy that saw us stopped, and actually glanced around his car like he'd move stuff out of the way for us to sit down. But after we stated where we were headed, he sadly informed us he was headed the opposite direction. Strike one. Our next prospect came in the form of 4 elderly men piled into a flatbed truck. Our thinking was that we'd happily sit on the truck bed. After standing with thumbs out, a couple of them glanced our way, then immediately jerked their heads back forward and completely avoided any further chances of eye contact with us. Strike two!
Fountains like this exist all up and down the mountains- You simply grab a red ladle, dip it under the non-stop stream of water, and sip from the ladle. It's weird, they'll wear face masks everywhere, but when it comes to sharing things like water bowls in the middle of the woods, germ don't exist. Us white-folk, we filled up our waterbottles (and for the record, this water tastes 3000% better than any water I've ever tasted in my life).
Contemplating life from the top of a rock, close to Geumobong Peak (438m) on Mt. Namsan.Well, there was no strike 3, so you can calm down, Mother. We eventually found a bus heading back towards the bus station, and I live to tell the tale of the first time I have seriously attempted hitch-hiking. Now I'm sitting in bed, flipping through all the amazing photos I've gathered over the past few weeks, and watching episode after episode of Modern Family online. Hope everyone's had a great weekend!
Kimchi pots! Mmmmm fermentation.
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