Back in Hongsan

I finally arrived back to Hongsan today. It was eerie, taking the same journey from Seoul…it was almost like I never left, only everything felt slightly unfamiliar. And the walk home was much much much hotter than I remember (possibly because I attempted it at 1 pm, but still…it’s noticeably warmer here than Seoraksan or Seoul). The front room had been rearranged, another barn had been built, and Eun Ho’s hair had been chopped, but otherwise, everything seemed much as I left it seven weeks ago. The afternoon, unfortunately, was devoted to unpacking (my “decorated” boxes from Seoul had arrived before me, thank goodness!), reorganizing, lamenting my accumulation of material possessions, and staring at a blank computer screen, willing lesson plan inspiration to shine down upon me. I feel rusty—I absolutely couldn’t come up with any fun new games! I hope the kids have had enough of a break that the familiar old ones will seem novel again. I have finally decided upon a course of action for my club classes, which I hope works well tomorrow. I recently acquired the Planet Earth DVD, which has hours of amazing nature footage. I’m going to take small clips and teach various words shown in the video. Tomorrow I’m doing the Mongolian grasslands, where we will learn Mongolia, plain, eagle, gazelle, grass, and fire. I hope they like it, because I have a whole bunch more coming up! Tomorrow is going to be a rough day. Not only do I have to teach for the first time in months, but I will have no preparation time (my silly summer camp is starting first thing in the morning) and the few precious minutes I do have might be devoted to meetings in which I’m going to attempt to negotiate my way out of teaching on Fridays. Too bad I don’t have presents for the people at my school yet. I was hoping to butter them up! This whole coming back business has been rough in general, however. First there was the flight mishap, in which I spent an extra day in L.A. and had to take an inferior airline to boot. Still trying to put that one out of my mind. Then I lost my luggage. In the end, I lost two days of my proposed Seoraksan-Ullengdo trip, so I only had time to tackle Seoraksan. I had a really excellent time, for the most part, but I’m still a little bummed I missed out on the island. It’s supposed to be amazing. I’ve been trying to get there for six months now, but it’s so far away that it hasn’t yet worked out. Another reason to push for Fridays off, so I can get around and do things like this! I spent my first day and a half in Seoul with Susie, a friend of mine and the new program coordinator. It’s pretty awesome to have a place to crash in the big city now, especially with Susie, who loves to take care of people. She found me out on the streets, bought me fruit (she says I seemed like a fruit person—she got that right!), and took charge in finding my luggage. It was all I could do to ease back into the country again. It wasn’t overwhelming, exactly….just strange. Strangely familiar, and I wasn’t sure if I liked it. I did get the scoop on all the new ETAs, though I haven’t met them yet. My dream of having someone close by was crushed, but perhaps I will still make friends. I have a feeling I will be aloof with fellow extendees, but we’ll see… On Thursday, I finally shipped my luggage home (over 100 pounds for $15…not too bad!) and headed east to Seoraksan. I didn’t arrive until after five and it took me a long time to find a suitable place, but after walking back and forth along a street for a long time someone finally took pity on me, approached me, and offered me a place at a minpak (basically, the cheapest kind of accommodation you can get). It wasn’t that nice and I probably paid too much, but it did have AC (which I forgot about until after the first hot, sleepless night) and a refrigerator. I realized at this point that I had been in Korea for two days and hadn’t eaten Korean food yet (I was raiding Susie’s refrigerator and Costco instead), so I finally had some bibimbap. I’m a little worried about my eating habits lately. I think I’ve finally gotten back down to normal portions (coming back home and stepping on a scale was a bit of a wake-up call about my out-of-control eating), but American and Korean food are so vastly different. I had trouble digesting when I first got home, but I’d finally adjusted, and now I’m changing it again. Korean just wasn’t that appetizing to me when I ate out, but I hope it gets better. Perhaps I just have a smaller appetite now, too. On Friday, I set off on a huge hike. I decided to attempt in one day what my guide book recommended for two and I was not at all sure it would work out in my favor. Korean hikes have a tendency to take much longer than I think they should. I’m not sure if it’s the general steepness, the rocks, the stairs, or the heat, but I always go at a much slower pace than I do in America. In fact, they don’t really measure hikes by distance, but by time, because distance is not a reliable indicator of how long it will take. Anyway, I planned to go in the most popular entrance (the way I entered last year, actually), go up the famous rock valley (supposedly the most scenic of the outer area of the park), and up to Daecheongbong, the third highest peak in Korea at 1708 m. It was really beautiful and relatively uncrowded (I started at 7) and it didn’t take me nearly as long as I thought it would. The distance to the peak was about 11 km and I made it in four hours. I’m not sure about the elevation gain, but I’d guess I was pretty close to sea level when I started climbing. I most certainly felt it in my legs. It was a rare sunny summer day in Korea, and boy was it hot as I was climbing! In fact, I nearly ran out of water! After lunch at the top, I started down a different valley that took me through the heart of what is known as the inner area of the park. Outer Seoraksan, where I climbed in the morning, is known for its rocks and cragginess, whereas Inner Seoraksan tends to be more gentle and wooded, not to mention less visited. I like to go the uncharted route, and I do prefer woods to rocks, so I was excited for this leg of the journey. And I actually thought it was more beautiful than the morning’s climb. Both traveled along rivers and had spectacular waterfalls, but I just found Baekdam valley to be more pleasant, for some reason. The only downer was that the hermitage I wanted to see, supposedly the highest in Korea, was under serious construction and I really couldn’t see much. I made it down 13 km in four more hours. Guess those guidebook fools weren’t referring to ME when recommending hikes! I was hurting by the end, though. I managed to get a bus back into town, but it took me to the other terminal. I thought it wouldn’t be TOO far between the two (I had a map, but no idea of scale), plus, I wanted to look for a place to eat, so I walked. It was too too far. I was DONE when I finally got home. At least I had some good japjae (essentially, fried noodles with vegetables). The lady I bought it from was really nice and made me feel competent in Korean. She chided me for not wearing a hat, but I think my face was red from dehydration, not sunburn. On Saturday, I wanted to explore Inner Seoraksan some more, so I took another bus to the other side to climb up by one of Korea’s highest waterfalls (88 m!), over a ridge, and down another trail that led by the “Twelve Fairy Pools.” This trail, according to my book, is one of the park’s hidden gems. On the way to the top, I met with a group of guys. Like absolutely everyone else, they were horrified to learn I was hiking alone and insisted on going together. Since I was much slower today anyway (the day before had leadened my legs), I stuck with them and they were good company. Mr. Pak led the way and was most friendly, even though he only spoke Korean and, I later found out, was horribly hung over. Mr. Choe was also nice and spoke a few words of English. Mr. No and Mr. Song were far behind us. They had much bigger packs, for some reason. These guys were going the opposite way on the top of the ridge to Daecheongbong (a respectable 16 km), where they would stay the night. I thought they weren’t much older than me, but surprise! They were all in their mid- to late thirties. These Koreans, man. They don’t age. They directed me along when our trails diverged. My first clue something was wrong was when there was a rope with a “No trail” sign slung across the path. They didn’t seem to think anything of it, though, so I continued on my way, hoping the trail wasn’t closed. And it didn’t seem to be. Around lunchtime, I came across a crew of workers in the middle of the trail, who invited me to eat with them (I declined—I’d had my share of awkward encounters for the day). One followed me down later and told me to visit his wife on the way down for coffee. I thought at this point the trail was obviously open—wouldn’t they have told me to turn around if it wasn’t? But then I came across more work crews, and missing bridges, and treacherous slopes. Instead of turning around, however, I kept going, though I did try to avoid detection. Above all, I didn’t want to climb again—I don’t think my legs would have made it. The pools were nice, but this was the area they were working most intensively on, so I was busily crashing through woods instead of admiring the water. I definitely saw some guy bathing in the nude when I was creeping by! Just when I thought I’d passed by all the trail construction, there was a huge bulldozer and a park ranger at the end. I think he gave me a sour look as I sauntered by, but I got away with it at the end. This is the thing about Korea, I am realizing. I can get away with so much simply with my skin color. Even though it’s a pain to be a foreigner most of the time, subject to stares and inquiry and generally treated like an idiot, there is the bonus of being able to do anything (within reason) without being questioned. For example, when I was in Costco with Susie, I walked backwards through the checkout lane to the food court without a single glance in my direction, but when she followed, she was stopped. On Friday, at the end of my big hike, there was a shuttle down to the nearest town, and while the guy was checking everyone else for tickets, he didn’t question me. (I think you had to buy them at the bottom, or I would have had one—I’m not a cheat!) I swear I could see him deliberating—stop the foreigner and have an awkward conversation in English, or just let her go. He let me go and I rejoiced. Anyway, there I was, in a nowhere town my guidebook claimed had bus service to Sokcho (the seaside town where I was staying). After obtaining some indistinct Korean directions, I wandered up and down the road, feet paining me exponentially more with each step, to no avail. No bus stop in sight. There were buses aplenty thundering down the road, but they did not stop. I could hardly move at this point and my despair must have been apparent, because then I was offered a ride. My first Korean hitchhiking experience! He showed me his navy ID card (like I cared…it was a ride!) and we were off. This guy (I forget his name now) actually spoke decent English and was really nice. He drove me all the way to my minpak. Again, happy to be a foreigner. Koreans are obscenely nice to we white people. This morning I woke up early again, in the hopes of seeing the sun rise over the sea before my bus took off, but it was cloudy again, after two days of sun in which I’d been too busy to take in the sunrise. Drat! As I walked toward the beach, I realized there were a lot of people awake. A lot of young people. With…beer. Yes, there must have been a hundred people, still up partying at 6 am! I guess it’s the beach mentality. If I’d been with a friend and not exhausted beyond belief, maybe it would have occurred to me to enjoy the balmy seaside nights, too. It was a funny sight, though, and one drunk even commanded me aside to take a picture! So while I’m not looking forward to tomorrow, and perhaps to teaching in Hongsan in general, in some ways it is nice to be back. This almost feels more like home than my real home. At any rate, it’s much less stressful—no one even tries to talk to me!