I fear I am on the verge of turning orange. Persimmon season is still going strong and mandarin oranges are beginning to appear in massive amounts and I love both of these fruits, so half of what I consume these days is orange. I never expected to love persimmons. I’d only vaguely heard of them as a possibility in the US—I don’t think I’d ever seen one, or considered eating one—and I only had a couple last winter. They were not enough to pique my interest. They seemed old-fashioned and almost grandmotherly. But this year I am so into them. Every one I eat just seems more delicious than the last. And there are so many ways to have them! There are two main varieties—heart-shaped and round—and both of these can be had soft or hard or somewhere in between. And best of all, they are relatively cheap—the last ones I got were 8 for 2,000. I am already dreading the end of the season. Nika assures me that they’ll be readily available until we leave for winter break, which gives me another month to turn solidly orange. It’s pretty amazing—they’ve been around since we came back from Taiwan at the beginning of October, and they’re still for sale three months later! In my experience, many of the fruits in Korea have very short seasons, regrettably. You have the most delicious plums one weekend, and the next they are ridiculously expensive and not tasty, and the next they are gone. Which is all the more bitter considering I’ll NEVER have them again! But I guess I still have a while with persimmons. I also like mandarin oranges, which are a winter staple. I have no idea how Jeju produces so much, but I am happy they keep them coming for so long. There’s nothing that warms my heart like a truck filled with persimmons and mandarin oranges for sale. I almost always buy some (sometimes to the regret of my bowels, since I usually have to buy 6-8 persimmons or 30-50 mandarin oranges and then I eat them right away…).
Winter is here. I saw snow—only a few fine flakes, but still…--and frost while hiking yesterday. And today was so cold! I bitterly regretted my hiking resolution, but I figured it would only get worse, so I should go today while I still could. It was not my best outing, without even taking the weather into consideration. I got lost, twice, and ended up tangled in thorns for what felt like hours. And then I had to walk five miles or so back home. In the cold. At least I relented and went back for my hat and gloves at the beginning of the outing. I thought I was mastering Hongsan hiking, but today, it mastered me.
This was all part of my relaxation and rejuvenation weekend. Now that it’s nearly over, I realize I don’t feel that relaxed or rejuvenated, but it was nice while it lasted. Nika came here Thursday night and went to school with me on Friday. Too bad she didn’t get to see me at my best—by Friday, I always lose steam, and my sixth-grade classes are far from the best audiences, anyway. Every Friday I hope that class will be mysteriously canceled and am always a bit resentful I’m expected to teach after all. I also took Nika on a little hike around the city, but we cut it short to go our respective ways for the weekend. I was a little disappointed about this, too—I guess I just expected we’d do something epic without discussing it with her, but she clearly wanted to get up to Seoul.
So this left me with more free time than I anticipated, which I promptly wasted in travel. I decided, at the last minute, to go to Deokyusan National Park, which is an hour and a half south of Daejeon. I chose it because it’s one of the few national parks I have left (only five now!) and because it’s relatively accessible. I managed to get there by dinnertime Friday—just in time to find a room at the deserted park village and gorge myself on a mountain meal. It was quite chilly up there (but still warmer than it was in full sunlight today, I think!) and I was wandering aimlessly, looking for lodging, when I happened to ask a woman who was frying pajeon outside. She called a place, negotiated for me, and arranged for a ride to pick me up. I was so happy! It turns out it was the minbak right by the bus stop that I’d seen earlier and bypassed in favor of something better, but apparently nothing else was available for the price I asked. And they tried to charge me 30,000, too! I’m glad I had my new restaurant friend to negotiate 20,000 for me. So after I settled in, I went back to her restaurant and had dinner. She was very surprised to see me—she initially thought something was wrong with my room—because it was a bit of a walk. She settled me right down with a heater and water. I couldn’t have my all-time favorite, sanchae jeongshik, because they generally won’t serve that to people eating alone (it’s a huge table full of food), but here they had peoseot guk bap (mushroom soup rice…), which I’d never heard of before but was eager to try, since I love mushrooms so. It was amazingly delicious and hugely filling. It was basically a spicy mushroom stew with numerous delicious side dishes and rice. And then it was back to my hovel to relax and prepare for hiking the next day. I watched NBA basketball on TV for the first time in what must be a couple years, I think, and I realized I missed it a bit. I used to watch a lot of basketball with my dad back in the day, but I really haven’t done that much since he moved to Helena when I was in fifth grade. And now, of course, the players are all different. It was a little difficult at times figuring out who was who because the game, inexplicably, was in Japanese. Go figure. And then I watched Korean music videos. A multicultural evening, I suppose…who would have thought I’d experience this in a utterly deserted park village?
I woke up early on Saturday to hike. I wasn’t really sure where I’d go…there was a possibility of a huge end-to-end hike, but I wasn’t sure how long that would take me and if I’d feel up to it. I wanted to get to the top of the main peak, which is Korea’s fourth highest, and then decide if I’d make a loop from there or go end to end. However, I was robbed of a choice. The mountain was virtually closed down in an attempt to protect it from fire danger, starting two days earlier. I was able to hike up to the top, but no further. I am happy I got that far, but disappointed my hike was cut so short. I only hiked five hours! And because I went so early, I really was robbed of the view. It was bitter cold and mist-shrouded at the top when I was there. This is where I saw the frost and miniscule snowflakes and cursed winter and cold weather. I didn’t realize it would burn off, either, but it was gone about an hour after I left. Guess I gotta go back, then.
I went back to Daejeon, shopped at Costco, and made it home just past dinnertime. I think the family was very surprised to see me. I was surprised, too…I really didn’t think I’d make it home so early! Even with all this extra time, though, I haven’t managed to do any of the things I planned for this weekend. Perhaps it’s better to just stay away, so I at least have an excuse and don’t feel guilt-ridden and slovenly, like I do now.