A wonderful weekend!

I'm sorry that MN decided to skip fall this year, but Korea certainly did not! This past weekend, I headed to the gym on Friday night and decided to stay in and rest as Britney and I were heading out for a hike on Saturday to see the fall leaves change. It was great to get a good nights rest and an even better morning when I woke up on Saturday to Kimmy (my best friend from college) and her parents on Skype. I haven't talked to her for more than 10 minutes here and there since I got here two months ago. We talked for over at hour! It was SO wonderful, but needless to say, our departure time for a hike in Seoul had been quite delayed. Instead, we decided to venture back to the area where we took our LCI students on the "morning stroll"...aka mountain hike! We left around 1:30pm and started up a 5.6km trek around 2:00pm. Ms. Cross Country (Britney) and I have really enjoyed working out, but have both been struggling to run more than 20 minutes without being breathless. We thought a nice hike would be a little easier on the lungs, but ten minutes into the hike proved otherwise when we both found ourselves wheezing! I've been feeling ok for the most part, while Britney has been on and off meds since she got her. However, we would like to think part of our breathing issues could be due to the air pollution here. We're both hoping we adjust sooner than later and the exercise that used to be pretty effortless will get a bit easier with time.

Anyway...Britney and I hiked for about 45 minutes when we came to a funny plateau on the mountain. There was an array of things for people resting from their hike to do: rings, parallel bars, the standard exercise equipment, over sized hula hoops, some funny tire contraptions to stretch your back, and even bench press weights! A little odd to say the least, but we took our rest and continued on our way. Much different from when I lived in upstate NY for a summer, we saw MANY more Koreans hiking than I saw people in NY. Everyone here does it from ladies my grandmothers age to toddlers! I even saw one of my kindergarten students out with his dad. It was really nice to see so many people taking advantage of the beautiful area they live in. As we continued on our hike, we saw a beautiful peak and both said, "How do we get there? That's where we want to go!" Little did we know that at 4:30pm, that's where we would end up! A fairly easy hike from the beginning turned into a fairly intense rock climb at the end.

It was all worth it! Two and a half hours later we sat on the top boulder of a beautiful mountain overlooking many color changing leaves and the city we live in. It was also instantly when we reached our rest point that a generous Korean pulled out his 2 liter water bottle filled with Makgeolli (Korean rice wine) and his little paper cups and began pouring us a drink. He also handed over a fish stick (like beef jerky, but fish...not good)! Out of respect I took a piece and ate a bite only to gulp an entire glass of the wine immediately after. In return Britney and I shared with him the trail mix we had brought with. He took a few pictures for us, we relaxed, and before we knew it he pulled out a can of Carona beer! We didn't know how good of an idea it was to be drinking on the top of a mountain after a two and a half hour hike and little food/energy left in us...who knew how fast the alcohol would hit us before we were rolling down the mountain?! We avoided opening it, but gladly did when he pulled out a second can for himself and initiated the toast. We could have sat their forever drinking with the generous Korean (who spoke no English), but eventually decided we best head down before we got stuck on the mountain at sun set.

Shortly after we headed back down, another Korean gentleman seemed to appear on our right out of no where! He immediately asked if we were teaching English. Of course, after we responded yes, we ended up walking the entire way down with him. He asked all about us and our experience here, told us about his four years living in the US as a reporter, and insisted he was so grateful to talk to us because his English was so poor. He gave us an example of Korean's trouble with pronunciations when he said a word that I understood as "piñata" when he was actually saying "vineyard" (yup, don't know where I got that one from) and he said most Koreans say as "vine yard" (two separate words). It was actually quite humorous, but in general, he spoke very understandable English. When we got to the point where we though we had to split to go back on our same path, we turned around to see a woman not far behind us. He looked back at her, giggled, and then turned to us saying, "Oh..that's my wife!" It was too funny...he left his wife to come practice his English with us! At that point, he promised us that his way down was much shorter than the way we came and promised to help us get back by bus. At this point, it was 5:30pm and with the sun sure to set soon, we followed him the rest of the way. Without our bus passes or the correct money, he kindly paid for us to come home with him. As we sat next to his wife and him, his wife began talking. He translated for us. My wife said, "It is good for me to speak with you to practice my English....but it is sure BORING for her!" Oh the dear lady! She knew what it meant for her husband to practice his English with us, so she let him walk ahead with us the entire way! Had we known she was behind us, we at least would have waited for her to walk along with us while we talked. To top it off, in this overpopulated country of Korea, he ended up living in the high rise apartments right behind ours. So, he literally walked us home. He also offered to take Britney and hiking up the most popular mountain in Seoul next weekend for the peak of the leaves changing! I know you're not going to like this uncle Bob, but we exchanged numbers with him because we couldn't pass up the offer. If he calls, we can't say no! We did also offer to answer any questions he has about the meaning and pronunciation of English words as he said he reads lots of English articles and is very particular about understanding them and saying the words correctly. I might be a bit naive, but I didn't see the harm! He was so kind in helping us that day, that I couldn't say no to him. Besides...if it weren't for him, Britney and I might still be on that mountain!

The night ended at 4:30am (Sunday morning) after our (Britney, London, and I) first night out in Seoul and a long and expensive cab ride home. The driver clearly didn't understand where we were going, so about 20 minutes past where we thought we should have been, we ended up calling the FREE ENGLISH TRANSLATION number posted on his window. At 65,000 won, he ended up clearing the meter, turning around to get us home, and charging us only 45,000 won, which is still more than the 39,000 anyone has ever paid to get home from Seoul in a cab. However, we made it home and all felt bad that he lost quite a bit of money that night.

The next morning, or afternoon I should say, since I woke up at 2:00pm, we headed to an American restaurant called Butterfinger Pancakes...doesn't the name just tell you right away it's going to be delicious?! For a high price, we got a high stack of the most amazing pancakes, rosemary seasoned breakfast potatoes, and an overstuffed omelet. We ate until we couldn't take another bite, all leaving (with regret) food on the plate. It absolutely cured any American homesickness we were feeling at the time. That evening, I talked to mom and dad for an hour and was in bed by 11pm to rest up for LCI's first ever spirit week- look out for pictures of that on my next blog. It really was a wonderful weekend!