Honestly, now.

Yeesh, this was a busy (and fantastic!) weekend.  It started at nine in the morning on Saturday.  Sam, Jen, Don, Kerri and I all met up at the sandwich shop.  After two bus rides, we ended up at Bukansan (sp?) National Park, which is in the middle of Seoul.  Huge park in the middle of the city?  Yep.  And we began hiking.  And hiking.  Bukansan mountain is 836 meters night.  All in all, we hiking about 10k on Saturday.  This picture was taken in the beginning hour of our hike.  We reached the park at about 11:25am.  All said and done, we hiked for about five and a half hours (including breaks and about a 45-minute lunch).  The weather was perfect, slightly cool and mostly cloudy.  I wore sunscreen, but between the trees and the clouds I really didn’t need it.  From left to right in this first picture: Jen, Kerri, Sam, and Don. About half way to the top, there is a wall that was built in the 300’s.  It has since been restored, but you can still see the original rock at the base.  It’s not very tall, but it’s placement is amazing.  Most of the time, the land on the other side of the wall falls away rather sharply.  Not everywhere, but mostly.  We followed the trail along the wall.  Second picture:(from left to right) Don, Sam, and Kerri all admiring the view of Seoul, which is fantastic!  The green patches are parks in the city.  I have been asked numerous times if it has been difficult making the transition from a small town into a city of ten million.  Those green patches certainly help.  I describe the trails I’ve been on as “The trail behind 2001 Outlet,” or “The trail behind the E-Mart in Yongin.”  It’s very true.  You’ll be wandering around and suddenly discover a park that you’ve walked by and ever noticed.  Granted, the trails are almost always busy (hiking is quite popular especially with the older crowd, though it’s pretty depressing when you’re being passed on the trail by a little old grandma and her tiny, tiny gradson), but if you want to get away, you can always go off-trail and find a small space to yourself.  Or travel to some place a little more remote.  I must admit, as an America, five hours on a train is nothing.  In Korea, it’s a long trip.  I have a feeling I’m going to be spoiled by the trail.  Oh yeah, Kerri and I bought out trail tickets for Busan.  Oh yeah for holiday! Nearing the top of the mountain, there is a metal cable that you must hang onto to pull yourself up.  Hmmm…….some gloves would have been nice, but now I know.  There were points that I was hanging on to the cable for dear life.  Okay, okay it wasn’t that bad, but I never would have tried to go all the way up with out.  Sam and Jen are climbers, but I’m most certainly not.   However, one thing I couldn’t figure out was how they got the posts into the stone without a machine.  Out of all of the posts that I pulled on, I only found one that was a little loose.  I guess it would only take one.  That night, my arms were rather sore.  The next day, too.   Come to that, I’m still pretty sore all over.  There are points on the trail that you must go single-file.  People are patient with us white kids, one man even offered to let us use his foot at a foothold for a boost.   These pictures were taken at the top, looking down. 

The trail was very, very busy (we saw hundreds of people).  It only cost about a dollar to get into the part.       

On the left: Sam and Jen show off their Corea sweat bands.  On the right: a very tired Anne and Kerri. These were taken at the very, very top. At the top, we (finally) eat lunch.  Wow, has food never tasted so good!  Everyone shared what they had, so we all ate quite well.  (My favorite was Jen’s butter-and-nutella sandwich.  No nutella in Korea, that I’ve found anyways).  Grrr.. this page is making me tired. I just want the pictures to go where I want.

Another mountain pictures.  The black dots are people.

On the left: Jen and Don getting down.  On the right: yeah, I climbed that! On the way back down, I fell.  Hard.  Falling down the mountain is much worse than falling on the way up.  For starters, you’re head has a long way to go.  I was tired, wearing running shoes, in a hurry and not paying attention.  I started paying attention at the large rock rushing towards my face.  Ouch.  That puts a dent in the ol’ pride.  Made worse by the fact that I’m a huge white woman.  Nice Anne, very nice.  I really just wanted to lay there a moment and collect myself, but like I said, the trails were busy.  Most of my group was a head of me (There were many Koreas shouting, “English people! White girl!”) and Jen (who blends in a bit more) was behind me.  I push my arms up to see blood on the rock.  Quite a bit.  And it’s becoming more.  Great, I’m bleeding.  Kerri was carrying my pack (we share mine) so I didn’t even have toilet paper.  Not to worry, Korean hikers are PREPARED!  Within two minutes, I had a handful of paper towels, Jen holding my hair, and a very kind Korean man putting a bandage on my nose.  All taken care of before the rest of the gang could backtrack.  Thankgoodness I know how to say “thank you.”  Today, every Korean teacher that has asked me what happened seem rather surpised that I haven’t gone to the doctor to make sure it doesn’t scar.  (Sam was a bit jealous, he said I look like a boxer and he wanted a scar.)  But today marked a first, I went to the pharmacy and got some ointment!  Kerri and I both love the pharmacy people.  They’re very good at figuring out what we want/need.  After the hike, we ate chicken and then we all (sans Don) went into Seoul to the sauna.   For about ten dollars, you get a towel and jammies and are set loose.  Men on one side, women on the other.  After stripping naked, (and decidedly getting to know my coworkers pretty well) we all showered and hopped in a bath.  There was a cold bath, hot bath, really hot bath, several massage bathes, steam room, steam room with salt that you can use to exfoliate, and a mugwort bath.  We played the bath version of musical chairs for a while, then put in our jammies and headed up stairs.  Speaking of upstairs there are five floors.  The baths were in the basement, the first floor was the changing room, the next floor was a food court and children’s playroom, the next floor was entertainment/library, the next floor was filled with different rooms with different temps. and scents as well as places to get a massage (extra) or get nails/hair done (also exra).  The final floor was where you could stay the night and sleep, if you choose.  We decided to stay.  (We all hurt too much to leave.)  The next morning (albeit, not the best sleep, Koreans and their cell phones), Kerri and I decided to follow Sam and Jen.  We went and saw two Buddish temples.  The first place had an information center for us English kids.  The man with whom we spoke was wonderful.  A retired education professor, he was delighted to answer all of our questions.  He told us to come to the Korean Folk museum on a Saturday between 10-2 and we could all go out to lunch.  I’m planning on going sometime.  The picture on the left is of the first temple.  The picture on the right is of me messing with my camera near the World Trade Building.  Nice nose!

  (This is more of me complaining of how irked I am that this page is refusing to do what I want, but at least you see it.)

It’s funny that there’s so many temples within the city of Seoul. The first two pictures of temples are pictures of the first temple that we went to.  (Sorry if this stops making sense, I’m pretty tired and I need to get to bed, but I still have so much to say!!!) The second temple that we went to had a huge Buddha statue outside.  There was the main temple, and them many smaller temples surrounding it.  There were little trails and gardens all around, you could meander around for hours.  There were actually monks! (See picture at the beginning.)There was some sort of processional going on.  We couldn’t figure it out for a while.  But there were quite a few Westerns standing around snapping away.   Well, it took me a while, but I realized that were were actually looking at a funeral.  *wince*  And the camera goes in the bag.  I don’t know if that’s all what was going on, but I know that there was at least a funeral going on on the side. 

 Final picture, walking around Seoul, we came across a sculpture that looked to be a series of gazing balls.  It was too fun to resist.  From left to right: Sam, Jen, Kerri, and myself.  Now it’s Monday and I’m tired, but it’s been the best weekend yet!  One final note: Jen took a picture after I got hurt.  The phrase, “Anne’s blood on the Rocks” cropped up.  We decided that it either sounded like a drink, a band or an albumn title.  Funny.  Cheers.  And sorry this is all buggered up, but I need to get to bed and I’m tired of fighting. (Okay, I lied.  Here’s the picture of the monk.)