Hiking Season

Hiking Season

Hiking 1

The weather has been great lately so I'm trying to take advantage and go hiking often. This is Namhansanseong, a hike around a circular fortress wall.

I've been messing around with iPhoto lately, trying to learn how to "enhance"

Seoul is surrounded by mountains. They are easily accessible and when you reach the peak, and impressive view of the metropolis can be seen.

Just on the way back finishing the hike, had time for one last shot.

There is usually a temple or two on your way up the mountain. Makes for some nice scenery long the way.

The circular fortress wall has 4 "gates" and the north, south, east, and west end.

A pretty hefty staircase had to be climbed!

One of the bigger Buddha statues I've seen!

Escape from Seoul

Jinny and I, along with two of my friends Tim and Jiyeon made a great escape from Seoul last weekend. We went to Gangwha Island, a relatively large island of the west coast. Weather was great, scenery was great, the time was short. Check it out...

ridin'

As much as I love scootin' around the city, driving out on the open road was a great release. After driving in circles within Seoul trying to get out and also accidently getting on the freeway where all 2 wheel vehicles are forbidden (and with good reason!) we were finally on our way. Driving around on the island, especially, was great fun with the curvy, hilly roads.

workin it

There was one main climbing mountain on the island. Sunday morning Jinny and I decided to tackle it. She had heard a rumor that it was a short hike, just an hour and a half. She misunderstood this, it turned out to be a decent hour and a half up the mountain, to the peak. Anyways, no problem. This mountain was beautiful and has a lot of culture and history within it. It was thought to channel a lot of power to Korea during the time of Japanese occupation, so the Japanese placed big ugly iron rods all over it to stop the flow of energy. Once Korea gained its independence, they made sure to get rid of those!

almost there

We are almost to the top here, with a great view overlooking the island. Life outside of Seoul is much different, as is anywhere considering the city vs. country lifestyle. One thing I really respect about Koreans are the amounts of older people who still get out and hike. Its a great feeling getting to the top and seeing people in their 60's and 70's smiling and saying hello. (anyeonghaseyo) They are so warm and friendly, and they always seem excited to see a foreigner exploring their beautiful country.

success!

We reached the top and high-fived several times. The view in all directions was great. The rock structure seen in the distance was built by Koreans to pray on special holidays. I'm not sure what the holidays are or anything more unfortunately.

bbq

The restaurant scene on the island wasn't so hot, especially since Tim, pictured above, hates seafood. Kan-chan-ah, we say! Just bought some meat and things from the little mart and had a BBQ. Once again, country hospitality had us fully equipped with a grill, picnic table, and all the necessary equipment for a delicious dinner.

seafood market

There was a small market in a harbor we stopped at. Nothing big here, just lots of shellfish little old ladies all trying to convince you that there's was the most delicious.

stream

Took a break on the way down near a small stream.

beach

One thing was that the beach was so shallow that until the tide comes in at 5 or so, the sandy beach just leads to a huge field of... mud. No swimming for us unfortunately. This picture was taken by Jinny, ridin' shotgun, on our way home...

Kimchi!

I gave Jinny creative control with my camera on the back, and she snapped this shot.
I think she's trying to say...
See you next time!

Updation, with a slice of promise

He's Back. No, wait. He's still there, but he's back... ahhh nevermind.
Kids these days. Turning out all sorts of new internet verbs to keep up with. No one just "surfs" anymore... Gotta be facebooking, googling, tweeting, or, in this case BLOGGING! Now armed with a new Macbook Pro, I'm confident on some motivation to keep this thing updated from time to time (monthly, at least, sufficient?) so that you, my undoubtably far far away bloggee, may actually find this entertaining/interesting. So here are a few random pictures to ponder and wet your blogger's appetite.

"D" class

I'm currently, but possibly not for long, working at two schools. The evenings (not shown) is with advanced adults in a private academy. They study English for all sorts of reasons, and the fluency, attitude, and atmosphere of that school has been an enormous refreshment after a year and a half with children. Still, as you can see, I enjoy kids. During the day, I work at an elementary school teaching grades 1-6. This is my oldest and most advanced class at the elementary school. They also have a generally great attitude for their age and had a lot of fun on this day, when we played indoor balloon badminton (in English....!?)

Hiking

Despite the excitement and energy of living smack-dab in the middle of 20-some million people (what? not appealing?!) one gets a bit stir-crazy. Luckily, we don't have to travel too far before a multitude of decent hiking mountains become available. Pictured here from left are Spencer (Canada) Jerry (Fargo) and the mountain man himself.
Beyond metropolitan Seoul are many weekend adventures into greater Korea, with excellent hikes, so hopefully some good .jpgs with equally good stories will materialize at some point.

Baseball

Baseball games in Korea are something of a must see. Especially if you are a Minnesota Twins fan, for two reasons:
1. Metrodome vs. Jamsil stadium (with that classic Seoul sunset) is a no-brainer.
2. One of Seoul's professional teams, the LG Twins, which has clearly been knocked-off from the original. (somewhat of a copycat culture, you may notice) Still, best not to make a fuss and ruin the fun.
Anyways, the games are cheap, outdoors, and ROWDY! The stadium gets packed 50:50 with fans from each team since they are sponsored by corporate Korea, so no one really chooses a "hometown" team. One half cheers for their team when up to bat, then when the sides switch, its the other side's turn. Constant cheers, thundersticks, and cheerleaders are all part of the action. I'm sorry MLB, but they have a thing or two to show you about energy.
The picture shown above is one of my favorite memories of Korea, which a shall share via a short dialogue, which occurred about 5 minutes prior to the picture being taken.
me: you can speak English?
boy: yes. little bit.
me: you like baseball?
boy: yes. a lot.
me: you ever catch home run ball?
boy: no.
me: i will catch home run ball for you. ok?
boy: exit stage left, to tell father about strange foreigner.
To my surprise, shortly afterwards a home run was hit! There was a mad scramble amidst a crowd of vicious Koreans. Make that mostly 8 year old boys and one drunk ajoshi, or old-man. My natural athletic ability suddenly had me grasping this ball, thrusting it into the air for an explosion of cheers. I took a run back and forth, but suddenly came to my senses. This wasn't my ball! I found the young boy, placed it in his hands and then thrust HIM high in the air. A hero, in and out of the classroom. Later, I celebrated with the boy and his father over ice cream. I had many people approach me later on to ask if I was the dude who gave the kid the home run ball, to which I gladly relayed this story over and over again. Happily ever after!

Penis Park

Another getaway weekend in Korea. This time, to the east coast to a surprisingly liberal penis park, known as Haeshindan Park. The history of the penis park, in a nutshell, goes something like this I'm told: A young, virgin woman had been engaged to be married. Unfortunately, shortly before her wedding, she drowned at sea in a storm. Her spirit, now one with the sea, and having never experienced the joy of fornication, made the sea very angry. This was bad news for the fishing economy, who began to lose fish and men to violent storms. One particular evening, a group of fishermen, after a night of heavy drinking, decided to express their disgust with the sea by urinating in it. But in an ironic twist of fate, the young woman's spirit, upon seeing these men's, umm, "goods" became satisfied. The storms ceased, and the fishing community was once again restored. An entire park of male genitalia was reconstructed thereafter. I'm seen here in front of a pig (dwae-jeey) in a penis, one of the twelve Buddhist animals representing my lunar calendar year.

I recently traveled to Tokyo. I ate sushi, got arrested, and saw the busiest crosswalk in the world. Check it out!

One thing that always amazes me about Asia: how they can fit so many people, alive or dead.

Kids these days...

Here's me and the two new Japanese friends.

Asian arcade funhouse, full of surprises!
Japanese friend Anna from MSU welcomes ME!

If Tony the Tiger and pokemon had a baby...

Just another day at the train station.
SAKE! Served up warm and tasty.
All dorked out at the market.

Yes its true. They all say PRAISE ERIK!

Their markets are a bit classier than Seoul's...

Lovely Evening

What'd ya wish for?

Rather be the passenger...