Seoraksan

Hello hello

It's Day 121!

And the Hwacheon cold has gotten to me~ Despite wearing four layers a day (undershirt, long sleeve shirt, sweater, jacket) I got sick this last week. Airborne is worthless in Hwacheon!

Now... we have some unfinished business between us.

Which I think pairs perfectly with:

Prepare thyself

Now a little over three weeks ago, there was a lovely four day weekend due to Hangul Day 한글날, basically a holiday celebrating the day the Korean alphabet was created. Hangul totally deserves its own holiday! I really recommend learning hangul because it's the best alphabet ever. It makes much more sense than the Roman alphabet at least…

Alphabet prejudice aside, I used this wonderful four day weekend for a trip to the best mountain range in Korea (wow, I'm very opinionated today). It also has the tallest peak on the South Korean mainland (Jeju Island 재주도, a Korean island in the south has two taller peaks, and North Korea has much taller mountain ranges). I went to hike 설악산 Seoraksan!

We were super hikers. The hike up to the peak is supposed to take 4 hours, and we hiked it in three. The hike down (a different trail) is longer and more scenic and supposedly 7 hours, and we hiked it in 4.5 hours. All together we hiked about 16 kilometers in 7.5 hours. (We had to go that fast if we were to make the last bus to Hwacheon).

 scenic to the max

The hike up was mostly just stairs until you got high enough to walk along the ridge of the mountain range. Then it becomes nice and trail like. While I do not appreciate the lack of switch backs, I really enjoy the ridge trails in Korea. I think it's one of their specialties.

This is a rather extreme example, but I couldn't find any other photos that had the same feeling.

As we hiked up the mountain, there was this group of men who were a little faster than our pace, but they would take longer breaks at the rest stops, so we kept passing each other. After about the third pass, one of them handed us a water bottle full of a bright orange-y-pink color liquid. He said it was "five flavor tea" 오미자차 and made lots of encouraging drinking gestures. To be polite, I took a sip and then passed it to my hiking partners. They all took a sip and they we tried to hand it back to him, but he seemed surprised we drank so little and refused to take it back. They turned around and sped ahead of us.

The drink was a very sweet juice-like tea. Just taking a few sips already gave me a sugar-rush. We really zoomed up the mountain then, I think. Whenever we thought we might pass that same group of guys, we guzzled the tea, to make it look like we were drinking it more often then we were (afraid that if they saw us still carrying a practically full bottle they'd be offended). We thanked them each time they passed us, and they waved every time we passed them at a rest stop.

I think the tea really helped in that last half an hour of steps. It became pretty steep at the final stairs, but I had sugar power in my veins and flew through it.

By the time we got to the top, we were all pretty sweaty. I think I've sweat more these last months than I ever have before. Before I would still get sweaty, but just the sticky feeling, not the drops-of-sweat-falling-from-bangs-into-eyes kind of sweaty. It's kind of fun. I feel like I'm in an action movie when I get these sweat drops.

Also, since the weather was sunny and absolutely B. E. A. UTIFUL that day, I took off my middle layer and just wore my tank top at the ridge (and accompanying super tan from just 20 min or so). Since we weren't working as hard anymore (it was a pretty flat walk) I stopped producing buckets of sweat, and this amazing phenomenon happened: all my sweat evaporated! And all the salt from my sweat was left over. I've never seen this happen before! I could brush all this really really fine white dust off of my face. And while I couldn't see my own face, according to Leanndra and Deanna, it looked weird. Eventually it felt pretty uncomfortable, so I wiped it all off with wet wipes.

We took a nice break at the summit 대청봉 the highest point. And there was lots of people sitting around and eating/drinking. We ate some rice balls we bought earlier and caught our breath. And because we were a very noticeable trio of foreigners, some 아저씨 old man, shouted out to us if we wanted some "Korea water". It was obviously either soju or rice wine (in one of those bottles that screams I AM ALCOHOL). We kindly declined.

The view was amazing. The mountains were beautiful with fall colors. You could see the nearby city/town 속초 and East Sea (if you faced east) as well.

People picnicking and drinking lots of alcohol on the summit

 Us normal folk just took photos

 And more photos

And more photos

And enjoyed the sunshine

 This is the official summit rock. We decided to not take one of the "look! I climbed all the way up!" photos because...

Who wants to wait in line?

All around the mountain range we saw chipmunks. They were everywhere. I must've spotted at least 20 that day.

Now the hike down the mountain was my favorite. It was a very easy hike with lots of flat stretches. Almost the whole way was on a metal pathway, which I would normally be offended by, "how dare you ruin the natural beauty of nature!" I didn't care this time though… probably because I was completely distracted by the overwhelming beauty of the valleys we were walking through. Seriously. BEAUTY - like a drug. It was such an emotional high point, like winning the lottery. I was beyond my normal self. I was in Nirvana. If any person came up to me and asked me something I'd probably smile and say, "Sure!"

"Sign this form?" - "Sure! Have a nice day!"

"Give me your wallet." - "Sure! Enjoy the many coupon cards from random coffee shops."

"Marry me?" - "Sure! And can we enjoy this beautiful walk all lovey-dovey, arm-in-arm? Great! What's your name?"

"Join our radical movement?" - "Sure! I'll give a motivational speech with a loud speaker too!"

This is where fantasy worlds aspire to be. At some points I just knew, "Ah! This is where Rivendell would be." and there were many places with big white rocks along the river that looked just like all the final fight scenes in "The Fellowship of the Ring". These photos really only capture some of this beauty (so I will throw in some take by other people as well… shhh)

End of my photos. Now for beautiful edited ones.

The autumn foliage was also super distracting. Too beautiful.

At the base of the trail, once we power walked through all the slow groups and were happily ahead of schedule, there was a temple with a giant Buddha statue… and we just glanced at it. After spending almost 8 hours enveloped in the natural beauty of the mountains, well, that temple looked pretty ordinary to us. 

Thus ended our really wonderful day trip to Seoraksan. 

Now I'm only three weeks behind with this blog…

Eheh. Well honestly the last few weeks haven't been that exciting…

Okay. I promise to update you all more soon!

Bye~~

Gabbatha

Busan! Selcas! Five Minutes to Tomorrow...

Ahhhhh~
아 아 아
안녕. Hi there. It's been a while... so, just thought I'd refresh your memory. I'm Gabby. I am a girl from Oregon, USA, living in Hwacheon, South Korea. We are probably friends. Or family. Or you are a complete stranger who just stumbled in here, in which case, NICE TO MEET YOU.

Yay! 인사 끝!

It's Day 112! A lot has happened since I last wrote here!
Buckle up!

I've been spoiled with 3 and 4 day weekends the last three weekends (don't worry, I will make up for it. From now until Dec. 26th I will have full, 5-day working weeks and no more vacation days) so recently I have done many fun things and gone many places and SLEPT. Really slept. Like 12 hours. My meticulously-planned, regular, healthy sleep schedule is all messed up now. :/

What fun things did I do? I went to the Busan International Film Festival, hiked Seoraksan, and attended the Fulbright ETA fall conference in Gyeongju, each on a different weekend.

Three weeks ago I went to Korea's second largest city, Busan, on the southern tip of the peninsula.

Things I've been told about Busan:

Busan is known for fish, spas, and handsome men.

It's also Korea's largest port city.

This was my first time in Busan! My main excuse to go there (5+ hr bus ride from Hwacheon. That's a commitment yo) was for the annual Busan International Film Festival. But... as over 30 other ETAs also went to see the films, it was a great chance to catch up with everyone I spent the summer with too.
Another reason: to escape the Hwacheon cold. We can get below freezing at night recently. And it gets dark before 6 now. And even as I write this my fingernails are purple with cold (not nailpolish). No joke: WINTER IS COMING. 안돼~~~

In Busan I hung out with friends on the the beach and it was so beautiful and sunny. We ate chicken while watching hundreds of Koreans dress up in their traditional dress, hanbok, and perform a musical concert (both Korean traditional instruments and classical orchestra) all conveniently and completely coincidentally on the same beach as us. And it was on this beach that I really noticed Korea's latest craze: the selca* pole. 셀카봉

 It's used like this:

It's great for getting a group of people all in one photo, or a way to capture the background/landscape while taking a selfie. Note: This isn't a new invention. I saw lots of posts on the interwebs about this or that dude traveling the world and look at their awesome photos/video footage taken with a pole just like this~ yay (like I said, good for capturing the scenery)

But recently, like really just this month or so, EVERY person in Korea suddenly decided they must own this. I must've seen over a hundred selca poles that weekend in Busan. Then later that week my host sister begged her dad to buy her one. And just today one of the third grade homeroom teachers proudly showed me her new bluetooth 셀카봉 that she just got in the mail… (It's an epidemic I say!)

*Oh, I guess this is a good place for a Korean culture note. Koreans have their own word for what in America is commonly called a "selfie" or photo taken by yourself of your face by holding out your arm. It's "selca" 셀카. A word made from combining "self" and "camera" or "capture" (my sorces differ on the "ca" origin).

Admire some of my favorite Korean people and their selca power:

Koreans have mastered this. I don't want to be generalizing, but I don't think I would be that far off saying that every Korean knows what makes a good selfie. There is no gender discrimination either. In America, guys often scoff at girls for taking selfies, but in Korea guys do it just as often. Especially celebrities.

*cough cough… no, I didn't just force you to admire SHINee again… man, I'm getting distracted here

 Even in Hwacheon I've seen soldiers sitting in a cafe or restaurant posing for a selca. There's even another Korean culture of ulzzang 얼짱 or creepily-adorable people who become famous by posting their selcas online and even launching model careers- but I'll stop there.. Information overload, right?

giant eyes with circle lenses are a ulzzang must

And whew was that a tangent... Back to Busan...
The Busan International Film Festival!!

 Hi Judith!

I went to the film festival with my friend, Zerin, who was in the same Korean class as me this summer. She is awesome and teaches in Busan.

Speaking of selcas... You can see all the people sitting in the background...

so... I chose this photo even though I'm not looking at the camera

Say, "Hi, Zerin!"

We saw a movie called, "Five Minutes to Tomorrow" 深夜前的五分钟.

Also I just want to say, it was SUPER difficult to get this ticket. But if I go into that story this post will never end... so just know that I BLED FOR THIS:

Five Minutes to Tomorrow is a Chinese film, directed by a Japanese man, filmed in China, with a famous Japanese actor as the male lead, and two Chinese actors as the other leads.

The film was shown in the giant outdoor theater because that night was its world premiere. Before the film, the director and lead actors all came on stage and introduced the film. I had a lot of fun because they spoke in their native Japanese and Mandarin languages. In an ultimate test of my degree in East Asian Studies, I tried to translate everything into English for Zerin before the Korean translator started speaking (because then we both could understand). It was pretty exciting to see that before the movie.

 Some cool professional photos:

And the crappy photos I took:

The movie itself however....
Well. Let's just say I don't want to see it again.
The cinematography was really beautiful. (prepare for STILL CUTS)

The lighting! Mmmhmm…

But the rest was just awkward and trying to be something artsy and deep... You could totally tell that the main actor and actress had never actually gotten to know each other or probably never even had a real conversation together because they don't speak the other's language. Yet in the movie they were supposed to be madly in love, and well... Zerin and I didn't buy it. The silent scenes between them all completely lacked any chemistry or desire and were so awkward, Zerin and I couldn't help but snigger throughout the film. Like it was too awkward for even the awkward turtle.

 Let's awkwardly stare at each other

 Let's awkwardly make physical contact

 Let's awkwardly walk with a good distance separating us

 Let's awkwardly not face each other while talking

Let's awkwardly have a conversation in a car while your other lover drives

My personal fav:

Let's back hug so I won't have to look at your face and you won't have to make any effort to pretend to enjoy touching me

The plot itself was trying to be all deep, with a story line of twin girls who grow up constantly switching places because one of the twins is a trouble-maker. That of course leads to awkward tension between each boyf of theirs.

Then one of the twins dies and suddenly no one is sure of which twin she is and even she is all like, "who am I?" and cries boohoo, while I think, "girl, get yourself together."

So apart from being a generally disappointing film and freezing with the coastal winds blowing in the outdoor theater, I really enjoyed myself that weekend! It was a really great experience~

And since I got side-tracked earlier I'm going to have to end this post here. Stay tuned for the rest of my ketchup business and jazz.

Thanks for reading!

<3
GW