Mt. Geumdangsan is located in Nam-gu by the World Cup Stadium. I went hiking with 5 Canadians and 3 of their kids.
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| This was the first stop. The hike begins with about 50-65 steps about the size of my calf. Once you make it up the steps the trails up the mountain begin. This is a great view of the World Cup Stadium and the Purgam Reservoir. |
Along the trail is stretching and workout equipment so during your 3-4 hour hike you and can stop and get your ab workout in. All over Korea there is workout equipment everywhere, along pathways, at parks, or just randomly on the corner. People use them all the time too, they have weight machines and non-electric elliptical type workout equipment. You see men and women of all ages using them on a daily basis. Even the children enjoy using the workout equipment, in Korea working out is fun.
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They also are big into hiking gear of course and they sell hiking clothing and shoes everywhere, even at the E-mart. Hiking is a big part of the Korean lifestyle, families hike a lot. While we were hiking we saw families with children and older Koreans around 60+. They stroll past as if it is nothing and then stop to do some crunches and push-ups. I was struggling up the first 60 steps and the hike up the hill. It never stops surprising me how fit Koreans are and it never stops making me feel that much more out of shape.
This was along the top of the mountain. Lets just say these Canadians were in shape too, the men carried the boys on their shoulders for the last 100+ steps up to the top. It was steep and I could barely make it, I don't know how they carried kids on their shoulders. It took about 1 hour and 45min to make it up the top. Dan (the one in the red coat) told me that when they do not have kids they usually run down on their way back, boy was I glad we had the kids with us for this hike, run down? Are they crazy?
I was so happy to be on the top, it would be a piece of cake from here on out right? NOPE...little did I know.
We had to hike about another 30 min on the top and some parts just continued to go up and down. It was steep going down too there were jagged rocks everywhere, I was just waiting to fall. Again run down? Crazy!
You have to love the small village feel Korea holds. Most things are shared here. This is their water fountain. They have a scoop that you fill with water and drink from, everyone drinks from the same scoop and it is left there. No one worries about sickness, they embrace nature and are some of the healthiest individuals in the world.
I love this. At the end of the mountain on the bottom they have a whole system for cleaning your shoes off. This is the air pressure sprayer. It helps get the dust or small rocks out of your shoes, they are so fun.
This is the area you scrub your shoes at...so pratical.
My friend got a 14lb turkey from the Underground grocers that has Canadian and American food. It is a very small store but you can find things like frozen green beans, re fried beans and lunch meat which you can not find anywhere else. Of course you pay extra but that is a small price to pay when you need a taste of home. We do not have ovens in Korea so they offered to cook the turkey for us and provide gravy and stuffing for about $100 so we each paid about $10 for that and brought a side dish to share. The one rule was nothing Korean was allowed. We did not have enough room for everything on the table but we had mashed potatoes, turkey, gravy, stuffing, broccoli and cheese, soup, cranberry sauce and yam fries. I brought vegetables and ranch dip thanks to my mom for sending me the ranch mix and my friend Anna for telling me which yogurt taste the most like sour cream (both which they do not have in Korea). Everyone was loving the ranch dip since it has been so long for many since they had ranch last.
We found American wine to seal the deal.
Jen hosted the dinner and Johns mom sent the center piece to make it a complete American Thanksgiving.
Though we sat on the floor and we celebrated on Saturday and not Thanksgiving it was great to be around friends and having the feast I love so much back home.
As you could see we had a Thanksgiving coma after eating just like back home. John brought walnut pie (there is not pumpkin or pecan pie here) and ice cream for desert and we downloaded Home Alone to watch as we recovered from all the food.
It was a great day. I hiked that morning so I did not feel so bad for eating everything I wanted. We come from all over the world, England, LA, Canada, Texas...but together we brought the American Holiday to Korea and had a great Thanksgiving.
We had a Halloween party at my school. I talked about Halloween with them all month and read about the ways we celebrate it in America. The children were so shocked to hear that kids dress up and go door to door getting candy, needless to say Trick-or-Treat was their favorite phrase of the month. They thought that anytime they said it they would get candy, I told them that is not how it worked, they get one day. I planned games for them. We played pin the nose on the Jack-o-lantern and the mummy wrap game. Earlier I explained the games to the teachers who had never heard of them of course. I told them we blind fold one child at a time and give them a paper triangle for the nose, spin them and they have to try and put the nose on the large Jack-o-lantern, the closest to where the nose should be wins. The mummy wrap game: I told them in America we would use toilet paper and wrap the kid in it and they would have to run to the board answer and question and run back, then the next person on their team would be wrapped up and so on until everyone on their team had a turn. They said that toilet paper was wasteful and they would rather us the medical wrap you use to wrap up sprained ankles. I thought this was a great idea but was shocked because in American cheap is better, but here environmentally friendly is better so we went that route. On the day of the party I explained the rules to the children and then asked one of my Korean teachers to help with the other half of the class. They said to me" but we do not understand how to play" I said "but you said you understood when I explained it to you last week." They said, "well yes but we just said that to make you happy." I thought so you didn't understand but just said you did to make me happy? Well after explaining it once again we were on the same page. The kids had a blast. They had never played the games before and usually do not get to play games of any kind in school or in their daily lives. It was so much fun to see them so happy and enjoying games we as children grew up playing. They got their candy and pizza with corn and potatoes on it cause that is just how they do pizza in Korea.
