Week 3: Homesickness, Epic Partytime, Magical Hiking

I cannot believe I have already been here for 3 weeks. Time is flying. And it is amazing to see myself becoming more familiar with (parts of) Seoul. As a man said to me in the subway tonight "I have lived here for 40 years and still feel like I am new". This city is gigantic.

 Teaching is going well. Oh, except I gave one class the middle finger. They were being brats. It was an instinctive reaction. I heard someone sassing me so I flipped them off. Then I realized that "someone" was a 14 year old Korean boy. It all ended in laughter but I did have a brief moment of panic right after doing it.

 So much to talk about.

 I had my first true bout of homesickness this weekend. No matter how much I love it here, there is no escaping the fact that I have moved across the world. I am in a new country where very few people speak my language. Every day I am forced to adapt and every day is challenging. Simple things like ordering food become huge accomplishments. And making friends, which is happening, is happening slowly. A long day of miscommunication without friends to share it with can be emotionally exhausting. So this Saturday I had my first experience of laying in bed, looking at pictures of LA and holding back tears thinking about all of you, my wonderful friends. Also thinking about the mountains, and the freeways, and all sorts of nonesense. But then I talked to Josh on skype, laughed it off, and went out to party in Hongdae.

 I am glad I am able to experience the homesickness and move on. But I wanted to include it in this post so that I can a) be honest with both myself and all of you, and b) include it for those of you who are considering doing what I am doing. My advice is DO IT! But don't expect it to be easy, it's not, but nothing really worth doing is easy.

 Okay HONGDAE.

Party neighborhood north of the river, across the city from me. I went out there for the first time Saturday night. Super fun. It's a college area so very full of young hipsters (but all of Seoul really seems to be...) The party was thrown by a guy that I actually had met back in LA, he is a UCLA (sucks) grad who lived with some people from the marching band. The party was SUPER fun. I had a blast! It was in a converted garage/warehouse type of setting with lots of graffiti and a really grungy, underground feel. Totally my style. Met lots of cool ex pats AND met a Korean guy. I convinced him to take me out to eat after the party so I got to try a new kind of Korean food WITH a Korean (this is the best way to do pretty much anything in Korea, I am discovering).

We ate 설렁탕

 설렁탕 (Seoullangtang) is a local dish of Seoul. It is a soup with a white broth that they cook overnight. It is made from ox bone and had some kind of beef in it, and noodles. And then we added rice and salt and kimchi and it was soooo yummy. I love love love the food here. And I'm sorry I did not have my camera with me this night so there are no pictures.

 BUT NOW If you are still with me and want to keep reading I will describe the most WONDERFUL hike in the world... with way too many pictures.

 So this weekend I hiked 관악산 (Gwanaksan) 산 (san) is the word for mountain. It was so incredibly beautiful! So first I walked from the subway station over a big hill (the directions said to take a bus but buses still frighten me a bit... so I walked) and got my first view of the mountain that I was going to climb.

I walked down the hill to Seoul National University and then proceeded to get lost for a bit looking for the entrance. By following some older Koreans in hiking gear I managed to find this:

For those of you who cannot tell, that would be a hole cut into a chain link fence. I figured since the Koreans were doing it, it was okay. I got some funny stares from old Korean men on the other side, but  I think that was because I was foreign, and not because I was crawling through a fence.

Once through the fence, I had to confront my second obstacle:

Fording the river. For good measure:

Thankfully Korean people are super nice and some men on the other side pointed me to the easiest way across. (Not pictured.. sorry)

I carried on up the stairs and found myself on a wide paved road in the woods littered with Koreans in hiking gear. I headed in the "uphill" direction and hoped for the best.

Thankfully I saw this helpful sign! "A path up a mountain" is literally what it says. I love the english translations on signs here, they are always fantastic. So I followed the path up the mountain, it was lovely and went alongside various streams that fed into the river I had to ford at the beginning. 

All along the way I saw Korean families having picnics, both in pagodas like the one pictured above, and also on any spare empty rocks along the path or even in the river. Its customary in Korea to buy some gimbap or other food and beer and magkeolli (Korean rice wine) and then hike up most of (or hardly any of) a mountain, drink, eat and be merry. I really love the Korean approach to hiking.

Alright so another note about Korean hiking: in America we build our trails with switchbacks, to make the going a bit easier as we climb giant hills. This either didn't occur to the Koreans, or it did, and they just prefer every hike they ever do to be a kind of outdoor stairmaster.

Regardless I was booking it up this hill. Mostly because I had other shit to do that day, but also because it just begged to be booked up.

Almost at the top!

The top was a mystical, religious experience, as the tops of most mountains around Seoul seem to be for me. Not only did I have this spectacular view:

And this one:

And this one:

(Added my feet for good measure, to prove I'm actually the one behind the camera)

But while I was up here alone on top of a gorgeous mountain in Seoul I could hear the sound of Buddhist monks chanting from a temple in the distance. Seriously.

I'm in fucking Asia right now.

That thought goes through my head at least once a day, and especially when things like the sound of Buddhist chanting are part of my average weekend.

In case I needed further evidence that I belong here, I saw this on the way back down.

Some women selling food and produce at the bottom of the mountain.  I bought 김밥 (gimbap) which is essentially Korean sushi for my post-hike snack.

Oh also, for your amusement:

That would be a truck selling hiking shoes at the bottom of the mountain. There were also stands selling knock off north face apparel. For the Koreans hiking is a time to show off your gear, its sort of like an outdoorsy fashion show. Its all about status, as most things in Korea.. or at least Seoul, seem to be. I don't have fancy dry-fit clothing, but I've got my trusty hiking boots so I don't feel too out of place.

In fact I feel like Korea fits me like a glove. Except for the fact that I'm foreign. I wish I could take pictures of the Korean's faces when they notice me coming up the hill. It's priceless every time.

And just because I haven't posted one yet, here is a picture of a somewhat typical street in Seoul (main road, the alleys are a bit different)

Alright if you actually made it all the way to this point in this post, I applaud you. I realize it was a bit of a marathon post (and I was trying to keep it short!) so thank you for reading!

I'll try to update more often in the future or something. Maybe.

Till next time!