Sunday, February 19, 2012

but i will rise...

last weekend...finally went up seoraksan, one of the highest peaks in Korea. see some photos!

the plan was to reach the peak by sunrise, about 4 hours up. we left an hour and a half late (430 am!), however, so we hit sunrise about an hour from the top. still worth it! the first few hours in the dark were cold and slick, but it was a lovely uphill walk in the moonlight - completely clear winter sky. luckily, the group leader had some crampons, enough for a half-pair per person. so my right foot had great traction from the crampon, which i used heavily anytime we went downhill.

passing through the park entrance, the man at the booth asked us if we had two pairs of pants on, two pairs of socks, gloves, a mask...we knew we were hiking a mountain in the winter, but we had no idea how important his questions were...

hiking up, up, up was fairly slow and with a big group we stopped fairly frequently for energy breaks. it was somewhere in the negative celsius range at the beginning, but not bad with all our layers.

observation #1: korean hiker hospitality. after stopping for the last time before the peak, i stopped next to a stranger taking a rest. he offered me a piece of candy and then a hot drink from his thermos. it's amazing what hot tea does on a winter hike! we were blessed similarly throughout the hike, hikers giving our group snacks, drinks, pieces of clothing. and none of it solicited. they saw a need and freely gave their stuff to us. it was really humbling.

we made it to the top, and with no trees and a clear sky, the wind was biting to the temperature of -35 celsius! it's hard to imagine what that kind of cold feels like, but any skin exposed was numbed immediately. even my right eye (where the wind was coming from), felt like it was being frozen. about half a km from the top was a mountain shelter where we "warmed up" (although it was still cold inside). my feet, with one pair of socks, were quite cold and i took my shoes off to warm up my toes. a masked hiker (i call him the sock ninja because he came out of nowhere) handed me a pair of socks and left the shelter. seriously, korean hiker hospitality.

on the way down, we found that previous hikers had made snow slides and we slid at least a km down the mountain, freezing my sweatpants - but so worth it. it made going down the mountain a whole lot faster.

altogether, we hiked 13 km and, with frequent shelter breaks, about 11 hours. a lovely mountain day.

a video taken by the group leader...



yesterday, we went to the puzzle cafe where you pay for a drink, snacks, and a 500 piece puzzle to put together while you're there. if two people finish the 500 piece puzzle in three hours, you get to keep the puzzle. our group finished in about an hour and a half. serious puzzle action goes on in that little cafe - the largest puzzle in the world adorns the wall. i have photos but i have to leave for church now so i will update it later.

off into the winter air. second semester starts tomorrow!

Saturday, February 4, 2012

thang you...


if you haven't seen it on facebook, see one of my two-week students in action...

in the meantime (between winter camp and "real" school), they gave us "one-on-one conversation classes. i am actually enjoying them because 1) they require little to no prep time and 2) there are no behavior problems with only one kid at a time. i have five kids, each for one hour a day except for the two sisters who share an hour.

at first, i found it difficult to have conversations for a whole hour with the same person in their second language, but i have found interesting ways to fill the time and enjoy it too. recording their stories, for example, was eye-opening for them (because they had to watch themselves) and fun to create. sunder's story, above, was probably the most interesting because he is not only the lowest English level but also the boldest. the others were quite shy on camera, afraid to make mistakes. it was a valuable and entertaining day for everyone.

tuesday! we got snow and so i spent four hours talking about snow while looking out the window!

today, we played nertz. yes, there was a whole lot of english involved :)

i have been reflecting a lot about future plans. that always happens this time of year because not being in the regular semester allows actual time to think. i have considered many options, but i'm really not being strongly pulled one way yet.

that's all for now.