Dana's Delightful Drop-in (the rest of the story)!

There are a couple great things about having visitors.  For one, you can show them how you live and your favorite parts of your area.  Maybe just as good though is guests give you a good reason to do things you've always wanted to do but haven't gotten around to.  My sister's visit definitely included a good heaping of both.

One of the easiest things to share with any guest, no matter where you live, is the cuisine.  Having been in Korea for almost 10 months now, I've sampled my fair share of the country's delicious eats.  So I had a pretty good idea what to share with Dana, and we covered most of my top choices.  We definitely hit up the Korean BBQ scene a number of times, which is probably the easiest thing for Westerns to try because so many of the ingredients are common to the Western palate.   It's pretty simple really.  You order meat and cook it on a grill in the center of your table.  Any order is complimented by a bounty of side dishes that are limitless.  And as the meat grills you select your morsel, wrap it in a lettuce leaf with chosen sides and devour. 

Rice, garlic and ssamjang (seasoned bean paste) in a sesame leaf.

I also convinced her to try some spicy octopus, which was actually much more delicious than any I've tried previously.  And we sampled Korean-style pancakes with seafood, noodle soup and of course school lunch (the day she came was actually pretty good).

In addition to the food that has become a part of my everyday life, Dana got a little glimpse of the whole reason I'm here.  That's right, on Monday we went to school.  Learning English doesn't exactly trip the trigger of most of my students, but learning about Brent teacher, now that's exciting (going back to America and being a regular schmoe will be a big change!).  So of course my students were excited for Dana's visit.

Honestly I don't know how she made it through the day because I would have been bored out of my mind.  She was active in the beginning, as I gave her some time to introduce herself and take questions, but after that she was mostly a bystander.  The lesson was okay, but the delivery had much room for improvement.  Still, Dana insists I'm a good teacher.  I'd argue a small sample size, or that I might have the potential to be a good teacher, but in my mind there are too many things I struggle with to consider myself a good teacher (but that's another story).  The best part of the day though might have been lunch, as when we took our trays up after finishing it seemed all the eyes of the cafeteria turned in our direction.  Dana said in all her travels (and that's saying something) the staring never reached that extent.

Overall we certainly didn't waste a moment (probably why I was exhausted when she left!).  Graciously, and unexpectedly, my school let me take Tuesday off, even though I already had Wednesday and Thursday off (testing and no scheduled classes).  We took advantage of that Monday night and traveled to Seoul to take a cruise on the Han River and get a different vantage point of one of the world's largest cities.

Thankfully we had a bit of a rest Tuesday morning before heading to lunch with a couple teachers from school.  But the day still went by fast  At day's end we were pretty determined to get to bed at a decent hour, not only because we were wiped out but because we had to be up at the crack of dawn to get to Seoul in time to catch us DMZ tour bus.

The tour was certainly worth it, and I think anyone who lives in Korea for a significant period of time should experience it.  For me it's still hard to process the fact that it's still an active war front, especially with tourists traipsing around on both sides.  Well, at least on the north side there was traipsing, on the south side we had strict rules to follow.  Apparently the North Koreans are a little hypocritical (imagine that) and complain about the free movement of tourists.  See for yourself.  We were told to stand in two straight lines and had a pretty limited time to take pictures.  Overall they were very careful with where they allowed photos to be taken.

After the tour we managed to sneak a quick visit to Noryangjin Fish Market in Seoul (check this blog out for a better idea: Noryangjin) before meeting up with my former co-teacher for dinner.  Then it was home to crash before sending her on her way in the morning.  Thanks for the visit, sis, it was a great time!

A Hike and a Half

I had the privilege of hosting my wonderful sister Dana last week.  In preparation I sketched out a rough plan of things we could do, asked her what she really wanted to do and see in Korea and then went to work.

One thing she was all for was hiking.  Finding a proper place to engage in a bit of trekking isn't a problem here, since about 70 percent of the peninsula is covered with mountains and hills.  I chose a large national park near Seoul called Bukhansan.  It's a place I'd been meaning to go for some time, but for various reasons hadn't made it.

So on Dana's first full day in the ROK we were up and out with breakfast in our bellies well before 9.  Unfortunately getting to Bukhansan from my humble home requires a fairly significant journey.  In our case this meant a two-hour subway jaunt.

We packed our bags with over-sized waters, some almonds, apples and Dana's homemade banana muffins and set off for a nice, simple hike in the Korean wilderness.  (A note for those unfamiliar with Korean customs: hiking is possibly the most popular Korean pastime for middle-aged Koreans, so there rarely is the type of true wilderness moment some look for in hiking).

Pleased that we made it on the subway by our set time, we settled in for the ride.  We reached our transfer point in Seoul and headed to the map to make sure we would be continuing on in the proper direction.  Enter a helpful Korean man who asks where we are headed.  When I point out the station and tell him we are shooting for Bukhansan he simply beckons us to follow him.  Apparently he's headed there too.

I'm all one for adventure, and it seems Dana is too, but we were both a little leery of following a complete stranger.  But we always retained the trump card of ditching him if the situation turned strange, I guess.

Lucky for us we hit the jackpot.  Not only was he kind enough to guide us to the park, but he introduced us to his hiking group and had us tag along.  Our rough plan of a two-hour hike suddenly transformed into a planned five-hour adventure, but we thought we'd give it a shot.

I'm a pretty swift hiker myself, but for many Koreans hiking is the Indy 500 with the winner's bottle of milk at the finish line for the first to reach the summit.  I was somewhat prepared for this, to an extent, but unfortunately I don't think Dana knew what she was getting into.  The breaks were infrequent, and when they came they didn't last.  We didn't hold up the end of the line, but we certainly weren't leading the pack.

At the top!

Finally after clearing one peak and heading partially down we found a spot for lunch.  Another note about Korean hikers:  they come prepared.  Our shorts and t-shirts and meager belongings had nothing on the full head-to-toe gear, portable chairs, hiking poles and most importantly food our hosts had on them.  Our little snack was supplemented by offers of kimchi, kimbap (a famous Korean snack made of rice and vegetable rolled in seaweed), some kind of pasta with a milky substance (not the most appetizing, but we were kind of forced to eat it!) and a number of other treats.  (Unfortunately neither Dana nor I were mindful enough to snap any pictures of our hosts or their spread).

Lunch was a welcome respite from climbing and it was good to fill the tanks since we didn't know how long we had yet to go.   So with slightly refreshed legs we set off again.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thinking about the finish line before we were halfway up peak number two, but it probably would have taken us longer to find our way back on our own than to just tag along the rest of the journey.  Onward and upward it was.

None of our hosts spoke much of any English, which was at the same time frustrating and entertaining.  We were treated to such gems as "me daddy" (our guide was the same age as our parents), "big problem" (when Dana fell a bit and hit her knee), "small problem" (when either of us slipped or any little issue cropped up, and finally, saving the best for last, "she die" (Our guide was trying to explain our decision to head down.  Dana was in no condition to climb another peak, and frankly I wasn't in the mood either, so we headed down with part of the group).  I'm probably forgetting other good ones, but the, at times, blunt language was certainly a source of chuckles for us.

After more than five hours from our starting time we reached the bottom and said goodbye to our guide who clearly was a little disappointed that we weren't continuing on to dinner with him.  But Dana's visit was short and we had more to do.

Thanks Mr. Lee!  We exchanged phone numbers, so there may still be another crazy adventure in the days to come.