Let's back up a little bit, shall we? The day was Friday, and like all Fridays, it was just barely tolerable. Five 6th grade classes in a row is enough to drive anyone to "happy hour". This Friday was different, though, because I had been told to meet at my taekwondo studio at 8 pm for a casual BBQ party.
8 pm came along and I showed up in gear (long taekwondo robes) for the party. wrong move. Turns out that despite what my Sabeom said, it was casual wear.
8 30 pm returned to the party in casual clothes and sneakers. It was a little awkward at first because these are a bunch of Korean teenagers and I'm a mid-twenty year old American woman and we really don't have that much to talk about. When we're all practicing taekwondo it doesn't really matter that we don't talk that much. We mostly just race each other and fight. Communication is much easier when it comes to sports.
On top of that, the language restriction kept the topics we could discuss to very superficial levels such as:
"Oh you like Big Bang?"
"Yes, teacher"
"I like 2PM"
"Yes, teacher" (giggles)
If the actual food wasn't as delicious at it was, I'd call the night a bust. However the food (charred beef slices, kimchi, greens, rice, and soda) was delicious and helped to break the ice a little bit. Now we were having three sentence conversations! Just kidding, but not really.
Around 11 pm my taekwondo instructor tells us to get into the van.
I had heard mumbling about hiking before, however, I thought it was a miscommunication due to language barriers. I mean, how can you hike at midnight? It's dark, cold, and a sure way to end up on "I Shouldn't Be Alive".
I had heard mumbling about hiking before, however, I thought it was a miscommunication due to language barriers. I mean, how can you hike at midnight? It's dark, cold, and a sure way to end up on "I Shouldn't Be Alive".
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| how appropriate. |
But, climb into the van we did, and hiking we went.
It took about an hour to get to Palgok mountain, and from there we basically walked up 1,000,000 stairs until we reached the top. I won't bore you with the details of walking, just know that there were a lot of people there, and the paths were well lit with street lamps.
When we got to the top we took the obligatory photos of us and Buddha, which my taekwondo instructor said was built "one thousand years ago" which I think he meant just a long time ago. In addition, there were scores of older Koreans paying homage to Buddha and praying. There was a tape recording of some chant (in Korean) that synced up to the prayer movements that the Koreans were doing. It was pretty interesting to watch, and I was completely surprised by the amount of people participating.
When we came back down the mountain we all celebrated with various colas and fruit juice drinks we bought out of a shady (maybe because it was night?) rest stop. At this point everyone was tired and sleepy, the teenage boys (and girls) ready to head back home.
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| Yay! we didn't die! |
When we got back to Seobu, the three girls came over to my house to take a shower before spending the night at the studio. It was really fun to have a house (room) full of girls giggling and gossiping, even if I couldn't understand everything. One of the girls is in love with my brother, Nathan, after seeing his picture on my facebook page. Apparently his big eyes and soft features make him super "kee-yo", or cute.
Despite the lagging exhaustion from walking until 3 am, I'm really happy that I got the chance to do something that wouldn't have happened without help of my Korean friends. Now, I just need to find something equally as "fun" to share with them...maybe a pig-pickin'?
suggestions?
Much love,
Imani
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