Enduring the frost

We have learned a new song with our students called "Busy, busy, busy," and are equally annoyed when we hear it sung because it seems to sum up the entirety of our life here thus far. The regular public schools are on vacation until the end of February, and as a result, our hour break has been cut to compensate for time. Thus, we find ourselves on certain days teaching 10 to 12 hours straight, with little to no idle time. It is easy to imagine why we haven't written for the past two months.

It hasn't been all work here. What weather we were willing to brave found us attempting the trails at Korea's Bhukansan National park, situated right above Seoul. It boasts some of the best hiking trails, bouldering problems, and granite peaks in the country. There is even a monolith in it the size of El Cap in Yosemite. Once we shrugged the temperatures, it was Bhukansan or bust. The nature of the people we encountered, as well as the scenery, had us remembering why we loved to travel, and mostly, why we loved the outdoors; that kind of hikers enthusiasm and exuberance you see in people who are nonetheless just stoked to be anywhere in the outdoors and away from the city. A little woman ranger attempted with almost no qualms about the communication barrier to tell us about the hiking trails and temples in the park. After communicating in smiles and mutual admiration towards eachothers attempts, we parted ways and set out to explore.

We never got to tackle Half Dome's infamous cable wire route when we were in Yosemite, but we'd like to feel that Bhukansan resembled it enough to compensate for our missing out. Korean's have a tendency to simply make their trails shoot upward and completely vertical, rather than add all those annoying switchbacks and side shoots. With our hands half numb, we pulled ourselves up the mountain following a cable wire and some very icy trail. We could see the potential in such a place and hear the voices of our friends bellowing, "look at that line..thats some sick ice wall, what do you think that is...two pitches..nah, definitely three." For the first time we found ourselves completely alone and secluded in what to us, felt like a little bit of wilderness, until we joined up with legions of hiking clubs about a half hour later, sporting gear that even the most wealthy and adamant hikers couldn't afford, and all doing it with enough makeup, glitz, and glamor to hit the clubs afterward.

Other ventures found us exploring the infinite districts in Seoul. We have found that the city is almost one and the same, and if you are lost enough, it is like that of wandering around a suburb in the limelight of night: you can not distinguish anything from anything else. It isn't until we stumble onto a metro station that we again are given a sense of where we are.

The economic boom Korea experienced as a result of hosting the Olympics and the World cup catapulted them into production with one ideal: build first, think later. The result has the entirety of the cities looking identical in their layout, as well as their architecture. It is a wonder that some of the temples made it out alive to withstand the renovations.

The temples stand as Korea's instruments of cultural recognition, for without them, there would really be no significant land marks to signify that you were in fact in Asia. The majority of them have undergone significant repair and rebuilding, due to war, fire, and other historic obstacles, but still are simple and beautiful, and it was almost an enigma that we found ourselves in one of Korea's largest folk villages and temples almost completely alone. Playing the part of tourists, we went head on, first visiting the National folk museum, then touring the grounds, and taking as many pictures as we could so we could brag about how it was cooler to be there than it actually was...though it was really cool.

Other outings have mostly been with our students. Magic shows, puppet shows, and trips to the sled hills have served as some pretty unique and noteworthy experiences, and even we had to admit that we had fun doing them, regardless of how awkward we felt in the process. Sally herself was singled out to take part in a magic show, simply because she was either white, or the best looking teacher at the venue...maybe both. We also found that two white people on a sledding hill surrounded by Asians suddenly became very noticeable to us, whereas in any California ski resort, the case wouldn't have been any different, and we would have been none the wiser. The conversations amongst the numbers of students who relished the chance to use their English went like this:

Korean guy or girl: "Where you from?"
Us: "America"
Korean guy or girl: "Obama"
Us: "yup"

It was nice to know that even Obama is part of the 100 word vocabulary that is retained in the Koreans English speaking repertoire. We can all smile at that.

Our days now find us balancing work and anticipation for spring. The plum blossoms will be showing off their ability to bloom in even the harshest conditions soon, and the deep freeze temps carried in the wind from Siberia seem to be calming down. A season without back country or a fresh line has us prepared to take on anything Korea can throw at us at this point, even as our friends have made a habit out of posting pictures that only seem to add insult to injury. Our bleak moments here have been laconic, and we know it will be our turn soon enough to boast about our exposures. So to those who read this, prepare yourselves, because soon, there will be nothing but blossoms, green mountains, and bragging rites...maybe even a climb or two.