산들 번지mountains bungee white water rafting 하 얀 물 래프팅

Hello again,

This week in camp was fourth of July week and was naturally spent doing too many red, white and blue activities. Monday was pretty fun, the camp I am in charge of this week is called Kids, Inc. and involves the kids creating their own inventions on paper then building them. Nothing too exciting happened, I really like being in the kinder room where they fight to sit on your lap and ask them to read you stories. Tuesday was a long day, the kids were not well behaved and poor James had his first terrible camp day experience. After work Jesa, James, Devin, and I decided it was time to attend a professional baseball game. The Daegu Samsung Lions now hold any ounce of baseball loyalty I ever possessed. The game was ridiculously fun, Koreans are absolutely crazy. We all bought shirts and other Lion garb and Devin embarrassed everyone with his loud screaming. The mascots were hysterical and I truly believe people attend the games to laugh at the lions instead of watch the game. After a fun night of blowing off steam and stopping at seven eleven for exotic Korean popsicles we called it a night. Wednesday was also fairly uneventful at camp, I got to go swimming twice this week since Kristin fell and scrapped up her leg, so Tuesday I took the kinders and Wednesday took the rest of the camp. I was taking the fourth and fifth graders to the pool and was sad when no one reached up to hold my hand. This little boy Jordan is in fifth grade and discovered I was ticklish and I literally spent the entire hour swimming away from it. Lately Jesa has been making me run with her and swim with her after camp so I have been in the pool like six times already this week, ridiculous. So Wednesday night we watched old school because the boys said Jesa and I were required to see it to be considered and adult. Thursday we went on a field trip to Sue-song world which was terrible. The worst organization I have seen in a field trip ever, we went put putting, pottery making, pressed flower making, and wandering around the deserted theme park (actually it was more like a rundown carnival) trying to find a ride with seat belts so we could let our kids ride the ride. Friday was pretty fun we had a sock hop in the afternoon and the kids enjoyed dancing and sweating, really sweating the humidity is unbearable. We had cream the counselor on Friday and I officially know the stink of shaving cream in your eyes, and it doesn’t help when James secretly tells the kids to really shove it in your hair for the walk home.

Friday after work we hung out until around ten p.m. then Jesa, James, Devin and I grabbed a taxi and headed to Dongdaegu train station. We had about an hour to kill before our 11:23 night train to Gangneung. We were in the very last car Devin and I sat in front while Jesa and James sat behind. Devin and I have very few similar opinions and we spent most of the night loudly debating topics of every importance until getting yelled at by James and Jesa. Around 3:30 we discovered that the empty seats in front of us could be swivled around and we instantly had more foot room, but I still wasn’t very comfortable. All in all I think I got about an hour’s worth of sleep before the alarm went off at five a.m. because “wouldn’t it be just great to see the sun rise over the mountains as we started a new day!” Ya maybe it would be if I wasn’t the only one to wake up. But I shouldn’t complain I really am glad I saw all that I could out the train window. I know I have attempted to describe the natural beauty of South Korea on more than one occasion and I will try again. I thought I had seen a beautiful countryside, I was wrong. This weekend we traveled up to the north eastern part of South Korea and saw the rural beauty of the country. The country is roughly the size of Virginia and is 70% mountainous, that’s a lot of hills. The mountains in Daegu are nothing compared to what we trained through. The travel book describes this part of South Korea as the most beautiful and I would have to agree. When you picture Asia, or at least when I do, I picture lush mountains with an oriental twist and I finally fell like I found that here. We trained up along the coast between ocean and mountains and life doesn’t get better from a 23,000 won train seat. So eventually, after much confusion and almost exiting the train we found our stop at 6:30 am in Gangneung. We exited the train and walked through the station where a live band was playing, and Koreans were excitedly greeting us, it was a fun wake up call. After changing and enjoying a quick peanut butter sandwich we walked on. Our original plan was to find a bus to Sokcho the largest city on this side of the coast and enter the national park, Seorak-San and camp there for the night. After finding the bus station and realizing that the bus didn’t leave till late that night our plans changed. Devin had heard about the cool town of Inje and so we sought ways to get there. There was a bus leaving in about fifteen minutes to the town of Chuncheon, which then according to my travel book had many buses to Inje. So after looking out the window and watching the onset of rain we decided to bus and see where it took us. The bus ride was about two hours and was just what the doctored ordered after a sleepless night. We arrived in Chuncheon around ten, after again debating numerous times what stop was our stop, and the bus for Inje was scheduled to leave at 11:30 so we had a little bit of time to kill. The bus station was connected to E-Mart the Korean version of Wall-Mart so the hour passed faster than I would have liked. Jesa and I went straight for the clothing section while the boys ran for the food. Koreans are super skinny and we had been wondering if we would be able to wear/purchase any Korean clothing, glad to report we can. We enjoyed trying on about ten outfits each then settling on cheap vests, we aren’t ready yet to crack open the pocket book too much. We added Korean popsicles to our purchase and met up with the boys to catch the bus. The bus ride to Inje was beautiful. The rain cleared and the sun shone through the clouds onto the mountains. We arrived in Inje around one and began walking. It was our first rural town so we were stumped how to operate at first without the luxury of a subway or taxi. We saw in the distance a tall bungee jumping platform and headed off for it. After walking next to rice patties, amazing, we found a huge 63 meter (like 180 feet) metal structure that read the words bungee jump. James demanded someone accompany him, and after much pleading and influencing he recruited Jesa. Devin and I were not ready and chickened out, maybe by the end of the summer. So they signed their names paid their 30,000 won and got suited up. Devin and I stood above and watched and it was hysterical to see Jesa panic and James talk her back into it. These twelve year old boys suited them up in loose harness and lowered the cages. James went up first on the left side and Jesa followed on the right. I was so nervous watching them go, and I wasn’t even participating. James was up first, he walked out onto the small ledge, pressed his hands against his chest like he was praying, then spread them out like a bird and jumped. He whoohoooed the whole way down and had about three good bounces back up. By this time a small crowd of Koreans had gathered to watch the crazy loud Americans, I was taking pictures the whole time as Devin was quietly whispering “don’t die, don’t die, don’t die” as he jumped. After successfully lowering down a beaming boy, Jesa was up. We were a little more nervous for little Jesa. She stepped out and back in about three times before placing her toes on the edge, putting her hands out like a bird, and pushing off with all her might. Jesa bungee was a lot more frightening than James because she literally fell straight down. She had also lost most her voice that week at camp so her scream down was raspy and barely audible, hilarious. After she was lowered the two emerged with completion certificates and the biggest smiles I have ever seen. I was so proud.

The bungee man promised to take us to the river rafting office, after we bungeed of course, so we were off on about a five minute walk up the hill to another man. He offered to take us white water rafting that day for 30,000 won and buying some pretty sweet plastic shoes for 5,000 won. (sidenot: 1,000 won equals about eighty cents) So it was a pretty good deal. While we were there we had a true small world moment. As we were sitting in his office in our bright shoes and swimming apparel, in walked a group of Americans and one guy wearing a Hawkeyes t-shirt, Devin was convinced he had seen him before and asked him where he was from. He said he graduated from UNI last year and that I looked really familiar. Devin finally realized he lived in the house behind him last year and they use to steal stuff from his back porch all the time. He and his girlfriend were taking a year off to teach Korean right outside of Seoul, small world. But anyway we then left all of our stuff there, we are maybe too trusting, in his office and hopped in his BMW as he drove us up river to his companies drop off point. He also offered us his campsite that night for 5,000 won each and promised to pick us up after our ride. We arrived at the drop off spot to find around 300 Koreans just roaming around and several rafting companies. We sat around for a while and finally were suited up in our lifejackets and yellow helmets. We were with another timid Korean couple who were not pleased with our excited smiles and loud laughter. So our guide didn’t speak a word of English and was dressed in a bright pink mess jacket, blue flip flops, swim trunks, pink life jacket, and orange helmet. We carried our raft down to the water and he began to instruct us in Korean. The lifeguard in our raft spoke a little English so we figured when he said forward we paddled forward with his count 1,2,3 then a loud STOP! And we repeated the same with rackward (instead of backward) and reft (left) and right. It was pretty funny. So we all had to practice bobbing in the water and getting wet to get use to the river, which was pretty low because they haven’t fully entered monsoon season yet, anyway James thought the strange Korean lady was me from behind, short and wearing a pink shirt also and dunked her in the water. Eventually after a lot of hooting and hollering we were off, James and Devin in the front, Jesa and I in the middle, Korean family behind and guides in the back. We were stronger than they expected and kept pointing to James saying “power, power” we paddled on, encountering other Korean boats and getting into splash battles. There were probably around thirty boats in a long line going down the river. The water was so low we were constantly getting stuck on boulders and having to bounce our way out of them. We were able to get out and swim for a while too, we all stood up on our seats in the raft and rocked back and forth trying to make each other fall off, and I was victorious. After dunking each other and being splashed by oncoming Koreans we got back in the boat and continued down the river talking and laughing. We wrapped around a rock once, which was interesting, every boat wrapped and so there were like fifteen people standing on top of this little boulder in the middle of the river, you know it’s bad when your non-English speaking guide gets out the word dangerous. So eventually we got back in our boat and headed to the pull out point. The whole rafting thing was around two hours, worth 30,000 won in my opinion. We emerged soaking wet and covered in sand. We had to sit around for 45 minutes waiting for our ride to pick us up, who we presumed left us behind to steal our money and passports. Eventually a van turned up, after some lovely Korean men Jesa met called for us. So we went back to his office packed our bags and reloaded into his car with groceries. The campsite was packed full of Americans in the grassy section so we wandered down a ways to the beach on the river we had just rafted. We set up camp, well James set up camp, and we took a million pictures of the sun set and rock formations. It got dark pretty fast after that and we only managed to stay up chit chatting till nine when we all crashed. It wasn’t a pleasant sleep though, it was absolutely freezing and the night seemed to last forever. We got up around seven am on Sunday and ate breakfast and packed up camp, I realized the bag that held all my peanut butter sandwiches had been contaminated by baby powder and tasted horrible. We walked up to meet our taxi around eight and rode back to Inje bus station where we caught a bus to Sokcho the largest city north of Seoul. In Sokcho we walked to the local bus stop to catch a bus to Seorok-San national park. You would be so proud of our efficient traveling and navigating of the bus systems. We arrived at the park and had to pay the 2,500 won entrance fee. It was so foggy that you weren’t able to see the tops of any peaks. We found the cable car and bought our tickets up to the top of the peak where the views were supposedly incredible and we assumed the cloud would just go away by the power of our hopes for sunshine. We ascended into the clouds and the temperature instantly dropped from blistering hot to chilly. It was sprinkling up there and you couldn’t see three feet in front of you.

We decided to follow the crowds anyway as they hiked up and up on wooden stairs with rubber nailed to it. I was reading in my book that we had to be super careful on the rock face up top because there were no guardrails and it literally is just a slick slightly slanted smooth rock. We found it and we amazed. When you looked off over the edge all you could see was fog and clouds. The ground wasn’t visible and James insisted on getting awfully close. After getting lost and feeling unsafe we decided he had risked enough and headed back towards the cable car. We found another route to a temple that was about ten minutes away and took it trying to image what the beautiful views would look like. We cable cared back down, much to our disappointment, after only an hour and decided we would just see what the rest of the park had to offer. Best decision ever. After wandering we found a HUGE Buddha that was in my book that was about 60 feet tall and was recently created to encourage peace in the country. We continued on to find a gorgeous boulder river with rapids and Korean symbols carved into the stone. The sky was starting to clear up a bit, not enough for blue skies, but the rain had stopped and we were enjoying our hike. We followed the river a long ways, which was surrounded by black bamboo, until we found a sign informing us there, was a cave on the trial 0.6 km up. We decided we wanted to go for it and began our hike. It was the longest most difficult hike of my life. We once again found ourselves faces boulder stairs, steeper than anything we have been through before. We were all drenched in sweat, and I mean drenched and breathing heavily. Finally we made it out of the boulder stairs, only to find metal stairs. These metal staircases were attached to the side of the mountain rock face, just bolted in. We hiked up a bunch of those, thinking were were there only to find more stairs bolted to literally the straight vertical side of a mountain. These stairs where so steep it was like hiking up a thick ladder, finally we emerged from the clouds and found our cave. Ha, when I say cave I mean small pore on the side of the mountain. There was Buddhist monks in there selling things and a small alter. We all collapsed on the floor. We noticed after about thirty seconds that we were steaming from the cool mountain air and the body heat, it was pretty amazing. Finally it was time to hike back down and Devin began freaking out. He had to talk himself down the mountain out loud and was super mad when we took pictures of him and made fun of him. My little feet came in handy again as they each fit perfectly on the steps and I descended with no problem. We hiked back and caught the bus back to Sokcho. I was starving from my lack of sandwiches situation and Jesa and I refused to eat the traditional Korean food they wanted. We settled on a fried chicken wing restaurant and enjoyed a platter of hot, mild, sweet, and something else plus a tray of fruit. Devin was appalled at our American behavior but I was starving. We walked over to the harbor after and hung out playing cards and talking till around ten when we walked back to the bus station to await our night bus at 11:23 to Daegu. We enjoyed popsicles and conversation then crashed on the bus, which was a night deluxe and much more comfortable than the previous train ride. I slept a ton and we returned early 6:30 am. We taxied back to base; unfortunately Kristin had friends staying in our room so Jesa and I slept in Devins room till around noon while Devin and James stayed in James’ room.

The people staying in our rooms were from Red cloud, Jen, Nick, and Kevin. Jen was my small group leader this past semester in camp so it was really good to catch up and chat with her for a while. James and Jesa requested a lazy day so Devin and I walked to the subway station, about fifteen minutes, and found Seomun Market. This market was huge and amazing. A couple of our coworkers had talked about it before and told us it’s something we definitely needed to check out. The first street we found was sock street, and as the name lets on it is a full street of any type of sock you could ever imagine or desire. Then we got into some fruit and fish. We bought the famous Daegu apples, huge and delicious, and a bunch of raspberries. The fish market wasn’t as elaborate as the one in Busan but it was still huge and smelly. We found a ton of vintage clothes shops and Devin had a field day trying on the strangest outfits. I will definitely be returning for some souvenir shopping with Jesa in the future. It was a hot day, and I mean hot, beating sun and all so we were only out for about two hours. We refreshed with double popsicles and caught the subway back to base. My new goal now is to get through every type of Korean Popsicle, which are all unique in not only flavor but packaging. That night we hung out, James and I taught Devin to sew Korean patches onto the vintage hats he bought his brothers. All in all it was a fabulous three day weekend and a great way to celebrate our independence, by venturing around in a foreign country? I hope the fourth treated everyone else well and I look forward to hearing from you!

Love and mountaineering,

Miss Smartie (Elizabeth)