Hi Everyone,

It is Monday night around 11:30pm for me right now. Besides having a rough time with a recent occurrence, I am doing ok. I did, however, have a memorable weekend. On Saturday morning, I headed to Suwon, a town in between where i am and Seoul, for my first professional soccer game. It is South Korea's pro league. Anyways, it was a great experience and i am really glad I went. We traveled in a large group led by a really great guy that grew up there; he is a huge fan. We payed 10,000 won (less than 10$ USD) to get in and had great seats. The game itself was intense and exciting, and the fans were great to watch as well. We were in the section for all the Suwon fans so the whole game I heard chants and cheers and watched these people stay on their feet for the whole time. So that took up a big chunk of my Saturday.

After the game, I made my way towards Seoul to meet a guy I actually sat next to on the plane from Toronto to Vancouver. We were on the same flight to Korea but had different seats. Anyways, we got along very well on that first flight and had some great conversations so I gave him my email before we parted ways. His name is Ben and he is over here teaching English. He grew up in Ajax I believe. We both love the outdoors and he does a lot of hiking here so he contacted me this past week to see if I was interested in going on a hike. Well of course I was, so I made it to Seoul Saturday late in the evening and met him, his girlfriend, and two of their other friends who are teaching out here (all Canadians from Ontario).

(On a quick side note, Ben met me first and while we were waiting for the others we went to a coffe shop. The latte I had was amazing, nothing like I have ever tasted before.)

Continuing on, we met the others and spent the time in Hongdae, which is one of the main spots for young night life in Seoul. We went to a restaurant for a bit, ate and drank (I water and sprite of course!) and then decided to explore a little more. We came across a live band playing in the street; they were phenominal. There were a few percussionists, a drummer, a guitarist, and an amzing singer, along with others who sang. It is difficult for me to paint a picture of all the different players, but the music they were playing was just fantastic. They were doing songs like "Stand by Me", "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", and other oldies and classics but putting modern twists on them with beat boxing and other amazing sounds. Also, they had a dance board (that is the best name I can come up with for what it was) where this young Korean woman was not tapping, not clogging, but doing some kind of dancing which was just great. The whole thing was wonderful to watch and it was free (although i did give them 10,000 won because they well deserved it.)

After that we went to another bar/restaurant and ate and drank some more (Ben kept pouring so much water I could've drank my pee!) I really enjoyed these people's company. Although they were drinking and of course I was not, they are very mature and I was very engaged in the conversations. So for me this was not only tolerable, but enjoyable. It was not just a bunch of partying and getting plastered and me sitting there bored, but in fact they all respected me and I would say we had a very nice time.

Then it was off for a little adventure. It was probably just past 2:00 am and we needed to find a place to crash. I had run into some people from my school earlier that night and one of the Korean guys told me there were a lot of motels at the next subway station, but after midnight the subways are closed. So we tried to take a cab. Well, late at night the taxi drivers refuse foreigners. We got turned down several times until I started to beg one driver along with Ben (who has some Korean and told him we were freezing while I was playing charades showing him that we were desperate) and he let us in. There were 5 of us but I didn't even want to attempt to ask him if that was ok. So we motioned everyone in and the taxi driver drove us, not only to the station we wanted to go to, but also until he found a motel. The motel keeper would not let us stick 5 in one room, so we took two rooms for 85000 won (about 12 bucks each) and split for the night. I got the floor with some blankets and a pillow, a step up from the jinjabong (public bath) the previous weekend and we were in for the night. The motel was dirty (stained sheets AHHHH) but it had to do, all part of the adventure of course. But it was fine and served its purpose well. We woke up, grabbed some breakfast, and were off to the mountain for the highlight of the weekend.

Arriving at the train station began the experience. In the travel guide we had it said get off at the station and follow the other hikers through the market to the national park entrance. Well, this seemed a little weird, what if there were no other hikers? Yeah right, there were so many. Like walking out of a stadium after a Blue Jay or Astros game at one part. Anyways, we passed so many stands with food and hiking gear, anywhere from knockoff gear to the real stuff. I mean there was probably at least a kilometer of market before we hit the entrance to the park. We went in (for free), got a map and a suggestion of which trail to take. The crowd went down as people took different routes, but we were surrounded by people for the whole time, Korean people love to hike.

Again on a side note, there were even elderly people out there; it was amazing to see these little old ladies climbing a mountain "somthin fierce!" Although they probably did not go all the way to the peak (which required a lot of work), I was amazed. Nevertheless, there were people at the top that i wouldn't have guessed would make it.

Anyways, we started on the trail and came across a beautiful temple. That in itself was awesome. Then, it was up the mountain we went. We would stop at points and enjoy the beautiful view, take pictures and then keep going. The hike took energy but it was well paved. There were even man made steps out of rocks. This mountain is very popular.As we got higher and higher the views became more incredible...

...Ok, it is now almost 24 hours later and I am finishing this post. So as I was saying, the views were wonderful. We found places to stop and look out as we got higher and higher. There were other temples on the mountain, and we could here Buddhist monks chanting prayers. There were so many great aspects to this hike. We came to a good stopping point right before the climb to the peak, so we sat down for lunch. We ate keem bap (not sure if that is how it is pronounced) but basically it is like a sushi roll but with cooked stuff in it, very delicious. We also had some keem chi which I am becoming accustomed too. After our lunch break, we made the last leg of the hike to the top.

It got steeper as we went up, and instead of taking the marked path, the two other guys and myself went for a more "climbing" route. That was very exciting. I actually took a bad route and had to come back down to cross over to where the other two were. of course it was not vertical and wasn't too dangerous, but it was still a blast and I did get a little nervous, all part of the fun though. Anyway, we all found a good spot to sit and look out at Seoul. We could see so far and it was just beautiful, but it got better. Having done my little adventurous climb, I went back to the normal route where there were poles to help get to the top. The other two guys, tougher then me, took the "climbing" route.

That aside, we got to the peak and it was breathtaking. To the south, we could see Seoul and how enormous it is. Civilization went as far as we could see into the horizon. Then, all around us was beautiful sky and mountain ranges. I love that feeling of looking out at the beautiful world. It is spiritually fulfulling. We took pictures, enjoyed the scenery, and felt great about our hike. Another neat thing that happened on top was that I offered to take a picture of a man with his family since he was snapping shots of them. After I did that, he motioned for me to stand with his wife for a picture. I got a good kick out of that. i guess they wanted a picture with a foreigner on the peak of the mountain.

Anyways, it was down from there. We took a different route on the way down with even more breathtaking places to stop and look at the view. At one point, a man who works for the national park stopped us to tell us about the mountain range. He was awesome. Little children would also say hello to us in English on our way down and then give the cuttest little giggles. Being a foreigner is really neat in this country. Some people are very interested in you.

Well that about sums up the hike. It is so difficult to put into words but I am sure you can understand. I will have pictures as soon as Ben's girlfriend Mary emails them to me. After that, I made the journey back to the school. So that was my weekend. I have another hike planned for this weekend with some people from the university so I will have more to write about. We are going to a national park in the southwestern part of the country so that will be an adventure. We plan to go down on Friday, hike Saturday, and then make it to the coast for sunset on Saturday night, stay over, and come back Sunday. I am looking forward to it.

Hope all is well with everyone. Miss you guys and will blog again soon. Keep the emails coming please if you have the time.