Songnisan

Last weekend (7/20-22), the Powers that Be in Seoul decided that we needed a break from studying and sent us off to Songnisan National Park for a relaxing couple of days of hiking and exploring in the mountains. (Of course, they planned this not knowing that we had a test on Monday and had to prepare our lessons for the upcoming Camp the Program week, which meant I ended up more tired on Monday than I was on Friday as I crammed and prepared my Sunday night away. They apologized for the scheduling problems and said they'd fix them before next year.)

The trip was fun. There was a buddhist temple there which featured an outdoor bronze buddha dedicated to the reunification of Korea. The hiking was good as well, though it was almost straight up the mountain side. To give you an idea of the difficulty level, the first 3 km took approximately 1 hour. The last 3 km to the summit took 3 hours. We started at 3 a.m., took lots of breaks, and ended up back at our hotel around 1 p.m. Long and hard work which let me sleep soundly that night. Along some Korean hiking trails (the easier ones) there are little cafes where one can get something to drink and eat and sit for a while. Ours had none however, and we were glad that we packed in a small breakfast. On the way down, we stopped at a hermitage with an amazing vista (at least it would have been if it weren't so foggy). The gardeners there said that that particular hermitage boasted a spring with the best water in all of Korea. Miracle water they said it was. It did taste sweet and certainly slaked my thirst.

The hotels were interesting, if only because there was no bed in the room. Instead, we slept on yo which are stuffed comforters, essentially, which can be easily stowed during the day. They are comfortable (I like firm mattresses anyway), but they don't offer much padding, so sleeping on one's side is a little hard on the hips. Water was pumped from a subterranean spring 200 m below the hotel, so it was potable. I ended both nights watching Korean dramas until I fell asleep. My Korean speaking friends would help translate on occasion.

Songnisan is famous for its mushrooms, and during the weekend we had mushroom soups with almost every meal (버섯전골 and 버섯찌게). Both were quite delicious and served with a variety of mountain vegetables and roots. One that I particularly enjoyed was a very spicy pepper encrusted with sugar. The sweetness would hit first, then the spiciness about 30-seconds later. It was almost like a reverse Warhead, those super sour candies I used to devour when I was a kid that would assault the tongue for about 50 seconds before allowing their sweet center to come through.

We were actually told to buy mushrooms as gifts for our Korean teachers if we wanted. The Powers that Be every year tell the ATEs that the mushrooms make a great gift and are highly appreciated by the language teaching staff. There are conflicting reports on this, however, as some teachers apparently blatantly told their students not to buy mushrooms for them, and other students who had more experience in Korea said that food items that require preparation are usually odd gifts for younger people. They might go over better with an older generation, though. Our class played it safe and bought some mushrooms and also a green tea tea set for each of our teachers. I have a feeling we did well in this, as the positive reaction towards the tea set seemed much more genuine than than the positive reaction towards the mushrooms.

EDIT (9/3/2007): I forgot to relate two things in this post that I want to remember. First of all, I didn't finish a rather expensive meal, rather, my table didn't finish a rather expensive meal, thus we were punished through public humiliation--wacks on the head with an inflatable hammer from those who finished the meal for us. Second, I played in the water with the little kiddies. It was by a little dam in the river. It was a blast. I have a feeling the Powers that Be did not appreciate this a whole lot, though, as I was very wet immediately before we had to go home.