Mountains!

Hello lovelies! How are all of you? I had a truly wonderful weekend. Friday night went out to dinner and bars with friends. I love love love that my new friends enjoy dancing as much as I do! We all stand in a silly little group and shake our asses until sunrise, pure fun!

Saturday morning was a little bit rough, after coming home at 5 am, I woke up at 10 am to go mountain hiking. Nate was the only other one who shared a similar story, while Taylor and Stephanie felt rested. We took the subway to Bukhansan National Park where we hiked up a mountain that was about 800 meters high and about a 4k each way. The fall colors were amazing! It was so nice to get outdoors and to physically challenge myself; hey I am from the Midwest, aka flatland! The hike was a breeze for Nate (who has attempted to hike the Pacific Trail for goodness sakes!) and Taylor, who not only looks like a mountain man, is one. Koreans are serious hikers! They all wore professional gear head to toe and came supplied with fruit and other various food. The best part about mountain hiking in Korea is that Koreans are so nice to you! We received many smiles, words of advice “watch out its slippery!”, and fruit from many fellow hikers. Taylor wore his flip-flops, weirdo I know, and all of the Koreans who we met got a good laugh out of it, quite a contrast to their attire. The video posted is at the top of the mountain, you can see Seoul, other mountain tops, and the Yellow Sea. My fellow hikers were not aware that I was taking a video at first so their reactions are a little dull. But Nate does a ‘big bird’ impression (That really ugly thing he has on is Taylor’s, who he stole from his college roommate, who got it from an outdoor shop where he use to work for free because they couldn’t sell them…the ‘fleece’s’ name is also ‘big bird’). I was amazed that on top I didn’t feel any fear of heights, something I thought for sure I would. Instead we all stood in complete aww as we looked around at what surrounded us. After awhile, we bid our goodbyes to the spectacular view and made our way back down the mountain, ending our hike just as the sun set.

Sunday we gathered enough foreigners to play kickball in Lake Park. We had so much fun kicking the ball around, but did have to yell ‘game off’ and ‘game on’ as Koreans walked through our field, oblivious that they were walking in the middle of a game. We gathered quite a crowd of fans to watch at first, probably wondering what they heck we were doing! I made a couple of spectacular plays but jammed my finger – ouch still hurts! Love you and miss you all! I have been brainstorming about a few blogs just about cultural differences that I hope to get to this week. Night!