Another Weekend of Hiking

It is Monday night, 10:30pm. Walking over to the PC Bang I passed several high school kids in their uniforms. All high school, and middle school, students wear uniforms. Girls and guys both wear jackets. Girls wear high collars and an ascot, or tie. Guys wear ties. Girls wear pleated skirts, and guys wear slacks. Both sexes have what I call the National Haircut. Girls have bangs above the eyes, what i think is a 'bob' cut? Guys all have their hair cut above the ear and short. I will finish here around 11pm and the streets will still have many high school kids walking home. It is common for them to get home at 1, or 2am. There were mini buses dropping kids off from private Hogwans. Family's spend lots of money sending their kids to Hogwans for tutoring in math, English grammar, science, etc. It is a pressure cooker to do well on their national exams.

I on the other hand enjoyed my weekend. I climbed our local mountain Gotchisan twice. And visited another national park on Sunday. We climbed Soebaksan (spelling?). There were 9 charter buses in the parking lot and maybe 14 cars. The charter buses were more Alpine Clubs from the big cities.

Our climb/hike was 6 hours, 13 km, to a height of 1497 meters. It isn't K2, or the Matterhorn, but it was a good day's work. And the cost was only 2000 won, or about $1.25, plus fruit and chocolate.

The altitude expressed itself as we followed the river/brook till it froze over. Their were small waterfalls or rapids that froze over completely. It made for a great scene. Like somebody pressed pause on the river. The ice was splashing over the rocks, but it wasn't moving. There was about a foot of snow on the mountain top, maybe two feet. As usual, many Koreans showed surprise to see me, and more so to be greeted in Korean.

One couple from Seoul talked to me a short while. They lived in Chicago for 15 years, the husband owned a business but was now retired. Said his son was a lawyer in San Fransisco working for a solar company. Doing very well apparently. When asked if his son would consider practicing law in Seoul, there was a diplomatic "no." The salaries just don't compete. He said the biggest law firms in Korea may have 40,000 associates at most.

Monday's class was focused on immediate and extended family. I introduced adjectives to describe family. I included simple dialogues between family members. The students enjoyed them. When asked to freely talk about their familys, and make-up dialogue the class came to a stand-still. It's frustrating when that happens.

Lately I have heard from family, and extended family. Good to hear from all. Also, I am trying to coordinate with my fraternity little brother who is teaching in China. Maybe we can see some of China, Vietnam, or Indonesia over the summer.