So the last few weekends have been mildly frustrating, to say the least. It hasn't been anybody's fault, really; some things are out of control and some things are inevitable when you try to arrange travel with large groups of people, like the foreign staff at our hagwon. We got the idea of organizing a few group trips in conjunction with a visit from one of my co-worker's friends, first to Jirisan (a well-known national park which has received rave reviews from one of our Korean friends) and then to Seoul for the Lantern Festival. While the trips themselves were executive successfully (everyone who wanted to go got to go, and no one got sick or was injured), they didn't go quite as smoothly as we'd hoped and have just left me kind of...deflated. Or something.
I guess it really all started when Joel bought a copy of Halo 4 at Kumho World (the local electronics store) two weeks ago. He was super excited about the release and went out to buy a copy one afternoon after our Korean class. He came back from the shop, popped the disc into the Xbox to install it and see what it was all about right before class...and then discovered that all of the cut scenes were dubbed in Korean. They are subtitled in English, and all of the menus are in English, but the actual dialogue is all in Korean with no way to change it. I looked into it, and apparently Microsoft did this for all country-specific releases - and people are universally unhappy with the dubs. Joel can play just fine, but still...part of the fun of Halo is the story, especially Chief's relationship with Cortana, and so much of that is lost with a dub.
That weekend, we were all supposed to go to Jirisan together. I organized the trip and chose a relatively short route (~7 km to ascend 1500 m) that I thought everyone would be able to handle okay to Nogodan shelter. One person in our group opted out from the start, and then Joel's friend from college, who was recently stationed just outside of Seoul with the Army, scheduled his trip to come visit that weekend, so Joel was out as well. The remaining seven of us were all set to go up until the night before the trip - then my co-worker's friend who was flying in didn't actually get to Gwangju until 2 a.m. So my co-worker, his roommate, and his friend decided it would be unwise to attempt a major hike the next day. Fair enough - there were still five of us left.
We caught a bus to Jirisan at 8:20 a.m. on Saturday morning with backpacks full of food, water, blankets (and even a few yoga mats for extra padding). We hit the trail head at ten. The hike up was lovely for about the first half - the trees were all different colors, and the maples in particular were shockingly bright shades of red and orange and were absolutely spectacular. Then, about halfway up the mountain, the climb started to get really steep. Most of the hiking trails in Korea are very manicured and well-maintained, and a very common way from them to keep the trails from eroding is to "pave" them with large jagged rocks. You always know where you are going, but it turns a mountain into one long, steep staircase and can make picking your footing a hazard sometimes. I don't mind it so much, but one of my more vocal co-workers was less than pleased.
"This isn't my favorite hike, I'm not gonna lie."
We kept pushing up. "These rocks are really starting to piss me off!"
The trail wound on as I struggled to keep pace with my more athletic co-hikers. "I fucking hate this mountain!"
Aside from how strenuous the climb was, I was actually enjoying myself, particularly because there were so few other hikers with us (by comparison, Mudeungsan - the mountain just outside of Gwangju - is solidly packed with hikers all weekend). Finally, we exited the forest onto a gravel road, and suddenly I understood why.
The road was crawling with people and cars. We all looked at each other and laughed uncomfortably, realizing all the work we'd done when we probably could have taken a bus or even hitchhiked up the mountain. "That shelter better have a ton of food," one of us joked. We walked up the road and took a last little shortcut through some trees to reach the shelter. As we rounded the final bend and the building came into view, one of the guys started laughing.
"What the...are you fucking kidding me?"
When we read that Nogodan was a hiking "shelter," I think we had all envisioned rather spartan accommodations - i.e. a one-room wooden building with floor space for 108 hikers. What we found was a three-story lodge with beds, a convenience store, and a side-room for people to cook their food. There were hundreds of stylishly-dressed Korean "hikers" milling around with their children and their designer bags. We saw a sign on the other side of the road: "Nogodan Peak - 1.05 km; Parking lot - 2 k.m." The five of us stood with our mouths gaping open for a few minutes, then we sat down and reflected in disbelief.
"This is obscene."
"Not at all what I pictured."
"My friend John is a hard core outdoor enthusiast. He would be so angry right now."
"I can't fucking believe this."
"I really shouldn't be surprised, because this is Korea, but damn. I feel cheated."
I asked the man in the convenience store if we could check in, but he said we couldn't until 5 o'clock. It was 2:30, so we put our stuff down and sat in the cooking area.
"What are we doing to do for two and a half hours?"
"I don't know, but this is ridiculous."
"We could go home," I said, half joking. "The last bus doesn't leave until 6:55."
One of the couples perked up. "That's true...we could."
We looked around at one another. "Do we want to go back?"
"Well, I am pretty much ambivalent," I said. "But if we made it up in five hours, we could make it back down in time if we left now and booked it. What do you guys think?"
After discussing for a bit, we decided to turn around and head back home. We grabbed our things and high-tailed it down the mountain in record time - just over two hours. We made our way to the local bus terminal, bought our tickets, and headed back to Gwangju sore and slightly disillusioned.
The others decided to shower and regroup to get their grooves on, but I thought I would take some time to myself to unwind. I headed home to change and pack a few things for the jimjilbang, since nothing sounded better than a good scrub and some time in a sauna and a hot tub. Then, as I was getting ready to leave, a Kimbap Nara delivery driver knocked on the door. I opened the door for him and tried to explain that I hadn't ordered food - apparently there has been a mix-up since I ordered food for my co-workers one time, and now the restaurant has our apartment associated with their phone number. Either the driver didn't understand my limited Korean, or he was dissatisfied with it, so I ended up arguing with him for about ten minutes until I called the coworkers who had ordered the food and got them to come over and get it.
I tried to shrug it off as I headed toward the bus stop to catch the bus to head to the jimjilbang. Right as I got to the bus stop, the bus I needed to catch was driving away, so I had to sit and wait in the rain for the next one - then, when I got off, I headed the wrong way down the street and walked around for about twenty minutes before I found it. After asking for directions from a cashier at Cafe Lemon Table, I finally found the place, soaked my sore muscles, and ate a giant bowl of dumpling soup.
I was feeling refreshed and relaxed until I left, when I realized that I had stayed past midnight and that the buses had stopped running. I tried to walk home and got turned around at the five-way intersection, which meant that I wandered into an unfamiliar neighborhood and got lost with no cash for a cab. I had to go to a PC bang to ask where the nearest ATM was, so that I could pull cash and then flag a taxi.
Needless to say, I did not join the party that night.
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