One Year and Counting: Spring, Festivals, and HIking/Um Ano e Continuando: Primavera, Festivais, e Caminhadas

If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans. --Woody Allen

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous as it has been warming up (and greening up) for spring. I have really enjoyed watching the flowers bloom and everything come to life, especially after a winter that seemed so long. So. Damn. Long. We have been taking advantage of the changing seasons to go to a number of festivals in the area around Gwangju, including the Jindo Sea Parting Festival (at the end of April) and the Hampyeong Butterfly Festival (which we went to on May Day, since we had the day off). We've also been doing a lot more hiking around town - I finally got Joel to come with me to Mudeung, and we've been doing a lot of walking along the river, too. One Saturday, we even wandered into a tiny Buddhist temple, and the monk invited us in and served us tea.

Monday marked exactly one year that Joel and I have been here in South Korea. We had a four-day weekend last weekend, so Joel and I took the opportunity to go hiking on Seoraksan, a national park in the northeastern corner of the country (only about 10 miles south of the DMZ) which is often called the "sea of clouds." It has South Korea's third-highest peak, Daecheongbong. The whole park is generally just stunningly beautiful, and this time of year it is also incredibly green and lush. The weather was gorgeous: it was bright and sunny and not too hot. We took the bus from Gwangju at around 8 a.m. on Thursday morning and arrived in Sokcho, the port city just outside the park, at about 2:30 p.m. (Sokcho is pretty much the farthest city from us in the country). From there, we took a cab straight to the park entrance and began our ascent.

Daecheongbong is 1,708 meters tall. On Thursday afternoon, we hiked about halfway up (just over 1,000 meters) to Huiungak shelter and spent the night there. It was bare bones accommodation - essentially just a room with room for about 180 people to sleep on two levels of wooden floors, which made me really glad we brought blankets (even though they were pretty heavy to carry). We had dinner with some jovial (and very tipsy) middle-aged men who let us use their campstove. We traded stories about Korea and Texas (they were absolutely flabbergasted at how hot Texas summers can get), and then I had a sing-off with one of the more talented guys who knew a handful of John Denver songs. Korean hikers are generally very friendly and curious about foreigners on the mountain, so the first thing they asked Joel when I scurried off to the restroom was how he found such a beautiful and talented wife. (I know it sounds really weird to say that, but I am not joking).
Adjusshi: You are very lucky! Your wife is very beautiful - and so talented!
Joel: Yes, she sings very well.
Adjusshi: How can you find such beautiful wife? Even our Korean baseball players do not have beautiful women like that!
Joel: There are many beautiful women in Texas.
Adjusshi: Oh! I must go to Texas.

The next morning, we set off at about 8 a.m. and began the slow, grueling ascent to the peak. We quickly regretted having packed so much as we practically crawled up along the ridge. Still, the views were lovely, even if the top never seemed to get any closer as we trudged along. We made it up to the top just in time for lunch at noon. We sat, ate jerky and cashews, and proceeded to each get monstrously bad sunburns.

Proof that we made it.

We took the opposite trail down the mountain and exited the park just outside of Osaek, a small hot springs resort. We bused back into Sokcho, spent the night in the "Youth Hostel" (which was really a budget family pension) and then spent Saturday wandering around Sokcho on our sore and suffering legs. On Saturday night we stayed at a little motel in Osaek and spent an hour in the local jimjilbang (public bathhouse) fed by the area's natural spring water. Sunday we got up early, hopped a bus to Seoul and then another one to Gwangju, and rolled into town just in time for a friend's birthday party.

All things considered, a pretty good weekend.

We have lots of vacation in the coming months, so we are really looking forward to doing some traveling: Jeju island in June, Tokyo in July, four unallocated days in August, and probably Ulleung island in September. We had relatively little time off in the winter and early spring, so it will be great to relax a bit more.

Hitting the one-year mark has also gotten us thinking a lot more about where to go from here. Joel is getting ready to begin applying to graduate schools back home, and we are both contemplating the Foreign Service exam. In the meantime, we are weighing our options for our next move and general life goals. There are still so many decisions to be made, but I suppose that's life, youth, and marriage.