it's about time

I haven't been posting. I'm sorry. I guess I needed a break, or maybe I just thought there was nothing terribly interesting to write about. Here's what I've been up to for the last month...

I landed in Montreal, sans luggage, on September 2nd. My luggage spent the night in Chicago and joined me at Trisha's apartment on the third. I spent the next week at her place in a daze of delicious and naughty food, and sleepless nights. I was waking at 3 or 4 AM every morning no matter what time I went to bed.

It's further than it looks!

A week after getting back I "moved" out to Otterburn Park, my childhood town, to stay with Alexia and Bilal at Alexia's mom's house. It's been nice playing "auntie Liz" to Bilal the cutest six-year-old I know.

"Monkey B"

We walk to school in the morning and home in the afternoon. We play and watch movies. We argue and we hug and make up. I missed him a lot while I was in Korea and actually wrote to him more than anyone else! I don't want him to forget me...

Alexia and I in our Korean "peace sign" picture.

Alexia and I have been puttering around, going to the mall, walking in the forest behind her house, doing garden work, and lazing about. This has truly been like a vacation for me. Now, it's about to all change. I've been accepted for my working holiday maker visa for the UK and I will hopefully be out of Montreal on the 23rd of October. I neeed to verify something with the Embassy and then I'll know for sure. I'm excited and scared. It's not the same feelings I had when I left for Korea, since I at least have a friend across the pond, but it's still scary to think that I'll be away for at least another year and maybe more. At least it isn't the first time!!!

Here are some pictures that I've taken recently. I've been loving the nature photography of late since I'm surrounded by it.

The field behind the house.

In the forest.

Leaf

pretty...

Shrooms, anyone?

I suppose that's it for now. I'm on my way into town today... feels like a big deal, but I go at least once a week, but today is for socializing and not business... woohoo... So until I have more news, I hope this post is enough... I'll let you all know as soon as I have more info...

summer on the mountain

some of you might recall that i started hiking mount sineo in mid-winter. there were no leaves on the trees. the streams were but a trickle of half frozen water. the air was cool. i really enjoyed it and went up about 5 times in a couple of months.

on thursday i had the afternoon off (thanks to exams) and figured what better way to spend the afternoon? it was actually sunny out for the first time in a while and thought i could get a little colour on me before the trip to thailand. i also wanted to check out those 'trickles' during the rainy season.

it was a whole different world.

i took pictures to compare and contrast the difference...

before:

i took this because i KNEW it would be a lake in summer... there's been some kind of 'work' done on the area so it looks a little different, but i swear it's the same spot.

after:

don't know where that concrete came from... but look at all that water!!!

before:

it's not exactly the same shot, the direction is a little off, but it's the same place...

after:

isn't it incredible what a little (or a lot) of rain will do.

i know it's just nature, but how often in our hectic lives do we really have the time and opportunity to just enjoy it? i know when i go home i won't be a ten minute walk from nature... and if i want to hike a mountain, i'll have to drive to it... so i'm going to enjoy it as much as i can before leaving korea.

here are some extra shots i took just because things are pretty now.

this is the "bridge" over the stream... it was barely wet in winter and now you have to walk through the water.

the bottom of the mountain is host to farmers fields. little plots of land that remind me of community gardens in montreal, but on a bigger scale. they grow lots of different food and plants.

like corn.

and potatoes. i don't think i've ever seen potatoes this close to their "natural habitat".

it was a nice afternoon. i'm a lot faster at getting up and down the mountain than i was, so i guess all the cardio i've been doing for the past five months is doing something. i've actually lost a total of 25.5 pounds now... and i'm still going!!!

coming soon, some korean weirdness that i've been meaning to write about: "service" and "the bacteria killing man"... so stay tuned.

Easter Sunday at a Buddhist Temple

well, darn it if i didn't go to church this easter! they may not have been celebrating easter but it was holy ground nonetheless! i was supposed to hike up the mountain with kiwi Dave (these are the dave's i know, i know, these are the dave's i know ;) ...) but i just wasn't up to the task. we were already up there when i realized i wouldn't make it to the top, so we went to Dongrim Temple instead. there are actually three or four temples on Sineo Mountain (the one next to my house that i'm always going up). i went to dongrim once before but my batteries died when i got there so i didn't actually look around, but i had the opportunity to get a good look yesterday.

125 steps to the landing, another thirty or so after that... gotta work to get to the temple!

me and the giant bell. they have these at all temples.

detail at the top of the bell. isn't the painting gorgeous?

the giant Buddha at dongrimsa. (sa is korean for temple)

part of a chandelier that i found in the back of the main building at dongrim - i guess they got new ones!

one of many "little" buddha's. (well, they were about my height...)

at dongrim we could hear chanting coming from the forest so we followed the sound. what we came upon was a sort of rest area with parking and a map of the mountain. there was a guy offering help and suggested we go to the next temple up - Eunhasa - which is where i thought we had just been... so we headed further up the mountain. there were tons of koreans out in their hiking garb - which is hilarious because half of them just drive up then walk a half a kilometer on the road... this is hiking in korea!!!

anyway it only took about five minutes to get to Eunhasa. i found out that it's one of, if not the, oldest temple in the area, hailing from the time of king suro. the chanting that we heard was coming from there. they had loud speakers set in the trees broadcasting the ceremony that was going on indoors. we didn't go in as we were unsure of the procedure or etiquette of it all, but the chanting was quite beautiful.

the steps up to eunhasa.

offerings left at the temple.

the bell (in the background) at eunhasa.

some of the "hiking" koreans at eunhasa - they were posing for their friends, so i took advantage...

i took 130 photos yesterday... i could've taken more, but dave was giving me funny looks the whole time! (thanks dave!) he doesn't even OWN a camera!!! some people just don't understand... see the name of my blog? anyway... it was a nice day - a three hour hike/walk in the mountain and seeing another bit of korea... i only have four and half months to get it all in.

stay tuned for the story of my trip to the hospital last week for stitches... like i said, not a trip that anyone wants to make. the hand, btw, is healing nicely, i think it is anyway... i can type a lot easier now... but it still looks a little gross. wanna see? WARNING: the following pictures might be kind of gross for some of you! (but i know you'll look anyway!)
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the day after it happened.

today - the swelling has gone down considerably.

ciao!

moutaineering 101

well, the first meeting of the gimhae foreigner mountain hiking club was today! the name is just a joke, but i finally managed to get some buddies to come up for the view and some 'fresh' air. it was nice going up with other people... and they considered me the leader since i'd already done it. joe took the picture, so he's missing in it, but here we are "at the top"!

kim, emma, me

andy

kim's new hiking boots didn't, however, make it to the top! thank goodness she made it back down! we stopped and had a little picnic while enjoying the view and laughing about the boots. it was nice. we walked past my inukshuk, and it's a good thing i took a photo of it last week, because it's been knocked over now... :( guess i'll just have to make sure to build a bigger and better one sometime... maybe i'll bury some treasure under it!

everyone came round to mine after for a chat, and that was really nice too! makes me feel good to have people over. (it's a good thing i cleaned this weekend!) anyway, if you're reading, thanks again for a great day! let's do it again asap!

one mountain, two mountain, three mountain, four?

i finally got a decent nights' sleep last night. i woke up at a reasonable hour, cleaned the house, and headed to the hills.

i was planning on following a different route this time - one that would take me to the top of mount sino... but i ended up going the other way again... i just can't figure out where the path is. i think i'm going to have to walk up the road and that just sucks. after figuring out where i was going i was thinking i'd just get to the top of the first mountain and head back down. it takes about an hour to get up and i thought i'd been there before. well, i hadn't, but i did today.

the 'top' of mountain one.

when i got to the top i wasn't ready to turn back, i still had the rest of the day ahead, and figured that while i was up there i might as well see where the path goes... so i kept going, and saw this ahead:

it looks more daunting than it is...

so i just kept going. and going. and going.
it got pretty steep for a bit. i kept imagining what this would look like in the rainy season... it's probably a river!

that is the 'top' of mountain one as seen from the top of mountain two.

when i got to the top again, i was faced with a choice:
i went right - mostly becuase it was going down instead of up! i didn't know how long it would take me to get down or if i'd have to go back the way i came... but going to the right looked like it would somehow get me down.

the view on the other side of mountain two...

after going down and down and down i decided to stop for a little rest. i found a little outcropping of rocks and hunkered down. as i looked on the ground around me i was inspired. so i built a little inukshuk. i've never done this before... and i don't know exactly why i did it, but i like that i did. i wondered what the koreans would make of it if they happened upon it... it's like a little peice of canada in the mountains of gimhae!

my inukshuk.

it's kind of small, and not very pretty... i wonder if it'll still be there the next time i go up... after building it i kept heading down the mountain... i wasn't sure where i'd end up but knew it would be somewhere on the other side of my neighbourhood... it was still a long way down. then i came upon more strange korean mountain things:
looks like a collapseable garage that people put in their driveways in canada... there were a bunch of koreans hunkered down eating lunch inside. it's just so odd that it would be up in the mountain in the middle of nowhere... i wonder who built it.

and just as i was out of water i found this:
i asked a korean who was standing there if this was potable and she nodded, so i filled up my water bottle. hopefully i haven't contracted some kind of parasite! but if i do, a bunch of koreans will too, as they were all drinking from it as i was leaving. ahh, fresh mountain spring water!

then i came upon this:
it seems that koreans have their own version of the inukshuk... i didn't feel so smart about my little guy after seeing this monster... just means i'll have to build another bigger one next time.

i still had a long way down, and it was rough on my knees, but my new shoes held up great. my toes got a bit sore, maybe the shoes are a half size too small... either way, i wasn't slipping and slidingdown the mountain like i usually do. at least the new ones have some grip to them! when i was near the bottom, but not quite there i came across this:

an ad for columbia! advertising up the mountain!!!

i did finally get down off the mountain and was indeed on the other side of my neighbourhood, which meant a nice walk through the outdoor market and a trip to the 1000 won shop (where things actually cost 5-10,000 - maybe that's just the waegook price...).

all in all it was a great afternoon... it took just over three hours from my front door to my front door... which is about twice as long as i've been before. good on me! i still can't believe that i've turned into this weird hiking-type of person... change is a good thing right?

trekkin'

in the spirit of becoming a "hiking kind of person" (see previous post 'up, up, and down') i went for a hike today. i suppose i could have gone for longer, but two hours seemed like a decent length of time for my second hike of the year... and my first real one since october. before that it had been years... sorry, just a little pat on the back for myself there...

my hike began as all korean hiking experiences start (well, many anyway) on a road.
you have to take a road up part of the way up the mountain in order to get to the good part - the actual mountain. even though i technically live in the foothills of the mountain i was climbing, everything is just so built up... as you'll see.
part way up you can veer off onto a path that follows the road, but much of it has been paved with cement. i wonder if this is to make it easier to get up in the wet season... anyway, it just doesn't feel like nature... gotta keep climbing for that... right?

i came to this bridge, and though there wasn't really more than a trickle of water passing udner it, i can only imagine the torrent that the trickle becomes when it rains for six weeks straight. i'll have to go back and check.

on the other side of the bridge is this little rest station - benches, signs to tell you where to go and how far it is (in korean, no good for me) and see the yellow padding on the trees? not sure, but i think that's for comfort if you don't want to sit, but just want to lean on a tree... where's the nature?

this is where the title of this post temporarily changes to "the stairs of korean mountains"...

stairway one

stairway two

stairway three

stairway four

(end post stairs of korean mountains)

i should have thought about it while i was still up the mountain... these are just a small sample of the way that the koreans make it easier to get to the top... i didn't shoot them all, nor would i have time to post them all here if i had... you get the point. sometimes it's nice to have a little help, but again, where's the pure nature?

oh! there it is! at the top! but still, it isn't even... if you look closely you'll see a building over there... it's a buddhist temple, and i thought i was going to it, but ended up on the wrong side of a wide valley - now i know where to go next time! it was still very beautiful up there, and quiet, and i was surrounded by nature. i sat on a big boulder at the top for bit. i was surrounded by trees and i thought to myself how much it actually looked and felt like canada. i used to climb mont saint hilaire, on the south shore of montreal, all the time when i was a teenager, and it just felt the same... like i was almost actually home. i think i need to climb mountains more now... i like this new hiking type of person that i'm turning into.

it wasn't easy, and i didn't get anywhere close to where i was aiming for, but it was lovely to be surrounded by trees, away from the boredom of my apartment, and also the bustle of the city. to think it only took me a little over an hour walking to get away from it all like that... wish i had discovered this months ago!

this is a view of the mountain i climbed from the parking lot of the dongbu sports complex - i stopped off on my way back to get info on their swimming pool. not bad... it's not the rockies, but it's definitely bigger than mount royal in montreal... next time i'll have to get some friends to come with, maybe we can have a picnic on one of the many rest stations up there:

like this one! hopefully i'll make it to the temple too... and eventually i'll make it all the way to the top of mount sineosan:

i think it's the tallest mountain in gimhae... see you there!