Things I Miss About the States

My dear readers, it has dawned upon me that if my blog is your only source of what the score is in the game called "Meg's Life" then you most likely think that I spend all of my time hiking and teaching. Admittedly, this is not a bad guesstimate. I do enjoy the time I spend on the mountainside and I love to share it with you! However, another hiking post would just be bore-0-rama. "Oh great, she went up a mountain, oh look a picture of pollution. How wonderful, a picture of a sweaty, tired Meg."

I have realized that I've left out my favorite part of my posts, the part where I talk about things I miss about the states.

We begin with T-9: Now, for anyone reading this post who is over eehhhh say, 35 years old? You might not know what T9 is. In a nutshell, T9 is little man who lives in cell phones who magically finishes words that you start typing in a text. For example, if you wanted to type the word "cosmic," you start hitting 267624 and somewhere along the way, the little man figures out that you want "cosmic" and he finishes it for you! This little man has the entire dictionary memorized and when used correctly, he's a brilliant timesaver. He's also only brilliant, I imagine, in English-speaking countries. My cell phone here in Korea knows Korean as its first language and the little T9 man is nowhere to be found. But what can be found is a frustrated Meg struggling to see what's on her screen and quite deliberately hitting the wrong buttons on her Korean cell phone. A text that took me 15 seconds to type out in America now takes me about a year.

Waiters: The food industry here is so different than in the states. First, there is no tipping, which I've discovered to be mostly fantastic. I say mostly fantastic because when you take tipping away from the playing field, you also remove the motivation for extra-ordinary service. In America, it's all about the eyes. You have to catch your waiter's eye and go from there. In Korea, it's all about the "YOGIYO!" "Yogiyo" means "here" in Korean. You literally yell that to get someone to come over to your table. At first it was a bit jarring to just see people yelling at the wait staff. I don't know if I'll ever be completely comfortable with it, but it's not as odd now. Koreans also aren't too big on beverages. Cups for water are itty-bitty and they never give you refills unless you do the "YOGIYO!"

Not being stared at: I know, readers, I know. I've mentioned this about 17 times. The fact remains; I will never ever get used to being stared at.

Salad: Salads here are like Fazoli's interpretation of Italian food. Pathetic. And you don't even get free breadsticks.

Root beer: Actually, the soda here generally tastes better than in America. I think I've heard that it's because they use better sugar to make it. I have no idea if that's true, but it sounds legit. But soda choices are limited and my favorite soda that makes me feel like I'm still 11 years old is nowhere to be found.

My nephew: Little booger just turned 1. and he has teeth. I canNOT believe I'm missing the chompers.

Spring at ND: I realized that one of my most favorite feelings is waking up and realizing that the winter freeze is over and the thaw of spring has been working its magic on Notre Dame's campus. There is nothing quite like walking down North Quad to Tom Petty blaring out of someone's dorm window and joining your pals playing frisbee or juggling a soccer ball. Being able to don short sleeves and shorts, or seeing one of your friends racing to class on a scooter just makes you feel like Bookstore Basketball is in the air.

Things I do NOT miss:
Allergies: Seoul is roughly comprised of about 80% concrete and 19% pollution, which leaves approximately 1% for anything that could make me sneeze. Meg's allergies are pretty severe so my sinuses are in heaven over here.

I leave you now with a video that I took of my kindergarten a few weeks ago:

Dobongsan

About a month ago (I know, timely blogging, Meg!) I went for a nice little hike with Sarah at Dobongsan, which is a mountain in the same range as Suraksan, just a little north of Seoul. You can see Suraksan from the top of Dobongsan. It was a crisp 50 degrees and zero chance of rain, a perfect day for a little hiking. I went out in my oh-so-lame hiking “gear” of course attracting skeptical up-down gazes from expertly tricked out Korean hikers. I feel like a rookie in the big leagues, still using the baseball mitt my dad gave me and all of the veterans are chuckling to themselves, “I wonder how long she’ll last in those… (snicker snicker) New Balances. Ha ha ha! Let’s watch!”

But really, Koreans who you find on the trails of mountains are the nicest ones you come across. Everyone in the city is always on task, has an agenda, has to be somewhere, busy, important and most importantly, busy. Everyone’s checking their cell phones, yelling in Korean, shuffling around to make sure they’re on the right bus, subway, or stealing taxis and the best part is, they all do it in heels. But out on the mountain, even though you feel like you’re in the middle of a hiking apparel fashion show, you find the people most willing to say hello, ask where you’re from, if you like Korea, if you like hiking, etc. If you’re wondering where all the friendly Koreans are, they’re all hiking.

Anyway, as mentioned earlier, Dobongsan is in the same range as Suraksan and it’s really close to the city so all we had to do was take the subway there and walk to the park. We stopped at the information desk to get a trail map and the woman mapped out a trail for us that took us up to one landing and past a temple.

The temple was absolutely breathtaking. It sits on a cliff that is nestled into a fold of the mountainside. I’m really hazy on the details of the temple but I do know that it is Buddhist and just absolutely beautiful. It was about halfway up the mountain and there was a “grotto” type place that you walk through to get to the actual buildings. There were tons of candles and people praying. There were three buildings, that I could see, and a very big balcony with a “ceiling” of lanterns above it. Sarah and I were nervous about disturbing solemnity of it so we didn’t take too many pictures or linger for very long. We stayed long enough to make wishes and toss coins into a fountain and then we moved on.

The rest of the hike was pretty uneventful. We reached a vista about ¾ of the way up the mountain, rested, and ate some kimbap. The top was similar to Suraksan, just bare-faced rock with a metal railing to hold onto in order to teach the top.

The last 100 meters or so were precariously steep and there were a few people who were warning us about ice on the rocks. At the time I was young, foolish and invincible so I charged on. Sarah was wise, cautious and sensible and didn’t make it all the way to the top this time. But! We went again the weekend after and she was determined to make it up the last bit, and she did. Yay Sarah!

All in all, Dobongsan is one of my favorites. It’s easy to get to; there are many different trails to choose from and it’s as easy or hard as you decide to make it.