Every year, Baeyoung High School goes on 2 hiking trips. When I first met my high school Vice Principal, he asked me if I would participate on one of these trips. Not really knowing what I was getting into, I agreed. "Sure, I love to hike," I replied enthusiastically, forgetting that it was only half true. Much of my childhood was spend with my father trying to get me to hike and me stubbornly refusing. Of course, my father is one of the people that is equally as stubborn as I am, so when he decided I was going to hike, usually, he won the argument. Since I was such a warm and easy child, my time during the hike was usually spent trying to make him regret taking me. My sister, mother, brother, and I would trudge up a mountain and I would frown the entire time.
Luckily, I have grown out of that stage in my life. Now, I actually do enjoy hiking. I think it is a great activity and welcome the opportunity, but I'm usually bad at making the opportunity happen. So, when I explained to my Vice Principal that I love to hike, what I meant was, "Yes, I really enjoy hiking even though I hiked maybe twice last year (if I'm being generous)."
As a few weeks passed, I didn't hear much about the hiking trip. Then, as it grew closer, I started to hear too much about it. "Are you sure you can hike this?" my co-teachers would ask me. One of my deskmates even expressed his surprise that I enjoy athletics. When I signed up for the trip, I didn't realize it was the second highest mountain in Korea. Still, 2000 meters isn't that high when you are traveling with 180 boys.
See, that was the part that I was more concerned about. The 2000 meters? Well, remember that stubbornness I mentioned earlier? There was no way that I'd let the slow hike to the top beat me. But, the fact that I was the only girl with 180 high schoolers and 5 male teachers felt like it would be a little uncomfortable. Furthermore, I was the only English teacher. Yeah, I'd be relying on my students levels of English to get me through the weekend. I guess it would be a good way gauge their English ability :)
Only girl, only English speaker, under-prepared for the hike? No matter. I was stoked for this trip. One thing you realize rather quickly at a Korean High School is that the boys in class are different boys than them out of class. They find energy that you didn't know existed even moving from one classroom to the other, and as soon as they enter the room, heads are magnetized face down to the desk so they can get that extra few minutes of sleep. Even days before the hike, they students were getting excited. When I told them I would be joining them, some of the students clapped. Some looked confused, and some indifferent. Four of the students invited me to eat with them.
Although we left at 7 am, we didn't start hiking until 2 or 3. By this time, I had already been offered all you can eat Kimbap. After being informed that I would need my own lunch, I bought my own Kimbap. Then, in the car, the rest stop, and right before the hike, my co-teachers decided I must be hungry. That wasn't the only thing my co-teachers gave me. While unpacking the car, I was handed a beer. I tried to refuse after laughing, explaining that I didn't have room in my backpack. The co-teacher looked at my 3 bottles of water (my host family got a little excessive in supplying me with water) and said, "Well, finish one of those so you can put the beer in the spot. Actually, take two." With that, I was fully stocked for the hike, now including 2 cans of Hite.
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| My Hite |
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| My boys upon arrival. Yeah, some just carried bags the entire hike. |
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What a hiking outfit looks like Korea
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| What some more serious hiking outfits look like. |
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| All the classes gathering into classes |
The hike started with a group stretch and a safety talk in Korean. My ability to understand the safety talk was limited, obviously, but the stretching was pretty easy to understand. After that, we promptly ascended the mountain. We raced up it...at the hauling speed of a pack of 200 people traveling together.
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| The group stretching session |
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| Students taking a break from our breakneck speed. |
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| What a 180 person hike looks like |
The first day, we hiked for about 4 hours. Then, we reached the cabin. Here, the students prepared the food they brought. On their backpacks, many students had also carried portable grills. This gave them the ability to cook everything from Bulgogi to Samgeupsal. I wasn't particularly hungry. In addition to the kimbap given to me, the co-teachers also provided candy. On top of that, several students had handed me candy as I walked passed them. Students that had never spoken a word of English to me were giving me their candy bars. I was touched.
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| The students that fed me |
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| Students and their cooking pots |
My group of five students found me anyway and invited me to eat with them. Quickly, a teacher found me though and told me to sit with the teachers. Here, the students brought us bits and pieces of their meals. We even had the pleasure of being fed by the students. The students were a little hesitant to hand feed me, but the male co-teachers kept teasing until they did. Finally, one student came up and just said, "Eat teacher. Korean culture." Yummmmm....
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| Settling into our arrival at the cabin |
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| Getting a well deserved rest |
We went to bed pretty early that night, but not before the students put on a little mini concert underneath the cabin. The students who could sing performed while I gave a rating. A student even beatboxed. They were very impressive. One teacher told me to sing. I graciously refused. Although I may have sung 99 bottles of beer on the wall in my head several times that day, I didn't think anyone wanted to hear my voice. That's for karaoke only.
The next morning, we woke up at the crack of dawn. Actually, we woke up before dawn. The sunrise was beautiful. Again, the students took out their grills to prepare food. This time, I did eat with the 5 students who had promised me a meal. They made an interesting instant curry that really wasn't the greatest, but sure wasn't horrible. After another stretching session, off we went again. This time, we hiked about 4 or 5 hours to the peak.
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| The lovely sunrise of Jirisan |
The peak was beautiful. By far, one of the most impressive sights I have seen. I mean, I've hiked some tall mountains before, but their heights were nothing compared to this mountain. I spent quite a bit of time on sightseeing while being fed more candy by students. Then, we made our descent.
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| The marker of the peak |
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| My students at the peak |
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| Too bad I just look up in the clouds |
While hiking up is fun, hiking down is where my strength lies. I think my brother and I racing down Deer's Leap, a local short hike, prepared me for descending at quick speeds. Plus, I had Tina Fey's Bossypants to listen to as we headed down. The descent was at least another 3 hours, but it was fun. When we got to the bottom, we celebrated with some Makgeoli and food. Then, we made our way back. Needless to say, I feell asleep on the car ride home.
Jirisan was one of the best sights I have seen and my students made the entire trip quite excellent. I hope I get to go hiking with them again soon. Next time, they go to Hallasan on Jeju Island so...Yes please??
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| Korean Smokey the Bear is telling you, "Don't try to catch the falling rocks!!" |
And here's the generic scenery porn:
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