School Excursion: Mountain Climb... of DOOOOOOM!
Did I tell you that on friday I was on a hike? My school's teachers called it a Mountain Climb! So I was envisioning ropes and stairs and rocks and foot-holds. Damn if I was wrong about the whole thing. (before I left for the excursion; Mike said "too many kids - it will be easy"; which shows he's learnt nothing in 4/5 weeks, its always possible because things are done differently in Taebaek to, well, anywhere!) I was with the 3rd grade boys (about 16/17 years old, the oldest boys in school); this meant I was on the HARDEST hike.
We started on a path (a good start), and I could see it would be uphill for a while - so I was tough and kept going up. Then we had a break - at the bottom of the mountain (only I didn't know it yet)! All the way up, if the boys aren't posing for my photo's then they are trying to give me chocolates - "I'm thinking what, are you trying to turn me into a beach ball??"
After break the boys showed me a little snake and they were impressed when I wasn't scared. It was barely bigger than an earthworm (We did see a small earthworm further up the mountain and it was my co-teacher who freaked)! So we kept on hiking, and soon afterwards we are walking on a dirt track. It's a bit rocky but I did wear my Trusty Hiking Boots - yes they are that good - so all is ok. By this point, I have my own bodyguard, Dong Mi, and he's trying to teach me Korean. Which helps take my mind off the climb but leaves me very little breath to use! Our guide takes a wrong turn, fortunately for me, I'm at the back of the group; so I have very little ground to back-track. Another 30 minutes (I guess) and we reach a large flat high grassy area, we have a short break before our assault on the peak.
The path is so narrow, it's single file only and we all have to cover up due to the scratching and stinging plants ahead. We plod on and on, and the boys are starting to complain they want lunch. Which is fair enough as the time is almost 1pm. When we are almost at the summit, the boys from the front have to push back past us - so the last few meters are very crowded and busy. At last! We reach the top and I take a photo, then I am rushed back down the mountain to the last break area where we are to have lunch.
I arrive with my co-teacher and we all unpack the food we have brought and that our students have brought for us. It's pretty good being a teacher in Korea! We eat vegetable sushi rolls, something that looks suspiciously like chicken feet Korean style and pickles. After the last teacher joins us, they break out the Soju! AND BEERS!!! I find it funny how everyone is just howing into the food and the booze, then they break out coffee and desert! Until I had lived here, I really didn't understand how much Korean's love their food!
As we are preparing to re-commence the hike, I ask the guide (with my hands) if the hike will be steeply up or steeply down? She tells me up for a bit, then along a bit, then steeply down a bit. I'm not re-assured and I am tired already. At least I've saved the four chocolates I have been given and I use them for motivation to keep me going: later on I say to myself, many times over, 'I can have a chocolate in the bus'.
We set off, in the middle of the group and as she said it was up a bit. Every time I thought there can not be anymore uphill parts, there were more. For every uphill we hiked there was a downhill to match and at some point it started to rain - lightly but constantly. With the rain and already being tired, I wasn't really enjoying this hike anymore. My bodyguard gave up his attempts to teach me Korean and decided to finish the hike with his friends - who all have longer legs than I do! I realised that the kind-of flat part was our flat bit; even though it inbetween more mountains. I would say the view was lovely but we couldn't see very far on account of the rain. I was going slowly but ok.
After more trudging, we reached the downhill proper. Of course by this stage I was mumbling like a loon, something about chocolates, while trying to catch the students who were sliding out of control past me (I saved three!) and trying to keep myself vertical. Due to the rain, the ground because steadily more slippery and this was exacerbated by the students all wearing sneakers - so their downward options included running, slipping, sliding, screaming and yelling. In any particular order. By the time I reached the bottom of the mountain, my legs were shaking, my knees were screaming pain at me, my ankles sore (but saved from any injury by the Boots) and my toes were crying. I was proud of myself for reaching the bottom and not crying out loud on the way down - even when I fell over four or five times. I was just so exhausted.
So when I couldn't see the bus but could see a proper road I was almost happy. When we (my co-teacher - read personal translater/minder - and I) finally caught up with everyone else, we received a round of applause and one of the teachers took a photo of us walking to the bus! I was tempted to say "Paparazzi NO!". But felt no one was going to expect me to look picture perfect after a mountain climb in the rain. A couple of the teachers came up to me to say "you did good" - at least that's what I thought they meant.
I was never so happy to see the inside of a big old bus in my life!! I did eat that chocolate bar, however I waited until I got home - so the Korean mars bar and I could be... alone.
