Oh to live on Jiri Mountain..

As you may remember from my last post, I had big plans this last weekend: Jiri Mountain. So this is how the story goes...

I spent my Friday night being good. I took a little nap, went to the PC Bang to watch my favorite American TV and was in bed by midnight. Unfortunately that little nap disrupted my big sleep time so I actually didn't fall asleep until about 3:30am. Normally for a Friday night that's all good and fine because I can sleep in on Saturday, but nope. We had plans to meet at the bus terminal at 8:40 am. As usual, I was the only punctual one, and Holli literally woke up at 8:30 so we were cutting it close. By the time the five of us all got there we had mere seconds before the bus left and we all jumped on. Thus began a weekend of amazing sights, shin splints, and even a little soju.

Our first stop was Namwon. I'd say it was about an hour away from Gwangju and I even got a little snooze on in the bus. Although I was a bit fascinated with the old man in front of me with the crazy hair.

From Namwon, well, I couldn't even tell you where we connected to. I just know we jumped from bus to bus a few times before being dropped off at a bridge covered in cute neon lanterns. We also got to get a glimpse of a giant buddha carving that was being made not too far away. Unfortunately my camera couldn't pick it up, but Chris was able to get a good shot. I was excited for our little adventure through the mountains and also extremely happy to be spending time with Holli, Lucy, Chris, and Ryan.

The first thing I really realized about this trip was my giant amount of appreciation for Lucy for not only coordinating this trip, but also being our translator, leader, and story teller. From the beginning she was always ready and willing to approach anyone for directions. She was also quick to tell us any old tale regarding the mountain, temples, or towns we were in and as always was her lovely Lucy self.

After maybe an hour or two walking around we stopped for lunch where we shared rice, crackers, peanut butter, bananas, and all kinds of other goodies. Then we realized we were only moments away from the main attraction for this trip. The temple built into the mountain (which I have forgotten the name of, woops). It's always a bit strange and obviously awesome to see these things. Most of the time in America if you see anything like this its some cheesy restaurant with fake carvings and it's hard when you see the real thing to really realize that this is old and real and not just a restaurant. Here are a few photos that me and my friends took:

If you look closely you can see Lucy and I near the bottom.

After spending a bit of time exploring this area we decided to head towards our next temple adventure. This one was also quite lovely but we all felt like a nice break was necessary. Luckily for Chris and I there were some plastic chairs where we plopped and discussed how lucky we were to be able to sit with such amazing sights around us and to have our simple happy lives in Korea.

Relaxing

Finally we decided to hike back to our starting spot and then hitch a bus to our little village where we would be staying. By this time we had been out for a good 8 hours and we're starting to get a little tired. To make matters worse the bus only dropped us off a few miles from our village so Lucy's friendly self stopped the first moving vehicle to hitch a ride. As soon as we got in it felt like something out of some teeny country rebel movie, riding around in a truck. All we were missing was a beer and some loud music.

Hold on tight!

When we finally reached the village it was quite the sight. Very small, maybe 45 people living there. It was sort of hidden away and definitely a new experience for me. We had arranged to stay at the chiefs house which was more of a collection of little houses. However, the Chief had recently built a new building for his visiting family members to stay in which was like a completely out of place (but very pretty and new) 3 story building. We got in and were greeted with a big screen TV, brand new kitchen, and even plastic still on the dressers.

A glimpse of the village.

Old meets new in Korea. Nothing like a Kimchi Pot and satellite TV.

Our newly built house

After spending a few minutes getting settled we headed down for the dinner they prepared for us. We were quite blessed to get the special treatment. The Chief put us in him and his wife's house/room and they even brought out a brand new table they bought just for our arrival! We all sat around this small table in this small room and helped ourselves to endless amounts of Korean style side dishes, soup, and rice. As always it was amazing and the company couldn't be better. The chief and his wife would sporadically come in and share stories of their village, their opinions on current Korean politics, and I even got to really hear some of my FIRST HAND opinions of North Korea from an older Korean.

The kitchen right next to our make shift dining room

After dinner Lucy headed to bed and the four of us headed down to the end of the village, a mere few steps away, and plopped down with a few beers, soju, and talked away. We all shared a few embarrassing moments, or should I say Holli and I just shared our dating disasters while the boys responded in horror and laughter. The night ended quite early because we were exhausted, had a big day ahead of us, and most obviously, we were out of beer.

These are only 2 out of the 10 attempts we did to take a group photo without a photographer

The next morning we were all up and at the breakfast table by 8am. Breakfast consisted of the exact same thing as the night before, plus some potatoes and spicy Korean style pancakes (oh so delicious!) Then Holli and I sat around for a bit, discussing the view and the fact that we are sitting in Korea in some random village and of course about how she will be leaving soon. Meanwhile the rest of the bunch was laying in our room on the toasty warm floor talking, napping, and being generally lazy before we headed back to our bus stop.

Chillin' with our Hostess, the Chief's wife.

After an hour or two of walking we finally made it to our first bus stop, which was also a little old ladies house. We stopped inside and she sold us some snacks and beers and we decided that we were in no hurry to get back to the cement covered city of Gwangju. So we sat there, for a good few hours, had a few beers, and watched as the random country people came in and out of the bus stop, staring at the massive amount of foreigners drinking beer on the old ladies porch. We were even greeted once again by our chief who knew our porch hostess!

Our hangout for a few hours and our new host, on the far left, about half my height.

Finally, after hours of travel, we made it back to Gwangju. Although I had spent the day walking I decided to get off a few miles from my house on the bus and walk the rest of the way home. I knew that this weather was going to end soon and it was a perfectly lovely evening for a walk... Minus the crazy Christian lady trying to get me to join her Korean speaking Church.