Hiking

Last weekend, Kait and I went hiking in an area very close to our apartment; the trail head is just about a five-minute walk from where we live. So we started up the trail, at first not knowing at all where it went or how far, and we came across several breaks in the trees that gave us a very good view of Daegu. The view from above Daegu is an interesting one because the city is cram packed with generally uniform apartment buildings all over the city, most of which are very clustered together in different residential areas around the city. It just looks very different from the multi-faceted cityscapes that I have seen in other cities. Anyways, these breaks in the trees are very good places to just take a break from hiking and enjoy the view. While we were at one such break, an older Korean gentleman said plainly, "Nice viewpoint!" which was maybe a little surprising to us because most Koreans of his age do not speak much English. But we were glad to talk to him, so we carried on with a small-talk conversation. After a few minutes, he said, "Where is your destination?"
"We don't really have a destination," we replied.
"Why don't you come with me, then," to which we replied in the affirmative. So we followed the able-footed, 54-year-old Mr. Lee up the trails higher and higher. We learned that the trail made a large circuit that topped all the mountain peaks and ridges, if we so wanted to climb them.

Then we took a break at another small spot to sit down and have lunch. From the start, Lee shared everything with us. He let Kaitlin sit on a light blanket that he had brought along - I was content on a rock - and he gave her a small mat to sit on as well. "Ladies first," he said. The first food he pulled out was two triangular pieces of rice wrapped in seaweed; he offered them to us outright as if they had originally been ours, and he almost seemed offended when we told him that we did not want to eat all of his food, so we (I) had one, and we packed the other for later. Lee had other food to eat too. His lunch of rice/seaweed/veggies put our plain ham and cheese sandwiches on white bread to shame. Once we finished our meals, we sat in silence as he indicated that we meditate for about ten minutes or so, a habit that he regularly did everyday.

So we sat there, cross-legged, eyes closed, and with our bodies relaxed, thinking about whatever. I thought about my moderately poor attempts at learning the Korean language so far. I recognized how easy/dangerous it can be to allow yourself to become stagnant from the comfort of "getting by" or "surviving" with just speaking English, a common tendency among some of the teachers here. I just thought about ways to improve myself in this regard. Before long, we started once more on our hike. After a short while, I indicated to Lee that I was very interested in learning the Korean language, and he seemed delighted. I told him that my plan was to go to Daegu university and post a note somewhere saying that I would gladly have a free exchange of language learning, teaching someone English and learning Korean. Much to my satisfaction, he eventually said that we could learn Korean from him and we could teach his wife. I was so glad to hear this! He invited us to his house/apartment (sometime) and said that we could learn much that way. He started teaching us generally useful phrases, such as "glad to meet you." Once we finished our hike (about a five hour hike including brief breaks) we met Lee's wife, who was also in the forest, at which point we told her "glad to meet you" in Korean, to which she seemed delighted. His wife does not speak much English, but she can understand basic words if we talk slow, as she studied English a long time ago, but lost some of her usage since then.

Once we were out of the forest, Lee and his lovely wife took us out for dinner at a nice chicken restaurant. (We realized we were going out for food about a minute before we went into the restaurant, and we were like, "Are they feeding us?") So we had a wonderful dinner - with a good amount of beer to boot, and we celebrated our good day together and what we thought would be the beginning of a nice relationship between the four of us (not including Lee's children whom we have yet to meet). With smiles on our faces, food in our bellies, and gratitude in our hearts, we left the restaurant (after Lee paid for our dinner) and went back to our apartment to get ready to meet up with some friends later in the evening.

All in all it was a very good day: we got to explore a new area - very close to where we live - and we got to meet a wonderful couple who showed us the best of Korean hospitality. We very much look forward to seeing them again, and we will keep you updated on how things go. For me, meeting them was perfect because, even before I came here, I wanted to meet some native Korean people so that I could have a way to learn the language and to get some insight into the culture.

Aside from that, I am about to go to my second hapkido class, even though I am still very sore from my first. I haven't experienced enough to write much about, so I will let you know how this goes a little later. I can say, though, that I think it will be a very good experience for me. Also, Kait and I took our first Korean language class yesterday, which was a very good way to learn some of the basics just starting off. Once again, we will let you know how this goes. Ace