Before we get started with today's entry into the wonderful world of Nolen, let me apologize for the lack of photos. I promise to look for a new camera this weekend so I can actually show you all everything.
Anyway. Yesterday was finally time for some school bonding. Most of my other teacher friends had gone through this (some several times already), and now it was my turn. Yesterday, we went hiking. Hiking, for those of you who don't know, is basically the national sport in Korea. It consists of medium to large sized groups of people walking up predetermined, well-defined trails up and down a mountain, often times as fast as you can, pausing only briefly at various scenic outlooks along the way. Like everything else here, hiking can only be described as super dynamic.
Initially, I was looking forward to the hiking - it's something I particularly enjoy doing, and it would be nice to spend some awkward time with the coworkers outside of school. But last week I got a pretty severe cold which has decided to return with a vengance. So I was definitely in the mood for hiking. Add to that the heavy rains from the previous 36 hours making the ground basically a giant, sucking mudpit and the clammy conditions outside, and it made for just a great day all around. But we all climbed into cars for the half hour (ish) drive to Suwon and the mountain anyway.
Of course, about 10 minutes into the drive, I took a Korean Transportation Nap, which seemed to help my disposition a bit, and when we arrived, my co-teacher and I and a couple of other teachers decided to just do a short walk around the pond. Which was actually rather pleasant! The area was beautiful, and the humidity was bearable and the conversation was less awkward than it usually is.
Along the trail, my coworkers pointed out a few interesting things to me: First, along the beginning of the trail, there was a lined path filled with pebbles, on which one walks without shoes, the idea being that it acts as a foot massage. I elected not to try this one, but mostly because I didn't want to deal with taking off my shoes and putting them back on again. Tired and lazy = missing out on cultural experiences. Ah well, there will likely be a next time. As we walked by the pond, my coteacher pointed out to me the Biggest. Effing. Koi fish. I have ever seen in all my born days. Seriously, these things were about the size of a steel worker's forearm! As we walked back from the pond/dammed portion of the stream, we sat down by what is apparently a foot bath. At least, that's how it was explained to me. So, not wanting to miss out on another experience, I took off my shoes and socks and plunged my feet into water that must come directly from the icy tail of a comet floating through deepest space. What I'm trying to say here is YA'LL IT WAS COLD. It is a shocker that my feet did not fall off right then and there. Of course, one of the teachers with me challenged me to a contest to see who could keep their feet in the longest. I lost (but since I got to take my feet out sooner, who is the real loser here?).
So we continued our slow meander back, stopping here and there, including at a honey farm. Seriously. Right there, on the side of the trail, was a woman who was selling honey that came directly from the SWARM OF BEES RIGHT BEHIND HER WHY WASN'T EVERYONE RUNNING FOR THEIR LIVES???? Ugh. Bees.
I did not go up to the honey stand (but they brought me back a sample anyway! hooray! Also, it was DELICIOUS), but my coworkers did end up buying some. Honey: fresh from the bee's butt (is that how it works? I assume so).
And then it was dinner time. Well for us, because we were like an hour ahead of everyone else, it was pre-dinner snack time. And you guys, it was fantastic. We had a soup made out of fresh acorn jelly (which normally I'm not the biggest fan of, but made fresh it ROCKS...kind of earthy, nutty, and a little salty taste all at the same time) and a potato pancake with zucchini cooked in it. Great stuff.
NOW it was dinner time, and this time it was the entire school (well, all the teachers and admins, anyway) eating. We went in this restaurant that specializes in grilled meat and sat down for yet another edition of Gigantic Korean Dinner. Of course, I was lucky enough to end up next to the principal, which is always an awkward time. See the thing is, he speaks no English and I speak like two words of Korean. But this doesn't stop him from talking to me! Oh no, he talks my ear off! And I have NO IDEA what on earth he is saying. So that's awesome, and then dinner came. We had: Scallion potato pancake with squid, acorn jelly salad with sesame leaf, turnip kimchi, real grilled meat (I had not realized just how much I missed the wonderful smoky taste of meat from a grill) in K-style tacos, tofu, some kind of steaming tofu curd, bean curd, more grilled meat (some beef, some pork I believe), and then even more meat.
I ate So. Much. Meat. It was wonderful, and then it was awful. You know that overheated, uncomfortable feeling you get when you eat too much meat? Yeah. I was there. We call it the "meat sweats". It's a thing, look it up!
And then it was time for us to make our surreptitious exit from the restaurant so as not to get roped into a night of excessive drinking and further awkwardness with the principal, and sped off home to lay in bed and recover from the meat sweats. Shudder.
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