And then the foreigners conquered the mountain!

Well hello! I shall speak to you of the newest Korean developments. This past Thursday was a Korean national holiday. So myself, Ben, and our new coupley friends Kezia and Jack, and Cheryl and Nate decided to hike up Mount Mudeungsan. We met at the bus stop at 10, and the six of us plus every expensive gear wearing, hiking pole toting Korean in all of South Korea headed to the mountain. At the bottom of the mountain it was so crowded we were basically hiking in single file. However by the time we got to the more challenging part of the hike the people thinned out a bunch and we were able to enjoy/struggle through with much more personal space. We ended up taking a bit of a circuitous route which resulted in our climb taking about 4.5 hours up, but also resulted in some really incredible views.

The photos really don't do it justice. From most spots you could see easily 25-30 other mountains as well as ALL of Gwangju.

The hike down was a little rough. I think about half an hour in we were all just ready to be at the bottom. But we returned victorious! After a six and half hour hike we were all pretty pooped. We returned to our various apartments to recuperate for an hour before reconvening to eat Korea barbeque.

Korean barbeque is a magical thing. You sit at a table with a grill in the middle of it. The waitress brings out a million like side dishes for you to munch on, and then sets coals into the grill. You then select a type of meat to grill. They bring the meat marinated and raw on a big ole plate with mushrooms and garlic to plop on there as well. Then you grill it all up right at your table. When the meat is ready to cut it (yes with scissors) into little pieces. You wrap the little pieces in lettuce leaves, and some of the other grilled deliciousness and some magical sauce stuff they give you and then shove it all into your face. Its amazing. So that is the tale of my Thursday off.