gatbawi

so i'm almost done my second weekend here. it feels like the first because i spent the previous one sleeping. friday night i went to mels where we played some poker. i didn't win but it was only a 5,000 won buy in. saturday i got to see my friend tristan. we havn't seen eachother in months. she went home for a vacation and came back with a whole new life. i'm really happy for her, and hope that she stays in korea for a little while. after that i met carey downtown so that we could go to a dvd room. on our way there we heard some drumming (there's always something going on downtown). we go to see what's up and we see a couple of ajummas dressed as clowns and one man dressed in drag singing and dancing infront of a new store. of course they noticed to two foreigners and dragged us into the show where we were forced to dance around crazily. then the man in drag started asking me questions in broken english, trying to get me to say that korea was better than canada. it didn't happen but everyone was laughing. i'm sure i'm on about a hundred korean cellphones now. we finally were able to get away and watch a movie.

today (sunday) i decided to make the hike up gatbawi. i've been trying to hike this mountain for months, but everytime i try to something comes up. so i left my house at 1 and got home at 8. it was an intense hike, but beautiful.these lanterns were at one of the temples up there.
here's what all the fuss was about. this is the stone buddha. i was so happy to finally get there, after hiking for so long, up jagged rocks that i almost cried! haha. it was very steep, and there were ample opportunities to break my ankle.
a random view from the top.

another.
view of the peak, where the buddha is.

i found this hermitage while i was lost. they were drying hop peppers and the rest of the place was gorgeous. the entire time i was listening to chanting monks. i actually turned off my ipod.
a view from about halfway up.

that's a whole lotta buddhas. at the hermitage.

here's some more.

anyways, i always feel good after hiking.. like i accomplished something. especially when i go by myself. right now though, i am so exhausted and not really looking forward to teaching tomorrow. hope everyone else's weekend was smashing.

love j