so there was this mountain...

anyong my people! anyong! sara and i decided to venture out and climb 

this mountain (this is the view from the top) 

and this... is the story of how we got to and from this bloody view. not as easy as one would hope... especially with the special-ed lewis and clark (sara and me) attempting to climb it... here goes. 

 

FIRST off.. I found Jesus. everyone clap.

 Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! yep...he's big here in tongyeong. 

no really, he's a big dude. haha.

i should probably explain that sara and i are reading from a korean map.. with symbols and all. we don't know where the hell to start so we just pick route A or B. well, we chose route A. this route did not have a path. it was brush and dirt and ladders that were stitched together with pipe and some wire and cracking wood. whew how trustworthy i was to walk five feet up on that puppy. sheesh! anyhow - these are the views a third of the way up the wrong side of the mountain... 

1. 2.

1. so there was this bell... and i'm probably going to have 800 years of bad luck for messing with it... but the orneriness (why is that word spelt like that?? it took me FIVE spell searches to find the correct spelling... seriously webster...seriously!) within me couldn't resist. i just had to! i also had to...

2. throw leaves at sara. we haven't seen this kinda foliage since last fall in texas. it was the first reaction i had when i saw it. like a child, i am, no doubt. LEAVES! LEAVES! LEAVES! I MUST THROW LEAVES! 

i forgot to mention that throughout the mountain, there are probably 100's and 100's of cabbage crops... just randomly up the mountain. sara and i fought the brush going up as much as we could, but we got to a point where we had to attempt a new route... off course. haha. and there... well there... my life was freakin' lit up! 

I FOUND SOME SWINGS!!! 

   

do you even have any comprehension of how excited i was? i felt like i was 4 all over again... i didn't have to share the swing with anyone (i could fight off any little koreans that wanted it...). that swing was MINE! wahooo! wahhoooooooo. wahoooooooooo!! wheeeeee! so friggin' awesome. 

BUT FINALLY. after about 3 hours going all the way around the mountain to get up to the top.... we found it!

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1. here it is. the view we were hoping for. the 3 hours of an attempt to hike that mountain paid in full. (i should also mention that the ladies at the bottom 'hoola-hooping'... those are HARD PLASTIC TUBES. they are not the tiny little plastic ones... they are ridiculous. koreans are crazy! get to the top of the mountain and hoola-hoop, do push-ups, have stretch stations... ha. they know what they are doing!)

2. this lady was hoola-hooping... her little hands were above her head and she was moving her hips as though she'd just been listening to a britney spear's re-make. it took a while, but i FINALLY convinced her to take a picture with me. she was so cute! 

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1.  i have this odd obsession with jumping off of things. it gives me great joy. and my adrenaline pumps insanely when i jump from high places...on top of mountains, no less. i WISH you could have heard how freaked the guys behind me were when i jumped. i think they thought i was committing suicide. hahahaha. oh what fun! 

2. i figured since the older people were trying this hoola-hoop thing... that i could most definitely do it. that puppy almost broke my foot when it came down. holy toledo. kudos for grams and gramps doing that... it ain't easy, folks! 

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1. sara and i on top of the mountain. you should go to her blog to see her "YES I MADE IT" face.. it was priceless!

2. A PUPPY CLIMBED THE MOUNTAIN. and my heart stopped. he looked just like b-man as a puppy. so i had to pay some extra special attention to him and his little t-shirt. haha. koreans do love their little dogs... it's the big dogs they eat. :(

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1. i forgot to mention, that all the way throughout the hike, probably every couple kilometers or so, they have a stretch/work out station. here you can do sit-ups, chin-ups, eat lunch, get your water refreshed, SWING, teeter-totter, and even... stretch your back. look to picture 2.

2. this was the back stretcher. all who know me know i had reconstructive back surgery two years ago... so this was quite the treat to stretch my back like THIS! haha. who does that? at the top of a mountain? really?? really?? 

so then. we decided we'd attempt the climb down... and experiment with a new route...

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1. we got VERY lost. we actually ended up on the exact opposite side of town that we needed. here, i think we found the only cow in all of tongyeong. bless her heart! i wanted to go up and scratch her head and tell her i loved her. 

2. this was the result of much MUCH delusion. 4 1/2 hours of climbing and getting lost... you'd get excited and make shadow puppets too! 

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1. the koreans would give sparky a heart attack if he saw how they wired things.... stay away small children, stay away! 

2. this was sara and my reaction to our 3 mile hike BACK to town after we found a random route down it that led us to the opposite side of where we wanted to be. but hey, we weren't defeated... because.....

ICE CREAM! ICE CREAM! ICE CREAM!!! 

everyone needs some ICE CREAM after a hike like that! 

so. that is my sunday in a nutshell. sleep in, hike all day, ice cream for dinner, it's life at it's peak! hahaha. it was a wonderful experiment. i do believe, however, that next time i will go with someone who actually understands the signs that probably told us "WRONG WAY STUPID AMERICAN"...haha. 

life here is still going wonderfully. i love it. i love my work. my directors. my co-workers. the food is growing on me, but i am saving my appetite for christmas, where i will go to seoul. sara and i, along with our friend amy who visited us a couple weeks ago, are all going to seoul for our Christmas vacation! woop! there they have AMERICAN Food.. EVEN AN OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE!!! HOLY MOLY! HERE I COME STEAK AND KETCHUP AND MASHED POTATOES AND KETCHUP... OOOH AND ROLES! AND DIET DR. PEPPER... OH ME OH MY MY MOUTH IS WATERING.... wahhhhh. haha.

okay. i should get ready for my day. i should also say that sara and i are official LEGAL tongyeong residents. we received our immigration cards yesterday, and also opened up a bank account. we are legit, baby! wah hahaha. and we are both awfully, awfully excited! my next blog i will update pictures of all of that goodness. 

until then my people. 

anyong,

-kam