Daejeon and Day-hiking

This past Saturday was spent in Daejeon, where my friend Amy was born and spent the first few years of her life. We took the 1-hour bullet train in the morning and met some friends of her family at the station. If you’ve ever seen an energetic old woman who really just blows you away, that’s exactly what this woman was like! She was no younger than 60 and she was high energy from morning to night. Impressive! We went back to their home where we had lunch that consisted of 30 bowls of different kinds of Korean guest foods. (I’m not kidding about the 30 bowls, either, because I counted and Amy took a picture!) Definitely the best Korean food I’ve had since I’ve been here, but I didn’t touch the fried Spam. Amy talked and translated, and I said a few words and mainly listened. After lunch, we got in the car and headed to find the home Amy’s dad built where she lived when she was a wee one. We saw downtown Daejeon and when we finally found the house (it took a few tries), there was a family living there just like Amy’s! The kids were the same order as Amy and her siblings and we met and talked to the father. I think it was pretty cool, and Amy seemed excited. After that, we went to check out a temple on a mountain. I’m pretty sick of the temples here, not because they aren’t interesting, but because they’re all the exact freaking same! They look alike, smell alike, are all a short hike up the hill, have similar pictures and monks walking around… even though there are tons of them, they’re all alike! Maybe I don’t know enough about them to appreciate it, but if I never see another one while I’m here, I think I’ll be okay with it. Nonetheless, it was some decent exercise, after which we went to see a spa that this couple likes to visit after their hike. She wanted to show us the lobby of this place because it is pretty well known, so we went in and honestly, it looked like the most dreary hospital-type lobby I’ve ever seen. Orange, tan, brown, funky floors, a TV where everyone crowds around to watch as they sit on vinyl benches… I didn’t quite get it, but we only stayed a minute anyway. We had dinner at a restaurant whose door was at just the right angle for everyone in the place to get cold. We sat on the floor and had our food cooked in front of us, though, which kept us pretty warm. And we ate “shabu shabu,” which is like a soup with mushrooms and greens, and when you finish that they put in a big bowl of thick, yummy noodles and cook it in the remaining soup. After the noodles comes the rice (what’s a Korean meal without some “pap”), which is supposed to be one of the tastiest parts of the meal, since it gets stuck to the bottom of the pot and you put water in to loosen it up before eating. It sounds strange, but it’s really pretty good.

Sunday morning we got up, had breakfast that consisted of soup, about 10 more bowls of goodies, and then fruit. Fruit here is typically dessert (which is why moist cakes and the sweets I’m used to are few and far between). We then went to the train station, and while Amy returned to Seoul, I headed down to Daegu.

I arrived about lunchtime in “the countryside” and Sam and I decided we’d go for a good hike. We’d already been up the mountain he wanted to visit, but this time he wanted to take me all the way to the top. For a girl from the flatlands of South Louisiana to take this trek with a boy from the hills of Berkeley whose jogs at home consisted of 10-degree slopes, I thought I might be making a mistake! And I managed to forget my tennis shoes, so I had to wear his large and funky sneakers. Walking pants? Those are in the US. So I wore his oversized Army PT uniform. Jacket for extreme temps? He said his was lighter and would be better than my long red coat. So I looked like a little kid in an adult’s clothes, which just made it funnier! We bought some mixed nuts and hydrating drinks for the trek, and Pringles and chocolate for the top. Maybe it’s the Harvard in his past, or maybe it’s that he’s been up this mountain before, but Sam was surely ambitious to get to the top! I, on the other hand, insisted on stopping and enjoying the view, taking pictures, looking at trees and little fat birds. We passed many people who were probably the age of our grandparents and just as spry as you could ever imagine! They had all the hiking clothes and equipment of a professional: backpacks, jackets, boots, and walking sticks. Very cute, and somewhat inspiring. How many overweight people do you know who couldn’t even walk over an anthill? I don’t want to be one of those. I want to be one of these people who passed us up on the trek to the top! And so, we finally made it to the tippy top that had been pointed out to me more than an hour earlier. There was a helipad and a few spots where the Army would retreat to if attacked that Sam knowingly pointed out. We took some more pictures (already emailed out, if you haven’t yet received) and then decided to head down. We came across people who took the cable car up and then wanted to walk down and we smirked at each other and thought, “wusses!” Besides, why do the damage to your knees on the way down and not get the cardio that pulling your big behind up several hundred meters brings? We didn’t fault those who walked up and took the cable car down, though, because we were doing the same! By this time, the oversized sneakers were not my best friends, and my hip was starting to turn against me as well. For $3.50 each, we saved our bodies some wear and tear, and then took the car as far as it would go, and walked the rest of the way. What an afternoon! We decided to celebrate our success with some Indian food (the dot, not the feather) in downtown Daegu. I think anything would’ve been palatable at that point, but the lassi, some kind of red chicken, garlic and cheese nan were especially delicious! And such was yet another great way to spend a weekend in the Far East!

Copyright 2005 Olivia R. Reed