Day 25

• Today I went hiking with Steve and Sehyung. Apparently, because of the cold weather and the difficulty of the trail everyone else from our work’s hiking club didn’t show up. But the two guys that did go were really nice, and their English was very good. The mountain we went to was about a 40 minute drive from the city and our hike took about 6 hours to complete. Chin’s hiking boots and climbing poll worked wonderfully! We passed many beautiful temples and even saw some of the monks getting ready to make their winter batch of Kimchi. The hike was around 7.5 miles round trip, and had a really difficult rock climbing section. I am the first woman from our work’s hiking club to ever complete the rock climbing section of that hike. There is a metal cable that runs along the ridge line to help you hang on, and sometimes the guys would have to put a foot up against a rock so I could have a false ledge to step on, or give me a hand to pull me up and over a rock, but other than that, it was all me without any ropes or harness. It was extremely difficult, but I am so proud to hold the title of first female from our hiking club to accomplish this task that I feel it was worth the struggle. As we were making our decent off the mountain someone was being airlifted out so you know that rock climbing section is not easy.
• Last night Sunny told me they don’t have the saying “piece of cake” to imply something is easy. Instead, if something is easy they say it’s like “cutting a radish.” I will take cake over radish any day! They love there radishes here. Radish is served at every meal. There is even a credit card commercial on TV with an animated radish that gets a credit card swiped between its butt cheeks!