Gajisan Trip

This weekend Heather took the teachers on a trip the nearby Mount Gaji, allegedly to include a work meeting, but mostly as kind of a pick-me-up and bonding weekend, blah blah. Originally all the teachers were supposed to go, but at the last minute we found out that only the foreign teachers would be going. Heather said all the other teachers had "appointments," as they call them here, and she brought her children, parents, and niece and nephew instead. I was pleased; I much prefer Heather's family to any of the Korean teachers.

We were supposed to meet at 10am, but plans changed as always, and we met for pizza at 1:30. I was okay with that. I hate getting up early.

We drove west to the outskirts of Ulsan and stopped first at a paper museum. This chick monk runs it and handmakes natural paper there. Apparently she's pretty renowned and has traveled around the world with her designs. I think her name is Young Dam.




I took a few shots inside, but strangely it wasn't until Miker started taking pictures that the guide told us no pictures.




We were very lucky to go there that day, as the next day would be a once-a-year papermaking workshop that we could attend. I think because there were so many of us and because four of us were foreigners, we got a deal and paid 10,000 won instead of 20. Some of us made an additional donation toward her work, though.

Next we went to our accommodations. I'm not sure what to call it. It's not really a hotel, just a few buildings with bedless rooms, with bathroom, kitchenette, tv, fridge, and an armoire full of bedding for the floor. The rooms were quite nice, though. I was impressed.


A balcony ran around the whole building. The back overlooked a little stream.


This epitomizes Emily and me.


According to our printed schedule, the first thing we were supposed to do was visit nearby Woonmoon Temple, then have a meeting about the school and teaching, then have a barbecue, but the schedule pretty much went out the window. I decided since this sort-of-spring-but-mostly-still-winter decided precisely on May 1 to become summer that I would go wade in the stream.











Mingyu's son Jiseok was being very funny and cute, as always. He wanted to get in the water, but was aware of the dangers, so he had this safety line that he was holding onto, which was just a long piece of velcro, I think, already attached to the ground among the rocks. He kept adding things to it, like sticks and rods, to make it longer. He also collected a plethora of trash along the bank to play with. Gross.



After we played in the water for a little while, we were called up for food, which Heather's parents had been preparing in the meantime. According to Korean outdoor barbecue tradition, it was small pieces of pork on the grill, with an assortment of leaves, cucumber, and peppers, plus the perfunctory red pepper sauce that I avoid. There were also butter rolls, which was nice. Not to mention a whole huge box full of salty snacks and snack cakes. Oh, and since Heather's father was there, we all had to drink soju. He loves drinking with the teachers.

Somehow the conversation was steered towards people fitting large amounts of food in their mouths, and I ended up showing Miker how I could fit two of the Moon Pie-like cakes in my mouth.









Next I played hide and seek with Jiseok, and I outwitted him every time. He was amazed. One time I had hidden for a while, then while he was away, went back to where everyone was drinking and talking, and sat at the picnic table. He came by with his sister and cousin, and didn't even see me, just kept looking for like five more minutes. Bwah ha ha. We also played chase and I swung him around and stuff. I needed the exercise after pizza and barbecue and snacks.

Drinking continued late into the night, until we were all abed--the four foreigners in one room, and the nine members of Heather's family in another room the same size. I don't know how they managed it, but I do know that families often all pile up in one bed here, so they probably had two or three similar piles on the floor.

The next day we were slated to go hiking in the morning, then on to the papermaking before going home.