혼자이에요?

The heat is officially gone, the leaves are starting to change,and  temperatures are dropping. There may be a slight lack of pumpkin spice and football in my life but fall is officially upon us.  The weather has been perfect for the past few weeks, cool in the mornings and evenings but still sunny and beautiful during the day. After being introduced, by my co-workers, to a new patch of beautiful here in Buksam I decided to take advantage of the beauty that surrounds me and spend my Saturday in the mountains.  I know I've mentioned it before, more than once, but i'm surrounded by beauty in this country. Gumi isn't really known for much, in fact when foreigners are asked "What's the best part about Gumi?"  \a popular response is, "It's easy to get out", but we do have a pretty sweet mountain.  Geumosan shadows over my home and conveniently there's a few paths from Buksam heading up the back side.  Last friday my co-workers introduced me to a new starting point so on Saturday I decided it was time to explore.

Not your Typical Friday

This blog post is a bit, and by a bit I mean closer to a month, delayed, but hey - better late then never right?  I'm not really sure what I've been busy with that delayed this post, like seriously, i'm not really sure where I've thrown my time in the last few weeks.  Sure outside of school I've fully immersed myself back into yoga, friends, a little running, oh and lots of sweating. But at school I haven't had much to do - movie watching, game playing, oh and the little bit of grading speaking tests of few weeks ago.  Hell, I don't even have an intense summer break to be planning for so I guess it's a mystery, where has my time been going.  Safe guesses go to Facebook, Instagram, Yoga  articles , oh yeah and reading various travel blogs dreaming about future travels. Okay so anyways back to the point, a few weeks ago I was told I wouldn't have classes on Friday but instead could choose between three things 1. Volunteering with the first grade 2. Brain meditation with the second grade or 3. Sit at my desk all day.  It was presented as a choice but any retard that can read body language and knows Korean culture would know I was meant to join option 1, and so that's precisely what I did. 

Livin' the Good Life

Thanks to my awesome staff I was able to sleep in Wednesday morning, oh wait no that's right, my internal clock hates me so I was wide awake at 8am. Not knowing what to do with myself I went for a quick morning run before coming back to get ready for the day, and skype with my Dad.  I left my mom sleeping as I energized myself for the day, running alongside the elementary students going to school, ajusshis heading out to their crops and powerwalking ajummas, good morning Buksam. 

Geumosan on Crack

After a few weekends of adventure I decided it was time for me to stay closer to home for once. Originally I was hoping to catch some of my students playing soccer but their game turned into practice so that was no longer the plan. Friday night was spent at Loudine's house watching "What to Expect when you're expecting" eating pizza and drinking wine, i'm beginning to really enjoy these movie nights.  I had been texting Shaun (the newbie in town) about the Packer vs Bears game - yeah he's from Chicago and of course, a Bears fan.  At some point during our conversation we decided we were going hiking the next morning, always up for a challenge I decided we'd try the hike behind my house annnnd take it all the way to Gumi.

Map of our route - bottom right corner to the biggest peak (red rectangle)

Tom meet Geumosan

Saturday morning came and along with it great hiking weather, as promised we were headed for Geumosan. We caught the bus from my apartment to the station, grabbed a quick breakfast and some snacks for the hike; rather than waiting for the bus we opted for a quick taxi ride to Geumosan.  The base of Geumosan has a beautiful park area, lake and small amusement park - but we bypassed those pretty quickly, our eyes were sent on the mountain.  The first leg of the hike is pretty easy, clear paths and staircases, this is the part where you'll see small children and the occasional woman in heels. I'm telling you Korean woman never miss an opportunity to dress up, but this is one outfit/activity combo I will never understand. I'm assuming most of these woman are just making their way to the waterfall where they'll enjoy a picnic lunch with family, but really are the heels necessary? Do you hope to break your ankle, or do you just enjoy making things difficult for yourself?

Geumosan X 3

I was about to say I'm lucky enough to be living close to a great hiking spot - but in Korea I don't really think that's abnormal. Geumosan provincial park is basically in my backyard, however to get there I have to take two lovely buses. One to the train station and then another up to the base of the park.  The base of Geumosan includes "Geumoland' which, as one of my students puts it is "the worlds smallest amusement park".  I've yet to check it out but it seems to be more for little kids - lots of smaller rides, midway games and food, although in the winter there is an ice skating rink and toboggan hill so maybe I'll go then.  

The main hike up Geumosan includes a few different things to stop and see along the way.  It begins with the cable car office (where you can pay roughly $5 for a ride halfway up the mountain), next is the fortress wall and small temple, then the waterfall, or detour to the cave. This is a common stopping point for many but for those that continue there is a stone Buddha carving, pavilion and finally the summit (although I've yet to reach any of these).