오랜만이에요! It's been a long time since I updated my blog. But now that I've bid adieu to Facebook for a season, I plan to post pictures and reflections here from time to time. Last week we celebrated the Lunar New Year with 3 days off work. I spent the first day relaxing with Alice and a couple church friends, Dawn and Lori. We went bowling, played Bananagrams, watched some "Andy Griffith," and just had fun together. I also got to attend our church's Wednesday evening service for the first time, since I usually work on Wednesdays. I felt like I was splurging all day, but it was good to spend a full day just having fun together.
 |
| Alice, me, Dawn, and Lori |
On Thursday, the actual Lunar New Year's Day, I decided to spend the whole day to myself to re-charge my personal battery between big social days. For me, the key to relaxation is just to be alone. To not have to think for a second about how to harmonize or make decisions in a group, and to be free to be as spontaneous and introverted as I want. So I got up early Thursday morning and left the house before anyone could pressure me to join the holiday brunch or invite themself along with me for the afternoon. I walked to McDonald's for breakfast and enjoyed a leisurely coffee, just gazing out the window, wondering how to spend the rest of the day. I decided to take the train to Paju, a city on the northwest coast where there is an observatory that borders North Korea. Coincidentally, I visited an observatory on Lunar New Year's Day in 2014, too, so I guess it can be my tradition. I like to go about once a year to wake me up from my learned forgetfulness and nudge my heart to feel and pray again.
It was a 2-hour train ride to Paju, and then I took a bus for 30 minutes to catch a shuttle bus to the top of the small mountain where the observatory lies. I was surprised and impressed by how many families with young children were visiting the observatory on New Year's Day, the traditional day to commemorate one's ancestors and feast at home with all the extended family. Probably many of them had relatives in North Korea. On the plaza, there was a large tiered altar laden with fruits and other foods to symbolically offer to one's ancestors on this important holiday. There were also traditional games set up for families to play together. After strolling around the observatory exhibits, I spent a couple hours at the cafe reading the Bible and writing in my journal, before I went back outside to pray for North Korea and head back home. When I opened my eyes after praying, I was met with this sight of North Korea in the background and a bird and its nest in the foreground. I envy the freedom of this little bird and pray God will send workers into the harvest field.
 |
| South Korea in the foreground, North Korea in the background on the left. |
 |
| Looking into North Korea |
 |
| Watching a video about the border region |
On Friday, I guided my friends to Chuncheon where we had plans to go hiking, stay overnight at a minbak (privately owned room for rent), and meet other friends at Nami Island the next day. We arrived by train around 11am, but the minbak owner said she wouldn't arrive until later in the afternoon to check us in. So we found a restaurant we thought looked good for supper and asked the owners (a kindly old couple) if we could leave our extra luggage at the restaurant if we made a dinner reservation. They said sure, so we shed our extra baggage and took a taxi to the Samaksan trailhead. As the group leader and the best Korean speaker in the group, I pretended to have no qualms about calling a taxi company to send a driver to pick us up, but I actually hate talking on the phone in Korean and was secretly thrilled when the words came out decently and a cab appeared within a few minutes to give us a ride--success!
It took about 2 hours to climb to the top of Samaksan, and 'climb' is not an exaggeration. The 'ak' in Samaksan means 'rock,' and it lives up to its name, a steep and rocky course, often vaguely marked and made more treacherous by a layer of icy snow. But it's just the right level of challenging, really: enough to clear your mind of other thoughts except where to place your next foot, but easily do-able, and with the right length and diversity of topography to hold your interest from beginning to end. On the way down, we enjoyed noodle soup at a little restaurant shack, owned by a friendly middle-aged woman and a bearded man with an eye-patch. Fun times. :-)
 |
| Kaia, Alice, and Silvie climbing up Samaksan |
 |
| View from the top of Samaksan |
 |
| At just 654m, it's great for a "baby" mountain.^^ |
 |
| Dry leaves in the foreground, snow in the background |
 |
| Janchiguksu for lunch |
After our hike, we took the bus back into town and played games at a coffeeshop for a couple hours before dinner. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I might actually be a little tired of Bananagrams. :-) We went back to the dalkkalbi (barbequed ribs) restaurant for dinner, and then retired to our minbak around 8pm. There was a mini-carnival across the street, and so it was good that we had enough to talk about until the noise died down outside and we could fall asleep in silence.
Saturday morning, we slept in, ate some breakfast food from the convenience store down the street, and took the train 15 minutes to Gapyeong, where we met my friend Mary and went together to Nami Island. It rained all day, but that didn't keep us from touring all around the small island, a tourist site made especially famous by the popular drama "Winter Sonata," which was partly filmed there. We met some other friends for lunch there, walked around in the rain for a while, and then warmed up at a coffeeshop before heading our separate ways home. Mary joined us for pizza and "Princess Diaries," a great way to end the day.
 |
| Nami Island ferry |
 |
| A romantic scene from "Winter Sonata" |
 |
| Mary and I |
