Wow it has been awhile. I am BACK
Hiking
I went hiking several times since my last blog. There were 2
big ones that are the most worth mentioning. Taebaeksan was the first and I
went with the climbing club. As any adventure with them I never really know
what I am in store for. This was a winter hike and it was to a very high peak.
But it was a relatively short hike for the height. It was a lot of fun and
there was great scenery the whole way up. The view at the top was breath taking
as always. And then we went just off the top and had lunch. The parents brought
plastic bags similar to softener salt bags. Which became sleds; everyone had a
good time sledding down the shortest of slopes. Maybe only 30ft long into a
little bunch of trees. And it was great
to see even the oldest in the group doing it. Once again it was another
successful hike that I would do again in a heartbeat. A few weeks later I met
up with my friend Nikki in Busan and we climbed Geumjeongsan. Which is a
mountain range with a cable car to the top and you can walk along the top ridge
from end to end. We skipped the cable car and hiked up the mountain. And when
we reached the top the view of Busan , the 2nd biggest city in
Korea, was amazing. You can see that in the pictures. The hike was longer than
expected. But along the ridge there was a fortress that was used in wars
hundreds of years ago. At one point there was a sign that said photo zone.
Every Korean would stand right in front of the sign and try blocking it instead
of just moving over two feet and avoiding the sign. It was really funny to
watch. The hike took about 5.5 hours and was around 13km. It was a great hike
but it felt great to complete it. I have many more hikes lined up, I am
actually going to lead a hike with a friend for foreigners in town. It is going
to be fun. Many people want to hike but don’t realize how accessible they are. 
Rock Climbing
Since the weather has warmed up I have been Rock Climbing a
lot more. I try to climb 3x a week. I have been doing more natural rock
climbing as well. One of them was at this mountain Hakasan. That is where
everything changed. I normally had my own harness that I was borrowing. Then I
had to share, sounds greedy but I hated that missed out on half the day of
climbing. So a couple days later I bought my own harness. It makes me feel much
more official. I am starting to become a real climber. Also what I love is the
improvement I have seen. All aspects of my climbing seem to be improving ever
week. I feel addicted, and I am excited to go every time. At Hakasan they did
this ceremony basically praying for a safe season of climbing. And it was being
recorded by a local tv station. They had me be one of the parts of it not just
an awkward foreigner in the back ground. It was very interesting but a lot of
fun. More than that I was honored, they have really taken me under their arm as
one of their own. I can’t wait till I get home and I can go to a climbing gym
when I get back. I know I will improve even faster. There will be people whom
can actually teach me the technique 
without a language barrier.
Caving/ Dumb Travels
About a month ago I went on this
caving trip. It was with a well-known traveling group. Before I get into the caving let me tell you
about my travel nightmare. I had to be in Seoul at 7am, but I was being cheap
and didn’t want to stay in a hotel up there so I took the 2am train from
Andong. Got there at about 5:50 and then made my way to the meet up point. For
ppl in Mi. that is like Lansing to the Bridge. At the meet up point I thought
we were going west. NO! we went south but I didn’t notice till we got back to
Seoul. We went 2.5hrs South. To a place that is a 45min-1hr bus ride for me.
Where I could have met everyone if I had looked it up. So let’s do the math.
What could have been 2hours traveling total turned into 4hrs(train Seoul)
+2.5(bus to caves) +2.5 (bus back to Seoul)+3.5(bus to Andong)+ about 12.5
hours in one day. What a mess!!!
But besides that it was a lot of
fun. I met up with a fellow EMU student and made two additional friends. First
we started out with a relaxing ferry ride for about an hour. Which was really
nice, we all just relaxed and got to know each other a little more. Amongst all
the chaos and the fast paced society of Korea it is nice to just chill. Then we
made our way to the cave. And it was a lot bigger and deeper than I expected. It
had all the different textures that a cave could have. And at the beginning
there was plaques showing each of the different rocks/texture styles and
telling you how they are formed. Which was very interesting. There was water
dripping from the top of the cave that would fall on us. At one point Dave
decided to take his shoes off and both Antoinette and Lauren joined him as they
went over the ropes into the do not ever zone where there was a small pool of
water. I was the camera man, while an old man yelled at them, especially Dave,
and just gave them the death stare till they got out. It is a big Korean no-no
to be in public without shoes. Even wearing sandals without socks you will get
looks. 
Dave cant keep his eyes open
them in the water (forgot to get their feet)
I have done a lot more and I will
be doing another blog soon. But I will keep it a little short today.
