Monday, March 27

Hiking Club



Melanie on top of some mountain in Bukhansan with students (from left to right) Daniel, Brian and Jane.

Sunday, March 26

Spring is in the Air!

Spring has finally come to the country of Korea! This is great news because winter was cold, dark and miserable. Friday night we had a wonderful sushi dinner at our local sushi place followed by a wonderful nights sleep. Saturday we went to Ganhyeon with Corey and climbed hard for as long as I ever climb hard for. It felt great. On the way home Corey directed us the the best restaurant he has yet found in Korea. Everest is the name of the place and it has the bomb Indian, Nepali, and Tibetan cuisine. We were hungry and ate until we could eat no more. Sunday we took three students from school hiking in Bukhansan and had a great time with them. One was a chill 13 year old girl that had no problems, one was a spazoid 10 year old boy that ate it constantly and the third was an out of shape 13 year old boy. It was fun and we got paid a bunch of overtime. This morning I made eggs n' taties for breakfast and now I am at work again. It was a great weekend of eating and playing outside.

Tuesday, March 21


Our new friend Corey roadside cragging in Ghanyeon with Mel belaying.

Wednesday, March 15

Cheeju Ramyeon

Here is a simple culinary delight from Korea that you all can enjoy in the comfort of your own home. Why we never figured this one out in college is beyond me. I know is sounds a little weird, but try it.

2 cups water
1 pack of ramen (Get the good stuff from the Asian foods market. Mushroom pictures are a safe bet.)
1 egg lightly beaten (Josh, omit this ingredient)
1 slice of American cheese
1 finely chopped green onion

Boil water with flavoring packets from ramen. Once a full rolling boil add beaten egg, then add ramen noodles and onion. Cook to taste. Serve with slice of American cheese on top.

Monday, March 13

Seonunsan Weekend

Melanie with our frisbee friend Park Young Chal.

Friday night we loaded up Pedro de Pacas and headed south for a weekend of climbing. We gave rides to some climbers we met online at the KOTR forum. Corey is a guy from
Boulder that we hit it off with straight away and Daniel is a 19 year old army guy from West Virginia that is stationed near the DMZ. Pedro delivered us safely to our destination shortly after 2am. We listened to a bunch of noisy ladies at a batchelorette party for a couple hours and woke up early to a loud jackhammer and cold misty weather.

The climbing was cold and wet on sharp limestone. It rained, snowed and blew. Late in the afternoon we bailed on climbing to play some frisbee. Corey, Amanda, Mel and I were throwing the disk around and this older Korean hippie walked up that had clearly never seen a frisbee before in his life. We included him in our circle and I non-verbally taught him to throw forehand and backhand. He started off like any novice, but by the end of the session he rocked both throws. He was super into the Zen of throwing frisbees. He did this meditation/visualization exercise before each throw that was super fun to watch. Maybe the painted fingernails and patched pants helped his performance. I liked Young Chal so much that I ended up giving him my frisbee.

We ate bomb ass Mexican and drank around a campfire. It was great. Sunday we climbed (I belayed) in the snow and drove home. Last stop before home was Indian food and a foreign foods market that Corey showed us. We got all sorts of great ingredients like curry paste, coconut milk, garbanzo beans, basmati rice, Thai eggplant, Thai sriracha, and paneer.