Hiking Bulamsan with Rudith and Jennifer

As we neared the end of our stay in Korea, Jonathan and I wanted to try to see as many of our friends as possible. A week or so before we would finish our work in Seoul, we contacted two of our good friends who had been in our All-Day Club back in January and February, and who had been students in Jonathan's English class during that term as well. Rudith and Jennifer both excelled in English during their time at the institute and it was nice to see them at vespers and church as well, since they are both Adventists, too. We wrote to both of them, asking if we could meet with them before we left Seoul. Jennifer responded and arranged for us to hike Bulamsan (Mt. Bulam) on our last Sunday before the term ended.

So June 24 saw us waking up early, packing a lunch and lots of water in a backpack, and meeting Jennifer at the front of the institute by 6:30 a.m. As we waited for the bus that would take us to the outskirts of Seoul, she told us a little bit about how the bus system worked and showed us a sign in the bus stop that showed which buses would be coming soon. That would have been wonderful to know at the start of our time in Seoul! After about 15 minutes of waiting, our bus arrived and we clamored on and found seats in the back. Then we chatted for the 20-minute ride to the entrance of Sahmyook University, the SDA university in Seoul. At the entrance we met Rudith and waved hello to her mother. Poor Rudith had been working at a hospital since March and had an unpredictable schedule, which made it impossible to continue coming to the institute for English classes. She was quite embarrassed when we first met up because she felt like she'd forgotten all of her English she had learned several months before. I completely understood and told her about my nine years of French classes and my still not being able to piece together a single sentence in French, even after all those years of studying the language. As we talked and walked, and Rudith listened to us, she gradually started joining in our conversation and stopped asking Jennifer to translate everything for her. We all enjoyed the time we spent together walking through the university campus, hiking up and back down the mountain, and eating lunch together afterward. We were so glad we'd been able to see these two friends before we left South Korea!

On the way up we went by this pond

The mountain

Ali found a nice swing to rest on - actually a walking type of exercise machine

First view of Seoul in the distance

Tree

Our guides Jennifer (right) and Rudith (left)

Emergency helicopter landing pad

Looking ahead toward the top - getting closer!

Seoul

Nearing the top

Lots of stairs

Finally at the top! Pretty hazy but a great view anyway.

Another peak nearby

Jennifer posing by the flag on the summit

Summit marker

Made it!

Great pose!

Walking stick

Kimchi!

Taking a nap

Yet another view of Seoul... in case you didn't see the other three...

Snacks that our guides kindly brought along

Descending from the top requires a rope

Now-abandoned bunker

Group shot

Heading down

Back at the pond, we saw lots of fish...

...and cooled off our tired feet...

...and rested in our various ways

Magpie - Jennifer told us that when you see a magpie it means that you'll see a good friend soon

Nice garden near the campus

On the campus of Sahmyook University

The mountain in the background

6/3 bridge at the Sahmyook University bus stop - see the 3 and 6? Three is sahm in Korean and six is yook, therefore sahm-yook.
Jennifer also told us that sahm and yook have religious meanings as well.

Kimbap/Cookie Day

Today Ali and I had company for the first time! One of the other teachers, Ellen, had mentioned to me a while ago that some teachers should get together sometime and make food, and I immediately thought of making kimbap (what we in America call sushi). I suggested it to her, and she said it sounded great. A week or so later, she randomly asked me if she could host some of the All-Day Club students at my apartment so that one of the students could make cookies for them. I remembered about kimbap again, and said that we should make it a cookie/kimbap fest! So we set a date, and finally today it came! A few teachers and a few more students all showed up this afternoon, and we had a great time making kimbap, cookies, and tteokbokki (pronounced toke boke ee), which is rice cakes in hot sauce.

All the shoes (minus our own, which were put away to make more room)

Richard and Daisy cutting vegetables

Michelle (in the blue jacket) starts making the cookies

Mixing them up

All ready to put on the pan!

Cookie crew and spectators

Jin cutting the eggs for the kimbap

Michelle very meticulously placed each cookie on the tin foil

Jennifer frying up some vegemeat

Ellen (the teacher who helped organize this) making tteokbokki

Making kimbap

Ellen still working on the tteokbokki

More kimbap!

Ali helps cut it

All ready to eat! ...except for the tteokboki, which I forgot to wait for when I took the picture.

Of course, Koreans are most comfortable on the floor, and Ali fits right in (but not me)

After lunch, a couple of the students were tired, so they sacked out in the "office"

The cleanup crew

Jennifer posing after a short nap

For pictures of our first two-person Kimbap Day in February, click here.