Maternal Koreanism Part 3: Conquering a Mountain

We awoke early trying to get out to the mountain before too late. Mom called me and said she was headed over, then called me an hour later and said she couldn't find the place...but found her way back to the hotel. I decided, of course, to just come to her this time.

We made it out to the mountain before noon. We checked out the shops and the temples before heading up. Mom seemed to like them. There's really no story to tell about climbing up: mom and I climbed, mom got tired and rested, we had some tea, more rest, then the top. I'll let the pictures tell the rest.

Luckily, I got hurt. I say luckily because I probably would have been pissed coming down having to wait for mom if my knee wasn't slowing me up. But it was. Coming down actually took longer than going up.

More temples at the bottom and some bamboo on the way: whoopee!

By the time we got to the bottom, both of us were ready for a sit down. Even though I do speak half-assed Korean, I really couldn't figure out how to get home. I'd never come down the way we had before, and the signs weren't much help. I was about to test out my finding out skills on Koreans around when a car pulled up.

"Where are you going?" The man asked in Korean.

"Daejon," I said.

"Yes, but where in Daejon," he said.

I told him, to which he replied, "Bus not going long way doesn't go." I'm getting to be a pretty good code breaker, but still, that one was beyond me. Luckily, his speech ended with "Get in. I'll give you a ride."

And he did, all the way home. He even gave us some food. Nearly the whole way (or so it seemed) he talked to me in Korean (with a little English thrown in for flare). It was probably the most mentally exhausting car ride I've ever taken. I understood maybe 1/4 of what he said and I'm not sure that he could really understand my half-assed responses. Still, we became fast friends.

The drive was over a half an hour. I couldn't believe someone would be so kind as to pick up two strangers...two strangers that barely spoke Korean no less...and take them all the way to their front door. I wish I could have done more, but all I was equipped to do was say "thank you." It's pretty amazing how great people can be sometimes. Guys like this cancel out the jerk taxi drivers that rip off foreigners coming from the airport.

Mom was too exhausted to do anything else, so our day ended there. But the fun would continue tomorrow when she came to school with me...continued in Part 4.