KoHo, you LIED to me.

They do a funny thing here. They call a thing a mountain, when it's really a miniature mountain range.

Which is to say, when I talk to Park Mi-Ran next week, I will tell her I climbed 수리산 (Suri-san) today. But the truth (as I see it) is that I climbed 4 mountains today. Because Suri-san has 4 peaks, and we couldn't just climb ONE.

The trail itself was not difficult. In fact, I was doing pretty good right up until we started the descent of peak #3, at which point I decided I wanted to die. Then we cooked lunch on our propane stove and drank makkoli (rice wine) with hot ramen, and I wanted to die less. Then we climbed peak #4, and I wanted to die again. But there was more makkoli to be had at the top of peak #4, so I didn't want to die anymore for a brief span of time. But the descent of peak #4 was a shitstorm. The whole thing took about 7 hours, including our lunch-break. Which is to say, we climbed those mountains FAST.

But I made it, I guess. Apparently KoHo's hiking club is impressed with me and wants to teach me how to rock-climb this spring.

Other accomplishments of the day: not losing my T-money card, peeling a clementine in one fell swoop, eating a silk-worm pupa (part of our mountain lunch) while being knowingly scrutinized by every member of hiking club, and keeping my gag reflex successfully in check. In fact, I've found that it really helps me eat something gross if there's someone staring intensely into my eyes while I'm chewing.

For dinner, we had smoked pork, and somehow they made it taste like cinnamon applesauce. It was delicious.

But both cinnamon-applesauce-pork and silk-worm-pupa would definitely have made me gag in private. (Also: no one forced me to eat that silk-worm pupa. Is it strange if I am purposely taking advantage of the absence of my gag reflex in public to try eating animals that I have never eaten before?)




Sitting at home now, and my hips feel like someone murdered them. My body is going to hate me tomorrow, and I am going to love it a little.