This was my third one-week trip to Korea in the past year, and I have to say that each time has been a completely different experience that always leaves me with the impression that I would like to return someday. Maybe it is the varied nature of each visit. (If you will recall, the first time I traveled to Seoul, it was during the worst snow storm in 100 years; then I went hiking in the beautiful rugged hills surrounding Seoul; and finally on this venture I went skiing and visited a nore-bong: Korean karaoke!)
On this occasion, I went to visit my friend, Ann, who I met in Washington, D.C. at American University during the Washington Semester program. She studied economics while I studied foreign policy; we met at a soy milk machine, looking askance at one another’s trays with the assumption that we shared the commonality of being a vegetarian and a healthy eater. I was so pleased when she put her tray down across from me because I knew that we had much in common. In our three and a half months together, we were nearly inseparable, taking D.C. by storm, visiting NYC and running regularly with one another. It is amazing how one can become such fast friends with some people. It would seem as if we have reached the threshold of being lifelong friends; I can say that without a lot of trepidation since we have seen one another five times since May of 2008 in WI, MN and now in Korea. Who knows where our next adventure will take place!
In planning the trip, Ann asked me if I would like to go skiing with some of her church friends who invited her to spend two days and three nights at a ski resort in the northeast. I emphatically stated yes with an unadulterated excitement generating from the fact that I have not skied since 2004 and desperately enjoy this pastime. What a pleasant surprise awaited us, better than I could have even imagined.
One of her friends works at a private school whose director is the nephew of the manager at High1 Resort in Dohan. It is a beautiful resort with adequate skiing hills for being completely man-made. (The snow was fabricated, but the small mountains I suppose were natural!) Two main resorts existed on the premises and we stayed in the not-so-luxurious-but-very-wonderful high rise that was right on the ski hill. We could almost ski right to the entryway of our hotel!
The most amazing part was the fantastic discount we got on the room, the rentals, and the ski passes. All six of us stayed in one suite that was equipped with a fridge, cook stove and the basic cookware needed for making simple breakfasts and hot drinks. For three nights stay, two full days of skiing, eating, and transportation was roughly 350 bucks! I was quite impressed considering the caliber of the resort and the normal costs we forewent because of our connections. This is definitely an example of the importance of knowing the right people.
Skiing was not only a fantastic time of exercise and adrenaline rushing exhilaration but it was very nostalgic. I spent a good part of my childhood and early teens gliding down the slopes, learning how to weave and ski without losing control. My dad, mom and stepdad really contributed a lot to those memories. My mind traveled back to bunny hill at Christmas Mountain with the horrendous towrope with which my dad had to assist me. I pictured his big grey gloves that we much stronger and better equipped to handle the rough friction of the moving rope. I heard my mom’s voice telling me to weave and to keep my skis together. I could feel her arms around me as she taught me as a little tyke to ski by holding onto her pole held in front of me as I snowplowed and she controlled our motion. I remembered our trip to Park City, Utah, and how Steve and I would go on all the blue squares while Mom, Whitney and Genna went on the easier runs. What fun memories! These are things I have not thought about in a long while, and they all came flooding back, inundating my mind with the wistfulness of yesteryear.
With a little apprehension, I planned to take my first run very easy to recapture my ski legs. I had no reason to fear because half the group was composed of novice skiers, so I spent a couple of hours waiting for them then veered off with Ann to take in a few more slopes with a little more speed and adventure. For being small mountains and for being manmade snow, the skiing was quite delectable. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of the adventure, reaching the point where I skied every slope except for the one deemed expert.
I probably could have taken the slope, but I played it safe and developed a healthy speed on the rest of the slopes, some of which were quite steep. There is nothing like the wind passing so aggressively over your face as you take charge of the hill and weave your way down its glistening back. I had forgotten how perfectly wonderful skiing is. Hopefully it will not be another six years before I go again. We ended our time at a Korean spa and sauna, working out the kinks in our muscles as we allowed our naked bodies to soak in the cold, warm and hot baths. It was a perfect way to end a lovely vacation.
The reason Ann was able to get off work for this outing was due to the Korean celebration of the Lunar New Year. Since they are private school teachers (she and her good friends) they do not have much vacation throughout the year, so having three full days off to frolic and relax was a blessing.
After we returned from skiing, it seemed like we had so much time together, but the days flew by as I met all her friends, went to her church on Sunday, cooked with a couple of good friends (making a pancake extravaganza one night and chocolate chip cookies and apple cinnamon muffins with a co-worker who had never baked before in her life), and had a night out smoking hookah and singing our hearts out at the nore-bong.
I have to describe this Korean phenomenon of renting a room, called nore-bong, designated for singing karaoke. Basically, you pay a fixed rate for an hour of use and you are ushered into your personal room equipped with a flat screen, a massive book of Korean and American pop hits from the 50’s onward, two tambourines, and two microphones that are set to distort the voice to sound more like a rocker. (I guess the specifics vary depending on the establishment, but these are the basics.) You select the song you want to sing and create a queue of your favorites as one or two people get up to sing whichever they had chosen. I think we spent about three hours in that little room that resembled a love motel in Vegas with its deep red brocade and velvet walls. I sang myself hoarse with songs like “Holding out for a Hero,” “Brown-eyed Girl,” (Dad, I thought of you) “Truly, Madly, Deeply,” “Ironic,” “Foolish Games,” (Whitney, I thought of you) and “Faithfully” (Genna, I thought of you). Before we knew it, the night had already reached 2 am and we were running out of steam. I think we managed to stop our singing frenzy by 2:30 and were in bed around 3 am. Truly Korean, I was so happy to have experienced this pastime about which my friends living in Korea have regaled me on many occasions.
Although all our activities were great fun, just being together was a wonderful novelty. Our walks and runs, eating dinner and talking about our mutual love for food, and the time spent on the frigid ski lifts allowed us to have many heart-to-heart conversations that sprung from the long absences between our visits with one another. All together, the trip was another great escapade in the land of South Korea. More to come regarding Korean markets and the same, same but different look Ann and I acquired by the end of the week-long stopover.
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