Olympic Tryouts and a Bulnami

Spa game on point

South Korea operates on the lunar calendar. This means that their new year isn’t January 1, it’s February 8^th. Now, it’s still Feb. 8^th, 2016 (as in the year still rolled over on Jan. 1^st), but the NEW YEAR hasn’t actually happened until the 8^th. Or something like that. Anyway, the important thing is that Korean’s take it seriously and everyone is off work.

KCTY was out Monday (Feb. 8^th), Tuesday, AND Wednesday. Three days! If you add Saturday and Sunday, that’s a five day weekend! That’s a full on mini-vacation. Maria, Daniel, Jerrica and I initially planned to go to Japan, but as you can imagine the tickets are holiday-expensive. More than that, we really couldn’t find a plane that left late enough on Friday, and until the last minute we thought we were working on Wednesday. No one wanted to spend $1000 for two days in Japan. We thought about China (or anywhere that wasn’t in Korea), but were hit with similar flight costs and time restraints.

Eventually, we decided that way to get the most out of the break would be to stay in Korea, so that’s what we did. And what better way to spend a break in February than snowboarding? And where better to snowboard than the site of the 2018 winter games? So to Pyeongchang (Pee-yong-chong) we went.

If you’ve been following this blog, you know that Maria and I took Mom and Melissa to this region for the trout festival. It’s a few hours to the east of Seoul.

We found a sweet deal with a group called Purple Ski Bus that allowed us to book passage to and from the region as well as lift passes and equipment rental at the ski resort, and when I say “we” I mean Maria. Props to her. We probably would have watched a few seasons of The Office if I had been left to plan the weekend.

Our bus left from a station in Seoul at 5 AM on Saturday, so the four of us (Maria, Daniel, Jerrica and myself) planned to meet out front of my apartment at 3:45. That might sound early, but the station was a good 30 minute cab ride (maybe 50 min in traffic) away, and we wanted a wide margin.

When you work all day Friday and set a meeting time at 3:45 the next morning the smart thing to do is to go to sleep. That’s mostly what Maria and I did. I think Dan and Jerrica went out like crazy people.

We met up at 3:55, bleary-eyed and only a little late, and caught a cab remarkably easily given how sleepy Sunae is. The cab drove us to Gangnam where we’d catch a transfer bus. Gangnam at 4:30 AM was a sight. From 10-3 AM it’s everything you’ve imagined from a major city nightlife, but at 4:30? Mostly pukey sidewalks and city workers cleaning up. We saw a few packs of women in mini-skirts in the subway. A couple drunk guys just trying to stay warm. The after-after-after party.

I’ve got to give it to Purple Bus, for making the whole process super easy. One flat rate (and we got a decent discount for the resort), and we had everything we needed for the weekend except a hotel.

We caught the bus without much trouble, and slept most of the way to Yongpyong Ski Resort (where the 2018 Winter Olympics will hold a few events). Getting all of our clothes and boards wasn’t too much of an ordeal, and soon we were on the slopes.

The bunny slopes.

Or really, the slopes under the bunny slopes where the bunnies who, for safety reasons, aren’t allowed to snowboard with the rest of the bunnies go to flounder around in the snow and shout obscenities. No kids allowed, because of the danger and the obscenities. 

I (had) no idea how to snowboard. I’m a decent skier. I can get down a black here and there, and I have a good time on the blues (for my friends in GA who have never seen snow outside of a highway doomsday prep manual, ski runs are ranked in difficulty in a system where a green circle is beginner, a blue square is novice, and a black diamond is expert). I’ve fought hard for these ski skills, and have won them over near a decade of busting it. Snowboards, I don’t what to do with.

But Maria snowboards, and Daniel and I wanted to try something new. Jerrica had no background on snow whatsoever. So it came to pass that we all rented snowboards.

It’s pretty rough, guys.

I spent the first hour sitting in the snow and talking about snowboarding. After that I tried to stand and slide around. I got a little cocky and went down the bunny slope, where I was quickly humbled. The whole first day was a blur of getting my butt kicked, really.

If you’ve ever seen a snowboarder on TV, they look awesome. Super cool. Their board is pointed straight down the mountain. They’re going about 300 MPH. They’re doing these cool “S” curves and carving up the slope. My first day of snowboarding was spent standing in an “athletic position”, which looks a lot like a standing stool/wall squat when your feet are strapped to the board. If you can stand there for long enough, your weight will let you slide down the mountain at a snail’s pace.

You’re going so slowly because your board is perpendicular to the slope of the mountain, which is how you stop. You’re basically going down the mountain with your emergency brake on. You can slide down the mountain like this for as long as you can keep your toes up and your heels grinding the back of the board into the mountain, but so help me God if you ever relax your shin muscles, the board’s front lip will catch the snow and throw you on your knees.

RIGHT. ON. YOURDAMN. KNEES.

Like, a lot.

Maria did her best with us, though, and a few hours later I could sort of snowboard. I mean that in the way that a kid using training wheels can sort of ride a bike. I just sort of leaned to the right and left while using the back-brake-slide, and this let me zig zag down the mountain at moderate speeds.

I called it the “falling leaf”, and it worked out alright for me. Daniel caught on pretty quick, and I’m certain that Jerrica got her feet strapped in.

We actually hit a couple of greens and blues the first day! And no one died!

Of course, who knows what rank/class the run actually were because the Yongpyong designers are crazy and named all their runs after colors.

“This is Super Green, our new blue slope! Over there is Green, which is also a blue but turns into a black at the top so watch out!”

The slopes closed at 4, which was a little early, but turned out to be pretty agreeable. We were all pretty beat up. The most common injuries in snowboarding are sprained wrists, which come about from getting thrown and stupidly trying to keep your face from slamming into the mountain. My legs were pretty toasted from using the falling leaf all day, as were my shoulders. My butt though. Gosh.

When we got to the hotel that night, I found a circular bruise on my tailbone that looked like someone had gotten at me with a shotgun loaded with quarters.

The hotel was awesome. We came upon it around 8 PM Saturday night (there was a free shuttle to town from the resort), and the place raised a little apprehension in the group. For starters, it was called the GB Motel and the building looked a little wonky. A little run down. The elevator was aggressive (I can’t really explain that any better). Looks can be deceiving though (except for the elevator).

Best hotel staff I’ve seen in a long time. The place was owned by a nice, older Korean couple. They offered a breakfast in the morning, which the hostess cooked herself. All the rooms were super clean. 

Whenever we wanted to go anywhere that was too far to walk, the owners would call us a taxi. Awesome place, and I guess it wasn’t much of a secret as there were people staying there from all over the world.

Out second day on the slopes was better. After a brief lapse, I was back to the falling leaf and feeling good. 

The reason we chose this particular resort in the first place was that they have a run that’s 5 kilometers long. That’s like 3.2 miles of snowboarding! It’s called Rainbow, or Endless Rainbow or something like that. To get there you take a gondola to the very top of the mountain range to a place called “Dragon’s Peak”. The ride up was a blast. Panoramic views of the mountains, a large forest, and all the runs in between. The gondola ride itself was closer to 20 minutes than 10.

There are two ways down the mountain from Dragon’s Peak, one is blue and one is black. The black run, we believe, will be used in the Olympics. Obviously, I was going to try the blue and count myself lucky if I didn’t snap a leg. After a quick photo op, Maria, Daniel and I (Jerrica wisely abstained from this one) started down the run. The first hundred yards or so of it were the steepest and most grueling. The opening slope was more ice than snow, except were the powder lay piled and waiting to snag your board edge and send you sliding down the mountain on the remnants of your knee caps. I spent most of the time trying to break my tailbone and went down the first hill much like a dog with a bad case of worms. We lost Daniel in the first minute.

The run is so long that they have a good many checkpoints and rest stops, which are little more than wide places on the side of the run where you can rest. I stopped at the first one of these and waited for Maria who came shortly after and told me that Daniel’s binding had broken and he’d been forced to turn back. As for herself, Maria’s knees had taken a beating and she was past the point of fun. After some deliberation, she too hiked back up the mountain to the gondola.

So then it was just me, and the rest of Endless Rainbow.

50 minutes of crawling, crashing and cursing later, I staggered back to the resort lodge. But no broken bones! I had a few stretches I was proud of. I eventually (after much trial and error) got to where I could keep the board parallel to the mountain and gain speed before backing in to a break. The real MVP, though, goes to all the eight-year-old Korean Olympian children who skied around the parade of wrecks that was my descent.

By the time I made it back, it was 4 and everyone was pretty bruised, so we hopped the shuttle home.

Korea is really big on hangover cures. You’ll see whole sections of convenience stores marketing miracle cures. Most of them are just potassium/vitamin C drinks. A big part of the Korean post-party revival process is the jimjabong (Korean sauna). It’s been on my bucket list for a while. They’re everywhere, I’d just never got around to it.

Despite being tired, we threw ourselves a party to celebrate our (relative) success on the mountain, and made plans to go to a jimjabong the next morning.

To call a jimjabong just a sauna would be selling it short. At most jimjabongs there’s a dark room for sleeping (and you can stay overnight for peanuts), a cafeteria/restaurant, several different types of sauna rooms, a range of hot tubs that vary in temperature and mineral content, and usually some kind of massage/scrub service.

Daniel said the jimjabong we went to was more traditional than most, and smaller. While there were showers, a cafeteria and a dark room, the main attraction were the bulnamis. Bulnami translates to “fire room”. The structures are large, brick domes that are attached to the main spa building by narrow hallway/tunnels. A fire is built in the room, and then smothered with branches, wet leaves, and dirt. Afterwards, reed mats are laid over the hot earth that is covering the live coals. The result is a sort of sweat lodge.

The jimjabong gives you a set of gym clothes (a faded tee and draw string shorts), you shower up, and then spend the rest of the day going to the bulnami for 5-10 minutes at a time (you can’t stand much longer). You might go in to the oven 5-9 times in a day. It feels great. The air is stifling and smells like evergreen and campfire. The brick walls are fire charred and the floor is dirt around the reed mats. Around the circular chamber, wood is leaning against the wall and the air is so hot you can actually here the planks creaking and cracking.

I lost our pictures of the sweat lodge, but this is pretty close. The ceiling is a dome. 

And here's a picture with some people. The staff wrapped us in similar sheets. It's to protect from the heat. 

It was nice. There were a good many Korean people at the jimjabong, and some spoke with us. Most seemed to be entertained to see us in the bulnami, but there was an air of solemn relaxation to the place, so most folks kept quiet.

Daniel and I made the mistake of following a few veteran Korean women into the bulnami that had just recently been on fire. We made it maybe 3 minutes before the heat drove us out. My skin was beat red.

The door to the bulnami. Pretty forbidding. 

We stayed for the better part of six hours, in which we ate a big traditional lunar new year lunch of dukguk (sliced rice cake soup), and took a nap in the darkroom aside from enjoying the bulnami. It felt cool to join in the tradition. I think I mentioned this earlier, but Lunar New Year is a big deal here.

Just as it was with the GB Motel owners, the jimjabong management was super accommodating and friendly. We showered and paid around $18 USD for our 6 hours in the spa (including lunch). A great value.

The jimjabong called us a cab, and before long we were on the big purple bus back to Seoul. My neck felt like someone had taken a hammer to it, but I was feeling refreshed from the bulnami. A pretty serious snowstorm hit us on the way home, so what should have been a 2.5 hour drive took us closer to 5.5 hours, but no one much cared.

By the time we got back to Sunae no one was interested in anything but sleep. And the best part? There were still two more days to lay on the couch before work started back up. Sloth king. 

Christmas Come Late

This is a long time coming, but better late than never.

It wouldn’t feel right blogging over here, even as infrequently as I do, and not mentioning Mom and Melissa’s visit over Christmas.

So wonderful. I’m not usually one to be homesick, but seeing them in Korea was fantastic. Almost surreal. I mean, you get over here and everything is so different. Uncomfortable, even. You learn to live, where to eat, where things are, and you eventually get to where this strange new place starts to feel normal – pretty quickly, really, and then seeing your mom and sister traipsing around your neighborhood is just wild.

They came on December 24^th (that’s Christmas Eve for you pagan savages reading this), and we were, as we ever are, working. Christmas is definitely a thing in Korea, and there are many churches and Christians, but it seems to me that the “spirit” or philanthropic/religious aspects of the holiday are understated and the commercial aspects are overstated (and that’s saying something coming from America). All that to say, we were working on Christmas Eve.

Working a normal day meant that I wouldn’t be able to pick up Mom and Melissa from Incheon Airport, where they were set to land at 8 AM. Incheon is a good ways away from Sunae (my neighborhood) or Seoul – maybe 45-60 min. in a cab, and almost two hours on the subway.

Melissa has traveled a bit in Europe, and is fairly familiar with airports. Mom has flown plenty of times, but has never been out of the country. I was a little nervous, but not only were they able to get out of the airport with ease, but they even made it to my school (I gave them an address) in time to meet all my kids, my kids’ parents, and to see our Christmas concert! I was floored!

It was so funny to mingle with all my kindergarteners’ parents in our classroom, and then introduce them to my mom. Or to introduce my students to my mom. They all call me “Stephen Teacher”, so I introduced mom as “Sheri Teacher”. Mostly because I thought it was funny, but most kids called her “Stephen Teacher’s Mom”, which served.

Melissa and Mom got their first glimpse at Korean food at the potluck that the school threw for the parents, but it was mostly pizza and donuts and other western junk foods.

After the concert, where my kids performed their Christmas speeches and our meticulously practiced dance routine to Frosty the Snowman (complete with Jazz hands), Mom and Liss went back to Maria and my apartment to rest. It’s a long flight.

After work Maria and I went home and found Mom and Liss asleep. We woke them up for dinner, and planned out the week they’d be here.

It was Christmas Eve, so Mom let us open a present that night, just like she has every Christmas Eve in my living memory. Christmas PJ’s. She even brought Maria a set, so we all matched.

We had off the 25^th-Jan 4^th, and Mom and Liss would be with us until the 31^st, when they would fly home and do New Year’s Eve in Paris.

I wanted to show them Korea as I’ve experienced it. Part of that is, of course, the tourist it-list, but more so I wanted them to get a taste of living in the city and some of the exclusively Korean things that you won’t necessarily find on a Buzzfeed countdown. Things like the crazy way Korean recycle everything, or what it’s like to rely completely on public transit. That probably doesn’t sound glamorous, but I wanted them to get a feeling of being someplace new. Sometimes I worry that Seoul is such a big, modern city that you can forget you’re in Korea.

Aside from those goals, both Mom and Melissa wanted to do some shopping in the markets. They’d heard tales of purses and such treasures.

Maria gifted me a Korean copy of Settlers of Catan for Christmas (!!!), so we started the vacation by teaching Mom and Liss to play that. Like everybody I’ve ever played with, they were a little hesitant at first, but took to it like fiends after one or two games. Soon it became a daily ritual.

Christmas morning we had a good breakfast at the apartment, and played a lot of Catan before going out to see the Sunae area. That night we had plans to go out to an “American buffet” with all of my co-workers. That was a big time. I work with some pretty solid folks.

Afterwards we had a little party at a friend’s apartment.

The rest of our week together was a blur. Catan and the cold and the subway. Gosh, a lot of subway. We probably rode it 3-4 hours a day. Everyday. I’m writing this on February 9^th, and I’ve probably only been on the subway three times since Mom and Melissa left. I was about sick of it by the end. Still, I like to think they got the experience.

The rest of our itinerary went about like this:

Dec. 26: Bau House, the old city gate, Hongdae, markets, and street food.

                We woke up the next day, played a mandatory Catan game, and then took Mom and Liss to Bau House, which if you’ve been following this blog you know is our favorite dog café. It’s a good hour on the subway, but you get to hang out with a room full of awesome dogs. Worth it. Bau House is in Hongdae, which is a cool part of Seoul to walk around in. After checking out part of the city, we went to find a market, which worked out well for me as I found a sweet parka for peanuts. It’s been getting down to the single digits here and my medium jacket wasn’t quite cutting it. My favorite part of the day, though, was finding a run of street food stands and showing Mom and Melissa mandu (Korean wanton/dumplng) and these sweet red-bean fish pastries that are sold around Seoul. I think they liked them alright. I ate about four.

Dec. 27: Seoul palace with tour guide and Nam San tower and the night market

                The day we went to Gyeongbokgung (you can bet I copied and pasted that) Palace. Maria and I had gone their once in the summer but it was so hot we didn’t stay long. This time we were given a free tour guide (who spoke English!), and spent about two hours walking around the palace grounds. It was waaay better in the winter, and it checked the general tourist box for Mom and Liss. Just like last time, it was interesting to see the site, but, again, I’m always a little disappointed with places that have been so heavily refurbished for extended (and outdoor) public viewing. I prefer ruins. The feel is more honest, I guess.

                The best part of the palace is that it’s right in the middle of Seoul, so you’ll walk through these old (or made to look old) gates, and be staring at skyscrapers and an eight-lane highway, and behind those are mountains.

                After the palace we took a train and then a bus to Namsam tower, which is the big blue tower that will come up if you Google “Seoul Tower”. It was nice. Touristy, but nice and something that should be seen. I heard yesterday that the tallest building in Korea is actually Lotte Tower (Lotte is this huge oligarchy, like Time-Warner or Disney back home), which is, I think, more impressive. Shame I didn’t know at the time. Mom doesn’t do heights, but I think she was sufficiently impressed.

Seoul from the tower base

                After a long day out, I think we just wanted to be home and warm. You’ve got to remember that you’re looking at around 4.5 total hours on public transit and it’s about 15 degrees Fahrenheit.

                The highlight of this day though, was finding a food cart that gave out free cups of this hot fish-broth. They make a grilled/boiled fish-paste kabob (It’s better than it sounds), and the fish broth was the water they boil the kababs in. Melissa gagged. Mom soldiered through two sips, so kudos to her. I thought it was pretty good though, and come on! It was freezing and windy. I drank two cups.

Dec. 28: Pyeongchang Trout Festival

                I enjoy Seoul a lot more than I thought I would coming over. The city is fun, and there are a million things to do, places to eat, funky shops and cafes to find. Still, I’ve never felt more in Korea, than when I’ve taken a bus to one of the smaller cities/towns on the peninsula. There’s a trout festival every year in Pyeongchang, which is the province where the Olympics will be held in 2018, so we hopped on a bus and went to check it out.

                The town was tiny, but, again, I like that. As a known hater of most of Panama City, a little Korean town whose only real economic boon seems to be a trout festival was right up my alley. I had hoped to get us ice fishing, but it was a little too warm that day so we were limited to “hand fishing”. That’s where you change into shorts and a t-shirt (provided by the festival) and lunge around in a knee deep swimming pool chasing trout. It may have been too warm for ice fishing, but it was still a goodly 32 degrees in the sun. That being the case, I was the only one who opted for the hand fishing. I figured, we’re here. We came to fish.

                In the time leading up to the hand fishing we checked out some ice sculptures, did some snow tubing, and took a turn on some ATVs, which was a good time. Mom blew out her shoe, so we had a good time trying to buy her a pair of boots.

                After that it was about time for handfishing, so I hustled back down to the festival and got dressed. It was pretty nippy, but there were around 50 guys shouting and stretching and jumping up and down around the pool, so you didn’t feel it too much. Everyone’s families, and anyone else who cared to watch were crowded around the pool. Maybe 100 or so folk. A guy with a megaphone shouted some pumpup chants at us, blew a whistle, and everybody jumped in. I was half expecting the trout to be a little dazed, but man, they were not. There were probably around 50-60 trout schooling around the middle of the pool, and when we jumped in they went nuts. Some guys were diving around, other were standing still and trying to snag the fish being scared up by the divers. The smart (though less sporting, I think) guys were scooping up a lot of water and just throwing the fish out of the pond and picking them off the ground.

                The limit was two trout per frozen idiot, and you only had a minute to catch them. I guess that was so the trout didn’t all have heart attacks. Maybe it sounds a little easy to catching a trout in a knee deep swimming pool. I remember thinking beforehand that it was a little lame. Maybe unfair to the fish. Well, hats off to eagles and bears because those suckers can move. The only advice we got beforehand was to grab for the head, which is easier said than done. At about the 50 second mark I pinned a fat squirmer up against the wall of the pool and spent the last 10 seconds cheering and stomping around with it held up over my head. Got to say, I haven’t been much prouder of catching a trout.

Dec. 29: Board game café and gangnam

                By this point in the weekend we were all pretty tired. We spent the morning playing Catan and drinking coffee and then took a train to Gangnam (you know, like the Gangnam Style song) for shopping and to check out a board game café.

Dec. 30: Racoon café and Dinomeat and Vanilla Sky

                One of the things that everyone should do when they’re in Korea is go to a Korean BBQ. So good. I’ve got a whole post on it from when we first got over here. We took Mom and Liss to Dinomeat (our favorite BBQ place), and gorged like lions. It was a sweet way to end the day after going to a Racoon Café in the city, where (you guessed it) you can place with (probably non-rabid) raccoons! They were a little shy, but eventually one came down and hung out with us for some treats and scratches.

                That night we took Catan to one of our favorite neighborhood bars, the unfortunately named Vanilla Sky, and chilled. It’s a “cooler bar”, which is where you get whatever you want to drink out of these big coolers and then just pay when you leave by showing your empties to the guy at the register. A cool Korean thing.

Dec. 31: Incheon Airport

                Finally, the day came that Mom and Liss had to go home. It was pretty sobering. I don’t think I was really homesick until they came. Their flight was set to leave at 2 PM, so we tried to get them there around 12:30. The subway ride, as I said before, is a long one though, and this being the first time we had gone to the airport by train, we wound up getting to the correct terminal by 1:10. This turned out to be a much bigger deal than we anticipated, as AirFrance apparently closes their check-in a full hour before takeoff and will absolutely do nothing for you if you show up past that mark.

                We were flatly told that we had missed the flight (even though it would be sitting on the tarmac for another 50-odd minutes). After raising a fuss, we were sent on a goose chase around the airport and ultimately, new tickets had to be purchased. The moral of the story is two-fold: 1. Screw Air-France, and 2. Get to the airport no later than 2 hours before your flight leaves. A costly lesson.

                Despite all that, the night turned out pretty nice. Mom and Melissa’s new flight left at 10 or so, and Maria and I didn’t feel right leaving them at the airport, so we all just hung out and played cards and chilled until the flight came. It was New Year’s Eve, and we had plans to meet some people downtown, but honestly, it was a lot more meaningful to spend the day/night playing Egyptian Ratscew with Mom and Liss in the terminal. Plus, we were beat from the busy week.

                When the time to board finally came, it was a sad goodbye, of course, but I think Mom and Melissa had a good time. I know that Maria and I did. I don’t want to be too sappy when I say this, but with our little Christmas tree up (it’s still up on 2/9), the boardgames out, and Mom and Melissa here, it really felt like Christmas in a way that was a lot more meaningful that I could have expected.

                In hindsight, there are things I wish we would have had more time/energy to do like norabong (Korean karaoke) or a jimjabong (Korean spa/bathhouse/sauna), but we did a lot. Honestly it would have been enough just to have us together, that we had in spades. I mean, you can just about touch all the wall of our apartment at the same time, so we couldn’t have been much more together.

                It was a Christmas I’ll remember for a long, long time.