winter sonata…part 1

last weekend as most of you know i went on a weekend snowboarding/site seeing trip with my taekwondo class. the trip itself was quite excellent although along with the good times there were quite a few tense moments. on friday night "j" and i decided to get a beer after class. on our way out "the master" couldn't figure out why "j" didn't need a ride to the subway station. we didn't want anyone to know we were going for drinks so she told "the master" that she was going to my house to get something. right there and then we should have been wise to the fact that this would later cause some problem. we went to the wa bar and had a few beers then decided to call it a night since we had to be back at the taekwondo school at 8am on saturday. before i go any further i must backtrack a bit. during class on friday "the master" told us there was a change of plans. since he decided to invite two korean women from the english conversation group he attends and they didn't get off work until 3pm they would be departing separtely. "the master" asked several of us if we wanted to wait and ride with them but no one did. so now we had two departure times. group 1 ["r", "j", scrappy, "s", dr.no, "tkg", and myself] would be leaving at 8am. group 2 ["the master" and the two korean women] would leave at 6:30pm. we all thought it was kind of strange to have two separate groups going especially when "the master" had arranged the whole trip. the whole point of this weekend was to be a group outing and now that changed. its the korean way after all. "the master" feels he must bring more women to induce to the lonely western guys. whatever.

6:30am arrived quite quickly. i felt like i had just gone to bed. i jumped out of bed because i still needed to packed. by 7:30am i was ready to go. needed some cash i went to the atm. however, i should have known living in the "land of the morning calm" that i wouldn't be able to get into any of the buildings that had atms. this is the most ridiculous thing ever. i never had a problem getting cash in the u.s. at any hour. realizing i'd be able to get cash at the resort i stopped my search for cash and tried to find a convience store since i was thirsty. after several failed attempts i finally found one that was open. i got to the school right at 8am. i was the first to arrive. shortly after "r" showed up looking like he'd been out all night and basically he had been. he headed out to get some food and i stayed behind to wait for the others. one by one they started to arrive. when "tkg", who's korean and speaks very little english, arrived he kept asking where "the master" was. it appears that "the master" never informed him of the change of plans. to make matters worse their was no sign of "dr. no" either, the other korean guy. he was actually absent from class on friday because he was sick and we figured he wasn't going. after several phone calls made by "tkg" "dr. no" showed up and the two of them engaged in conversation to which none of us knew what was being said. shortly after we headed down to the van. we basically drove across the streets to an apartment complex to wait for "dr. no". he was coming afterall. most likely to keep "tkg" company since "the master" was coming later. "dr. no" looked like he'd rather be home and i don't blame him but koreans have a way of doing the noble thing when the times comes. finally we were on our way. "tkg" was driving and "dr. no" had shotgun. in the very back was scrappy, then "s", and "j", "r", and i were next.

we weren't even on the road for an hour when scrappy wanted to start drinking. he had brought a half bottle of whiskey and immediately went to town on it. from there it all went down hill. once he was buzzed he would not shut up. this kid runs his mouth so much. it was all "fuckin this, fuckin that", "canada rules", "i need soju". it got to the point where "j", "r", and i went about to throw his ass out of the van. every once in a while he'd settle down and even passed out for a bit which was a pleasant relief. during our travels it snowed quite a bit. it was so cool to be driving along with big snowflakes hitting the window. along the way we stopped at a rest stop to grab some food. we were all hungry. the rest stop was completely packed. it was crazy. there was snow and people everywhere. i will say this though the rest stops are so clean. far better than any i've ever been in the states. we quickly exited and searched for food. "j" and found found a stand where they were selling egg sandwiches. i'd never had one before. let me tell you. it was the best egg sandwich i'd ever had. they grill the bread and then place the egg which has onions and potatos in it and top it off with ham and ketchup. but the best part was the sugar coating on the breadcrust. i was in heaven. of course before leaving we had to wait for scrappy. it seems that he was on a quest for soju. it continued to snow as we drove along. unfortunately scrappy was now at top form. it was soju this, soju that. i've never been more happy to have my walkman with me. i immediately put the headphones on, tuned scrappy out, and got some rest.

i awoke to find ourselves at yet another rest stop. i got out to stretch and watched as a group of kids were having a snowball fight. a couple of times i thought i was going to get caught in the crossfire. i was ready just incase. yet again we had to wait for "scrappy" who was on some kind of mission. could it be a soju mission. as if he really needed to drink anymore. finally he showed up sojuless but he did mangae to buy some gloves. to bad it wasn't a muzzle. so our journey continues. as we were getting off the highway and leaving the toll we got pulled over my the cops. it must have been a sight. two koreans and a call load of westerns. apparently the cops were looking for a criminal who was driving in the same type of van. "r" said we should have given them "scrappy". now we were driving along the coast and you could see the east sea [thats what the koreans call it]. there seems to be some debate between the koreans and japanesse who call it the japanesse sea. will their love/hate relationship ever end. the scenery was quite beautiful. however it was strange to see all the barb wire fence along the beach. since we were so close to the north korean border the beaches are fenced off to prevent refuggees from entering south korea. it ashame because it would have been cool to walk along the beach. i think at some places you are actually allow to enter but they're few and far between. at this time "scrappy" was back to his usual antics. by this time the tension in the van had built up so much. finally "j" explored and told him to shut the fuck up for at least five minutes. this trip wasn't going to be pretty.

finally we arrived at our first destination seoraksan national park. it was beautiful seeing all the snow on the ground and on the mountains. it was going to be great to walk around and get some peace of mind. as we entered the gate to get into the park there were all these snow and ice sculptures. it kind of felt like that scene in "edward scissorhands" where he's making the ice sculpture. it was so peaceful and beautiful. like my own fantasy land with snow. we walked around a bit then went to have lunch. during lunch "scrappy" busted out some soju which he found at one of the stores in the park. oh joy. for lunch i had fried rice that was wrapped by egg and served with gravy. i forget what its called but it was quite good. they also had my new favorite sidedish which is sweet potato noodles and vegetables. so good. after lunch we walked around the park some more. thats when we saw the giant buddha statue [see my photos on snapfish]. there's a link on one of my previous blogs. walking around in the cold and looking at all the snow and wonderful sites made me feel so alive. i forget how much i love snow and the beauty that comes with it. after several photo opps we headed over to catch the cable car to the top of the mountain. the cable car ride was great. i love how it looks like you are going to crash right into the mountain. at the top we started to make our climb to the top. this was when i realized that my big shoes were probably not the best footwear. didn't i learn my lesson when i wore them hiking through the joshua tree. obvioulsy not. it was a challenge i was definitely not look forward to especaily once i realized i had absolutely no traction with them at all. earlier in the day "s" asked me why i wore platforms and now i was questioning it myself. but as all of you know my now its always "fashion first" "practical last". i carefully made my way up the mountain. some patches were definitely easier then others. as i got higher it got icier. i could just imagine the headlines now "western falls to death as he climbs mountain in giant platforms". at one point when i finally got near the top i couldn't even move. the wind was blowing like crazy and i was basically on all fours trying not to fall over. after crawling toward some rock i was able to go a bit higher. the view was amazing. everywhere you looked there were mountains. i could have stayed there forever taking it all in. i was dreading the climb down. getting up was one thing. thankfully once i made it down the mountain there was a railing and rope to hang onto before i reached the path. the climb down was basically me holding onto the railing and sliding down. it was actually quite comical. as we waited for the last cable car "r" bought some cass beer and we had a group drink. it was now time to head off to yongpyong our final destination for the day.

we arrived at yongpong and found our accomodations which was someone's apartment that they rent out. it kind of felt like being at your grandma's house sans furniture. there two bedrooms and on big living room and kitchen. in the corner was a stack of blankets and pillows that would be our bed. nothing like sleeping on the floor. afterall that is korean style. there was something going on with the koreans. "tkg" left to pick up "the master" and the two women. "j" and i decided to walk into town to find some beer. it was about that time. as we were leaving poor "dr. no" was in the kitchen cooking. when we returned from the beer run everyone was there. and of course the food was all gone. although they had ordered a pizza which was on its way. there was a lot of discussion about whether or not there would be snowboarding that night. finally the descion was made and there would be snowboarding. "j" decided she didn't feel like going. she need some away time from "scrappy". seeing that i was extremely tired and my lower back hurt i decided to sit it out too. "the master" told us that if we didn't go rent our stuff that night we wouldn't be able to go tomorrow. this didn't sit well with "j" who let "the master" have it. i stuck with my original plan and stayed behind with "j". "the master" didn't look to happy but whatever. we told them that we'd meet them up at the resort later. its funny because "the master" was absent the whole day and now he was trying to control everything. whatever happened to our two hours of freetime. it didn't. i knew that if i didn't get some down time away from "scrappy" that i was going to say something i'd probably regret. "j" and i spent the next couple of hours chatting and drinking beer. it was so relaxing and nice. it was like all the tension had gotten up and disappeared. besides being at seoraksan national park this was the next best thing. after we finished our beer "j" and i set out to catch a cab and head to the resort. as soon as we hit the street a cab showed up. we jumped in and off we were.

when we got to yongpyong ski resort we realized that this was the same resort where they filmed the very popular "winter sonata" drama. how happy was i to be here. apparently this drama is very big in japan right now and has made the actor bae, yongjoon very popular both in korea and in japan. as we were walking around we found a cardboard cutout of bae, yongjoon and the actress from "winter sonata". of course we had to stop and take a picture with them. we found the slopes and watched for the members of our gang coming down the slope. i was amazed to see so many people still out skiing and snowboarding. "j" and i were definitely a site as we stood on the edge of the sloop. she had on her black coat with fur hood and i had my white coat on. it was then that i came up with the names "the raven and albino". which are now our ninja names. eventually we found everyone. "the master" asked us if we had gotten married and were on our honeymoon. seriously i'm not sure where he gets this stuff. "j" and i laughed and said yes thats exactly what we did. after everyone cleaned off their boards we piled into the van and headed into town for some beers. we found a nice cozy bar and settled ourselves in with beer and food. at point "j" and i realized we could be invisible since "the master" was sitting with his back to us and no one else was saying anything. however, that didn't stop us from having fun. "j" kept trying to scope out the table of guys sitting next to us. at one point they made idle chitchat but it didn't last long since he didn't know much english. at least she tried. when the pitchers were done we headed back to the apartment since we had an early day ahead of us. it was decided that we'd leave for the resort at 8am. after realizing that all three girls weren't going to fit in the same room "j" decided to sleep out in the big room with "r", "scrapp", "s", "tkg", and myself. since "j" had a fold out mat we decided to share it. i'm sure that peeked "the masters" curiosity even more. day one was now over…