The View from the Top

Hi everyone, I thought I would use my extra time tonight to write a blog post. I had a class I didn't have to teach and I'm really happy about it because they are all apathetic middle school kids who I hate trying to teach. Otherwise things are going well at school, I just finished my evaluations for this month and the week is almost over. Wow, three months. This Friday we actually get a day off for Korean thanksgiving, which is awesome.

So Korean thanksgiving, or Chusok, is apparently the like a Korean Christmas in terms of how big it is, but we got really screwed because it fell on Saturday. If it would have been on Thursday we would have gotten Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off. But here we are, anyway, I'll just enjoy my one day. I haven't really gathered what happens on this holiday except for the fact that they all travel to see their family and then eat rice cakes or something. It means that the roads will be ridiculously congested, too. My student was telling me that if it takes three hours to drive somewhere you can pretty much expect it to take eight or so. Ha ha, have fun Korea.

So anyway, about this post. I had made this hiking trip about a month ago to an observation tower that is located in our town on a hill that borders it. It kind of got pushed on the back burner for other posts and other life activities I guess. Right now is as good of a time as any though, I think.

I made the hike by myself on a Sunday afternoon. It was pretty muggy at that time, so I was really sweating my ass off.

The observation tower from below

Its a really nice hike, and not too long either. It probably took me about fifteen minutes to walk there and then about fifteen or so to walk up the hill. At the entrance of the flat area on top of the hill is this sign:
So I don't really understand why it's called a mountain fortress and talks a lot about a wall and a walled city. Hmm, some great blog writer I am.

Anyway, when I got to the clearing at the top of the hill, there was a huge work out area. It included some hula hoops, a padded running track, plenty of apparati (is that the plural for apparatus) for doing crunches, push ups, pull ups, and some other zany exercises which are kind of like an elliptical machine, a giant ship steering wheel, and a small rotating platform so you can twist your midsection. I'll do a post on Korean workout parks before winter since they are everywhere and they are pretty hilarious.

The park. I think the red logs are balance beams.

The observation tower from directly below

So after climbing up the 40 or 50 steps to the top of the observation tower, there's a breathtaking view of the city. It's easy to see that the city isn't huge or anything, but it's definitely not tiny. The town is basically bordered by this long strip mountain/hill or whatever and then on the other sides it's mostly fields of rice paddies.

Looking southwest

Looking south

Looking southeast

So that's basically the town I live in from above. You can kind of see where I live in the picture looking south but it's not too easy to describe, and I'm lazy. Oh, the last thing I'll put in here is this crazy sign I saw in the workout park at the top of the hill. I think it's something about keeping healthy.