It may be the world's third largest city, but it feels like Middle Earth

So they have a tradition at KIS of hiking home from school on Fridays, and of course Jen and I were eager to join. Eleven of us gathered under a skybridge at the school, waiting for the torrential rain to abate. There was some talk of canceling the hike, but fortunately insanity prevailed and we started out as soon as the deluge slowed to a torrent.

Now keep in mind that the greater Seoul area is home to over 24 million people. However, the instant we set foot on the trail that starts at the back of campus, we were plunged into a wonderland of twisted trees and singing cicadas. We spent the next two and a half hours hiking a seven mile trail that led over mountains and along the ridges, never once seeing or hearing any signs of civilizaton!

Apparently there are trails like this all over the place. In fact, we had to be careful at trail junctions to avoid heading off in the wrong direction. We were told of a colleague who rode his mountain bike down a wrong turn and ended up miles away in the middle of a rice patty. It turns out that knowig a little Hangul (the phonetic Korean alphabet) is quite useful in avoiding such mishaps.

Were were led on this expedition by our wonderful and welcoming Head of School, who is an avid hiker. He has been here for six years and knows his way around these mountains like Daniel Boone.

Three miles from school, four miles from home, not too far from Rivendell

Between the heat, the humidity, and the rain, we were all completely soaked, but no one cared - we were all just glad to be on the trail.

After two and a half hours of hiking the ridgeline, we finally came out of the woods and saw the highrise appartment buildings of our dong (neighborhood).

Okay, so that was pretty cool, but what happened next blew my mind. As we left the wooded hillsides and headed down into civilization, the first thing we came to was a beautiful old cemetary!

Apparently in Korean cemetaries, family members are buried together under a grassy mound, and an obilisk-shaped tombstone is erected nearby. The lettering on the grave markers is in Chinese characters, rather than Hangul, because it is considered more formal (in the same way that colleges in the USA confer degrees with Latin names rather than English names).

Very up-scale after-life accomodations - definitely bigger than our place!

At the front entrance to the cemetary was a cool little temple, nestled into an urban cityscape.

Then, as we left the burial ground and headed into the dong, we had to cross over an algea-covered dam.

From there it was a short walk up the river trail to Mr. Bin's where cold beer and hot food awaited. Overall, not a bad way to spend a Friday afternoon.