Mountain Times

 Starting out on my weekend trip, I was nervous and a bit tired after the three-hour trainride to the Korean countryside. As soon as we arrived, we saw that the rain falling hard. Running quickly, we hailed a taxi and began our journey.  Our first destination was a chimchibang nearby. A chimchibang, for those of you who might not know, is a place with a public bathhouse that includes a shower area, a sauna, and big baths of hot and cold water. Upon your arrival you are handed a locker key, towels, and a pair of mustard color pajamas that you will wear to bed. After you’re showered and refreshed, you sleep in a big room with everyone else who has just done the same.

I was a little anxious about the whole getting naked in front of Korean women. It wasn’t because I was self-conscious it was more so because of my tattoos. Tattoos are still a taboo here, implying a negative image of the individual. They’re pretty accepted in the city and by the younger generation, but in the countryside, the Koreans are still very traditional and conservative.

I undressed myself and headed to the showers, prepared to feel the glares on my body and right on my face. The first night, there was no one else in the showers, so we had the entire bathhouse to ourselves. I enjoyed the hot shower and sat in the sauna and felt really relaxed. Really really really relaxed. Afterwards, I got dressed and headed upstairs to the big open room everyone else was sleeping in.

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Hush hush, sleeping under peaceful blue lights on a hard wooden floor.
We must try to keep it down, for there are old men sucking in oxygen, mouths agape as their snores echo through the room.

Families are holding tightly onto one another passing gas in their sleep.

There’s somebody’s baby roaming, getting picked up by passing strangers
to be cuddled and adored. It keeps staring at me curiously, and I keep staring back with the same amount of curiosity.

And you’re whispering ever so carefully to me about how you’ve just had an out of body experience. I see you there, spread out flat on your back with glazed eyes, slouched lips, and a relaxed posed. You begin to feverishly ramble ecstatically about how minutes before you were taking the hottest shower, sitting in the hottest sauna,           
and throwing cold water over your body.

You mumble about how this formula induced a similar sensation equivalent, maybe even better, than recreational drugs. And you let the air out of your lungs, pleased and content, passionate about life again.

You tell me how it felt, as best as you can, you describe it. You said it was like someone had wrapped you up in velcro, to then pulled it back off, as you regained sensation in your limbs. I listen very closely, laying down now, pulling a thin blanket over my head, bringing it up over my head.

You’ve run out of words to explain the moment impossible to photograph, and I begin slowly inhaling and exhaling until I’m out cold.

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I woke up early the next day, at seven a.m. and fell back asleep for another two hours. There were no mats left, so we had to sleep on blankets instead. My back was hurting a little, but I knew all the aches would be gone after another relaxing time in the showers.

We headed down, and unlike last night, to no surprise, the place was filled with Korean woman showering. I undressed myself again, filled with the same anxieties that I had faced the night before. I marched myself into the room, and picked a shower out in the corner. As I let the water soothe my body, the woman next to began asking me questions about where I was from. We exchanged a few sentences as I fumbled with my Korean. I smiled a lot, trying to show her I was genuinely enjoying the conversation. Towards the end of my shower, she told me I was beautiful. I stood there and felt accepted, accepted and naked. I smiled a big smile and then headed outside to dress myself. We ate a big meal in preparation for our mountain climb. We decided to climb the second highest peak at Ne Jang Mountain. The steps were very high, and the entire hike up was way harder than I had imagined. I took many breaks but attempted to push on. I wanted to get the climb over with. It took me about two hours to reach the peak.

At the top, there were many Koreans sitting down and taking photos. I joined in and some nice lady gave us chocolate. We drank more water and allowed ourselves a nice long break before the trek back. Revitalized now, I began my walk down full of adrenaline. I was swinging from tree limb to tree limb like a cracked out monkey, hopping carelessly from rock to rock, high on life itself. I never thought I’d say that.

There was a creek at the very bottom of the peak. The water was ice cold and refreshing. There were loads of people washing the sweat out of their bandanas and clothes. Everyone peeled off their socks and splashed around in the cool water until we felt ready for the walk back to the village. I covered my head in ice-cold water and changed my shirt.
Afterwards, we headed to the final leg of our weekend journey. On our last night we stayed in a very traditional city even farther out in the countryside. We took an hour-long bus ride to the village.  To my surprise, we were dropped off about 1km away from our destination.

There weren’t many lights and the road was dark but we continued walking….walking….walking until we saw it. This village is one of the best places I’ve been too. The people who worked there were super kind. They let us borrow slippers so we could get out of our hiking shoes. It was a very nice gesture, we didn't even ask for them.  They just saw us walking around barefoot so they delivered some to our hut. After a long hot shower in the community shower, we all played some card games and got drunk.

Now I'm back home. Feeling strange but happy in a way that I haven't before. It's a new feeling that will wear off in a few days.

There are many things happening, many things to experience. I like experiencing the happenings.

I'm listening to love songs and I'm kind of dancing to the beat, alone, in my on bedroom apartment. I'm thinking about all of my friends in Ohio. I'm wishing they were here in my bed, laughing loudly at nothing. Today I thought to myself, "one day, I'm going to be someone really happy and worldly and well rounded."

Maybe one day nothing will ever bother me. Nothing will ever get under my skin. I can climb a mountain, I can do anything. At least, that's how I feel right now. Most days I don't feel anxious and overwhelmed. I've gotten the spunk back in my step. I want to call my poetry professors so I can tell them, I wanna live the fuck out of my life again.

I wish you guys could see all of this with me. I wish I could carry my friends in my pocket, I wish we could all teleport. I wish I could hug you guys goodnight most nights.