The Blogging Buddha: Buddha's Birthday Hike

Thursday there was no school, and my host father was visiting from Busan for the holiday. He decided to take me, my younger sister, and her friend on a hiking excursion. I was excited, because I welcome any chance to get out of the city, but my sister would've preferred to spend her day off doing one of her three "hobbies": Watching television, text messaging friends, or playing the computer. We set out with snacks (dried squid and popcorn) against my host mother's warnings about rain. Before we left, I heard my mother speaking in her anxious/annoyed/almost angry voice about how it was going to rain and how we shouldn't be going hiking. This didn't seem to have any effect on my host father's mind, as he practically skipped out the door like a child on his way to a circus. My guess is that my host sister, Sujeon, didn't have a choice in the matter, and chose to bring a friend when faced with the possibility of spending the morning with two hike-crazed, nature-loving adults. We drove for awhile; at one point we pulled over and spoke briefly with a security guard at a set where they film a famous Korean drama (out in the middle of nowhere) and he said something about it being closed. I guess the mountain we were supposed to hike was closed, so we went to a different one. Anyways, I must clarify that "small mountain" is just the translation. In reality these "small mountains", odeum in Korean, are more like little hills (what should be a 20 minute hike both ways). Finally we arrived at the odeum, parked and literally within 3 minutes of starting our hike, my sister and her friend were talking about going back. In fact, they turned around and started to walk the other way, but my father and I noticed soon enough to encourage them to keep going. I will say there was a lot of wind, but it was still incredibly beautiful and it didn't start raining until we were already coming down the mountain. My host sister and her friend trudged along in almost identical outfits (completely unsuitable for hiking). My sister wore Converse sneakers and carried a purse, yelling "Apaaaaa!" the whole time, which is the Korean version of a whiney, high-pitched "Daaaaaaaad!" In the end we arrived at the top (my host dad practically had to push the two girls from the behind at one point.) Of course we didn't stay long, as Sujeon realized it was going to rain and was descending before we could snap 5 pictures. We arrived safe and just a little wet in the car about 15 minutes later. As we sat, munching on dried squid, my father asked each of us in turn, if we had had a good time. I said "Yes, it was beautiful" (in Korean) and my sister said: "So, so." in English.