Welcoming 2014!

I've had some interesting New Years Eves. And some fun ones. I've spent them with family and friends, and I'm so thankful that I've always come through them unscathed.


This year, New Years Eve fell on a Tuesday, and it just happened to be while I was on vacation from work. When my friend Audrey and I realized we had the same vacation days, she told me about a ski trip to Muju that a tour guide here in Gwangju, Pedro, was doing. It sounded fun, and I'd never been skiing before, so I signed up.

Audrey and I met New Year's Eve morning and taxied together to the meeting point where we met our other group members before heading to the van and getting on the road. It took about 2 hours to get to Muju, and it was a smooth drive filled with lively conversation. It's nice to have a small group because it's easy to get to know a little about everyone.

Upon arriving in Muju, we stopped at a ski and snowboard rental shop to be fitted for gear. I chose skis and also rented a ski jacket and pants, and bought the coolest retro winter hat. Once we were all fitted, we piled back in the van and continued on to Muju Ski Resort. Our gear would be delivered to our lodge later, just before the ski lifts opened for the evening shift at 6:30.

Muju Slopes

It was around 3pm when we arrived to our lodge room, a nice large one for groups with a spacious living area, kitchenette, two sleeping rooms, two small bathrooms, and a balcony that overlooked the main slopes. The view from the room was quite picturesque, but nothing compared to the rest of the ski 'town'.

Muju Ski Resort

After dropping our things, Audrey and I decided to take advantage of the few hours before the lifts opened and explore the town. We headed down the hill, took a turn onto the main entry road to the slopes and shops, and entered the quaint tiny 'town' in the middle of the resort. It was beautiful. The street was lined with trees that had lost their leaves but been replaced with huge hanging wire ornaments of red, white, green, yellow, and blue, that lit up after sundown. The sidewalks and sides of the streets were covered in snow, but constant use had worn away safe spots to walk. Given how much I've come to hate the snow, it really was quite lovely.

Quaint Muju Street

We explored the town a little bit, got some pizza at Dominos (there was also a Popeyes, Lotteria, a CU convenient store, and quite a large cafeteria with Korean snacks and beer). After enjoying our American style pizza, we set off to find the sledding area. The slopes close mid-afternoon to be groomed and give the staff a break (they stay open until 2am), so it was either sledding or taking a ride on the gondola. Sledding sounded more fun.

Sledding!

And it was! I don't know how I got to be as old as I am without ever having slid down a hill in the snow on a little plastic red sled. It probably has something to do with being from Florida and not having lived in snow until moving to Korea, but I digress. If I was a child, a shiny red plastic sled would be my single wish for Christmas, and I'd take that thing everywhere. I'd slide down hills. I'd slide through the park. I'd get my parents to drag me behind them on a walk around the block, all the while scooping up handfuls of loose snow and throwing it high in the air to make it look like it was snowing all around me. I'd love to do that now, except I'm not a kid and it would look a bit weird.

I'm there somewhere!

We went sledding over and over again for about an hour, walking back up the hill each time and waiting in line until it was our turn to go. When we'd had our fill of sledding, and were sufficiently cold in our snow-specked jeans, we headed back to the lodge to change into our ski pants and jackets before once again heading back down the hill and back to the main area to explore a little more.

Me and Audrey With Our Gear

We were back in the room at 6pm to await our ski gear, and when it arrived, we gathered it together and headed back down the hill again, but this time to the slopes. The sun had set, and the slopes were now all lit up, and we could see all of them from the main area - everything from the bunny slope to the intermediate slopes and even the, what I call, death slopes. (Because I would surely die on attempting them.)

The Steepest Slope

Audrey and I learned how to put on our gear, she with her snowboard and me with my skis, and then we slowly made our way to bunny slope nearby. After figuring the short walk (that took us about 10 minutes in our gear) was enough practice, we decided to attempt the bunny slope. We boarded the mini-escalator that deposited us at the top, took a few steps, and then while she was getting her other foot in the holder, I decided I was brave enough to give it a try. I was up for about 3 milliseconds and then fell. Backwards. All day I had been given advice from different people in our group, saying that on skis, you need to fall to the side. I instantly understood. It was nearly impossible to fall backwards comfortably (falling comfortably is impossible in itself), and falling to the side is really the only option, lest you fall forward and continue to tumble down the slope.

An Intermediate Slope with Lift

So I fell, and my worst nightmare came true… the one about falling and not being able to get back up. After maybe 5 minutes of trying to stand back up with the help of another group member and someone from the ski resort who was tasked with helping beginners get back up, I was up for an even shorter period of time, maybe 1.5 milliseconds, before repeating the very same fall and the very same 5 minutes of trying to get back up, before taking off my skis and walking down the side of the hill to the flat part at the bottom, where I was determined to practice getting up - and get better at it - before attempting the bunny slope again.

How did it go? The previous 10 minutes was repeated again, with me falling quite successfully but being completely unable to get myself back up. I didn't want to take away valuable ski time from the guy in our group who had been helping me (who was actually pretty good at skiing), so once I was back up I decided to just practice moving on the flat area and told him to go off and enjoy himself.

Audrey seemed to do quite well on her snowboard, falling, yes, but able to pop back up again and curve and look somewhat more graceful than myself. She was brave, too, attempting the bunny slope over and over again for about an hour and a half. Next time, I'll try snowboarding. (I tried skis on the advice from nearly everyone I asked who said skis were much easier than snowboarding. …That's the last time I take their advice. Ha!)

After the slopes, we removed our gear and went inside for a few beers, watching other people make it look easy. Then we headed back to the lodge where we had some burgers and samgyupsal and played a few drinking games before heading back down to get a prime spot for the fireworks. While the majority of our group was happy just watching the fireworks from our room, through the trees, we wanted to be around energy and really be out in it, experiencing it firsthand. So we did. We got a spot near the stage, where a fairly risqué dancing contest was going on before the main event. About 11:30, all attention turned to the slopes, where we saw… the slopes being groomed. It was … uneventful. (Couldn't they have groomed the slopes in front of the stage while our attention was turned to the stage??) Anyway, after they were groomed, the professional ski show started. There were all sorts of tricks and things that the skiers did, from weaving in and out of each other, to synchronized skiing, and more cool things. Then right at 11:58, all of the skiers were back at the top of the mountain and started coming down in a zigzag 'S' pattern, carrying lit torches. They made it to the bottom of the hill just as we were starting the '10-9-8' countdown. It was amazing.

'7-6-5-4-3-2-1 !!!!! Happy New Year!!!'

And at that moment, the fireworks show started, directly over the slopes. It lasted for 6 minutes and was so beautiful. I'd never been so close to fireworks like that in my life. I wanted to cry, or at least let it be okay to be teary, just because it was so beautiful and I'd had so much fun that day, the last day of 2013, doing something that I'd never done before and being around so much energy and a great friend, and being a little tipsy, and trying to constantly look up at the fireworks and not slip on the icy snow beneath my boots… just so many wonderful feelings (except the trying not to slip part), culminating in such a brilliant fireworks show.

Once people began to dissipate and go back to the slopes, inside for food, or back to their lodge, we met up with a few more people from our group and decided to head back to the lodge for some food and drinking games. We did that for another few hours and then went to sleep.

We woke up quite early Wednesday morning, after not much sleep at all, and ate breakfast before one last hour of exploration of the quaint ski town (which we spent entirely at a coffee shop because we were so tired) before heading back to Gwangju in the van. We all slept the whole way back, and then once I got home about 3pm, I slept most of the afternoon and through the night until it was time to get up for work Thursday morning.

It was hands down the best, most exciting and eventful New Year's I've ever had. I'm not a skier, but it was still really fun and I'd definitely try again, although maybe after some Ski School.

Happy New Year, everyone! May you have a healthy, prosperous and H A P P Y 2014!

***

A little about Pedro. He owns a tour business called Lonely Korea, and you can find him on Facebook. It's the only place he advertises his trips, which are aimed at showing expats all around Korea by way of events, festivals, and fun, quirky trips on holidays when we have days off. He's a great, extremely laid back, go-with-the-flow kind of guy. He piles his van with 7 passengers (or hires a bus for larger groups) and drives them all over Korea, pointing out different things along the way and giving us what feels like the 'inside scoop' on all things Korean. He also makes some pretty mean bulgogi burgers and samgyupsal. As a side note, he also runs his own hostel, right here in Gwangju.