Wolaksan Mountain & Qi Gong

Last week, after spending a few days in Seoul for some appointments, lunches with friends, and a Qi Gong class, there was a rather spontaneous camping trip. Some friends and I went to Wolaksan National Park and Mountain. L has a car, a convenience I miss sometimes. It was nice to just be able to decide to go and then go. So much easier than having to figure out buses and trains, “which is going to be faster and what can I carry with me?” J met us at the campsite.

I met both of these friends through choir in Seoul, maybe my second year in Korea. One of them turned out to be my neighbor in Gongju, which was strange because of the distance between the two cities, and also because he turned out to literally be my neighbor in my Korean hometown. I could walk to his family home in about 5 minutes. But I digress…

We went on a Monday, that and it being November and the weather is getting colder add up to it being really quiet when we arrived. We were the only campers in our section, I think there might have been one or two families in the “full option” camping area. Full Option apparently means the campsite provides anything you can think of. We didn’t do that, but pitched our tent upon arrival.

While I wouldn’t call myself a nature enthusiast, I do enjoy being outside and for the most part I enjoy hiking and camping when I have a chance to go. I don’t do much hiking these days because I am slow and have foot issues. That said, the weekend just before I had attended a Qi Gong class. “What is Qi Gong?” you ask? – the short version and definition as found on the internet is that it’s “an ancient Chinese system of coordinated body-posture and movement, breathing, and meditation used for the purposes of health, [and] spirituality…” I’ll save more about that for a different blog post, but suffice it to say being outside, on a mountain, in the cool weather….I couldn’t help myself but to do my practice right there!

There was conversation, beer, fire, roasted marshmallows and chocolate (sans any kind of cracker), and hot coals placed in metal bowls under our seats to warm up. Ahhhhh!