Expat imnida: Skiing in Korea

I got to go skiing last weekend! Not just skiing, either, it was NIGHT skiing. Cool, right? It was my first ski trip since I was 19. I didn't like skiing when I was 19, but I'm a little more guns-blazing these days than I ever was then, so I was pretty excited about it!

It was fun! A friend of mine named Pedro Kim organizes trips for expats all around Korea and this was one of his trips (his company is called Lonely Korea; look it up on Facebook). Last time, I stayed on the green bunny slopes, which were icy and lame (plus it hadn't snowed in a while so the ice was extra sucky). This time, I skied the beginner slope and the intermediate slope!!! Progress! The first one was icy and VERY crowded, even though it was late at night (welcome to Korea, haha), but the intermediate slope had some of that powdery snow that skiers are always going on about! IT WAS AMAZING! Like skiing on butter! Smooth and fast and so fun! It was still really crowded, but it was like a game of Frogger on skis, trying to avoid all the snowboarders criss-crossing in my path. I hit one guy pretty hard and we both went flying, but it didn't hurt. I ended up with snow in places I didn't realize snow would be able to reach!

Skiing is really popular in Korea and snowboarding is even MORE popular right now! Some of that popularity most likely stems from the idea that appearance is everything in Korean culture. You look dang cool when you're snowboarding, so more people currently choose boarding over skiing. It's CRAZY popular. You couldn't throw a stick without hitting a snowboarder on the slopes, it was that crowded.

It was SOOOOO COLD the whole time, but the fun made it worth it. The base of the mountain was around -7*C and the temp at the top of the slopes was at -8.7*C. Ahhh!!! It got so cold on the lifts that I couldn't feel my fingers even with two pairs of gloves and my heat packs, so that's when I decided to call it a night. Next time I go, I'll probably go for even better slopes (preferably in the daytime, when the radiant heat can warm a girl up a little more), but I want to try snowboarding next time I hit the slopes! My friend Jonathan tried that this time and had a lot of fun (until he sprained his ankle). I wanna see what all that is about!! (Though I'd like to avoid the injury.)

Just add skiing to the list of things I never expected I'd do in Korea. This crazy life!! Assah!