scoping out the slopes

boarding and skiing in korea are relatively new phenomenons, as we discovered at 'phoenix park'. thousands of young folks piled onto gondolas and chair lifts for this year's first official weekend of boarding the slopes.

having lived near the Rockies, our hearts weren't set on anything 'high' -- but we were pleasantly surprised by the piles of soft powder and the length of the runs. true, only the black and green runs were open -- so we stuck to the black (which is equivelant to a canadian blue) but it made for a pleasant, albeit expensive, saturday excursion.

some quirks and delights:

-families dressed to the nines boarding together

-mothers taking their children on the gondola just to give them a toboggan ride at the top

-hundreds of cellphones snapping pictures everywhere, all the time

-hundreds of people collapsing on the hills in front of you as you manouever your way down

-huge speakers blaring out korean christmas carols and avril lavigne all across the mountains

-a fake tiger appearing out of nowhere in the middle of the woods

-countless air hoses to clean off your boards and skis before returning them

true, it felt lonely to be some of the only white people there, but in the end, God is everywhere, as evidenced by the beauty of nature and the diversity of the people surrounding us.