linda, aren't you proud of me?

Dear Linda,

I climbed a freakin' mountain today, and you'd better be proud, because it was really hard, and I'm never doing it again.

So I called Umma this morning to ask her which mountain I should climb, and she said she used to climb Dobongsan every weekend. Every weekend! It should be no problem for me to do just once. So Sharon and I took the subway for an hour to get there.

Here's me when I still had hope. I took this picture specifically for you, Linda. Please note that I'm eating corn.


I hope you like tragedies. This next picture was taken as we turned a corner. Sharon (who was speeding in front of me) said, "Esther, don't look up." And then when I looked up, this is what I saw:


This is the first of many hopeless views on my climb.

How did Umma do this every weekend? I'm tired, and I will go to bed before 9:00 tonight as a result. I didn't think I was that out of shape, but Sharon went up with me, and she had fun. I was literally saying things like, "I don't wanna do this anymore. I'm going to stop." and praying aloud to Jesus, asking Him to get me to the top of the mountain. It brought back those wonderful, ahem, memories of climbing mountains with you. I kept on thinking about how ashamed you'd be of me for taking so many breaks, then being so proud of me for actually getting to the top.

Oh, and we got to the top. Too bad is was too cloudy to actually see anything. So my proof of getting to the top is the map at the bottom of the mountain. We went to Jaunbong - that's right, the TALLEST ONE.

You would have loved this mountain, though, Linda. There's all these ajimas and ajishees in full-out hiking gear - nylon shirts, Nalgene bottles, and hiking poles. They were all so hard-core, and then they'd all find a corner and have a picnic. The wimps were the younger ones.

Linda, you'd be so proud of me and Sharon. We're eating so healthy because we're on this Daniel fast thing - no white flour, no animal products, no sugar. I was just eating pineapples. Aren't you proud? I'm eating like you minus the weird low-fat foods. They have these tofu chips which are amazing.

I need to go to bed now, Linda. I miss you, and I'm mad that I wasn't home when you were. I feel like I'm getting left out of family events. Especially when I get up early to call home at dinner time when I know you'll all be there, and no one is there, because everyone left already. That makes me sad.

You are going to move to Vancouver now, and you'll be far far away again, so Hardeep and I cannot visit you as easily, even if you insult him when he tries to help you. I miss you, seester.

love,

esther
P.S. I'm sorry for depressing you. I'm actually feeling pretty good. I wonder if that's related to the exercise.