Koreans love their mountains. That's a fairly well established fact. They single handedly keep the crampon companies in business. Fortunately this means that there is an extensive network of men taking care of the mountains and those that climb them.
At the peak of our local hill there's a little hut which is manned (on week days) by one of these. What his actual job is I'm not sure, but I guess just to pick up the pieces if someone dies of exhaustion. Today he hailed me down to offer me some coffee. So, I couldn't really turn him down, he seemed so happy to do it, and it seemed very nice. Unfortunately, I didn't quite realise that he was going to brew it all up, at some length, and my time to return to school was getting closer and closer. Another group of hikers approached and they joined in, so we had little coffee fest up on top of the hill. The coffee was bit bizarre, but I felt pretty happy to have it, and he was a really jovial guy, so my very near to lateness and out of breathedness for class was fine.
These guys almost always give you something if you go up the hill, either candy, coffee, or just words of encouragement, and the usual "nice to meet you." So in combination with the generous ajumas you barely need to eat lunch if you go hiking.
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