Koreans have a hiking tradition that I think is great: letting out the loudest yaaaa-hoooo possible once they reach the top of a peak. Some people have told me it's supposed to be good for relieving stress; I haven't personally tried it, but it seems to me that it just might work!
I live at the base of a mountain, so I occasionally hear those barbaric yawps when I'm running on campus in the morning. Today I went for an early-morning hike instead; I'm going on a 5-day hiking trip in Norway in August, and I want to break in my new hiking shoes (and socks, which are a wool-bamboo blend. Yes, bamboo: it's supposed to keep my feet cool and bacteria-free, I think. Seriously, what will they think of next??). Anyway, as I was coming down hill at the end of my hike this morning, I heard repeated yawps from an adult followed by a child's echo. Eventually I met them on the trail; it was a tiny grandma (her size made the yawp she was producing all the more impressive) and a young girl who looked to be about 8. The girl was doing pretty well until she saw me and was presumably embarrassed, at which point her YAAAHOOOO changed to a much softer yahoo. That prompted her grandmother to provide another example yawp and some encouragement: "Louder! Louder!" The girl's next one after she passed me was better - still not that loud, but a much longer yaaaaahoooooo.
My apologies to those of you who check back here regularly for updates, which have been sporadic of late. I'll be spending most of August in Europe, which will hopefully provide some good fodder for travel blog posts. Just eight days now to Vilnius - YAAAAAHOOOOOO!
