Hiking

Alright, I'm trying to learn how to have a slide show so everything will be so nice and tidy, but I can't figure it out. For right now, I'll just have to post a lot of pictures like this.

Journal Edition

I live under constant shade. Not the shade from a weeping willow or a tall oak tree, but shade from multi story buildings. Nature is non-existent in such a large city. There are trees on the side of the road, a couple of months ago I heard some locusts, and now there are small mosquitoes, but that is about it. This concrete jungle inspired us to go hiking. We have now gone twice, and it's safe to assume that it is one our favorite things to do.

We take the subway north for about an hour to get there, practically spitting distance from the dark side, North Korea.* From there we walk about 25 minutes in crowded pathways toward the mountain. The hiking trails, just like the beaches of Korea, are extremely crowded. People everywhere! This defiantly takes away the enjoyment of the great outdoors. Solitude, beauty, nature aren't in the same category as over dressed Koreans. Oh, how other cultures can

be so alien at times. Korean hikers get geared up for hiking like they are about to embark on climbing Everest. That's fine, but when it is 70 degrees outside, and your hiking on a paved path at a very manageable grade it just seems a bit excessive. Put away your damn walking stick! They are all walking advertisements for North Face and Columbia.

*On a serious note, my associate director just informed me that China has been claiming more of the historic Baekdu mountain through various means. She thinks that North Korea might be getting paid to let some of it happen. This makes sense since North Korea is so poor. The government could use that money to feed it's population or buy more plutonium instead. Whatever.

This is somber news, because South Korea has no control over that mountain which lies on the boarder of China and North Korea. It is a prized Korean possession, and the largest mountain on the Korean peninsula. The mountain is seeped in Korean history.

Being the rebel that I am, Meg and I hopped off on every side path we could fine, most of the time we blatantly ignored the koala bear sign with his hands held up in a stop position. Hiking is getting dirty, which is hard to do when traversing pavement. We ended up having a great time hiking along rocks, creeks, and even some trees! It was so memorable. I have always thought that the best time of any of my trips have been the nature excursions, and Korea has not been an exception. I loved it!

It also inspired this short semi autobiographical story, that I'll finish maybe tomorrow, maybe never.

Won Update

I don't know if anyone cares about this kind of stuff, but I really find it interesting. Check out the won free fall. It's amazing, I might be stuck over here due to the fact the won is worth zilch.

The Beer

Let me start off by saying, I never have drank a beer that I haven't liked. Oh sure, I might say Stag is awful, or Coors light tastes like water, or PBR stands for Probably Bull uRine, but I like them. If I was stranded on an island and I had to choose between those beers and no beers, I would choose those beers. And yes, that collection would have me salivating like Pavlov's dog, or a parched hick at the Indy 500.

Korean beer is worse than those beers. It's more water like than any of those beers. Europeans and other beer enthusiasts (snobs) often say that the vast majority of American beer is water. (I may or may not agree, but that is neither here or there) They need to come to Korea, because this beer is WATER! These beers are light and airy. That being said, you would think that I would just stick to mixed drinks or import beers. If you thought that you would be WRONG!* Korean beer is cheap, and I follow The Simple Economic Rule to a T: If the price is low, then the demand is high, and if the price is high, well I'll stay the hell away.
The price of import is high, while the price of Korean alcohol is low. Soju, (remember 20% ALC, tastes like watered down vodka, and costs one dollar for a pint of it) Korean beer (one dollar), and Korean wine (one dollar) are very cheap. Those are all convenient store prices in case you were wondering.

*There are many business ideas that come into my head over here. The best one yet might be a Small brewery/pub/restaurant idea. I love these joints. It would be similar to a Flat Branch/Freestate/75th street brewery place.** Here is why it would work:

** I have never used that many slashes in my life...combined...including 3rd grade when the math curriculum centered around division.

1) The amount of foreign teachers coming to Korea to teach English is increasing.
2) Koreans love the majority of things associated with America and the western world.
3) Half of the Korean population could be considered alcoholics.
4) The lack of quality beer in Korea
5) I came up with it, how could it not succeed?

Idea number 2- Transplant El Rancho right in the heart of Seoul. El Rancho is fabulous, greasy, sloppy, Mexican food. It dominates the late night food options of Columbia Missouri. It is authentic Tex/Mex. (that probably gets a hyphen, but I'm on a roll with the slash) All the employees are from across the boarder, and they may or may not have green cards, but they can roll a burrito the size of your head in a matter of seconds.
Why it would work:

1) There is a real lack of quality Mexican food in Korea. Any Korean attempts at Mexican food are poor. They have a franchise Mexican chain that is pretty good, serving small portions of over-priced food. Really, pretty good in the sense that it is Mexican food in Korea. Beggars can not be choosers.
2) They don't have Taco Bell
3) If you get the Mexican Crew to sign up for this transplant experiment, you would get one of the world's highest quality workforce (at least North America's right?) to sell many big burritos. Why this would work: it's not like the majority of the workers at El Rancho can speak or read English anyway, so I imagine they could be equally adept fumbling around with the Korean language. There's no difference!
4) Same as the above number 5


What was I talking about again? Oh right, Mackju. Korean beer is called Mackju. It's cheap but not that good, but it beats paying 8 dollars for a Guinness. Budweiser is pretty prevalent in Korea, but I try and stay away. I don't like large, looming conglomerates and InBev OWNS the worldwide beer market, including Korea's water beer. There is only one large beer company in Korea that is not owned by InBev, and that's my beer of choice.

InBev, a Belgium company, bought Budweiser a couple of months ago. As John put it, "I thought Budweiser would buy Belgium." I try and refrain from buying InBev products because, hell that is what a consumer is supposed to do when having an objection with a company. I know it won't matter to InBev, who bought an icon of America, an icon of my state. So my beer of choice is HITE, Korean beer water not associated with the global machine InBev. As of writing this blog InBev does not own HITE, that could of changed in the minutes I've spent writing this.

I'm getting back to Writting

I'm ending my hiatus from writing real posts. I'm back in the saddle. Okay, to fill you in on the last couple of weeks is simple. I spend most of my time searching the Internet. Half of my time is spent on sports websites*, and the other half is spent reading the news. The news was so depressing, all I wanted to write about was how the world is going to kill itself, how the dollar will collapse, how Sarah Palin** looks more like an "American pageant contestant" than a Vice President Candidate or more like the "VP of the school board" than the VP of the United States. Basically, I was reading a lot of doom and gloom for our country, which is very depressing.

*About five months ago, I put 100 dollars into a sports betting account. I dubbed this "entertainment" the first sign of an addiction. In five months, I have built the 100 dollar "entertainment into $325. I'm not great at it, but I'm pretty consistent. I can see why gambling can be dangerous, especially when you're winning. Secondly, anything that has a sub language is dangerous. Drugs, for example, have a language all to themselves. Here is some of the slang in the drug world. Sports betting is no different, complete with words upon words that a layman would not understand. I know this is an addictive endeavor, because the language is a dead give away. I'll monitor my status for a week to see if I'm addicted to gambling or not, based on the signs of this website.


** Sarah Palin is great, if just for the fact that Tina Fey can spoof her. What an uncanny resemblance. I can't tell a difference!

Then the house vetoed the 700 billion dollar Bailout plan, and I regained some hope. With that little silver of hope, I have decided to spilt my time between sports websites, and watching It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia via the website surfthechannel.com. (which illegally allows you to access thousands of TV shows) Apparently, all I needed was a little Charley Day in my life, because I got the bug to write again. No more doom and gloom!



North Korea has started up their nuclear program once again, after disabling for relief. They want to be taken off the Axis of Evil list or the Terror Whathaveyou List, but Washington wants to see more progress first. Whatever, I am not a diplomat, I don't care. Just realize I am less than 100 miles from an arsenal of weapons that could turn Seoul into a lake of fire. I have never been more scared in my life (maybe a slight hyperbole) than when I saw fighter jet after fighter jet fly by heading north. It felt like I was out a scene from Independence Day. I was sure Will Smith was up there winking at me from his cockpit, telling me everything would be alright.



This was just a Lazy Sunday mind you, just a pleasant weekend afternoon, yet I knew Armageddon was upon us. Why would ten to fifteen US fighter jets be heading north? What part of Seoul is burning to the ground? Every Korean was looking up to the sky as well, which did not help relieve any of the tension in my mind. I was a deer in headlights wondering what to do.



"What should we do Meg? Should we take the subway South, maybe down there we can avoid all the potential nuclear fallout. Do subways make good bomb shelters? I know the London subway protected the Queen during World War II. Hey, if it's good enough for royalty it's good enough for us. We'll need some sort of a shank, we'll probably have to resort to cannibalism down there. I expect everyone to head underground. Don't worry, you'll be safe. If the bombs turn everyone into Zombies... well, we'll cross that bridge when it comes. " Those were the frantic thoughts spewing forth from my mind. You think crazy now, but have you ever been that close to imminent death?



My thoughts were calmed mere minutes later when Meg remembered that there was an Air Show at one of the military bases in Seoul. A calming sensation ran through my body, yet it was tainted with fear because this situation could happen at any moment. Aw, living a life in fear is never the way to live, I say that as I look at the homemade shank on my desk. Better safe than sorry!



Man, writing is your mood put on paper or in this case blog. After watching three back-to-back episodes of my new favorite sitcom ever, I feel as crazy as Charley. Most of what I said is all joking of course, but how would you like to live under the world's fifth largest standing army and this guy:

The Address

I know October is around the corner and that means football, brisk winds, leaves changing colors, Halloween, and my Birthday! So in case anybody wants to send me anything here is my address:

Olympiad/OLA
Seoul South Korea 130-838
Dongdaemun Jangan4dong 295-5 6FL

Of course you don't have to send anything for my birthday, but there it is if you want to.

The streets of Seoul

Here you go, this just proves that streets of Seoul are littered with these damn mopeds! Read this article.

I guess I am a liar

I am sufferring from writer's block. I have too much time on my hands. I am bored out of my mind. I have started writing about like three different topics before throwing them away. I need help. E-mail me any questions you might have, or any experiences you might want me to talk about.