FINALLY a new post! (for anybody out there that still reads this)

After a long, long wait (sorry for all you anxious readers out there, I know this is way overdue), it's time for a new entry! Where to begin? Man, it's been so long that I can't even think of where to pick back up again. Well, the reason for me not writing is just that I've been busy enough - really more like having enough fun - that I haven't had much time for internet stuff for a while. Plus the thought of sitting down and dedicating who-knows-how-long to reminisce about things I've done rather than get out there and doing more things to write about is difficult. If there's another long delay in the future, it's most likely for this same reason.

Anyways, as for what I've done....I suppose one of the most fun/interesting things I did during this absence was climb Mt. Halla, the tallest mountain in Korea. We drove part-way up it, then started our climb, which happened to be the steepest, most difficult trail available. Other trails can take up to 8 hours just one way while ours was supposed to take 2 and a half hours. We ended up beating that estimation and finishing with a time of just under 2 hours to reach the top. We didn't reach the "real" top as during this season, the trails to go all the way up are blocked off, but it sounds like we did the majority of the hike. Later, hopefully in spring when it's a bit warmer, I plan on doing the whole thing.

So when we started off, it was myself, my friend Chris, his buddy Sam who was visiting from Seoul, and the captain. I call him this b/c he was actually my friend Min Bum's military captain....a guy whose job it is to train soldiers how to use machine guns all day. I asked him what exactly his job was and he said "train soldier to shoot gun." I asked "That's all?" And he said, "Yes". I asked him if it was a big gun or small gun and he showed me with his hands while saying "big gun." I got a pretty big kick out of it (and out of him), and he's a really nice guy, too, so it's fun to hang out with him. So we started climbing up after a night of drinking and a morning of eating Loteria, a knock-off Korean-style McDonalds and the stomach was complaining from the get-go, but after the first kilometer it went away. After about a half hour, the captain and I broke away from Sam and Chris, who seemed to be having more fatigue in both their stomachs and legs than the captain and I.

We saw plenty of trees and types of flora (but not much fauna) and mist as we made it to the top. We never got a very good view b/c of the mist, but it was still really pretty and the air was fresh as could be. If it were about 15 degrees warmer and a bit clearer it would have been perfect. At the top, we ate some ramen noodles, then climbed back down. It was quite a leg workout as for probably a straight hour of the trip up it was nothing but climbing stairs. No hill-walking, no. Just stair after stair after stair. Probably about 3 or 4 of the 6 kilometers (or about 2 miles) to give you guys an idea. It's a good thing I'd been working out my legs quite a bit or that climb, which seemed fairly difficult, would have gotten really difficult.

Other than climbing Mt. Halla, I've just about broken my wrist, gone to "the five-day market," and continued to make new friends and do random fun things with them. So the first story, the almost-breaking-my-wrist story, happened when my friend Chris and I walked up to this punching machine (they have these fun, dumb, and dangerous little street games all over in korea) and decided we were going to get the high score. He punched first and immediately after was in pain, but on the bright side, nearly set the record. Then I punched, felt my wrist crunch a little, but got the high score. We found out later that he had broken his wrist and I had likely sprained mine. He was pretty upset that he sacrificed his hand and didn't even manage to get the high score.

The next story, the five-day market, is a market that is strangely held once every five days....it doesn't matter which day it happens to fall on, it is held. You'd think they'd do it every weekend or something, but nope. Anyways, it's this huge market that sells a lit bit of everything. I went in there on a coat hunt, and managed to find a decent winter coat for thirty dollars (THIRTY DOLLARS!) as well as a ton of other stuff I needed and some other things I only kind of needed. I came away with two pairs of sweat pants, two long-sleeve outdoorsy sort of tops, a ridiculous bright-yellow sweatshirt that says "PIMP" at the top and has a giant picture of a black guy with gold teeth, a cane, and top hat (only eight dollars I might add....otherwise i dunno if I could have been tempted into buying it....its one of those wear twice-per-year things), and some gloves and a hat. I bought all of this for UNDER $100. Shazam! I was pretty happy and will definitely be back for some more deals. Maybe next time I'll buy one of the chipmunks or one of one thousand different types of other baby animals they had. I want to buy a ton of them, set them free in my room, and encourage moss to grow on the walls to get a good jungle theme going. And then to top it off, I'll get a good jungle soundtrack to play repeat on my computer and take on an australian crocodile hunter-esque accent. A little eccentric? Maybe.

I've been continuing to make friends and having fun doing a variety of things with them. Usually we just go out and get food, have a few drinks, maybe go to a karaoke room or play basketball, but sometimes my friends and I (old and new) end up doing something completely out there, and it almost always turns out to be tons of fun. The only time that WASN'T that fun was when we met this guy (Chris, Sam, and I) that told us he wanted us to come to his party. Knowing how safe Korea is and judging from the pure odds of 3 to 1, we thought what the heck, we'll go. He didn't speak much English, but was pretty enthusiastic and we all have the adventurous kind of mentality that would lead us to say yes. So we did, and we ended up going to a restaurant with a few of his friends for two hours or so, eating all sorts of small dishes, when right when we were about to go, his friends "went to the bathroom," and never came back and he did shortly after too, refusing to accept our money to pay. After waiting for a few minutes, noticing that things just felt wrong, we came to find out that he had left the restaurant and nobody had paid. We chased the little bastard down on the street, flipped him around, and marched back to the restaurant to make him pay at least half of the bill. He suddenly "forgot" all his english and was very standoff-ish as we forced him to pay. He said he didn't have cash, but we saw his credit card, so he paid with that and then for about 30 seconds refused to take our money saying it was a gift. Even though he had been such a conniving son of a you know what, my friend Chris continued to offer to pay part of the bill, which he "reluctantly" accepted....then when Chris started to pull it away to double-count it, he snatched it and would not give it back. Chris gave up and we left to go back to our homes at 7 AM. What a night.

As far as my more daily life, I've got a pretty set schedule of working (still 1 to 8 PM daily), then going to work out probably 3 or 4 nights per week until 11 pm, and then going out and/or traveling on the weekends. I really feel comfortable with being here now, and it feels great to know my way around, speak some basic Korean for communication (still very far from REAL communication), and have friends to help me out with things. Yep....I'm a pretty happy guy! And without any further ado.....the end!

Basketball