I think I figured it out...

I think I figured out why blogs like this tend to fizzle out over time. The feelings of being lost in an exotic place fade as things become more familiar, as routine sets in. Woops....


So just a small story. I got a haircut yesterday. It's not a big change, but change enough. But, the funny thing about the haircut was that I managed to scare the hairdresser. In the past couple of weeks I've really applied myself to learning Korean. Each day I've been studying more and more...and really, it's about time. It's something I should have begun months ago. Oh well. Anyways, my hair is being cut and communication is thin. As a general rule here, if you're a foreigner it is assumed that you speak no Korean. I speak a little. The hairdresser points to the front of my hair and makes a cutting motion and an inquisitive face. So...being complacent about my hairstyles, I simply look to her and ask -in Korean- "What do you think?". She screwed up her face and I repeated, "What do you think?".

Her reaction was as if she had been spoken to by the dead, she did a spin, a laugh, and made an incredulous statement in Korean. Then, she said we should cut that part of my hair. After this...there was very little I could communicate to her. But not next time.

People 3

It was between 6 or 7am. We'd been biking since just after midnight and were about 12km from Icheon, our half way/three quarter way point to Wonju. Moving off of the partition we'd taken a break on we got on our bikes and started on our way to Icheon. Then we noticed my rear tire was flat. In the middle of the country, no towns in site, and a dense fog covering everything, we started to walk in the opposite direction from Icheon, hoping to find a nearby village or town.

We walked for 3 hours.

Many fruitless encounters followed until finally we found the small city of Yangji (양지). Relieved, we strolled through the streets looking for a bike shop or hardware store. We quickly stumbled upon the latter. A woman noticed our plight from inside the store window and expressed her concern. She picked up her cell phone and made a quick phone call to a friend, a store owner across the street. He quickly came out with a bicycle pump but we let him know that it was a puncture, not just a flat. The woman jumped back on the phone to call someone else. Using body language and hand signals she told us where the bike shop was. We walked to it but were dismayed that it didn't open for another hour and a bit. We went to the local convenience store, ate some ramen, drank some juice, and killed 20 minutes.

Walking back to the bicycle shop, the owner greeted us, patch kit in hand, smile on his face. He'd come in early to help us.

People 2

Early in the morning we had loaded up our bikes on a bus and headed to Wonju. Our intention was to climb/hike up a mountain that day. We reached the city, biked around for about a half hour to collect our bearings, and headed towards the base of our goal. Reaching the mountain we came into a neat little town on a slope. Filled with restaurants, shops, houses, and the site of elderly hikers in full gear, we knew we had reached the right place.

We bike around the base for a bit, looking for a suitable path to take. We eventually settled on a quiet and steep stretch of concrete path at the north end of a small road. We climbed for about 40 minutes and reached a chain. The sign beside it said, "Danger:No entry" (in Korean, of course). Dismayed, we turned back.

Reaching the bottom of the path was no trouble, the steep angle helped us go quickly. We reached the pole where we had locked up our bikes in about 10 minutes. As we began unlocking and untangling our bikes a group of five or six old women came around the bend. We offered a friendly hello (again...in Korean) and the enthusiastically replied in kind. The women offered very warm smiles, likely impressed by our friendliness and surprised for our presence. One women came out from the group, digging through her bag. She produced a bag of about 6 small oranges. We tried to politely refuse but she insisted. With a great smile we accepted the bag and offered our sincere thanks in both words and short bows of our heads. We said good bye to the women and they said goodbye to us. We all carried on with our day.