The Blog Formerly Know as KimchiontheBrain

I just found out that I've broken Korean blogging protocol.   According to this here article,  when blogging in or about Korea, don't use "Kimchi" in the title.  I did do this knowingly,   but I couldn't get the image of kimchi shaped like a brain out of my brain.  So against my better judgement,  I did it anyway.  


Second, post a lot, and regularly.  Jeez,  that's a lot of work.  I don't know if most people put up as many photos as I do, but I find that Blogger makes it harder than it has to be, and there are other quirks to Blogger that make it a little more time consuming than it should be.  Anyway,  I'm no professional, I don't have a ton of free time, and as far as I can tell only maybe 10 people are reading this sucker anyways.  So I'll keep on my monthly posting schedule, and keep the title despite its cliche' nature. 


 I've been organizing some pictures of a huge hike I did a couple of weekends ago,  so I'll put them up soon. 


I rode 185 km in the mountains north of Seoul with a couple new friends last weekend,  that times out to about 111 miles,   I didn't bring my camera because it was too bulky for a ride where you have to haul a ton of food and water.  


It's been mostly in the 80s and humid as hell,  maybe hell is a dry heat,  I wouldn't know.   But it's realllly humid here.  And the mosquitos aren't terrible,  it's just that they only get you in your apartment,  when you're sleeping.  All of us teachers have these little red welts all over our faces and arms.  The funny thing is that they can't really go anywhere to lay their eggs, so you just find them floating bloated around your apartment in the morning and swat them, then clean the blood off the wall before you go to work.  The coffee shop guy that I've befriended, Kenny,  showed me an electrified tennis racquet for killing mosquitos and other flying pests.  I'm going to get one, they look like fun, and only a few thousand W.


Also there's a park near my apt that has a free weight room on the top of the hill.  It's free in that there's no cost and also it has free-weights.  I have to give credit to the Koreans that they trust their fellow citizens enough to have something like that open to the public, unguarded 24 hours a day, and yet the dumbbells, plates, benches, exercycles, and hipsleds haven't been stolen yet.  Anyway,  I've started pumping iron with the old dudes that hang out there, and this has renewed my interest in learning Korean which I had sort of let go through laziness and the fact that it's summer and I don't like to spend my few precious moments of sunshine in a coffeeshop studying.  Plus there are some minor league ball players that lift up there every night from 10 til lights out.  I want to get some free tickets to their gams, but I need to make better friends with them first.  Unfortunately I am usually just leaving when they show up.  


So that's that for now.  Hope you're all having a good summer.