Happy lazy Sunday everybody. The weather's been nice here for awhile so I was surprised when I looked at the thermometer and it said a mighty 23 Fahrenheit. I haven't ventured outside yet and I'm not sure that I will. Updating the blog might be my only accomplishment today.

Yesterday I went to Insadong Market in Seoul in search of a guitar. I heard that there was a massive mall that just sold musical instruments so I decided to go in search of it. I should have just handed the store keepers my credit card on entering the place. There's no way a person can get out of there without dropping some cash. My damages amounted to two hundred dollars which I traded for a decent guitar. Now I can torture my neighbors with my unique brand of American music.

Sad to say, my Korean doesn't seem to be improving much, however, I am getting better at communicating through gesturing and improvised charades. I practice my Korean everyday but the pronunciation is what gets me. This is a typical conversation with one of the Korean teachers at my school:

Me: Excuse me but how do you say this word?
K Teacher: Oh that, that's pee-gon-ha-da.
Me: Pee-gon-ha-da?
K Teacher: No, Pee-gon-ha-da.
Me: That's what I just said. Pee-gon-ha-da.
K Teacher: No! Pee-gon-ha-da; da, da, da!
Me: Da-da-da?
K Teacher: No, da!

I guess I can't say "da" right, but I'm trying. It's a good experience for me though. It helps to remind me what the kids are going through when they try to learn English.

I kind of like not being able to understand what people are saying. In the states I heard so much bitching and whining from people. This is because I was a server and teacher. I would hear the kids complain at the school and then I would hear their parents complain at the restaurant. It really brought me down. Now I don't understand what anybody is saying so I'm free to imagine any scenario I feel like. The two ladies yelling at each other from across the street, they're not arguing about anything important. They're discussing who is "it" from their last game of tag.
"I touched you last."
"Oh, no you didn't. Remember there's no double taps."
The two drunk Korean business men on the street. They're not fighting about who slept with who's wife; they're fighting because one guy stole the other guy's balloon. I'm free to create and interpret any scenario in any way I want. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Coming to a place like this is tantamount to rebooting my life. Here I'm free to recreate myself in any way I want. It's like wiping the slate clean and starting all over again. I guess that's why I like extended travel so much. It gives me the chance to live many different lives rather than the same life all the time. Some people might think I'm running away, I choose to believe that I'm just adventurous.

I posted some Korean pics, but I was reviewing some camping pics from last year and so decided to post those for little bit reminiscence. Enjoy.