Journaling Jerry's journeys

Good morning from Anseong! Today is Monday 5 May 2008, and it's Children's day holiday here in South Korea. I'm writing my blog off-line since I still don't have internet access at home. I'm told progress has been delayed because of the holidays. The closest telephone booth is two blocks from my apartment, so it's an effort to talk to people back home. Hey, I found a wireless connection just outside my apartment building, so I can post blogs!

Sunday was an eventful day: I started out watching my laundry tumble, one more reason to love a front loading washing machine. There's something mesmerizing about seeing my socks roll around one way then the other for an hour. (yes I am easily amused... why do you ask?)

Jerry gets adopted

After spreading out my laundry to dry I took a drive around town to get acquainted with the lay of the land. Near the Anseong police station, I found a traffic circle with a park and a small hill in the center. Always the curious one, I parked, grabbed my camera an walked to the top of the hill.

The view wasn't anything spectacular, it's only about ten meters above the surrounding farmland and trees pretty much obstructed the view. As I was walking back to my rental car I saw a family had set up a blanket and a gas grill to cook lunch. One of the gentleman motioned me over and invited me to sit down and join them for lunch, which I graciously accepted.

I took off my shoes and sat on a corner of their blanket joining the family for lunch of grilled pork, mushrooms, and garlic cloves wrapped in lettuce leaves, spiced with Korea death paste and some sort of grass salad. Cherry tomatoes were passed around, as were home-made sushi-like rolls. I drank water with lunch, the two men sipped soju, the ladies drank beer, and everyone toasted their good fortune with each refill of the paper cups. It's a custom to never fill your own glass, and I watched with amusement as one man would fill his friends cup, then hand the bottle over so his friend could fill his, then another round of toasts. Dessert was some sort of melon, and it too was quite tasty.

Small talk was difficult since I don't speak a word of Korean yet, but the two girls knew enough English to translate for us. I helped them clean up and felt welcome in Korea for the first time since I arrived. I may never meet this family again, but their kindness really made my day.

Next stop: Geocaching!

Spoiler alert! If you're going to search for this geocache, you might want to stop reading. The specific hiding spot isn't shown, but the general location is discussed.

Not far from Anseong is the “Korean Totem Pole” geocache. If you don't know geocaching, check out the www.geocaching.com web site and take a look around – it's basically a treasure hunt game using a GPS receiver to guide you to interesting places.

There must be some significance to the totem poles along this road but I don't yet know what it is, there are easily fifty of them standing in groups of three to fifteen along both sides of the road for about half a mile. In the first picture you can see my rental car parked at the far end, for size comparison. The poles range from six inches diameter to about ten inches and are up to about fifteen feet tall.

This sign is at the bottom end of the road:

The problem is not that there's a duck on your head...

Scary faces:

“Korean Gothic” (with apologies to Grant Wood):

I did find the geocache, signed the logbook and left a travel bug I've been carrying around for a couple of years.

Enough totems for today, it's time to head off to Osan air base for dinner. I met JR, a friend of a friend, at the entrance of Osan air base. We went to the Mustang Club for dinner and their steak served sizzling on a platter was very welcome for this American far from home, with no Kimchee in sight anywhere. After dinner JR gave me a quick driving tour around the base, showing me the new buildings and the golf course. He introduced me to Roger who is a motorcyclist and has stable full of bikes, including a couple of loaners. Roger invited me to join him, riding his BMW f650gs through the mountains some weekend this summer – I could be on bike again soon, touring Korea! I may have to ask my friends back home to ship my helmet and jacket.

So that was my Sunday this weekend: meeting new friends, seeing new places, geocaching, getting absorbed in the Korean culture. I'm really beginning to enjoy this.

Talk to you all soon,

Jerry.