I'm injured.

Crap Crap Crap. Double Crap. AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!

It started on vaca (have I mentioned that I spent 2 1/2 weeks in paradise while you guys were working?) when I was running on what they called a "road," and I tripped. Of course I tripped. I'm the biggest klutz in the world. Anyway, in an all-out effort to keep from face planting on a pile of rocks, I did whatever it is you do in a situation like that and somehow really fucked up my shoulder. Wasn't too worried - it was nothing that a butt-load of ibuprofen couldn't take care of. I figured I pulled something and in a few days it would be just fine.

But it's not fine. It's been bothering me quite a bit, though not enough to keep me from running. Just enough to keep me from ENJOYING my runs.

And then, this morning, on my run through the park, I got totally flattened by a mean 8 year old on a bike. She came off the pedestrian ramp like her life depended on it, probably didn't bother to look before she crossed the 2 bike lanes, and totally slammed into me. From behind, so I didn't see it coming, didn't brace myself, didn't have a second to try and get out of the way. I fell, hard, and she half rode over me and half fell on...my shoulder. My left arm has been rendered useless, my knees are scraped, and I have a bump/bruise on my forehead. And the poor little girl just cried and cried and cried - especially when she saw I was a round-eye. Poor thing!

Anyway, whatever I had already done to my shoulder was totally aggravated. Tomorrow's a scheduled rest day anyway, so hopefully by Saturday it'll be OK. You don't go through the health problems I've gone through without being forced to learn a thing or two about how to suck it up and handle physical pain, but holy cow it hurts right now!

Nothing else to report - except a random Korean dude in the coffee shop I'm holed up in just gave me an ice cold can of Cherry Coke. How sweet is that?!? For those of you back home, Cherry Coke is not an easy item to locate over here.

Just when I think the Universe hates me (fair enough - it did run me over on a bike this morning) it redeems itself by tossing a can of yummy Cherry Coke in my lap! Now if only it would deliver a pizza or a sandwich or something - I'm freaking starving!!!

Well, after a ridiculously small amount of deliberation and a ridiculously long phone call with Orbitz, Ant decided to stay in the Philippines. Cause, dude, there's some sweet swell coming in, bro. He extended his stay for 11 more days, which, believe it or not, is the longest we've been apart since the moment we laid eyes on each other (clearly the best day of his life). Can you guys believe it took him that long to take a break from me?!? :-) Shit, even I don't go that long without taking a break from me!

Not surprisingly, I miss having the ol' ball and chain around, especially when it's time to refill my coffee mug or beer glass. It's been pretty boring and quiet without him at home. I was getting a bit mopey being all by myself, until finally I decided that maybe this break was a good thing for us, and maybe I should take this time and really figure some stuff out.

So, I've decided to see other people.

And while I was a bit unsure and nervous at first, it's actually gone pretty well.

Last night, for example, I had a few beers with Daniel Craig (you know, the famous British Secret Service guy, 007?), before moving on to dinner with that guy from the Transporter movies. Who cares what his name is - have you seen him?!? Hotness like that does not require a name. By the time dinner was finished I was pretty beat and thought I'd just head to sleep, but then I decided to check in on an old high school flame, Zac Efron. I headed to sleep as soon as Zac finished serenading me about how he won the big state basketball game - I mean, 3 in one night is plenty...any more than that and people are gonna start to talk.

Sadly, none of them put out. But, anything before the third date and I'd think they were too easy, anyway. :-)

Oh, and I've also invented a new cuisine. Mexican/Korean fusion. I'm still deciding on the name - either Korexican or Mexorean. What do you guys think? All dishes are served with tortillas and sides of guac, sour cream, and kimchi. :-)

Role models? No. But I do consider us to be people that everyone should try to be like. They should try.

Over 24 hours of travel, 3 checks for swine flu, and one interview from customs and I'm back in Seoul. It's been a whirlwind of crappy food, going away parties, beer and vodka, and the coolest sunglasses ever since I got off the airport bus yesterday morning. Updates on EVERYTHING soon.

I've got one thing on my agenda tomorrow: Run far, and (hopefully) somewhat fast. Now, I'm off to bed. G'night.

The other day we rented some kayaks and paddled around to some of the neighboring islands. When we got to one we met a couple schoolgirls, and it took them about 0.003 seconds to fall madly in love with Ant. Totally understandable, in my opinion. :-) They followed him everywhere he went, giggling hysterically the whole time, and slowly working up the nerve to inch their way closer to him. Occasionally, one of them would shove one of the other girls in his general direction, and she would scream and run back to the protection of her girlfriends. It was quite funny and endearing, especially when they started offering commentary to each other, "Look! He's drinking the water!" "Now he is sitting down!" I could have stayed and enjoyed the entertainment all afternoon, but soon it was time to leave and make the journey back to Cloud 9. As we were getting ready to shove off, they finally worked up the nerve to ask him his name, and he snapped a pic (well, he says pic, I say total crotch shot - you guys be the judge) of them.









Other than that, it's been a whole lotta nothing, day in and day out. There's 2 decent surf sessions a day, and in between those we sit around, read, play cards, go for a swim, and just pretty much pass the time by doing whatever. It's been awesome. I've been running, which has turned out to be a great way to meet the locals. Some of the kids come out and run with me for a few minutes when I pass their house - they think it's hysterical - and most of the adults cheer me by name. Even some of the other tourists are like, "Dude, you're the girl we saw running down the street. You're nuts!"

One more week until I head back to Seoul, where brutal reality and air pollution will no doubt slap me in the face. At least I have Shells' visit to look forward to!

LOOK!!!! I DID IT!!! WOO HOO!!! Dudes, I am so stoked. :) Think Einstein can carry a long board?

I interrupt these posts about our trip to Songnisan to say that even during vacation, my job makes me hate it more by sending me stupid emails with thinly veiled threats and poor grammar and words that they think are English but don't actually exist.

They made things so miserable for Ant that he quit. They had pretty much left me alone up until the last month or so, leaving me to wonder why they were so awful to everyone else while I was having it pretty easy - now it looks like they've run out of people to bother and have set their sights on me. It's gonna take nothing short of a miracle to get me through the last 6 months of my contract.

Just got back from a 3 day trip to Songnisan National Park. It was an awesome trip, and if you're in Korea and you enjoy hiking you should really make it a priority to get there. If you're in Seoul you can take a direct bus from Nambu bus terminal, but the schedule is a bit inconvenient so we took a bus from EBT to Cheongu, then a different bus from Cheongu to the park entrance. Took a little over 3 hours, cost about 12,500 won each way. We left a little later than we had planned, so Saturday was pretty much a bust in terms of hiking. We tried, but there were a ton of park employees at the gate telling us it was closed. Instead, we walked around the town, found a place to sleep, dumped our bags, and went back out to explore the town a bit. Had some Dong Dong Ju and seafood pajean for a snack, then walked around some more until stopping for dinner. A few pics of the town, as well as the truck that was driving around selling all sorts of goodies, including dog meat: We found a cute, cheap minbak to stay in. No beds, so we slept on padded mats (called yohs, and quite common in Korea) that the minbak provided. The place seemed to be run by one lady, and she was super friendly and the whole place was spotless.

After being denied access to the park, we wandered around town some more and spent some time making fun of the sculptures in the sculpture garden outside of the campground. Dinner the first night was awesome! I unfortunately can't remember the name of the dish we had, but it was some sort of mushroom stew with all sorts of mountain vegetables, and of course the usual side dishes, rice, and beer. It was a family run place, and the Korean ajumma who runs the place actually goes into the mountains herself and gathers the mushrooms and veggies. We ate soooo much!

After dinner we wandered a bit more, then headed back to the minbak to see if there was anything in English on the TV. We found The Bourne Ultimatum. Total score!!!