I really wish I could be home this year for Thanksgiving. I haven’t had a decent turkey dinner with all the trimmings in years. Although that would just be the cherry on top, so to speak. I really miss my family and friends.  I’ll try to call sometime over the holidays, but it’s going to be tough to do it while everyone’s together – 15 hour time zone difference makes mid-afternoon America an early morning thing here.

I’ve decided that unless something spectacular happens between now and then I won’t be coming home for Christmas. Flights are just too expensive. I get 10 days vacation, but so does everyone else and the prices are jacked up from mid-December through mid-January. If I can swing it, I’ll defer my vacation until spring and get a cheaper flight. If that doesn’t work, I may just stay until early 2013 when the lease is up on our apartment and I’ll move back to America. Of course, that all depends on the economy in the US – and that’s anyone’s guess as to what that will be like.

This weekend is another kimchi weekend at the mother-in-law’s house. Cabbages are on sale all over the vegetable markets in town. It’s also MyeongHee’s mom’s birthday, so we’ll go up on Saturday evening, have a small party and then make kimchi.

This past weekend was a climbing fest in Munsu. The Korea on the Rock climbing group folks came into town and replaced a bunch of old rusted hardware on the mountain so that future climbing is safe. I personally took off a few terribly rusted anchors and replaced them with shiny new stainless steel chains. Then we climbed that route, which we hadn’t done in years because of the rotten condition of the anchor.  Here’s a link from the KOTR folks with more details and pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The one the left is the old crusty one, and the new stuff on the right. The bolt on the left was a little rusty but still solid and another crew will come out in the next week or two to replace that. They were having trouble with the charge on the drill battery running out before it should have, so not enough bolts were drilled. Crappy anchors removed, the climb is tons safer than it was.
Again, any climbers wanting a tour of Korea would be well advised to plan a trip next year. After that, you’ll have to find your own way around as I hope to be back in America.

That goes for the rest of you, too: of all my family and friends back home, and all the years I’ve been here, only two friends have ever come to visit Korea, Mark in 2007 and Kim in 2005. We’ve got a spare bedroom so we could put you up and give you the $2 dollar tour. 2012 is likely the last chance to visit this place and get a guided tour.

A few pictures from this weekend:

 

Anywho, not much else going on here. My Thanksgiving celebration will likely be no more than drawing a picture of a roast turkey on the blackboard and explaining the holiday that is this week. Guaranteed to get a million questions about what turkey tastes like since they don’t eat much of it here. Few people have ovens at all since most Korean meals are either grilled or pan cooked. The few that do are not large enough to prepare a bird of that size. And besides, they like their meat with scads of red pepper, and I’m not sure that would even taste good.