Dinner and a Drive

Pack Chong Gku (pronounced "Fuck-Chong-Q" no joke) just treated me to dinner and a drive to a beautiful mountain temple. In fact, the mountain temple is the start of a trailhead, the second one he has shared with me today. He showed me the other one today when we "snuck" off campus to go see it.

Regardless, I was moved by the outpouring of kindness he has shown me. At 69 years old, barely graying, strong as an ox, still married, and a complete and total embodiment of caring and giving, I am still reeling from tonight's experience.

Frankly, he didn't do anything wildly special or bestow any sort of deep wisdom on me, but he simply realizes the context in which I am living (abroad w/ no family and only a few friends) and seamlessly stepped in and filled a small gap that I didn't even realize until getting up from dinner tonight. I guess what I mean is that until I actually sat down with this grandfather/father/familyesq type person and had a meal, I didn't realize that I was missing that aspect in my life be it here in South Korea or even back home in Denver.

Anyway, we ate some amazing Korean BBQ Bulgogi (beef) which you cook over a small grill at your table, and we just talked. Mr. Pack told me about his travels in the United States. He told me about his children, his wife, Korean marriage customs, and just about any other topic that a 26 year old and a 69 year old can relate about. In fact, one of the central topic of conversation was hiking. He loooves to hike, and he wants to take me to some place I can't even pronounce, but I'm totally down.

I'm just trying to say "yes" a lot over here. See where it takes me. See how it feels to just flow.

And on the topic of hiking, almost everyone I talk to loves hiking.

In Eonyong (a much smaller city than Ulsan) alone I have seen three hiking stores. Eonyong is not a big place. Three hiking stores is a disproportionate amount as compared to just about every other place I've been EXCEPT for Boulder. Boulder may have Eonyong beat, but Boulder is freakin' nuts.

Suffice to say, Eonyong fits me like a glove, and I'm excited to explore the beautiful mountains this weekend. Mr. Park told me he wants to come hiking but that he has to tend to his farm on the weekends. So in other words, he is working 40 hours during the week and also works his farm on the weekend.

Lets just say that by 69, I hope to have as much energy.