...and I'm Off!!

It's Friday evening.  I just finished packing for my trip.  I didn't really know what to pack, but I knew that I didn't want to pack a whole lot.  Tomorrow evening I'll be chillin' in Bangkok, eating some amazing food, and who knows what else.  For the longest time I've wanted to do some international traveling.  Prior to moving to Korea I'd only been to Mexico three times and Jamaica twice, other than that my traveling was within the states.  I added Korea and Japan to the list and will soon be making some more additions.  FINALLY!!!!!  Here a some packing pictures...


This is all I'm taking for 3 weeks!!! =)

Medicine, money, book, etc...

My trusty North Face backpack. I've had this thing since 1996 and it's still kickin'.  I bought a new backpack that I've been wanting to use, but the green guy has been everywhere with me, so I might as well not abandon it now. It's been soooo good to me!
I'll have limited internet access on my trip, so please don't expect regular posts for a while.  I will post if I can, but no pictures will go up until I return because I'm not taking my computer with me. 

Peace out!  Darby

Just a Post

It's Wednesday night and I just finished watching "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation." I just love that movie!!!!  I'm getting ready to go up to Seoul to meet a friend. This last week leading up to Christmas Break has been quite busy with work and with friends. This week I've had (or will have) two Christmas dinners, one Christmas party, and a couple nights out with my Korean friends. I've hit the pool 3 times this week and it feels great! My technique is still there, but I don't last too long, but that makes it easier to see results. Saturday morning I catch a bus at 6am up to Incheon (Seoul) Airport to catch my 10am flight to China, then on to Bangkok. I will be packing on Friday night...I'm a last minute packing type person. This is another boring post, but I figured I should post something. Here are some random pictures from the past few days...

A sculpture made by a student.  I don't know how they got away with this.  I found it (and what I'm doing) quite inappropriate, yet hilarious!!  Sorry.
A list of items up for auction at a school fundraiser.  Please read carefully (click to enlarge)....
Crappy cellphone picture of a dance club.
The Christmas tree from "Christmas Tree in a Can."  It's awesome!!!  Kind of reminds me of the tree from "Charlie Brown's Christmas."  =)
A few co-workers and I after a Christmas Dinner at Outback Steakhouse...that's right, we have Outback here!!  =)

Care Package

I received my 4th care package today and it made my day and that's why I'm blogging about it. Its contents: Bicycling magazine, Christmas Tree in a Can, homemade cookies and Chex mix, asthma medication, tasty soup mix, cashews, shirt from woot.com, random mail, Christmas card, hot chocolate mix, and a new Speedo!! That's right a new Speedo, and I look damn good in it..ha..jk. If you're lucky I'll post a pic...once again..jk. I'm swimming again and my old suits are worn out (eg nearly see through), so my mom sent me a new one. Plus I'll strut around in it on the Thailand and Bali beaches =) Seven days till departure!!

Thanks Mom!!

Ben Folds Five - Evaporated

The Ben Folds Five album "Whatever and Ever Amen" captured my senior year of high school(1997-1998)...a time of transition, anticipated change in life, closing one chapter while opening another. Recently, this album has found its way onto my playlist, and it brings back many memories. Now I find myself in Korea, in my late twenties. I've uprooted my life. I'm in the midst of transition. There have been significant changes in my circumstances, and significant changes within myself. I'm 4 months into a 2 year chapter of my life...at times asking myself, "what have I done...?"

Seoraksan National Park

Two weekends ago 3 friends and I headed off on a 4 hour bus ride to the NE coast of South Korea to Seoraksan National Park. We went out the night before and didn't get to bed until 5:30am and had to be at the bus station at 7:30am. We got less than 1.5 hours of sleep before catching the bus, but thankfully I was able to sleep some on the bus ride. The place was beautiful. If we would have gone 3 or 4 weeks earlier it would have been amazing. We met some new people. Got in 2 great hikes. Froze. And froze some more. Nearly blown off the mountain. Slept on the floor. Went to the sauna. Returned home Sunday night. Had a great time. Here are some pictures...
Getting ready to fall asleep on the floor

Sleeping on the bus
Stairway to Heaven

The big mountain we were on top of

The view from the top
Chillin, trying not to look frozen
Will, Greg, me, Adam
Park entrance

Our hotel room. Fully furnished with a bed mat.

Will, he is part duck

Tis' The Season To Be Giving

I like water. You like water. I need water. You need water. We all need water. But over 1 billion people do not have access to life-sustaining, clean water. Give a little, help a lot!

Here are a couple credible organizations where you are able to help:

Charity Water




Blood:Water Mission


The school that I work at just did a fundraiser for Blood:Water Mission. It was an educational evening for me. Hence, this post.

Back in Business

It's reported that on Friday, Dec 5 Bangkok's airports will re-open!!! The protesters got what they wanted...the Prime Minister to concede. Here is an article on what happened. Hopefully, the media hasn't reported anything too soon. Travel plans are back in line!!! Sweet!

Competition

I miss my bike (bicycle)...actually bikes. I miss riding them. I miss working on them. I miss racing them. I haven't been a bike for quite a while now, and even longer since I've raced one. I miss being competitive. I miss suffering. I miss having concrete fitness goals. These days it's more like "I want to get in shape." What does that necessarily mean? What does that look like? Etc. That is a goal that does not create much motivation for me to achieve it. There has to be something to work toward, not a better physique, but more like I want to run or ride in this race, place this well, or maintain this pace. So here are my thoughts... you read a while ago that my mountain bike never made it to Korea and you also read that I started running again. Nowadays I have to keep the distance pretty short due to my crappy knees, that are getting progressively worse. But I can run a 5K (who can't) and a 10K, so that's what I'm going to stick with. Here in Korea there are plenty of 5k and 10K races in the spring months, which give me something to work towards during the winter months. Also, I think when I return to Kansas City (cause odds are that's where I'll end up) I'm going to pick up a cyclocross (cx) bike. You can ride it anywhere, plus there is a decent CX scene in Kansas City with plenty of races. In fact, the Cyclocross National Championships are held in KC. My return to KC is a long way from now, but those are my thoughts...one way to help prevent becoming stagnant again.

Wow, this was a boring post, but it's typed, so it's being posted.

A couple of my bikes...somewhere in Utah

Mountain biking in Durango, Colorado (check out the hair...ha)

Mountain biking in Jackson Hole, Wyoming (The Tetons in the background)

Official Travel Plans: Christmas Break

In my previous post I alluded to some upcoming travels. Well, here are the official travel plans for my 3 week Christmas Break!!! =)

Dec 20: Depart Seoul, Arrive in Bangkok, Thailand

Dec 20-23 Bangkok:  One night will be spent watching this... 

Dec 24-27 Chang Mai (northern Thailand...in the mountains):  I will ride an elephant!  Hopefully it will not stand up on its hind legs =)

Dec 28-29 Similan Islands (a national park in Thailand)

Dec 30-Jan 4 Ko Phi Phi (island in southern Thailand

Jan 5 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Jan 6-11 Ubud, Bali: I will be staying in a bungalow surrounded by rice fields and terraces.

Beach in Bali...hopefully will go surfing for a couple of days.

Jan 12 First day back to school

Needless to say, I'm quite excited for this trip.  One of the reasons for moving overseas was so I could travel and I haven't been able to do much thus far.  But second semester offers up ample time to travel.  Here are some upcoming trips with details to come later:

1) Jan 23-28: Tokyo, Japan

2) Feb 20-Mar 1: Sikkim, India.  Trekking in the Himalayas

3) April 3-12: Philippines..exact location to be determined

Turbulence and Traveling

So if you've been watching the world news you will have noticed that (like usual) a lot terrorism, threats of terrorism, and violent protests have been taking place. I talked with my mom today to wish everyone at the family get-together a "Happy Thanksgiving" and she said to me, "you may want to reconsider your travel plans." I told my mom that all my tickets and sleeping arrangements have been booked. Three of the countries that I plan on visiting in the next 3 months are dealing with some major violent disturbances.

In 3 weeks I'm off to Thailand and Bali for 3 weeks of travel and beach time. Bankok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport has been shut down due to anti-government protests, which included at least 4 bomb blasts. Hopefully things will settle down and the airport will reopen by December 20th.

In 2002 and 2005 Bali experienced numerous terrorist bombings that targeted the tourist districts. Just recently, the individuals directly responsible for the bombings were executed. Leading up to the executions, there were a number of terrorist threats to continue bombing tourist districts and embassies. I am supposed to arrive in Bali on January 4th.


On Wednesday major attacks were launched on popular hotels and commerical buildings in Mumbai, India. The death toll is 119 people. Islamist terrorists are supposedly responsible for the situation, which is still not under control. People are still being held hostage. Reports state that the terrorists were looking for both Americans and Brits. I will not be in India until February.


It's a bit eerie to see places that I will soon be traveling to experience such chaos and tragedy. I know tragedy takes place on a daily basis across the world, but I've always had the idea that I'll be safe, and odds are when I travel to these places, I will be safe, but it does make me feel a little weird.

Road Trip

Today I checked the gas prices back in Kansas City. Roughly $1.50/gallon. If I was back in the states I would jump in my car and go on a road trip. To where you may ask. Maybe Utah, Jackson Hole...I don't know...I'm just so excited that it would only cost $25 to fill my tank. But I'm not in states, and I sold my car when I left. So instead of road-tripping this week I will be going to Seoraksan National Park in the NE part of South Korea to do a couple days of hiking. I'm going with a group called "Adventure Korea." Three friends are going on the trip as well. It seemed like a fun little trip to go on in order to mix things up a bit. Here are some pics of the park...

My Blog

I'm a relatively candid person, but I find myself feeling the need to censor what I write on my blog (not because of inappropriate content, but for reasons somewhat unknown).  When I first starting blogging I was quite un-enthused about doing so. These days I find myself wanting to blog all the time...whether it's about a new song/album that I just heard, an emotion or thought that I had, a silly statement that I heard during the day, an encounter with a Korean, anything. I could probably post twice a day (at least). When I first moved to Korea I had someone back home to talk to on a twice-a-day basis. It was during those conversations that I could share what was going on here in Korea each day, therefore I didn't feel the need to write a blog.  I do not have those twice-a-day conversations anymore.  In fact, if I get to talk on the phone with someone back home once a week, I consider it a good week of communication.  So maybe that's why I find myself wanting to blog all the time because I can no longer consistently tell another person what's going on in my life.  So (some of) it ends up here.  In the posts to come you may (or may not) see another side of me.  We shall see...

One of the most common sites on the subway...a drunk person passed out...rather humorous!!

My buddy, Greg, and I receiving verbal instructions on how to use chopsticks. PS...we already knew how to use them.

Me picking up a Skittle with chopsticks...it takes talent...I was very excited! =)

Don't mess with the Chopstick Compadres!

Fix It

Mr. Ryan Adams

I couldn't have said it any better! Thank you for making music that meets me where I'm at.

Name Change

My blog was originally titled "The Moped Diaries" because I had a vision of purchasing a moped/scooter and riding around all of Korea experiencing the people, the culture, the landscape, etc. Well several weeks ago I opted not to purchase a moped for several reasons: 1)shopping for one was difficult 2)can't take scooters on the highway, nor do I want to after experiencing the driving here, 3)I'd rather use the money on a plane ticket somewhere. Also, I was planning on having my mountain bike shipped over via the military. I had a friend back home take my bike to a shop to have it boxed to certain specifications. The bike shop failed to follow directions, so my bike is sitting in two boxes, one of which the military will not ship. So no moped, no bicycle. Oh well, I have two legs that work very well, buses and trains are frequent, and taxis are cheap. Plus if I really need to go somewhere I can borrow a car from my school...I have my Korean driver's license. The other day I drove for the first time in 3.5 months...it was quite fun. I could speed, swerve, honk! I could do whatever I wanted and it was permissible. Back to the name change. It's now titled "The No-Ped Diaries" because I do not have a moped or a bicycle...no wheels, no pedals.

The weather has changed in Korea. I thought I would handle the cold weather quite well being from KC, MO where we have cold winters. The difference here is that it went from being nice weather to bitter cold in a matter of 3 days. There is no in between here like in the Midwest. This morning it was 19 degrees F when I walked to work. Four days ago it was 40-45 degrees F when I walked to work. My blood needs to thicken or maybe I'll walk to work sipping on my flask of whiskey. Just kidding.

This is what I look like when walking to work in the morning...

15 Seconds of Funny

cat boxing

Brazilian Steakhouse, Smores, and S'more Dancing

I got into the bad habit of not carrying my camera around with me at all times, so I'm making an effort to carry it with me more often. This past weekend I went to Daejeon (1.5 hour bus ride south) to meet up with my friend from the states and a couple of his co-workers that I'll be traveling with over Christmas break. We had dinner reservations for 6:30 at Mr. Lee's Brazilian Steakhouse. Mr. Lee is Korean and he owns the place, but it is staffed by Brazilians, so it is authentic food. For 27,000 Won (~ $25) we had all you could eat beef, lamb, duck, chicken, turkey, and pork. I stayed away from the chicken and pork because I eat so much of that stuff as it is...I wanted to save my appetite for the good stuff. Sorry, I didn't take my camera out till after dinner.

The steakhouse was located on a hill overlooking a lake. There was also a campfire pit right outside the restaurant where you can hang out at after dinner. Before dinner we went and got the makings for Smores, so that after dinner we could make them at the campfire. We walked out to the campfire and sat down with our goodies. My friend and I were the only non-Koreans there, but our friend that came with us is Korean, therefore she knows the language, which was quite helpful. There were several Korean families at the campfire and most of them had little kids. So we decided that we would make Smores for all the kids and if the parents wanted one, they'd get one too. Koreans do not know about Smores, so they were in for a nice treat. Everyone was amazed at the roasting of marshmallows...they'd never seen it before. So we prepared the treats and watched them enjoy!!! It was great!! Lots of laughing, and broken English and a little bit of broken Korean on my part. I think the kids favorite part was roasting the marshmallows. What kid doesn't like fire?!

After dinner and dessert we headed off to grab a couple drinks at Santa's Bar. The owner's name is Mr. Ho, hence Santa's. We enjoyed some Guiness (at a reasonable price). Ran into a couple of schmuck foreigners. I left with a new Guiness pint glass for 1,000 Won (80 cents)...score!! Next we were off to a dance club. No great stories from there, except that I danced...haha. It was a fun night in Daejeon.

Here are some pics...

My dancing queens!

What looks to be the "peace" symbol actually means "victory" here in Korea. Every picture...

Word to your mother!

I call this one "Lazer Head"...or" look at my double chin"...ha!

I call this one "totally awesome/L-E-G-E-N-wait for it D-A-R-Y!"

Hayes, myself, and an "ajashi."

Hayes, Jen, a kid we called Jack, and myself roasting marshmallows!

More roasting. I also taught Jack how to "pound it," "bump it" ...whatever you call it!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!!!!

Today is my grandpa's 83rd birthday!! He is an amazing man! I called to wish him a happy birthday and say hello to the whole family that gathered together to celebrate. It was tough being away for his birthday and the family get-together. I wonder what it will be like being away over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays...?

Resonates...

Band of Horses: " No One's Gonna Love You"

This song is hands down amazing!

New Music

Thanks to a couple recommendations I've found some great new music.  Here are a couple of songs that have my attention right now.

Band of Horses - Is There A Ghost


Doves - There Goes The Fear

You can spare $10!!!

Check out this link....

www.raceto20k.org

Happenings...

The other day at school a couple students said that I look like Hercules. Yeah, where'd they come up with that one? Anyways, I'll take the compliment...haha.

I was riding the subway in Seoul and I accidentally pressed the emergency stop button. Whoops!!! I got lots of looks and laughs. Unfortunately I didn't know how to say "I'm sorry" (since then I've learned), so I said the Korean word for "thank you," smiled and waved to everyone. It made no sense, but I didn't know what else to say. Ten minutes later the train was up and running.

Halloween in Korea is pretty fun. You feel really silly riding public transit from a non-Western part of town to Western part of town where other people are dressed up. Lots of people dressed up and celebrated, even some Koreans. My costume sucked. Should have bought something when I was in LA.

The other night there was a misunderstanding at a restaurant and a Korean man tried to start a fight with me. I was blamed for something I didn't do. I thought it was rather humorous, so that probably didn't help the situation. Another Korean guy intervened. I'm a peacemaker, but please do not interrupt my eating or we may have trouble =)

I finished "The Year of Living Biblically - One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible." I really enjoyed reading the book. If you're looking for a book that will make you laugh out loud, then look no further. The book has some good food for thought as well. I'm not a book critic.

I started reading "Eat, Love, Pray." Very candid, which I appreciate. A bit sad so far. Divorce. Desperate love. De-valuation of self. Just moved to Italy. Looking forward to the rest of the book. Also picked up "Kite Runner" and "The Road."

Here are a few pics...