8 Seasons in the Land of the Morning Calm

Friendship is a diverse endeavor; layer over layer of intensity, mercy, strength, and weakness. It has a rare quality in its fleeting or stamina. You will always remember . Years from now, when the name escapes your tongue, a sudden surge of nostalgia will reconstruct a memory, a glimmer of the eye, a subtle texture of differences, and regardless of the distance that’s grown between, you will always smile fondly. Friendship is an education of the heart. It will teach you how far you will go, how willing you are to bend or break, and with what urgency you move through a particular time in life. I will have many moments in years to come that throw me back into the heart of my life in Korea. I owe the greatest debt of gratitude for rediscovering myself, and how much we all need each other, to my friend Ali . Some of you have taken the time to read his website and comment on his ordeal. But there is more than what is posted on a page. Letter after letter, his face materialize...

I returned to martial arts this month, and lucky for me, my muscles have good memory. The break was nice.  The abrupt end to our tournament aspirations with our bus accident, coupled with the pressing training schedule and mounting injury... I had needed this break.  The first three weeks back have been relatively painless, and it's been nice to be back in the dojang working out with Alex. I look forward to having my butt kicked into trekking shape by the time March rolls around. Hopefully we'll make one last trip out to Damyang to hack away at some bamboo, too.

With the help of our two closest friends, we negotiated with the landlady today for an additional month (our lease ends on February 3rd). It was rough-going for awhile. She was insisting we sign for an additional 6 months, sublet & give up our deposit ($3,000), then it was to pay double rent for the last month. At this point a mild panic began to overtake me as I thought of all the extra stress that would come from having to live with Alex's boss. A sweet offer, no doubt, but Alex may have actually lost his mind.  Lucky for us, Seung-gyun and Ki-hyeok are well-versed in the art of haggling. Game faces on, calm, questioning the landlord very subtly until she came around to what they deemed a fair price. We will pay an additional ￦150,000 ($150) for our last month, which is more that reasonable compared to the first options. With that mess out of our way, we divert our attention to selling furniture and the miscellaneous odds and ends we've acquired over the past ...