I'm a Hypocrite (Part 3)

Figured its about time I finished this thing, so here goes.

2 weekends ago saw Hyemi and I heading out for Spanish food. Real Spanish food, so no tacos, enchiladas, burritos or tamales in sight. Sorry if that comes as a shock to some, but unfortunately Spanish food is not the same as Mexican food, kinda like how South Korea is not the same as North Korea. This place was an absolute hole in the wall, containing all of 5 tables in total, but tapas, paellas, whatever, they had it. And they were surely delicious. Hyemi had never had Spanish food, which frankly didn't surprise me at all, as I was absolutely floored to discover that there were any Spanish restaurants at all in Seoul. But there are, and I went to one of them and it was very good.

From there we headed to another cave-like bar for drinks and chit-chat. I've tried to understand why I'm drawn so strongly to these establishments that resemble somewhere that a bear or clan of bats may live in, but so far no answers. I presume it has something to do with my hermit/hobo nature that led to so many early morning wanderings and one attempt to sleep out in the arboretum. I guess this is as close as I can get to forgoing modernity's instruments and living simply with nature. One might reasonably suggest a park as a better option, but considering I'm been ushered off the grass.....AT A PARK (yes, you read that right), then maybe that isn't the best option here in Korea.

The next weekend, we met up again in a quaint little district filled with upscale restaurants. Hyemi was in charge, so she led us to a little Chinese restaurant for dumplings and other goodies. From there, we headed to my favorite tea house to down some tasty tea and try not to get hit by birds flying overhead. While there, we discussed some stuff. Namely, Hyemi's difficult situation. I mean, as awesome as I may be (and I'm pretty awesome), she is just about to turn 30 and the pressure is really on to get married. Technically the pressure is on for girls to get married as soon as they leave their mother's wombs, but it really reaches a fever pitch around 30. Not helping things is the fact that many of her friends are now getting married. As a result, she has to consider whether its worth wasting her time with me, knowing full well that I don't plan on staying in Korea long term. Then there's the whole thing of me not being Korean, which brings with it plenty of stigmas and bad press, at least for some people. Lots of stuff to mull over.

Lastly we come to the dreaded half-marathon. Man, I would have saved myself so much pain if I had just trained for the damn thing, but I really didn't want to quit doing capoeira for a time and I certainly couldn't have done both at the same time. With it kicking off at 9am in a town an hours subway ride outside of Seoul, I had to head down the night before. With the park being located in the middle of the city of Seongnam, accommodations were easy to find. However, they weren't cheap. At least it allowed me to watch a TV concert for one of the really big all girl pop groups.....in HD. I'm pretty sure that's what HD was invented for. Usually I can't stand to watch their performances, however attractive the ladies may be. Fortuitously for me, I've discovered a special button on each remote. I believe in English it is called the "Mute" button. A wonderful invention, this "Mute". It singlehandedly turned what is normally a painful experience into something quite enjoyable. I recommend you try it.

The marathon itself was solid. Despite running it in the middle of the city with nothing but high-rise apartments all around me, the scenery wasn't too bad. They were wise to have the entire thing run on their walkways that bordered a little stream that ran through town. From all the people out walking or riding their bikes to the running water to the grass and other green, nature-y things, you could almost pretend you weren't in the middle of a 1,000,000 plus city. I took my damn sweet time, as I certainly didn't want to collapse in the middle of the race. Man, would that have been embarrassing. Instead, I allowed myself to be passed by all manner of participant. Elementary school girl? Yup. Hungover (or perhaps still drunk) middle aged man? Smoked me. 3 month old crawling toddler? Left me in the dust. 99 year old granny in her motorized wheelchair? I don't wanna talk about it. For me, it was just a nice relaxing 12 mile run. So much for winning that sweet bag of rice for a top spot. Not like I ever ate the bag I won last time.

The highlight was the super enthusiastic people at the refreshment stations. Well, I guess I should specify. The high school girls at the refreshment stands. Everybody else was just going about their business, but these girls apparently had decided that returning home from the marathon with any fraction of their voice intact would be unacceptable. One particular group was screaming for every individual runner that went by, even breaking in a popular K-pop song and dance at times. Amazing, considering there were upwards of a 1000 people running this thing. That is dedication. Not surprisingly, I was a big hit with the kids, boy and girl. After they got over the shock of seeing just how wrong they had been when they declared Brad Pitt the most attractive man on the planet, it was time to try out your weird and limited English. I was in no rush, so naturally, I stuck around after finishing my cup of water to sign autographs, pose for pictures, teach a few free-talking English lessons, you know the usual. My favorites from the English they threw my way? When offering words of encouragement while I was running by, one girl said "Cheer up". Hahah. Not typically what you say to pump somebody up, but I think it works quite well. Naturally, around the 1 or 2 km mark you begin to realize how boring and stupid it is to run around for 12 miles or so, and a well placed "Cheer up" can do wonders to break you out of your funk. My favorite was the lady that yelled "Water! Here! Please!" Perhaps she was politely reminding me that she had water. To me, it sounded more like she was laying down the laws and I had best follow them. After I passed her, I thought about going back, just cuz I didn't wanna see that woman angry.

When it was all over, I clocked a very ugly 2 hours, 12 minutes time. However, I still looked good, as I was able to basically sprint out the last kilometer, mainly cuz I barely broke a sweat for the first 17km of 21km. Despite not being winded, my legs were killing me. The race people had me covered. Post race snacks? Cheapy little bread thing from one of the crappy chain bakeries, corn tea, and a coffee drink. After I finished my super food, I was ready to run another 21.090123421342341234234234234 km. But I decided I should go home, cuz running marathons is really boring. The end.

Next time, I'll have exciting stories about the teacher's volleyball tourney happening next week. I think we've got some legit talent this year, but I'll know for sure after tomorrow's practice game. I really wanna embarrass somebody, really, really bad. Or hit them in the face with a volleyball. Doesn't really matter to me.