All the guides suggest you deal with this by launching the extra programs you want run from your .xinitrc (which is only ever run once), but AFAICT that file is ignored by modern Linux distributions. Then they’ll often offer some kind of solution that’s a lot of complicated configuration specific to the window manager you’re using. My hack works regardless of window manager, and simply asks the X server if a given application is running yet.

awesome version:
awful.util.spawn_with_shell( "xlsclients | grep -q nm-applet || nm-applet" )

xmonad version:
spawn "xlsclients | grep -q nm-applet || nm-applet"

This obviously only works if the program you’re starting actually connects to the X server.

For a bit under a year, I’ve been going to a local CrossFit gym: Mad Dawg Fitness. If you haven’t heard, CrossFit involves doing a little bit of everything, with a goal of getting decent at everything. This involves power lifting, Olympic lifting, pull ups, push ups, hand stands, jump ropes, box jumps, dips, short runs, rope climbs, farmer walks, lunges, etc. etc. On a typical night we’ll focus on technique/increased load in one lift, and then do a 5-15 minute high intensity circuit workout. The most I’ve ever run in a workout there is 2k (either as 2×1k, or 5×400m) which happens maybe once every other month. (I only go 3 times a week. Some people go more often.)

Danielle and our friend Jasmine had signed up to the the 1st half of the San Francisco Marathon when Danielle hurt her knee and decided she couldn’t run. She’s done a few half marathons while I’ve always been of the opinion that running sucks and is miserable. But partly to do something hard, and partly to not let Jasmine run alone I decided to run in Danielle’s place. I decided some time near the end of June. Here’s all the running I did in preparation for the half:
July 1, 2.5 miles in my Vibram Five Fingers before giving up with an arch cramp.
July 4, switching to shoes, 4.3 miles before giving up because the inserts were shot.
July 8, after buying new inserts, 3.2 miles.
July 11, 7.5 miles.
July 15, 5.2 miles.
July 18, 12 miles. This was supposed to be a 10 mile run, but I misread my map.
July 20, 4.2 miles.
So with a grand total of 38.9 miles run this year, I went into today’s half marathon. (Actually, I ran 2.1 miles on February 6, too, but I’ll call that experimental error.)

I won’t spend more than this sentence complaining how early I had to get up, but it was early. Jasmine’s friend dropped us off near the start, and we found our wave easily. It wasn’t super cold, but cold enough that I was glad to have brought a trash bag to wear while waiting around. Everything seemed well-organized and was running smoothly. After 20 minutes or so it was our time to start, and to loud cheers the front of the last wave got going. Once there was some room in front of us we got going too. We’d decided on 7 minutes of running followed by 1 minute of rest and with our easy pace that meant a break before the first mile was up. Our first mile took 11:54, which seemed perfect for our stated goal of finishing in two and a half hours.

The next few miles went by without a hitch in 10:54, 11:28, and 11:41. The weather was perfect for running: cool and overcast. Somewhere on this stretch we ran on a bike path headed straight out to the bay, and I remember thinking how pretty it was. In the air was a mix of cut grass and seawater smell which I both like. But then I did feel like it’d be a lot prettier without a thousand people running in front of and behind me.

Our first little hill wasn’t much of a problem, and we felt alright climbing up to the Golden Gate Bridge. We must have slowed down though, because miles 5 and 6 took us 27:46. Part of that was probably due to traffic on the bridge. 3 lanes were closed for the half marathon: 1 for outgoing runners, 1 for returning runners, and 1 as a safety barrier between the runners and the real traffic. 1 lane was just too narrow, and we found us often slowing down, waiting for a gap between the people in front of us. One downside of the run/walk interval is definitely that you then have to be passing people while you’re running and there wasn’t always space to do that.

At the turnaround point in Marin County we used the water station. They were all well staffed and well equipped, but all but the very first one we passed had run out of gel. Jasmine was regretting not carrying one with her, and I had been counting on getting one at the water station but there were none to be had. There was a fun band playing though, which helped us get going for the way back across the bridge. Miles 7 and 8 took 23:53, again under the 12 minute mile pace we were shooting for.

This is when Jasmine really started hurting. She’d been complaining about a crampy foot almost the whole race, and now her knee was starting to bug her. During our walking breaks she’d be limping a little bit. But she’s a real trooper and just kept on going. Aside from tight calves, and a pinky toe that was rubbing against my shoe, I felt alright. I barely even breathed hard. I guess that’s what you’re supposed to do, but when running by myself I always go faster than that.

We did mile 9 in 10:52 due to a perfect downhill coming from the top of the bridge. Mile 10 inexplicably took just 8:46. I suspect a marker wasn’t quite in the right place, or I just didn’t push the buttons on my watch right. It was at the top of a pretty steep hill. From then on I thought it was all downhill but it was more up-and-down than just down. By mile 11 Jasmine had to start taking breaks aside from our scheduled ones. It took 11:06, but mile 12 took 13:09.

At mile 12 I went ahead by myself. I didn’t want to feel like I’d spent the whole race taking it easy, and while 1 mile of hard running can’t make you feel like 13 miles of moderate running I did my best to make it hurt. I didn’t keep a very consistent pace though because I wasn’t familiar with the course, and I didn’t see the 13 mile marker so I didn’t start sprinting until I could see the finish. That last 1.1 mile took me 9:16 and got me winded enough that I wondered if I was going to pass out after the finish. It was pretty fun though, passing people left and right, darting through clumps of runners and weaving around others.

It took me 2:30:41 to finish the half marathon, or an 11:30 minute mile pace. The 12 mile run the previous week I completed in 2:07:47, or a 10:36 minute mile pace. That run definitely felt harder than the real race. I’m guessing of course, but I think hanging back with Jasmine probably cost me about 10 minutes overall time in the event. But instead of 2:20 of misery, I got to mostly take it easy and enjoy her company rather than run the race by myself. That was totally worth it.

After I’d picked up my medal and space blanket I went looking for Jasmine and saw her just before she crossed the finish at 2:34:58 (11:50 minute mile pace). She was a lot worse off than I was. I just spent my time stretching out my super-tight calves. Jasmine instead went to the medical tent to ice her foot. Not that that was the only part that needed icing, just the most pressing one. Jasmine’s friend picked us up at the finish, which was awesome because the lines for the buses back to the start were huge. Luckily he’d found a parking spot fairly close. It took Jasmine just another mile time to hobble over there.

So now it’s done. I’m sitting at home drinking water, with two very tight calves and a blister on my pinky toe. There’ll be some foam rolling later that’s sure to hurt like hell. I need to catch up on sleep, and I probably won’t feel up to working out tomorrow. And the race was pretty easy for me. Jasmine’ll take longer than that to get back. I just hope she doesn’t have to walk any stairs tomorrow. In return for all that work we got a shirt, a medal that looks like it belongs on a key chain, and the knowledge that we can cover 13.1 miles in about two and a half hours. (It is a very nicely designed key chain thing though, and I similarly like the shirt’s design.) I wasn’t really excited for the race, either before or after it. I just spent a couple of hours following the people in front of me.

Instead I could’ve gone on a pretty hike which would net me memories of beautiful places and some pictures. Or I could’ve spent the time finishing my cabinet, which (eventually) will get me a cabinet I can look at and be proud of. Or I could’ve tried to set a dead lift PR without waking up early, and with only being miserable for a few minutes while lifting the weight and spending the rest of the time hanging out with friends. Or finally get back to practicing playing the harmonica. Or get back on my slackline. This feeling is very similar to after the triathlon I did a few years ago. I just don’t see the point.

But I’m very impressed with how easy it was to go from never running more than 2k in a workout occasionally, to easily finishing a half marathon in the top 77% (in my age group). If I’d gone my own pace (2:20) I would’ve ended up in the top 62%. (And 2:10 would’ve put me right in the middle of my age group.) Nothing spectacular, but not embarrassing either. The get-you-ready-for-anything aspect of CrossFit seems to really work.

As in the napping article, I find that I don’t need to fall all the way asleep to get the benefit of the nap. I do get in bed and completely horizontal, but usually I just doze lightly. Sometimes it feels like my alarm wakes me up after 20 minutes, but other times I don’t feel like I slept. I still feel better afterwards. I do make it a point to not lie down thinking about something. I consciously go with whatever images my brain brings up, which is usually a confusing jumble like in a music video.

When napping, I always wear a Lights Out sleep mask, just as an extra way of blocking out the world. It’s comfy and just works really well. Once we get some heavy curtains over the outside door, I might stop using it. Probably not though.

I’m using a DS18B20 temperature sensor because I had one from another project. It’s only rated to 257F but I tend to smoke cool anyway. I am not relying on the parasitic mode because that’s supposed to not work well at high temperatures. The Arduino (a RBBB from Modern Device) reads the temperature. If it’s below 210F then it turns on a relay. If it’s above 210F it turns the relay off. I might experiment with fancier algorithms later.

The relay is soldered in line with an extension cord, which just has the hot plate plugged into it. Because the relay’s coil voltage is 12V, I use a 15V (unlabeled) power supply. A 5V regulator creates power for the microcontroller and the display.

I got some 7-segment LEDs to display the current temperature. Using a 7 (1 for each segment) by 3 (for each digit) matrix they are controlled with 10 pins. Only 1 segment is lit up at each time, so each segment is on for at most a 7th of the time. With my current code it’s worse than that, but I don’t know how much. (Scope donations are welcome.) This works great indoors, but as you can tell in the pictures is not bright enough to be read in bright sunlight. I stuck a tube over the display so I could read it.

Anyway, results: It worked pretty well. I had a problem with getting the sensor in the right place. Probably this has to do with the air flow in the smoker. I might drill a hole in the lid next time instead of running it through the side somewhere. But once I had it in a good spot, everything was very reliable. With the oven thermostat the temperature would regularly be off by 40F either way, and I’d check up on it every 10 minutes and often would adjust the thermostat a little. There was none of that this time. I still checked every 15 minutes, but towards the end left it alone for almost an hour. I overdid the ribs I put in there a bit, but the flavor was still good, and the thick parts came out very nice.

You can grab source/schematic here. The schematic is a little rough, but all the wires are there. It does show 2 buttons which I haven’t wired up yet, and for which no code exists. The idea is to use them to change the goal temperature. I build the code with jam and avr-gcc. This is not an Arduino project. I’m just using that hardware.

I’d love to hear from anyone who builds this, has questions, or has done something similar.

Everybody wants to know how much it costs to go on a trip like this, but most people are afraid to ask. Here’s what it cost us, as close as I can figure it. From Jun 1, 2008 to May 31, 2009, we spent $44,937. That includes about $2,468 in medical bills, which we later got $468 back from our health insurance for. (Basically they covered it all from our deductible on.) We had paid IMG insurance $2407 before we went on this trip to be covered for the year. I picked them mainly because their insurance will cover you for a full month when you return to the US, which would give us time to figure out health insurance once we got back.

There were some other things aside from insurance that we bought before our trip that were definitely part of it. We’d bought plane tickets from LA to DC, NYC to Paris, and Munich to Dar Es Salaam for a total of $2881. We’d paid for our Tanzanian safari which was $3120. Finally we paid $1685 to get shots so we wouldn’t get any number of scary diseases. We also bought a bunch of travel gear, but I’m going to leave that out. So the bottom line for the money is, drumroll please… $54,562. That’s quite a bit of money, but for what we got it was totally worth it. If this number is scaring you from taking your own trip, don’t be. This is just what we did. You are totally different! We could’ve easily saved 10 or 20 thousand dollars by not visiting Europe, not doing our African safaris, not taking the container ship, and eating cheaper.

Packing and what to bring is another subject that’s endlessly debated. I made a decision to just go with the list on onebag.com and I don’t regret it. It’s a good list. I brought some harmonica stuff that I ended up never using, and had to ship home. Definitely bring 4 pairs of underwear. 3 is not enough. And don’t sweat your packing too much. Just about everything you might need is available for sale in any major city in the world. Do bring a money belt. It made us feel like our money was in a safe place. As for bags, I highly recommend Rick Steves’ Convertible Carry-On. It’s light, has the right amount of pockets, and sturdy enough to show little wear even after a year.

If you have any questions I didn’t address here, leave a comment. I’ll do my best to answer questions.

And finally, I’m done blogging this trip! It sure felt like a chore at times, but I’m glad to have done the work and look forward to rereading it all in a few years.

_tput() {
   tput $* 2> /dev/null
}

# Color definitions.
blue=`_tput setf 1 || _tput setaf 4`
green=`_tput setf 2 || _tput setaf 2`
cyan=`_tput setf 3 || _tput setaf 6`
red=`_tput setf 4 || _tput setaf 1`
magenta=`_tput setf 5 || _tput setaf 5`
yellow=`_tput setf 6 || _tput setaf 3`
white=`_tput setf 7 || _tput setaf 7`
default_colors=`_tput op`
bold=`_tput bold`
# clear all attributes
plain=`_tput sgr0`

prompt="$"
prompt_color=$cyan

# removed code that changes prompt_color depending on some conditions

# Check for being root.
if [ `whoami` == "root" ]; then
    prompt="#"
    ps1_user="\[$red\]\u\[$prompt_color\]"
else
    ps1_user="\[$prompt_color\]\u"
fi

PS1="${ps1_user}@\h:\w$prompt\[$default_colors$plain\] "

Back “home,” we’ve been very busy. We stayed at Andy and Juliette’s place for about a week and a half visiting friends and doing chores, before driving up to the Bay Area where I had a job interview. Things looked promising, we looked at apartments, I went to another interview just in case, Danielle had an interview. I accepted my first offer, and we drove down to Andy and Juliette’s again.

For a few days we did nothing but relax, in preparation for moving. We packed up a truck on Saturday, and unloaded it at our new apartment on Sunday. Having gotten rid of about half of our stuff at the start of the trip really made this step a lot easier. Still, now we are in a position where we need to buy a fair amount of furniture. Monday is when I started my job, leaving Danielle to do a lot of the unpacking. That was almost 2 weeks ago now. We’re mostly unpacked and I’m finally starting to get the hang of the new routine.

In that time we haven’t experienced the culture shock that some people describe. Certainly things are different from where we’ve been, but they’re also the way that they’ve been for us most of our lives. The main thing we noticed is how rich people here are. The average US homeless person has more possessions than the average person in India. The other big thing we noticed was that women here have just about any job there is. We both immediately noticed that the shuttle-bus driver was a women.

Being able to understand the language of everybody around us was also not as nice as you might think. In fact it was a bit distracting at first. I was just as happy in the Philippines where everybody we wanted to talk to spoke English. All in all it took us a surprisingly short time to get back into a “normal” life, and it was easier than expected. Which is the story of our trip, really. Traveling the world isn’t that hard. There’s all kinds of information available. The only thing you need is money, and you need less of that than you might think.

The port agent drove us to the place where our ship had just docked. The gangplank wasn’t down yet, so we spent a while just standing next to the car taking pictures. It was dark, and huge cranes with bright lights were already starting to take containers off the ship. Trucks drove by to move the containers to different cranes further back. Those cranes would haul the containers onto big piles about a hundred yards away from the water. It was awesome.

After maybe half an hour of picture taking, the gangplank came down. In the ship’s office we met the captain who took our passports and sent for the steward to help us with our bags. We took the elevator to our cabin, and were impressed with how nice it was. We had a very comfy bed. A table, a lazy chair, an L-shaped seat around the table, TV, DVD player, mini fridge, plenty of storage room, and a nice little bathroom. Most amazing of all was that we could drink the tap water.

We got into our ship routine pretty quickly, and it was built around our food schedule: 7:30am breakfast, 10:00am tea, 12:00 lunch, 3:00pm tea, and finally 5:30pm dinner. At mealtimes we would sit at the captain’s table and eat whatever had been cooked for this meal. The food was nothing special, but we enjoyed it. The captain was quite the talker, and we enjoyed him also. He was German, had been a sailor for over 40 years, and enjoyed talking about his experiences, or just answered the questions we had about life at sea.

Some people might get bored on a container ship, but we both kept plenty busy. Danielle knitted and read a lot of books. I worked on random programming projects and played on the PS2 in the officers’ rec room. We both took advantage of the gymnasium to get some workouts in, and every day we take a walk on deck at least once. The deck was 260 meters long, so an easy walk all the way around could be stretched to last quite a while.

We stopped by two ports on our way: Osaka and Tokyo. On those days I spent a lot more time outside, watching everything that was going on in the harbor. As I mentioned before, the best part was seeing the containers be moved by the truly enormous cranes. I don’t know what to say about it, except that it was the highlight of our sea voyage. One day we went down to the engine room, and got a tour from the chief engineer. For the curious, the engine has 9 in-line cylinders, generates 55,890 horse power, and is still bigger than you think it would be.

After more than 10 days of seeing nothing but ocean (and a very rare passing ship), we stopped just in sight of the California coast. We were ahead of schedule, and the engines don’t like going slow. During this time all the lifeboats were lowered to make sure they all still worked. We also saw quite a lot of whales which were making their way north. None were really close to the boat, but with binoculars it was still great to see. Several of them showed us their tails as they dove down. We also saw dolphins, and even a mola mola which came to the surface briefly. It was a beautiful day.

In the evening we sailed through the Santa Barbara channel, arriving in Long Beach just as the sun was coming up. US Customs came aboard, asking us about our trip and checking the fridge for contraband. After breakfast we got off the ship and took a shuttle to the harbor’s parking lot. The security guard called us a taxi, and soon we were on our way. We should have just gotten a taxi to the closest Metro Link, but instead we spent a small fortune going all the way to Union Station. From there we took a train, and early in the afternoon we arrived at Andy and Juliette’s house.

The bus ride to Busan was over an hour shorter than the book had said it would be. I think they must have built some new roads since the book was written. It was easy to find a locker that fit both our bags at a metro station. Then we spent the afternoon just wandering a little until it was time to meet Matthew, our CouchSurfing host. There wasn’t a whole lot to really wander where we’d chosen, though. Just a few busy shopping streets and some blocks of huge apartment buildings. We couldn’t even find an Internet cafe that was open.

Matthew lived high in an apartment building in the middle of the city, with a giant window which gave a nice view. He took us out to a great bar, where we sat on lots of pillows around a low table, in low light. It was in a much more trendy area of Busan, and lots of people were on the streets when we went out. The area was so trendy that there were two Outback Steakhouses visible from one intersection.

We had two things we wanted to do in Busan: visit a Korean bath house, and visit the fish market. On our first day it rained hard and we decided to tackle the bath house. We took the metro and walked through the downpour to what’s supposed to be one of the nicest ones in the country but sadly it was closed for renovation. Dejected we just went back to Matthew’s apartment. When he came home in the afternoon he pointed us at a different one and so we set off again.

It wasn’t raining anymore, and with the help of some locals we found the bath house. Men and women went to separate all-nude sections. I put my clothes in a locker and showered like I was supposed to. Then I sat in baths of various temperatures, went in the sauna for a few minutes, and spent about as much time as I thought I could. It was an odd atmosphere, with almost no socializing going on. Everybody just was doing their own thing and almost completely ignored one another. I was supposed to meet Danielle after an hour but after 45 minutes I was done. Through some confusion at the entrance we hadn’t bought the extra robes which would let us into the common area where people have snacks etc., so we missed out on that part. I was pretty down on the whole thing when we left, but Danielle really enjoyed her experience.

At night we went out with Matthew to a local chicken shop where we ate some nice fried chicken, including an appetizer of little unidentifiable pieces of chicken (also fried). Afterward we met some of his fellow English teachers.

The next day was our time to leave. We’d called a harbor representative a few days before the 23rd as instructed. Our ship was running a little early, and we were supposed to board on the evening of the 22nd. This meant we had to meet somebody at a downtown coffee shop at 8pm, leaving us plenty of time to visit the fish market. Unfortunately Danielle was feeling a bit ill in the morning, so I went by myself.

The fish market was huge and awesome. It consisted mostly of live fish, shellfish, and octopus. It was at least as interesting as going to a medium aquarium. I loved seeing the clams squirt water around, the octopus swim, abalone crawl around, and some sizable fish sit in barely-big-enough tanks. Most of it was housed in a building that looked very new. After wandering a bit I went upstairs and had a lunch of cooked eel. I think the eel was supposed to be an appetizer, but Korean restaurants aren’t set up for people eating by themselves.

I thought the market was so awesome that I dragged Danielle over there in the evening, when she was feeling a bit better. Many of the stalls had closed down in the evening, but it was still worth a visit. Then we had a dinner of raw fish, where we spent just about all of the won we had on us. The fish was fairly nice, but did not have a lot of flavor and was a little chewy. One of our appetizers was some fish in teryaki sauce which was very good. On the whole, we’ve had only 1 meal I didn’t think was good our entire time in Korea which was something at a hole-in-the-wall place consisting of 4 different kinds of starch in a red sauce. Part of that was probably that we just ordered the wrong things.

From the restaurant we went straight to the coffee shop to meet a harbor representative. We found him easily. Our boat was a bit later after all, so after waiting for an hour he drove us to the harbor. He listened to a baseball game on the radio all the way, alternately cheering and pounding the steering wheel. His team was behind, came back, but snatched defeat from the jaws of victory at the very end. In talking about this, I said we don’t follow baseball but do watch a lot of American football. The next thing he asked is if we knew Hines Ward, which of course we do. Apparently he is quite the local celebrity because his mother is from Busan and he comes to visit once a year. Then he took our passports to get stamped, and we had technically left South Korea.

We took the bus from the Express Bus Station in Seoul to Cheongju. It was great. The bus had leather seats similar to business class in an airplane, yet ticket prices were still pretty low. The scenery was nice and green. It felt like Korea has a lot of space that is not built up, and is determined to keep it that way. What a change from every other country we’ve been to since East Africa.

In Cheongju we wandered the neighborhood around the bus terminal to find a motel. It was cheap, and the common areas were just what you’d imagine: dark, with blacklights, and paintings of naked ladies on the wall. We had fun trying to tell the attendant what we wanted, both of us crouching down so we could see each other’s faces through the small hole that is usually just used to swap cash for a key. The room, however, seemed like every other hotel room except that the complimentary toiletries included condoms. It was big, and came with a really fast Internet connection. (Actually, port 80 was blocked but the webpage it directed me to was all in Korean so I tunneled through a friend’s machine at home.)

The good food streak continued with lunch at Mr. Pizza, which advertises itself as a place where Korean women love to go. (It was true. Maybe 80% of the customers were women.) The pizza was excellent. In the evening we walked into another busy-looking place and we had our first sit-on-the-ground meal of some beef soup with a lot of stuff in it. For breakfast we stuck with yogurt and fruit that we bought at nearby Lotte Mart. We couldn’t find real yogurt so it was the sugary stuff but still alright.

On our first full day there we used local buses to go to Sangdang Sanseong fortress. This involved transferring once, but the English speaking lady had told us where. By saying the name to each passing bus driver and getting on when he looked positive we got there. We almost got off the second bus one stop too early, but almost everybody else on the bus told us to stay on and wait. They were all saying it in Korean, but we got the idea.

There was nothing left of the fortress besides a long wall surrounding it. The village now consisted of restaurants. So we walked the length of the wall, which was very pleasant. Quite a few Korean hikers were out, in full technical gear, but there were also plenty of people just going for a walk. The easiest way to get to the wall from the bus stop is to walk by the lake on the left side, and follow the steps up. After the hike we had a good lunch, and timing was great because 5 minutes after we were done a bus left to town. In town we checked out the local Golden Temple. It’s not a huge complex like the one in India, and it’s for a different religion, but it did look cool.

In the evening we walked to a restaurant we’d seen the other day that had a picture of beef on the outside. We did our usual pointing and saying OK. They brought out a plate of raw pieces of beef, for us to prepare on the center grill. The beef was awesome. I don’t know if I’ve ever had any better. As with every meal here, it came with many sides. Unfortunately in their eagerness to help us with everything, we felt the owner rushed us through the meal a little faster than we would have liked. The menu didn’t have any prices and that should’ve been a clue. It was expensive but it was also really great beef that I would talk about for several days.

The following day we rode a luxury bus to Songnisan National Park. It was the first bus of the day, and it was fairly quiet when we started walking about 8:30am. It took a while to walk from the bus station through the tourist village into the actual park, and even there we walked on a paved road for a long time. Along the way we stopped by a Buddhist temple which had some neat buildings in the style we’d seen everywhere, and a giant Buddha statue.

Once we had walked a third of the way to the top of our mountain, we turned off the paved road that followed a river onto a paved road that went up. It turned into dirt, and then finally we were on what I think of as a trail. Most of the trail was stairs. I don’t think we encountered a single switchback, but there were many, many stairs. They were well maintained, and we passed several trail crews working on the stairs. All the stairs made for a tough hike, and we took many breaks before we reached the top.

From the top we did have a very nice view of the surrounding mountains forests. Everything was very green, reminding me of spring. It was a bit hazy so we couldn’t see very far. At the top several groups of hikers stopped for their lunch break, and they went all out with with tea, soju, rice, kimchi, and whatever else might be necessary to have a good meal. The North Face stores were all over the towns here, and now we could see why.

On our way down we passed a couple having lunch in the same style, and the woman motioned to us to join them. Hungry, and ready for an experience (which I not always am) we joined them. They moved over on the rock, and let Danielle sit on the cushion they’d brought. The food was great, and there were at least 8 different little dishes to try. There was also obviously plenty of food for the 4 of us. The Korean couple spoke barely any English. I think, and lack of understanding as well as bad memory foreign names means I’m probably wrong, that the woman’s name was Miha while the man’s name was Kyim.

With our limited common language we didn’t talk much, but we learned that they also live in Cheongju. When they discovered we’d taken the bus they offered us a ride back which we gladly accepted. We raced down the mountain, barely keeping up with their fast pace. It definitely felt like they hiked for the conquest, and not to appreciate the views along the way. Their car was nice and we had a very comfortable ride back to Cheongju where they dropped us off at the bus station like we asked.

All the while Miha was excitedly trying to tell us and ask us everything. Her cell phone had a Korean-English dictionary in it, and she used it a lot. She bought us some drinks along the way, so I finally got to try the Pocari Sweat that’s advertised everywhere, as well as something she called a Korean cookie but felt more like a large, chocolate-coated gummy bear.

To round off our locals-interactions for the day, the attendant at the motel followed us up to our room and came in with is. She went to the fridge, and we think she was trying to tell us that we were allowed to drink its contents, although she called it “room service.” The previous day she’d put a sticky note on the fridge that said “room service” but I suppose she thought we didn’t understand. (Really, we just didn’t feel the need for more alcohol or soda.) That night we drank the bottle of soju in the fridge.

In the morning we got on a bus to Busan, our final stop in Korea, and our final stop outside the US. It was another luxury bus with leather seats that reclined way back. The scenery was about the same as it has been. We watched a Korean TV show about a city girl who had to go live with a family on a farm. Hilarity ensued.