Pigs and Road Hogs

This weekend was quite odd. Not only did I work out on both Friday and Saturday and inline/rollerblade on both days (on Sat I went about 25km/h, which was pretty foolhardy on the packed sidewalks we have here), but I also didn't drink! Well, I did have a little soju on Sunday night, but that was it. I think my body didn't know what to make of it. I'm also back on creatine, which is basically amino acids (Korea has a drink called 'Amino Up', but it's probably more like water) and protein. From what I know, it's like having a few steaks in a teaspoon. (Even with supplements I know I won't look like this.) I took it with my bud Carlo in 1998. He was on the football team in high school and knew some of the tricks of the trade. I'll have to work out 3-4 times a week now, as the creatine seems to build up in my muscles if I let them rest too long. That's ok, it's a good discipline. I also don't like to drink a lot when I'm on it, so it's a double blessing. Oh, and it's not like steriods or something (no needles), it's a powder you put in liquid (like grape juice) and drink...I'm not into real 'roids.

Anyhoo, with all this no-drinking and hard-lifting I'm getting a lot of rest/sleep. Got up at 7AM on Sunday (last week I was getting home at this time with Minaz) and made my way to 남대문시장/Namdaemoon Si-jang (Market) for a little shopping at about 9:30. Things were just opening up. On the weekdays I hear the markets open at 4AM to do wholesale, but Sunday seems to be another story. Got some undershirts (exciting, eh?) and poked around for a bit then made my way to 동대문운동장/Dongdaemoon Eun-dong-jang (Stadium) where things were, again, just starting to open. The main markets: Hello aPm, Doota and Migiliore were 30 minutes from unlocking their doors so I took a look down the side streets. Found some dress shirts that looked alright (usually they really suck) and the guy had another kind still in the boxes. Looked pretty good, and for 7,000 won (6USD) a piece how could I go wrong? I got 4: but only a small discount as in Korea it's bad luck to haggle too much on the first sale of the day...forgot about that. I have one of them on now...not bad (pic below).


Darn...should have just shown you the shirt and cropped the goofy face. The tie is an Ermemgildo Zegna...about 105USD, on a 6USD shirt-what a travesty!

Oh ya, and here's a pic of the lovely delicacies you can see at Namdaemoon Market...if you dare!


Get yer pig heads right here...nothing beats a pig head!

And, just a pic of what looks like a caltrop (tire spikes) I found on a corner near an exit that leads to 마포대교/mapo-daegyo (Mapo Bridge). I guess you want to be careful to stay in your lane on this turn.


Isn't this a little extreme?

Time for some world news. It seems North Korea had another ka-boom a few days ago. It's interesting. A massive explosion occurs; South Korea figures it out later from satellite images as the U.S. doesn't both telling them about it (they usually give them the info right away, from what I understand) and then (as I heard on the T.V.) the U.S. says something like "Oh, it wasn't nuclear, really no big deal...it was just an explosion and a mushroom cloud." Now, mushroom clouds aren't unique to atom-splitting (they can occur anytime an explosion occurs in mid-air) and you'd think N.K. would have the foresight to blow things like that underground and (as said) they'd be pretty crazy to go ka-blooey so close to China (although they could explain things easier to them-an ally-than the South-an enemy-). Thing is, last night my cellphone was down (no text or calls possible) and it worried me...is this it? Are the Commies coming? Ends up it was probably just a service outage for upgrades, but you never know here.