The humidity's already started to kick in, but I decided I wanted to go out for a hike today before it really gets bad. My new job is only 4 days a week, Monday to Thursday, so I thought today (Friday) would be a good day to go and avoid the crowds.
From what I'd heard, the Mureung Valley is considered one of the nicest in South Korea, but I've been misled before so I didn't have high expectations.
On a completely unrelated note, there's a mountain spring about a 3 minute walk from my apartment where I fill a huge jug for my drinking water. So I was there on Monday and while I was filling it, an old Korean man came up to fill his bottle. He started talking to me and realized quickly how bad my Korean was. So he tried Japanese. Apparently he had been a Japanese professor at the university 10 years ago. He kept talking to me in Japanese for at least 10 minutes, and then finally decided it was time to go.
Well a couple of days ago I was walking home from the grocery store with a bunch of stuff, and I guess he'd seen me, because he pulled up beside me on his bike, and again in Japanese, asked me where I was going. I explained that I was going home so he offered to double me on his bike. He had told me that he was 86 years old, and I'd be surprised if he weighed much more than 100 pounds. Well I weigh around 200, plus I had all my groceries, so something about accepting a ride from him just felt wrong, so I had to decline.
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