Friday:
I was invited over the weekend to Jeonju for a couple different events. The first event was a BBQ at a good friend's house on friday night. So I grabbed one of the last buses from my area to Jeonju, it was about 6:30 pm. It was a typical 2 hour bus ride to the town. Once I got to Jeonju I went to Stan's place to put my stuff down and unwind. We end up relaxing and doing much of nothing. The party wasn't starting until about 9:30; so we had plenty of time to kill. We ended up just getting food and getting a couple of drinks before hand. We decided to be fashionably late and ended up getting to the BBQ at 10:30. We get to the party and find the men to women ratio to be compelling. We get into the room and find a group of people sitting talking and laughing. Stan and I grab a couple of chairs and catch up with the group as far as talking and or drinking. I was in rare form as stand and one of my other friends had pointed out. It felt like the good old days. I was talking being the life of the party and most especially getting the attention of some very pretty ladies. I am not gonna bore you all to death with the details but I did end up walking away with a phone number. Mind you that I got this number after I was making a fool of myself by dropping water on the floor and stuffing my face with bread because I was hungry. I was a great time. I was really able to let myself be myself, I hadn't done that in a while. It was a lot of unexpected fun and what not. That was my friday night. It was filled with fun and debauchery; I couldn't of asked for a better time.
Saturday:
My body was put through the grinder this day. I had woken up on Saturday morning feeling like a freight train had hit me. I was out until 2am drinking the night before. I am not a young man anymore, so Saturday morning was no fun for me. I tried all of my cures for a hangover, but none worked. Then Stan had suggested a sauna. I had never been in a sauna, and it seemed like a good idea. The sauna was the cure to all my aches. I sat in the steam room for an hour or so then sat in the hot tub for another hour. After we left the sauna, I felt like a new man. I had regained all my energy and found myself very relaxed. So after the sauna Stan and I were committed in a social event for hiking in Jeonju. This group of people were called the Hashers. I was informed that the Hashers is a world wide group that hikes or runs a planned route. It was my first time in this group, so I was to be initiated as a "virgin". This involved many acts of public embarrassments, one of them was to carry a balloon around being sure not to lose or pop it. So we start on the trail. Some of the experienced Hashers start running ahead. While the others laid back and walked. We follow a route that is outlined in chalk. Many of the signs are placed, but often you had to keep your eyes open so not to miss your mark. Many of these marks were called a check point, and if not marked by group leaders you are to explore all other revenues to find the right route. The person who had set up the route would tries intentionally to make you walk or run more to find your true route. Then there are certain markers that you have to do certain acts. As I was a virgin to this whole event, every time I saw a sign of a box with a V in it, I had to do a certain act. I was to spin around and say I am new and I am a virgin three times in a row. So this took place in a couple different places. So I did the walk with great people. I met some great people and had some good conversations. So 4.5 miles and a couple of hours later we finished the route. We get to the end and we find booze and food. We eat and drink and have more conversation. After eating, the virgins were lined up for more fun. One of the virgins was tired and tried to sit down. On his way to sitting down on the floor accidentally popped his balloon. His punishment was to come later on. So as virgins we were asked to do one of 3 things, either sing a song, tell a joke or do an interpretive dance. I chose to dance. I made a fool of myself, and it was great. So at the end of the day, I was extremely tired and embarrassed from a full day of exercise. It was worth it. After a couple hours of walking and sweating and more walking, we went home. We showered up and rested up. We all met up again at a local bar. We started talking and chatting and laughing. I really started to have fun with the group. After a night before of drinking and chatting, another night of more drinking was really something I did not want to do. I still had a couple of drinks and laughs. So we finished the night pretty early around 12ish and went back to sleep.
Sunday:
Sunday morning was tough. I woke up and everything hurt so much. I had two days of drinking with friends and 4.5 miles of hiking. Stan and I ended up going to a local coffee shop to relax and what not. We grabbed some really great natural fruit drinks. The owner of the coffee shop recognized that we were both foreigners and started talking to us. He was a retired man that just up and decided to open a really cool shop. He had told me that he spent 4-5 years in the Philippines doing land surveying. He was a really cool shop owner, his nickname was "sm". SM started to just really talking with us just because, but ended up telling us really cool stories. Then he received a phone call from one of the hashers, Kevin or "Hammer". So Hammer wanted to do some trail blazing. Stan looks at me and asks if I wanted to do some more hiking. I was not one to say no, so we went for another hike. This one was different. Hammer decided to hike a mountain steeper then the one that we did the day before. Not only was it steeper, but also longer. I was really not dressed to hike I had on jeans. It was a really hot day, and hiking up a mountain with jeans is really not a good idea. I was pouring buckets of sweat, but again it was worth the pain. On part of the trail we found a local Buddhist cemetery. The cemetery was full of tombstones that were amazingly beautiful. These stones looked like it took much time and effort to complete. We walked around for a while in the area and I saw some really interesting pieces. So we get done with that, and get down from the mountain. I had soaked through my shirt and had to re-shower. Stan and I had planned to go to church, but I was so torn up and tired that I chose to go home instead. 2 hours later, I was home and I just had to crash for a couple of minutes before doing chores. That was my weekend.
What I learned from this weekend was to power through it all. I realized that I have to keep on going even if my body is in shambles. I realized that sometimes a good friend and good conversation can keep you moving through anything. I also realized that I am extremely out of shape. I always knew I was not in shape, but I didn't know it was that bad. I guess one of the better things that came out of this weekend is that now I feel motivated to get into some type of shape. I realize that I have to do something to just get the blood pumping more often. I used to run 6 miles a day once upon a time, and that gave me great insight about many things. Maybe I can start doing that again. I remember when I used to run, not only did it get my blood going but also my mind. Hopefully this will be a nice way to kick start myself to getting back into shape.
If you want to see any of my pictures throughout my trips feel free to visit http://photobucket.com/etisk .
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The End
The mind and the body is your temple be sure to treat it as so.
-Cezar-
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