I miss my car, but at least I will never go bald!

This past weekend I had one of those moments of realization about how different my life is now. It all started when I was packing for a climbing trip and I was trying to fit everything into my pack and debating over what I was going to eat for dinner while camping. I decided I did not want to try and carry food and a pot and utensils in my pack on top of climbing and camping gear...so I figured I would just buy food there. (walking though the crowded subway with a huge pack intensifies the "get out of my way" phenomena by 20) For some reason all this reminded me of how easy it used to be to go do stuff. I always kept all my gear in the back of my car and leaving for the weekend was just a matter of throwing clean clothes and some grub up in the mix. Now it is a matter of packing as much as you can into a pack, catching the subway to the bus, and then a taxi to the crag. The feeling of nostalgia rang ever stronger when that evening the people we met there pulled a bbq grill, pork loin, wine, camp chairs ect. out of the back of their car. Meanwhile Rachel and I quietly ate our instant rice and mixed with tuna(which was only hot because teh woman at the store microwed it for us), because that was all we could find to eat. Public transport has been my life for the past year and in a lot of ways I really love it...like it being good for the enviroment, but sometimes I just really miss my car and being able to come and go as I please. I miss the road trips and adventures, the funky smell of my car after being full of stinky climbers. I guess it's just one of those things that I take for granted back home and will really appreciate when I get back.
I may not have a car and many of the other luxuries of being home, but at least in Korea I am learning really valuable life lessons, like all the things that could possibly kill you. The latest thing I have learned will protect me from something a little less serious than the fatal fan death: balding.
So I may have mentioned how anal Koreans are about getting wet...or rather the importance of staying dry when its raining. Now, I lived in rainy Oregon for quite a while, but before coming to Korea I had never owned an umbrella. In Korea it is unheard of to go out in the rain without your umbrella. Rachel and I were both curious about this, and when we are curious about something we look for an opportunity to bring it up in class and ask the kids. Rachel had her opportunity and found out the following: It is extremely important to carry an umbrella when it is raining because the dirty rain will make you go bald. Why, might you ask, is the rain so dirty? The response: dirty air from China makes acid rain which makes you go prematurely bald. (Everything here is the fault of China, usually it's dirty air). I re-affirmed this theory with my students, so there you have it, carry an umbrella if you like your full head of hair.
I posted links (on the side bar) to a half hour documentary I saw tonight about North Koreans escaping to South Korea. It was heart-breaking, and reminded me that I am living on a very fragile penninsula. The presidents from the two countries had a peace summit last week and are signing a peace agreement, although I am not sure how exactly that will work unless North Korea undergoes some major reforms. Hope for the best I guess.