"Forever Young"

The Han River

...in the direction not taken.

(Image from Wikipedia)

I've made an unplanned trip to the university today because my internet link at home is broken, but I'm relying on an unreliable electrical system that too often overloads and blows its circuit, so who knows if I'll have the patience to deal with frustration over lost words everytime the circuit blows...

I'll try to keep my entry short today, which will constitute a minor miracle if successful since I'm usually so longwinded.

My wife persuaded me to buy a bicycle a couple of days ago, and since the Koreans celebrated Constitution Day yesterday, we took our kids out for a riverside ride along one of the Han River's tributaries. My wife had mentioned that we could ride down the tributary until we reached the Han, which would mean heading for the city's center, but I soon saw that we were heading upstream. I kept my mouth shut, however, for the mountains ahead looked more inviting than Seoul's steel-and-glass canyons. We'd gone several kilometers before Sun-Ae noticed her minor navigational error.

I was having a grand time, however, and pretended only slight disappointment that we wouldn't see downtown Seoul from the banks of the Han. My reward for such a spirit of generosity on my part was a generosity of spirits on hers. She treated me to two cold beers at an isolated spot under a train trestle that sheltered a few tables where some working class family served boshintang and cold beer on tap. I partook only of the latter, for I wasn't quite hungry enough to devour any of man's best friends.

I hadn't ridden a bike for several years, and En-Uk is really still just learning, but all four of us bore up well under a hot sun and a hard ride. En-Uk kept me laughing with his complaints -- Mama was riding too fast, Sa-Rah was passing him too often, Daddy was being too bossy. I swear that his mouth was running a lot faster than his bike, and I told him that if he'd just attach some Rube Goldberg device from his lower jaw to his bike's back sprocket, then he'd outrace us all.

Eventually, we wended our way back home, where -- in a frenzied fit of physical fitness -- I proceeded to run up all 25 floors to top off the long day, feeling despite my fifty years forever young...