Morning blues

I've got a solid morning routine. Every morning I wake up, brew myself a cup of red tea and enjoy it while doing some light reading. After that, I take a quick shower and start getting ready for my day. I've a got a small medicine cabinet that contains my vitamins, razor and shaving cream, deodorant, toothbrush, and so on. The medicine cabinet, is not so strategically placed though. It is right above my toilet.

Now just imagine all the possibilities here. You're opening a bottle of vitamins and trying to segregate the day's pill...above the toilet. You're taking the cap off of your deodorant...above the toilet. Your taking out your toothbrush and toothpaste...above the toilet.

I've been keeping track of the things I've lost to my thoughtlessly designed bathroom. So far I've lost 7 allergy pills, 3 centrum vitamins, and 1 medium bristled oral b toothbrush. I've dropped other things in as well. Things that couldn't be replaced so were quickly fished out and thoroughly sanitized.

I know what your next thought is, "Why don't you just learn to put the toilet lid down?". Well, that's a good thought, but learning to put the seat down took me 3 years, learning to put the lid down. I don't know if I'll ever learn to do that.

• Life Lesson #11: Some lessons are never learned.

Welcome to the gun show!

Well, I finally broke down and got a gym membership. Running and exercising at the park next to my place was becoming too difficult in the winter weather. The gym is really small but It has all the basic things I need to stay fit so I'm happy with it. Gyms in Korea are really expensive. This was by far the cheapest one I could find at 99,000 won/3 months (about 27.ooUS). I've seen other places that are around 80,000/mo. And with a name like Rodeo Gym, how could I pass it up?

My official membership card.

• Life Lesson #10: There are no cowgirls at Rodeo Fitness Club.

Going Up?

During my breaks between classes I like to read the news on bbc.com. It seems like every week there's something new concerning North Korea. Recently there was an article about the US going to N. Korea for some high level talks. The idea of which are to convince the North to return to disarmament. Fearing this recent contact with the North is going to set them on a war rampage, I've found myself staring up at the sky on my walks to and from school. Kim Jong Il isn't going to catch this guy unaware of a sneak attack!

While looking for enemy aircraft I've noticed something about Korea that I haven't gotten used to yet: Businesses in Korea aren't all on the first and second floors. In the spirit of adventure I've been checking some of these places out. Sometimes by going into the lobby and checking out the list of businesses on the wall, and sometimes by just blindly taking an elevator to a random floor that looks interesting. I'm not particularly searching for anything, I just want to know what I've been missing. So far I've found a couple of good restaurants and a few gyms!

As I'm approaching the end of my second month here, Im starting to have an expanded view of Korea. Learning a little Korean, meeting new people and finding new places has all played a significant part in this. The biggest part though, has been taking the time to look up.

• Life Lesson #9: Keeping your eyes peeled for the enemy can have more than one benefit.