To Have and to Have Not

So I lost a bunch of stuff today. I'll start from the beginning, since that's a pretty good place to start. First there was God, and His roommate Steve. Then, God created the universe, and most of what is in it today. Humans created some stuff, too, I guess. Steve didn't really do much.

That brings us to today. A few friends and I wanted to go hiking, so we decided to climb Bukhan Mountain. It's the most popular mountain in the area, and I and two others had been there before. We ended up doing the same climb I did back in early May. Anywho, we we met at a coffee shop at 10am, but on the taxi ride there my wallet fell onto the floor of the cab, and I didn't realized it at the time. I thought the "thump" I heard was a coin hitting the floor, and after a quick inspection and finding nothing, I left the cab. My wallet had my Alien Registration Card (ARC), my iPod, my debit card, my subway money card, and, most importantly, a coupon to Java City.

Korea can be a very honest place at times, so honest it's scary. I've heard stories of people getting the wallet stolen, then mailed back to them with only the money missing. My ARC has my school's address on it, so hopefully they mail it or call or something. My ARC, subway card, and debit card can be easily replaced, but my iPod and Java City coupon can't be. It has taken me nearly 5 months to fill in that whole card to get a free coffee, and now that I have I've lost it. Because I lost my subway card I had to buy single ticket passes all day, which cost a little more than using a subway card, and are lots more annoying.

Before we reached the mountain, two of my friends wanted to stop by a store that sold really cheap backpacks. The cheap backpacks were also low quality, so we started looking at nice, hiking packs, and they were cheap, too. I ended up buying a 40 liter Abba bag for about $30, which isn't incredible or anything, but probably worth about $50 in the States. It helped immensly on the climb, since last time I used my 11-year-0ld Janson backpack from 8th grade which left knots the size of baseballs on my shoulders.

The hike was great, much better than last time because, last time, not all the members of the group were equally motivated, and not everyone had the same goals in mind. It made for a somewhat stressful, at times not fun trip. This time, everyone was on the same page and it was much better. The weather, however, wasn't. There was much more foliage which took away a lot of the views, and it rained on us for about 30 minutes. I would like to show pictures of the hike, but that leads us to my next great loss of the day.

After hiking back down the mountain and getting back into the city, I hoped on my favorite bus, the 1005-1, to go home. I was quite tired from only 6 hours of sleep and the hike, so I dozed a little on the bus. While I was sleeping I had my camera in the crook of my arm, and at some time during the bus ride it fell out of my arm, but I didn't realized it. When I woke up I didn't remember ever holding my camera, so I didn't look for it until I got to my apartment and was unloading my bag. Found it at the bottom of my bag, nevermind.

So, the bad news is over, now for some good news. My camera was already messed up; it couldn't zoom and if I tried it would shut off, so it needed to be replaced sometime soon. I was also contemplating buying another iPod when the new ones come out in September, either the latest model or the one before it, since they'd be cheaper. I still shouldn't be purchasing such expensive electronics willy-nilly, and I don't "need" either one, so if I don't get them returned then I'll just do without for a while, but it would be nice to have them so I can sell them when I want to upgrade. Oh well, so it goes.

Life is ok right now, nothing bad, but nothing great either. Still haven't felt connected to this country or any people, so I'd like to go home when my contract is up in 7 months. The coolest thing going on right now is that I'm kinda hellbent on buying an ebook reader. I've stopped drinking and buying expensive foods, just to save up. So far, in just two weeks, I've saved about $100. I'm having trouble with my Xbox, so I may sell that and be able to buy the ebook reader now. In anticipation of getting one, I've downloaded a couple hundred books in the past few days: everything by Hemingway, Salinger, Haruki Murakami, Asimov, Douglas Adams, lots of Robert Jordan and Orson Scott Card, and a few odds and ends.

Oh, and the title is an allusion to a book by Hemingway, "To Have and Have Not."

P.S. sorry for writing so rarely, I had gotten out of the habit while I was busy in June and part of July, and I'm trying to get back into it.