From the Land of the Morning Inconvenience: It's been a while so...

I figure I might as well give a WHASSUP! to everyone. I spent the night at Santa's with some students, so I imagine that those of you who know me understand my present condition.

In short, the Redskins beat a decent team for a change, the semester is almost over, and Vietnam is looking GOOOOOOO-OD.

The thing is, I have TONS of work to do before I'm able to escape this golden prison. I have to tabulate my grades (always a tedious task). However, before I do my final grades, I have to go through all of the hobby projects I assigned and then conduct the final exam. Needless to say I'm up to my Budweiser in paperwork.

Most disturbing question when asked about my upcoming vacation....

I'm continuing this post from the previous night because I apparently fell asleep mid sentence (I woke up in the computer chair at 5:00 this morning). I also have no idea where I was heading with that sentence, so I'm simply going to ignore it and move on.

Today is Thursday, and as I've probably pointed out in numerous posts before, Thursday is a good day. It's 9:15 am, and I'm finished for the day. I do have a lot to take care of today, but it's starting to snow and I'm hungover, so I think what's really going to happen is that I'm going back to bed.

I'm going on what amounts to a dream vacation in a couple of weeks. I'm heading to Vietnam for the first time for three weeks. Vietnam has always been very high on my travel list, so I'm quite excited. I fly into Ho Chi Min City (Saigon) on Dec. 15. I'm going to spend a few days there before starting a slow progression north stopping at Nha Trang, Hoan, Hue, and possibly Hai Phong before heading to Hanoi and my flight out on Jan. 5. I bought a Lonely Planet guide to Vietnam and have been eagerly reading it for the past week or so. I'm hoping to get at least four days in Hue, so that I can wander that ancient city plus take tours out to the DMZ and Khe Sahn. The clash between ancient and modern history there should be fascinating.

While I'm in Hanoi, I'm hoping to hook up with the New Years Ultimate Frisbee Hat tournament they have there. I won't be playing because of my knee, but I'm hoping to meet up with some of the foreigners who are living and teaching in Vietnam to see what conditions are like there (plus the fact that Ulti tournaments are always good for a party or two). While I love living in Korea, I really want to get a good look at what my options are like should I decide on a change of venue.

The other thing that's happened recently is that I bought a new bike. It's a Korean made Hyosung Mirage 250cc. Let me tell you, it's a wonderful change from the 125cc I was riding before. It's also remakable at how different the new bike is to ride from the old one. The Hyosung is obviously more powerful and heavier than the Daelim Magma which seems to make it handle better. Plus the clutch and gear shift is much stiffer than the old bike. I rode the Magma after driving the new bike for a couple of weeks and was shocked at the difference. The Magma felt like a toy in comparison. The funny thing is that the two bikes aren't that different in appearance.