There was only one thing on my mind when I was stuck at home sick for the past few weeks.  Even though it was my sickness doing much of the decision-making for me, I knew this much was true…I have to get out of here.  Now I’m not talking about moving back just quite yet, nor was I thinking about a 2 week trip back to the States.  Well I used to think that but the more I visit expedia.com for round-trip ticket prices, the more I start feeling churn in my stomach again.  Anyway, I’m thinking about planning a little weekend getaway this month.  Nothing big.  Just something to get my mind off the hustle and bustle of the big city life. 

I’ve thoroughly lived in 3 major metropolitan areas and what I found to be consistently true is that one needs to get away from the polluted air, the honking horns and the rude people.  I just need to go somewhere where fresh air is taken for granted.  Where I don’t start choking when I take a deep breathe or just simply sigh out of relief.  There, I think I can concentrate on such things as like “walking the earth and acheiving that moment of clarity” or just sit in front of a nice view and do some dog-gone good old-fashioned relaxation. 

In Chicago, it was about going up to some ski resort up in Wisconsin.  In NYC, it was about going up to some executives’ beach house in the Hamptons.  In LA, it was about the beautiful beaches, snowboarding or some bed and breakfast spa up the central coast.  For the Seoulites, they like to escape out to the mountains, whether it be a ski trip out in Yang Pyung or a hike up Seorak Mountain.  There are other tiny little retreats towards the south like Daegu and Pusan but for the most part, its mountains.    

I’ve been in Korea for 8 months now and still have not managed to see the rest of what this beautiful country has to offer.  But I don’t want to do the conventional.  I did all that as a kid.  Plus, I’m not a conventional kind of guy, either…oh no.  I was actually thinking about all the little islands off the southern coast of Korea.  No one really notices, but if you take a magnifying glass up to the map of Korea, you will then see hundreds, if not thousands of scattered little fledgling islets of the coast. From what I understand it is a whole new world out there.  Korea takes huge pride in these islands, even if they aren’t inhabited.  Or maybe they just don’t want any of it to be in the greasy hands of the Japanese as evidenced by the island of Dokdo.

So anybody else out there looking to get away?  Let’s plan something!  I’m thinking about taking a KTX train down to Mokpo, the southwestern-most tip of Korea.  From there we would board a ferry and go sailing from island to island.  Maybe we could stop by Jindo and actually pick up a real Jindo.  Or maybe we’ll stop at Cheju Do and to find out why its also called by 2 other names:  Sam Da Do and Sam Moo Do.  Sounds like fun, but am I really going to do it?  Somebody needs to motivate me or I’m just going to end up doing the same thing I did last weekend: taking another walk down Cheongye Chun.