I am almost 100 percent again. My nose has suffered the most from my illness however. I hope it will one day forgive me. It feels like it's about to fall off actually but other then that I am feeling myself again. I went to visit a palace yesterday. Most of it was rebuilt though because it got destroyed during the Korean War. That war took out a lot ancient structures in this country actually. I guess wars have a way of doing that though. They kind of end up robbing you of your history or in the case of the US they could end up robbing us of our future....ok, this will not be a political blog....I promise.

Anyways, I saw this palace with some people from work yesterday and it was pretty cool for the first 15 minutes and then it was kind of the same thing over and over again. This has always been my problem. I can't spend all day looking at the same thing over and over again. When we went to Ireland the castles and ruins all started to look the same after a while. When I lived in Colorado I lived directly under Pikes Peaks which are beautiful. But waking up everyday getting ready to go to class you just get used to seeing them in the background. I feel bad about this. I feel like I take these things for granted. I've been lucky enough so far to see and live in some pretty amazing places. The odds are I will continue to see really amazing things, but it is so rare to have something take my breath away.

I feel like the Egyptian pyramids might knock me on my ass. When I went to Costa Rica and stayed in the cloud forest there was this moment when the clouds actually cleared up and I could see across the whole forest and there was this beautiful lake and then a volcano across from where I was standing....I could have looked at that for a long time....I did look at that for a long time actually. I wish I could have more experiences like that. That's what I love about Art. Really good art stops me in my tracks. I'm not just talking about paintings and sculpture either. I'm talking about music and theater too. Maybe I'm greedy. I want to wake up everyday and go somewhere or see something that takes my breath away. Maybe I just miss my girlfriend. She usually has that affect on me.

So back to the palace. We're walking around the palace and some of the teachers decide to go on the guided tour and some of us just walk around. I can't do the whole guided tour thing. I like to walk my own path, guided tours are like Christmas sweaters...they just feel uncomfortable and I look stupid in them. So I walk around with the non guided tour teachers and we see some pretty neat stuff but then it gets old. So we go back out to the front and wait for the guided tour people to come back. While we are waiting this pretty cool show starts happening where these guardsmen dressed in traditional clothing start marching in a pattern and hitting this huge drum and swing their swords. It's pretty cool and I'm no long bored at this point. So they are yelling some stuff in Korean which I don't understand and walking in formation when I start to feel like I'm being stared at. Then this group of Korean girls tap me on the shoulder and ask to have their picture taken. So I take their camera and say sure thinking they want their picture taken with the guardsmen doing their thing in the background....NO.....they want their picture taken with me. All this cool shit is going on and they want their picture taken with the black guy. So I smiled and they took their picture with me. Then about ten minutes later another group came up to me and it was the same thing. This happened about five times while we were waiting for the other group to finish their tour of the palace. So I started thinking, am I an attraction? I still don't know how I feel about it. I mean, they were all very friendly but it was kind of weird. I mean if you go to the Grand Canyon you don't take pictures of the stranger waiting for his buddies to come out of the bathroom do you? I know they don't have much contact with foreign folks here but WOW, I never thought it would be like this.

One of the Korean teachers I work with and teach with told me that for about 95 percent of the Koreans I will come in to contact with while I'm here I will probably be the first live African American they have ever talked to and been close to. Now that's a lot of pressure! No wonder I get stared at so hard on the subway. I'm thinking about having some business cards made. I'll be the ambassador of American Black folk. Better me then Snoop Dogg I guess.

Today is Thursday which means it is Thanksgiving. But back in the States it is only Wednesday. For those of you reading this blog today I hope you have a very very exciting or relaxing (which ever one you most want) Thanksgiving.

I have a phone finally (not that I expect anyone to call but if you find yourself lost in Korea feel free) My phone number is 010 8682 6952. In Korea, like in most other foreign countries, incoming calls are free...yet another thing they do better then the United States. It doesn't matter what company the other caller is from, all incoming calls are free.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Chris