Jagbyeol

Yesterday I walked into a shop at the bus terminal I go to every morning that made breakfast sandwiches. I immediately became regretful that I hadn't discovered it sooner. How wonderful it would have been to stop into this place every morning and get myself a warm, toasty, hearty breakfast, just the perfect way to start my day.

My regret quickly turned to relief, and then, eventually, dismay. After receiving my order of an egg, sausage and cheese on toast, I found that by sausage they meant "hot dog" and someone decided it would be a good idea to dress the whole monstrosity up with honey mustard sauce.

Not all that glitters is gold, I suppose.

I met a couple of Americans on the bus into the park, and we got to talking. One of the gentlemen told me this was his 11th Olympics (there's definitely, I guess what you'd call, a cult of people who live and die for the Olympics and will travel anywhere in the world to attend them...they come off as a little sad and pathetic, but it's their "thing" and they groove on it, so who am I to judge?), and he told me he'd brought his daughter to the Winter Games in Salt Lake City when they were there in 2002. He said she still considers it one of her greatest memories. It's a sappy anecdote, but it does show the power that the Olympics hold. Los Angeles is hosting the Summer Games in 2028, and wouldn't that just make for the perfect family vacation? We'll talk about I when I get home, honey.

The figure skating competition ended yesterday, and I'm headed out soon. Overall, my experience in Korea has been an overwhelmingly positive one. I'm proud of the work we did here. I'm glad I got to go watch a new sport (aerials) and was in the building for the signature event of these Games (women's hockey gold-medal game). I wish I'd gotten to see more, but with how spread out the venues are, you really have to set aside a good chunk of your day if you want to go to an event outside of the cluster you're in, and with the figure skating schedule being what it is, that's not usually a realistic option.

The food was outstanding. The people were gracious and helpful. My hotel was clean and quiet and convenient. I really have very little to complain about.

But I am ready to come home. This is a long time to be away from your family, and I miss them a lot, and I think, maybe, just maybe, they miss me, too. The long trek from Gangneung to Waldwick awaits.

But first, one last snack review.

This one, unfortunately, is a boring one, and I don't even have a picture to go with it. It was a bag of potato chips with, what I thought was, a buffalo drumstick on it, so I was expecting to get something spicy, but it turned out it was just a regular barbecue chicken drumstick, and these ended up being boring, old barbecue potato chips. Nothing to see here (literally).

Rating: 5.0