Sunday Night in Daejeon: The Final Week Begins

Well, it’s after midnight here in Daejeon (Slogan: It’s Daejeon) and I’m about to begin my final week here in Korea. I’m back in Daejeon for the third time in as many weeks to interview for at least a third (if not fourth) time, Kilnam Chon, the father of the Internet in Korea.

I don’t have the energy right now to write a whole narrative, so I’ll just give you some snippets of things that I’ve done in the last week:

– Did at least one interview every day
– Watched two baseball games (Lotte Giants [Busan] at Hanwha Eagles [Daejeon] ; Hanwha Eagles at LG Twins [Seoul])
– Ate tons of street food
– Stayed with Nathan and Rachel, who were awesome hosts
– Watched one soccer game (Ulsan at FC Seoul)
– Had dinner and drank way too much makoli with Gary Rector, a childhood friend of James Boyk (David‘s Dad)
– Watched a professional Starcraft match (“eSports“)
– Took the KTX, the Korean bullet train from Seoul to Busan
– Stayed with Aaron Tassano (Becky‘s cousin) and his wife Soo Jin in Busan
– Ate Pyongyang-style noodles
– Fought a giant bottle of makoli with a plastic sword that I found for sale at a Busan supermarket
– Ate more street food
– Watched the Lotte Giants destroy the Hyundai Unicorns [Suwon] in baseball, 9-2
– Ate freshly killed octopus tentacles while they were still squirming from their disembodied torso
– Bought a wooden, hand-carved stamp with my family name laser-etched in Korean on it for $10
– Took the KTX from Busan to Daejeon
– Rode the newly-opened Daejeon subway

I’ll be here in Daejeon until Tuesday, then I head back north to Seoul to finish up. On Friday, I’m doing a tour of the DMZ.

On Sunday, I head home.