Korea

Just got this email from Eric :

ㅗ됴 ㅊㅁㄴㄴ,

ㅑ ㅡㅁㅇㄷ ㅑㅅ 새 ㅏㅐㄱㄷㅁ ㄴㅁㄹ디ㅛ ㅁ. ㅑㅅ'ㄴ ㅁ ㅊㄱㅁ쿄 챠쇼. ㅑ 쟈노 ㅛㅐㅕ ㅈㄷㄱㄷ ㅗㄷㄱㄷ. ㅑ'ㅣㅣ 드먀ㅣ ㅣㅁㅅㄷㄱ. ㅣㅐㅍㄷ ㅛㅐㅕ.

ㄸ걏

And then I got one I could actually read:
I made it to Korea safely. After enjoying ourselves in the international lounge in Tokyo, Daniel and I landed in Korea at about 10:30 last night. Due to the language barriers I accidentally withdrew $500 from an ATM machine. Then we had an impossible time trying to figure our where our hotel was and how to get there. (Our contact in Korea hasn't given us a ton of details.) Plus, we had some shady characters try and talk us into taking a cab, but we finally found a really nice Korean man who saw we were struggling and took us under his wing and helped navigate us to our hotel.

Apparently, we're staying in a pretty seedy area of town (e.g., the Love Shop is across the street and there are millions of *Karaoke bars). But overall, the city is incredibly clean and seems really safe. This place has gotta be the technology capital of the world. I've never seen so much technology in my life. It's everywhere.

Daniel and I each have our own room. We each have a 60-inch plasma screen TV, a computer, and free internet acces in our rooms. Plus, I have a huge jacuzzi tub in my room. Not bad, especially considering the fact that Dan thinks we're staying in a dump and has apologized for it on several occassions.

I'll be judging from 10:30 a.m. until 10:30 p.m. today (mock trial).

* "Karaoke" is sometimes code for strip club.

Where is in the world is Eric Nelson? By the time Eric returns from Korea, this will be his travel break-down, from May - Aug. (by the way, he figured this out, not me...and he's also accounting for layovers, but it's still pretty crazy.) :

Saipan: Detroit: Atlanta: Manila: Honolulu: Kona: Guam: Tokyo: Nagoya: Seoul:

65 days 6 hrs 6 days 4 days 5 hrs 4 days 1 day 1 day 6 hrs 4 days