Fan death is a myth. It's crazy but apparently many educated Koreans believe that sleeping under an oscillating fan within a sealed room will cause death. A few nights ago we went out to dinner and this came up after the main course. Chris just seemed exasperated. "Sleeping under a fan will not kill you."
So Chris and I decided to do our own little mythbusters exercise wear we turned on a fan, sealed his room and put ourselves to bed. In the dark I hear Chris ask "Do you suppose it could be something about Korean buildings?" "I guess anything is possible." Needless to say, I'm alive, Chris is alive, the fan is still working. Everyone survived.
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The other day we hiked up a mountain behind Chris's school where they have lots of excercise equipment waiting for those fit enough to get to the top and not be out of breath. The trail follows through the wooded area on the mountain and runs straight up the hill as the Koreans don't seem to jive with the winding, easy path. The difficulty of getting to the top was compounded by the slick, red clay that seemed to coat the mountain and although I did not slip it did occur to me that I might be quite dirty by the time I got back down.
At the top it was interesting. The first thing that one notices is that there is a large helicopter landing pad ready in the case of invasion from the north. As you walk around the mountain top you begin to find gunners nest and prebuilt bunkers of cinder block with shallow trenches that connect them. The S. Koreans are prepared. They'd just need a machine gun and maybe a few sandbags (although not neccesarily) and they'd be good to go. Apparently Daegu was one of the last places taken in the Korean war and they have no intentions of that happening again.
They have lots of dip and chin up bars at the top along with a set of bench presses each with a preset weight that are surrounded by a hovering crowd of middle aged and older Korean men like something out of a jail house film. Chris decided that we needed to lift weights. They began to talk to Chris and ask him about what he did for a living and then finally asked us to try the heaviest weight at the end. This turned out to be 80 kg which is just about my body weight. The old men got up and all shuffled down the end of the row of benches to watch me attempt this feat. I lay there wondering how much this was going to hurt and why I was giving into something akin to peer pressure (but I guess it's only peer pressure if you consider 57 year old Korean men my peers) then exhaled and pushed the bar off the rack. I looked up at Chris standing over me spotting as I pumped through the motions. The first was clumsy and lacked good form but I eventually found balance as was able to show a modicum of grace as I repeated what I felt was a required number of repetitions. I got five off in all. I'm still sore two days later. Still it was kind of cool. After all I was the strongest man on the moutain top.
So Chris and I decided to do our own little mythbusters exercise wear we turned on a fan, sealed his room and put ourselves to bed. In the dark I hear Chris ask "Do you suppose it could be something about Korean buildings?" "I guess anything is possible." Needless to say, I'm alive, Chris is alive, the fan is still working. Everyone survived.
___________
The other day we hiked up a mountain behind Chris's school where they have lots of excercise equipment waiting for those fit enough to get to the top and not be out of breath. The trail follows through the wooded area on the mountain and runs straight up the hill as the Koreans don't seem to jive with the winding, easy path. The difficulty of getting to the top was compounded by the slick, red clay that seemed to coat the mountain and although I did not slip it did occur to me that I might be quite dirty by the time I got back down.
At the top it was interesting. The first thing that one notices is that there is a large helicopter landing pad ready in the case of invasion from the north. As you walk around the mountain top you begin to find gunners nest and prebuilt bunkers of cinder block with shallow trenches that connect them. The S. Koreans are prepared. They'd just need a machine gun and maybe a few sandbags (although not neccesarily) and they'd be good to go. Apparently Daegu was one of the last places taken in the Korean war and they have no intentions of that happening again.
They have lots of dip and chin up bars at the top along with a set of bench presses each with a preset weight that are surrounded by a hovering crowd of middle aged and older Korean men like something out of a jail house film. Chris decided that we needed to lift weights. They began to talk to Chris and ask him about what he did for a living and then finally asked us to try the heaviest weight at the end. This turned out to be 80 kg which is just about my body weight. The old men got up and all shuffled down the end of the row of benches to watch me attempt this feat. I lay there wondering how much this was going to hurt and why I was giving into something akin to peer pressure (but I guess it's only peer pressure if you consider 57 year old Korean men my peers) then exhaled and pushed the bar off the rack. I looked up at Chris standing over me spotting as I pumped through the motions. The first was clumsy and lacked good form but I eventually found balance as was able to show a modicum of grace as I repeated what I felt was a required number of repetitions. I got five off in all. I'm still sore two days later. Still it was kind of cool. After all I was the strongest man on the moutain top.
