the song of ungirt runners

With the changing of the seasons and my enjoyment of running retuning, I thought this appropriate - its an old favorite of mine taken from the beginning of one of Anne McCaffery's Dragon series... its by Charles Hamilton Sorley:

. . We swing ungirded hips
And lighten'd are our eyes,
The rain is on our lips,
We do not run for prize.
We know not whom we trust,
Nor whitherward we fare,
But we run because we must,
Through the great wide air.
. . The waters of the seas
Are troubled as by storm.
The tempest strips the trees
And does not leave them warm.
Does the tearing tempest pause?
Do the tree tops ask it why?
So we run without a cuase
'Neath the big bare sky.
. . The rain is on our lips,
We do not run for prize.
But the storm the water whips
And the wave howls to the skies.
The winds arise and strike it
And skatter it like sand,
And we run because we like it
Through the broad, bright land.

autumn is here

I've been meaning to post something like this for the last several days - to share the good news! Thursday I woke up early without knowing why, and felt like running (which I've been struggling with since my arrival)... as soon as I got outside I knew why - Autumn is here!

The wind smells wonderful, reminding me of changing leaves and reading a good book in front of a fireplace. This shouldn't be such a unique situation, I mean, it happens once a year, right? Well, for me this is a rarity. I spent the last 4 years in sunny Las Vegas where we don't have trees that change color with the seasons. They actually decorate the palm trees (imported) and joshua trees (large cactus) with Christmas lights when the season is right... which is wrong in so many ways. The other thing that struck me last Thursday and has been reinforced the last few days is that I'm not cold anymore. I'd been keeping my A/C almost off since I got here, feeling very cold (with chill bumps) in the mid-70s, yet here it is at 63 and I can be in shorts and not be chilly. It had also been very humid and I've been mildly sick since I got here, but now that its dry (high 60%s vs 100%) I feel great and I can breath normally.

I remember in South Dakota that it would only get humid right before a rain and then once it rained it would be dry again... it's been exactly like that the last several days! I can't say how gratelful I am. I went running again this evening, amazing, beautiful. Somehow whenever the weather decided to turn on the switch, something broke in me that had me stuck in NV and now I'm remenbering skiing in jeans and a turtleneck with a windbreaker... I can't wait to play in the snow again!

af ball

. . It was quite an exciting trip to Seoul (the capital city of South Korea/ROK) for the AF Ball this last weekend. We left Kunsan at 0800, which seemed remarkably early for a Saturday morning, and took a bus to Osan. It was my first time at Osan and we browsed the shops just outside the gate. Now I know what they can do and what I need to bring with me next time (like pictures of gowns, pant-suits, shoes, etc). You simply can't find cute shoes larger than a 7, usually a 6... and we all know my feet aren't that tiny *chuckles* but I am excited to find what I did and I have great thoughts for the future :-) In the afternoon we had lunch at Chili's and took another bus to Yongsan and got settled into our hotel just off post, and just in time too...
. . Nicki and I had fun getting ready for the ball while the guys were chillin' in one room, not even starting to get ready until we gave them the 5 min warning. And I think they still beat us :-) The evening was quite eventful, being the only Comm traveling with so many CE Red Devils *chuckles* with lots of pictures with leadership, and I even got coined by the 3-star just for taking a picture of him with all the guys "holding up the pitchfork" :-) I spent a lot of time laughing at them. Above is a picture of Stan and I at the dinner table.
. . After the AF Ball wrapped up (midnight~ish), we changed out and went to this lovely little bar about a block from the hotel. Such ambiance! It was nice to relax after being trussed up like a Thanksgiving goose in those uniforms, however elegant they look. And what wonderful friends! You can see the homey feel of the pub in the picture of Nicki and I below. It was the perfect ending to an exciting day :-)
. . Sunday morning we went back to Yongsan to store our luggage. Most of the group took the express train back, but Stan and I stayed to explore and window shop. There's so much to do in Seoul! Again, I now have a list of things I want to do given the chance to go back, most specifically the Korean War Museum, which would take up a whole day by itself. The train station is a huge mall in and of itself, almost twice the size of the Mall of America if I remember right (9 stories, huge open concert area in the middle) and we also got to watch an IMAX before catching the train back. Even that was exciting, just noting how long it took us to get there by bus (almost all day minus an hour or two in Osan), and it took less than 2 hours to take the express bus and a taxi back to the base the other way. The train was so smooth you didn't even feel like you were moving! I'll never bus it again!

KORN111, week 4

. . So, as an update on my Korean language class, I did well on the quiz on Monday of week 3, troublesome as it was, because the professor announced that of the 20 questions, we only had to get 10 right (so I tried 12 and got 11, so full credit where I should have gotten a 55%), and she followed up by saying that the next time she wouldn't be so nice... so obviously I didn't go into the exam Wed of week 4 with a strong heart.
. . I was even more worried once I got to class and saw the mid term exam! I didn't think I could get any of the sections, so I started with the one that I thought I could guess parts to... and basically used the test to answer the questions from within. I guess because I could understand what things were saying and apply them to different sections that with that little bit of a memory jog I am actually learning this, and I didn't finish dead last or fail completely (73% at only 30% of the total grade). It was also a little stressful because she didn't post our grades until today so I spent most of the weekend wondering what my grade would actually be. But its not a grade thing, its a proficiency and usability thing - I can get a 62% if I don't do the final and a 77% if I get 50%... whatever. But I do worry about the pace and that I just don't have time to do my job and also take this class.
. . Today is a typical example, I did the second half of my homework over my "lunch" at 3pm, left work at 6 so I could grab dinner en route to the 6:30 class across base, worked on correcting 1206s through our 15 min "lunch" and went back to the office at 9:30... arriving home around 11:30 only to realize I have to get up early to get my PT in and be at work because I've got meetings all morning actually during the actual "duty day" and I've got several suspenses due in that time. (but I really am trying to blog when I have the time) Its like I'm robbing Peter to pay Paul. I'm not complaining, and I am sure I could accomplish all the small taskers and paperwork if I spent less time trying to work things for all the sections in my very diverse flight, but... I'm also seriously considering not taking the 112 class that starts a week after this class gets out. The thought almost makes me sad, but somehow makes me extremely happy at the same time. Quite bittersweet.
. . I'm thinking I'll take one of my midtours (30 days, however I want to split it, so in 2-3s) when this is done and work on other more self-paced methods of learning the language before I try to tackle the classes like this once again :-) I like Pimsleur for memorization of speaking/listening skills and maybe I could use the Rosetta Stone now that I have a basic knowledge. I can certainly use a dictionary since I can now read properly, though I may still struggle with some of the nuances of creating sentence structure (but then I never could tell a pronoun from an adverb in English either), I'm sure if I could focus on getting around town, I would be successful.

heuksori drum and dancers

. . There was a very interesting performance at the base theater today - I'm not sure if it was supposed to be traditional Korean dancing and drums or now, but it was an "alternate duty location" so I figured it was something I shouldn't miss, especially since I've been trying to soak up the culture. I have to be honest though, the first scene about did me in, strictly women singers (which I wasn't expecting) in more Chinese looking gowns, which was a little screechy and warbley for me. But the all-male drum performance that followed was amazing. They had ribbons on their hats so that they were making designs mid air in time to the music as they were playing the drums and gongs,etc. There was another dance with different girls that almost looked and felt Hawaiian, then the same girls in modified costumes did another few "butterfly" dances with these lovely wraps on their arms and 3' sticks so they could hold out the fabric and really make it shimmer - it was so beautiful. The final drum performers finished in the dark with clear, backlit drums that had water on top :-) They turned the lights off and it was pretty neat (reminded me a little of the Blue Man Group). They also threw tons of glow sticks to the crowd - I was in a great mood at the end of the show!
. . There was also $1K in door prizes (coupons to use in the stores in town) inbetween each set of acts, but they had to be raffled off in $20 increments to beat legal. My ticket must have fallen out of my hat when I went to the bathroom before the show because my number was the 3rd number called and I couldn't find it in any of my pockets or in my bag... oh well :-) my loss went to a good cause: 5 of my Airmen (plus my CC) all won door prizes at the event. Its good so many people were able to benefit!

KORN111, week 2

. . My Korean class is moving along quite well... or fast, I should really say. We've had 3 classes so far, the first two were syllables and this last one was already into sentence structure and numbers - Amazing... and we've got our first quiz over everything we've learned next Monday (the next class). I guess that'll be my telling mark. I'm anxious. I can copy letters with the best, I can repeat the pronunciations, and I have no idea what any of it means! As far as learning languages, its a little like English in that there are a lot of exceptions, but thats about it.
. . The written characters (hangul) are neat. There are 24 letters and each syllable is formed with at least one consonant (or the null consonant) and a vowel. You can actually tell what sound the letter makes by looking at it because each one indicates a different placement in the mouth. The numbers are interesting as well because they have 2 sets. I remember vaguely the traditional Korean numbers from a TaeKwonDo class from ages ago, which is what we learned last night, but then when I tried to order a combo #3 (com'po set), the lady at Taco Bell corrected me (nicely, since I was trying), and said they said "sem"... which is from the Chinese derived numbers, and I have to say the rest of the numbers aren't so closely related by sound. Anyway, it is a fascinating class, regardless of speed and I'm putting it to use every chance I get and hopefully I'll learn something :-)
. . Oh, and I still don't have pictures from my promotion - I think someone lost that camera! Sorry!!!