Anniversary Epiphany

I'm gonna get to the epiphany. But I need to set it up.

The wide Han River

I really like Seoul. I took a solo explore today. I took the metro to a station beside the Hangang (the Han River). I crossed the river on foot. No, I didn't walk on water, neither Seoul nor I are that unwordly divine. But I did walk over a bridge. That river is so wide! It took me at least 20 minutes just to cross the bridge. In fact, later I crossed a tributary of the Hangang called the Tancheon Stream, and that seemed wide enough that calling it a stream felt like false modesty. It was definitely wider that the Truckee River back home, but, as my family might say, that's like being taller than Appreon. (Suffice it to say that Appreon is a particularly short gnome, so the idea is that everything is taller than Appreon.)

Hangang, with mountain backdrop.

On the south bank of the river I walked through one of the Hangang Parks, this one called Jamsil. I saw people out in a grassy area for picnics and a day by the river. Interestingly, many of the families had these pop up tents. They weren't large tents to sleep in, but just to relax in during the day, to somewhat get out of the sun. In another part of the park there was a beach. Now, this is along a river, not the ocean. But there was sand placed here with pink lounge chairs and pink umbrellas. And some of the kids were playing with buckets and sand rakes like you would at the beach.

Look at the little pop up tents

I wondered at first if it was a Barbie event

Oh, and I saw a fish ladder! I saw this spot where the water was running down a series of short steps. I thought it looked like a fish ladder, like a place that fish can jump upstream because there is a bigger spillway that they can't jump. So I continued to walk downstream and sure enough, I found the bigger spillway. This is neat and all, but I am excited that after a good amount of travel, I recognized an architectural feature in a river as a fish ladder. I did not, sadly, see any fish jumping their way up it. But this is spring, so more likely this is swim out to the ocean season and not return to spawn season.

Cardio for carp! Workouts for walleye! Stairmaster for salmon!

There was also a flower garden. I think it is in progress. There was a central area that was gorgeous, full of all kinds of flowers. And there was a lot around that central area that was grass and dirt. So it will probably look even better in the future.

The completed part of the flower garden is colorful...

...with a lot of species and varieties of flowers

This is not to say Seoul is perfect. It has big pluses: lots to do, great public transportation, and what a view, mountains everywhere. But it has some minuses too. For example, pollution. Understand, I don't mean litter. This city is unexpectedly clean. The Koreans do not litter. And that's amazing because if you have trash while you are out on a walk, you do not see any garbage cans in which you can place it. You just have to carry it until you get home or visit a convenience store. Yet still, nobody litters. The pollution they do have is in the air. There is a gray miasma. I got some pictures of the Lotte World Tower, the tallest building in Seoul. It's less than a mile from the river, but do you see how hazy the top is?

Atmospheric opacity not set to zero

Trying to get back to the point: I really like Seoul. And I really liked Hanoi. And I really liked Nonthaburi. And the list goes on. I haven't felt that into every city we have visited, but many of them. Anyway, that got me thinking. This is one of the two threads that leads to my epiphany.

I walked past this today. Sadly it was closed. I wanted to see all the strangeness. And bakeryness.

Yesterday was my anniversary. Here's an amazing coincidence: Yesterday was Alrica's anniversary too! And we were both celebrating our 27th anniversary. How random is that, the very person I am exploring the world with has the same exact anniversary. Will wonders never cease?

Some people brought their remote control boats to the river today

For our anniversary, we had fried chicken. Now, at this moment you might be thinking "That's a little underwhelming, Erich." But no, you see, in South Korea, fried chicken is a thing! They love fried chicken here and it is served in these delicious seasoned sauces. We tried Garlic Soy and it was delicious. But there are only about 20 more varieties to try. And each of the chicken places has its own recipes for their sauces. Many of them also do a chicken and beer platter. That's also part of the Korean fried chicken thing. You drink it with beer. Neither Alrica nor I drink, so we aren't likely to enjoy the full South Korean chicken experience.

My Crocodile Dundee moment (Trancheon Stream): "That's not a stream..."

We also went for a walk along the Cheonggyecheon Stream. This one really is narrow enough to qualify as a stream. It is a lovely waterway that runs through Seoul for over ten kilometers. It is the romantic place to stroll in Seoul. There are many people walking along it. But you can't go there when it is raining. The stream is also a major part of Seoul's flood control system. As we were walking under some of the bridges, you can see places in the walls that can open up to release stormwater. And there are signs warning you not to hang around when it is raining because these doors could open disgorging water, and you might drown. The stream is below the level of the roads, so you have to walk down staircases to reach it. During rain, there are gates that close at the staircases to keep you from going where you shouldn't.

(Cheonggyecheon Stream): "... That's a stream!"

You might think that since I am leading to an anniversary epiphany that I had said epiphany on my anniversary. But I didn't. I had it today, the day after my anniversary. But it is informed by anniversaries.

You have been warned

When we were on the tour bus for the DMZ tour, we were talking to another couple about how we live. And one of them asked us if we have found any cities we want to settle down in. This is a question we get asked a lot. Alrica and I have even talked about, well, not quite that, but something related. We talk about when the day comes that we don't want to travel as often (because travel days themselves are not fun.) Are there places we would want to stay for three months or six months or twelve months at a time?

I saw this hydrant on our anniversary stroll

Here's my hesitation with the idea of settling somewhere. And it is my epiphany. If I were in one place (even if making occasional week long trips elsewhere) would that place seem as exciting to me? Like here in Seoul, I think this is a very cool city. But do the citizens of Seoul think that? Probably some do, but others wish they could get out of it, go live somewhere else. They've done all the things they want to do. They have taken in the magic that they are going to take in and now it is just living for them. It's no longer special.

I saw this hydrant on our anniversary stroll too. Does that make it less special?

Why are anniversaries special? Because they only happen once a year. I love my wife everyday. There is nothing about our anniversary that makes our marriage better on that day. It's just a day for us to reflect on that fact that we are on this life journey together. You remember when you were new in a relationship and you did things like celebrate your one month anniversary? And then two months? And then you stopped doing that?

Did you stop because the romance died? Hopefully not. I think you stopped because by making an event out of it too often, the event isn't special anymore. Once a year is often enough that you get to enjoy it, but rare enough that it stays something out of the ordinary.

By changing up where we live every month or two months, we get chances to discover locations and think "This is a neat place! I like living here." But if we just settled down and stayed in one of those places, it would just become that place we lived. It doesn't mean we would dislike it. We would just stop seeing the characteristics that made it special and attractive in the first place.

If you're thinking, "Erich, I just read this whole thing and it took you forever to build up to your epiphany and all amounts to is the adage 'familiarity breeds contempt'," then I respectfully disagree. I would say it is "familiarity breeds indifference." But I am also noting that part of our lifestyle of being world travelers is caught up in the traveler part. It is different to be a nomad that to be an expat. I just know that for now, I get enough benefit from the disruptive part of our nomadic lifestyle that I don't want to give that up.

How would you translate this sign? I'm going with: Don't freak out. Crabs are just like you or me. But lower to the ground.

Someday will I want to be an international settler instead? Maybe? Probably? Probably not? I don't know. I guess I'll have to wait for another epiphany. But, like anniversaries, epiphanies can't occur too often. Otherwise, we just call them ideas.