Trade english for muscles!

Today at the gym I met the director of the fitness center, a nice guy around my age who is getting his masters in physiology from one of the local universities. I found it kind of funny that he already knew a little bit about me. He knew where I worked and what time I worked out and stuff like that, I guess being the only white person at my gym gives me a bit of notoriety. There might actually be another white person or two that goes there occasionally but none that I’ve ever seen. In any case he spoke a little English, not much but enough so that we could understand each other. He could even understand the feeble croaking that is passing for my voice today. He was very surprised to learn that we were both the same age, as he commented my beard made me look older. Maybe its time to shave.

In any case he is interested in learning more English and I mentioned that I would like to learn more Korean so he proposed that we could perhaps work out together and teach each other language. Either that or he was offering to personal train me in exchange for English lessons. Now the biggest roadblock is the time that he works, which means that I would have to come in the mornings and I’m not a big fan of morning workouts. Its proven that people with gimpy backs like mine should avoid certain exercises in the morning . Another thing would be the fact that I’ve already got a training plan laid out for the rest of my stay here and I’m not sure if he would be down with following it.
But the chance to do something a little different, learn more of the language, could be fun. In the end I explained that January was going to be a little busy for me but I’d be open to trying something out in February. I figure one or two early workouts a week wouldn’t kill me.

I was supposed to hang out with Ken today but my worsening larengytis made it obvious that staying in would be the better route. I’m interested to see how much of a voice I have left on Monday and thought it would be best not to load the dice by talking all day. I find that when I’m around people, especially friends, I find it really tough to shut up. I’m sure that has gone unnoticed by those around me up to this point so I thought it important to note that.

I bought some American money off Ken (he can’t exchange his funds without a passport) and think that I might try my first hand at investing by waiting until the US dollar rises before exchanging it myself. Then Ken helped me pick out a humidifier at Emart. It gets drier than Colbert here and I usually wake up hacking even when I’m not under the weather. By the amount that the store sold I can guess pretty much every home has one. So far it does seem to be helping with the air in my place although I can bet it will make my clothes dry a lot slower.

So I am just going to be hanging out at home today, and quite possibly tomorrow. Trying to rest up as much as possible. Now I’m not usually the master of excitement when it comes to how I spend my free time but I do get a little stir crazy when I’m confined indoors rather than choosing to be there.