June 21, 1987

What I wrote in my journal for that day:

June 21. Thursday Carrie came. Friday night met Carrie for a late night. I enjoy just being with her. Saturday haircut and to Kyoungju with Mr. An too. To the Condo and about. Lots of Japanese. Miss Hwang came. She seems like a good friend to them. A little easy. At night to the night club. Absolutely no one there. Back and I was pretty bored. Sunday up late and came right home.

What I didn't write:

Three adult married Korean men from the SamChullyHo factory (a subsidiary of Kia), one younger single Korean maiden(?), and one whitey (me, the only non-smoker) piled into a brand new Kia Pride and made the drive up to Kyoungju.

I rode shotgun. We made it onto the freeway and I had a moment of anxiety when I looked over at the speedometer and saw we were going 100. Surprised the little Pride (later bought by Ford and sold in the USA as the Festive) could go that fast. Panic. Math. Number crunching. Another look at the speedometer. Big numbers. Little numbers. Relax dude, the big numbers are KPH and the small numbers are MPH. Going 100 is only 62 MPH. Ok.

We stopped along the way in the middle of nowhere and went into an old looking restaurant. We ate some meat and had some Soju and Makeolli. Even the driver. Then we got back in the Pride and pressed on for the capitol of the ancient Shilla Kingdom.

We visited a traditional village at some point that day. The guys got together and bought me a hand-carved wooden mask of the Yangban. It probably goes without saying that I still have it: