begone, weakness

My shoulders continue to moan and cry as if they were being pushed to their limits despite the fact that I'm doing basically nothing to them. I'm supposed to meet that older distance-walking couple on Saturday, May 4, which is going to mean busing out Friday night (May 3), then taking a cab either right to the meeting site or to the bottom of the mountain. I told the couple I'd like to meet them somewhere dramatic, so I picked Ihwaryeong. Will I have the strength to walk up that 5K hill in almost two weeks? I wonder. But we'll see. More on this later when I figure out the logistics.

UPDATE: I'll take a bus out to Mungyeong, then a cab out to Yeonpoong-myeon, crash at the local yeogwan for the night, then do the 5K climb to Ihwaryeong the following morning. As I've said several times, the slope isn't that bad despite the distance, and I'll simply stop and rest as needed. The couple will be coming up the other side of the mountain, and we'll hang out at the summit until they're ready to continue. I might go back downhill with them (back the way I came), or I might catch a cab to the nearest bus terminal and let them do their thing. I won't be feeding them lunch on the mountaintop; based on my own experience, we'd be meeting at the summit way before lunch, and besides, I myself never eat a full meal until I'm done for the day: such is the timing of my bowels.

I suppose another option could be to escort the couple back the way I came, then have a meal with them in town if they're okay with that. I imagine this'll be a play-it-by-ear sort of day; the female half of the couple might have Americanized a bit, but I bet she's a nonlinear Korean at heart, so whatever plans I might make for the day will be altered upon first contact. As Mike Tyson said, "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." His version of No plan ever survives first contact with the enemy. That casts my meeting with the couple in an overly sinister light, but it's true that Koreans generally improvise because so few of them are capable of linear thought and action when it comes to activities with friends. (To be fair, Koreans can be ruthlessly over-linear in other situations.) Maybe this is why you don't hear much about huge Korean communities in hyperlinear, regimented Switzerland.