Well everyone I am officially back and blogging again. I appreciate all the e-mails I received from everyone wondering what happened to me. No I was not arrested in the Philippines for sodomy or thrown in jail for assaulting a Korean taxi cab driver as some have speculated. Actually I have been busy with work. If you can believe it, I actually have a day job besides blogging. I unexpectedly moved to another overseas assignment to train allied soldiers and have had very little Internet access the past month. Not the case anymore though, so expect regular blogging once again.

Looking through some of the other K-blogs it has been quite an interesting month I have missed. Then again what month in Korea isn’t interesting? What really jumped out at me was the suicide of Shawn Matthews from the former Korea Life Blog. Like many people KLB was actually the first Korea blog I read before reading others like the Marmot’s Hole. I wish things could have worked out better for him because suicide was definitely not the answer; god bless his family and may he rest in peace.

Let’s see what else has been going on, well foreign English teachers are being blamed for sexual assaults they had nothing to do with. I can still remember the good old days when soldiers would try and pass themselves off as English teachers. I think those days are long gone now.

Nomad has started a series on trash left by Koreans along some of the water holes he likes to fish at. I have plenty of pictures myself of the garbage left by the dreaded picnickers who pollute the beautiful country side in Korea. I remember the last time I climbed Sorak mountain seeing people throw their garbage off into the strong wind that was blowing up there that day just so they could see their garbage go flying off the mountain. A continual frustration for those of us who like to do outdoors activities in the beautiful Korean country side.

The World Cup madness had hit Korea again, and I have had the opportunity to watch the Korean team play this past month. I don’t know if it is a strategy or not, but it seems like they play like crap for most of the game to wear down the other team and then pull it out in the end. The expressions from the French players and coaching staff after the last game was absolutely priceless. The Red Devils do continue to get calls from the referees to go their way some how, but I can’t fault the Korean team for taking advantage of it. Bad calls are part of just about any sport. I just wish Team USA could get the calls Koreans do sometimes, such as the second goal against Italy being counted. Emotions are running high in Korea over the World Cup which is evident by this confrontation in the good old 2ID city of Uijongbu. Can you believe it, there are also Koreans in Uijongbu getting into trouble besides just US soldiers?
Speaking of soldiers getting in trouble, the monthly Taxi Cab Related Incident for the month of June has occurred as well, with a soldier throwing a bike at a taxi in Chuncheon. As you all know, I have no love for the cab drivers in the 2ID area due to my own run ins with them, but at no means should anyone get in a physical confrontation with them because you cannot win, even if the cab driver provoked it. It is best just to walk away.

Then you have the Norks ready test fire a missile. (Yawn) Those of us who have lived for long periods of time in Korea know, most of Seoul is within artillery range of North Korea so most Koreans could care less about a missile test. However this story is getting big attention outside of Korea which is what the Norks want. They have to push the envelope every once in a while to make sure no one forgets about them and keeps the aid rolling in.

Then finally USFK is being blamed for creating a murderous monster in the Han River. You can’t make this stuff up, with headlines like these obviously things are going on as usual in Korea and that is why Korea will always be the land of endless blogging.