The End is Nigh

I am back in the motherland called Canada and, as some of you already know, it has been for a good two weeks. I have taken the time to rest, catch up with friends and process what I experienced the past year.

Upon my return the question of what would happen to this space on the internet arose. Seeing that the internet is not running out of space, I will leave it up. Having left out many parts of my experience in Korea one option would be to continue expelling them until the needle on my story tank read E. I will not do this.

Instead I will conclude a story that started a full twelve months ago; a story that changed my time in Korea from mediocre to mind blowing; a story that gripped my heart and refused to let it go. That story is, of course, the story of Annabelle.

Thank-you for your encouragement and support over the past year. I don't think that I speak for myself when I say, it has been quite an adventure.

Mission

I mentioned the other day when talking about the grand open that I was on a mission. This was what I was after:

The shop that holds the title for Korea's best pizza now also lays claim to Korea's biggest pizza. SkyBori Pizza in Suwol. While SkyBori is a chain, none of the other shops, or any pizza place in Korea, make pizza like this for the price.

If you are in the area stop by and give it a try, you won't be disappointed. It is just across the new bridge past the LG and Samsung buildings. Also the owner's wife speaks great English and is always down to chat.

Message in a Bottle

Ever since I heard that it was possible I have wanted to write a message, put it in a bottle and throw it in the sea. I was reminded of this a few months back but being winter it was "too cold" to take Annabelle to the sea. But seeing that my time was short I decided to go ahead with the project regardless of the happenings outside my windows.

I bought a bottle that I felt would be perfect for this type of enterprise and went about disposing it's contents to prepare it for it's work. I also looked in to ocean currents and where my message would have the most chance of reaching some far away place. Once that was all in place I set about writing the note.

Now there is a percentage of the population that would say this is child's play, tomfoolery or nonsense but I didn't ask what others thought of the idea so I don't know what percentage that would be. I am not the most creative person but wrote the note as best I could imagine a five year old writing it.

As per message in a bottle regulations I included my name, my address and the date. I did not include my age for fear that it would impede a reply. Everyone wants to write to that five year old boy waiting for a reply, boy will they be surprised... I also did not include any form of internet communication. If I wanted more emails I would reply to my family more often, I want a letter that I can touch, look at and mount on my wall.

With everything in place I called Annabelle and we set off. My research on ocean current were inconclusive. Seeing that I would be hurling it from the shore I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get it far enough out. So I decided that the best way to give it a proper start would be to throw it from the bridge between Geoje and Tongyeon. (The Geoje Busan link bridge would have been better but I did not have a legal way of carrying it out.)

I took a glorious ride out to the bridge and found that there would be no stopping to get sentimental, I would need to heave it from the bike as I rode across. I took a few passes to determine the best place to throw it from as well as to have a minimal amount of traffic observing. About the fourth pass everything came together and as they say, "felt right", so I let it fly.

Worst case, I get charged for littering, but from what it looks like here I should be safe. Best case senario I  receive a letter in the next fifty years or so and we become best friends. I can't wait!