Aug. 29 - Sept. 4: Lost Wallet and an Unwanted Visitor

Well, you would think I would have learned my lesson a year ago when, just two weeks shy of leaving the States for Korea, I managed to "misplace" my wallet into someone else's hands during a night of celebrating Oktoberfest in Los Angeles. After dealing with random charges to my credit card and trying to replace everything that was lost, I vowed to always keep a close eye on any future wallets.

Unfortunately, this past Wednesday night I proved my irresponsibility once again by leaving my wallet on a bench in Anyang. I realized it about ten minutes later, but of course by the time I ran back to the bench, my wallet was gone. I was stranded in downtown Anyang and forced to call my ex-boyfriend to save me. After spending an hour on the phone till 2:00 am with various US credit card companies and Bank of America, everything was settled....but what a pain in the neck!

Friday night Erin and I went out for a birthday party of two of my soccer buddies, followed by an evening at the Rockssin for open-mic night, followed by a bit of booty dancing at the Techno Bar until the wee hours.

It was tough, but I got up Saturday morning and met Erin at the train station with my new red bag. We took the train down to Ganhyeon for two days of climbing. I had an awful day of climbing thanks to my exhaustion, but we did meet some other great foreign climbers, including a girl in the airforce who had just completed her first Ironman competition the preceding weekend.

I got the shock of my life Saturday night while preparing for bed. I discovered a hole in my food bag and a chunk of apple missing. Thinking I had zipped the bag into my pack's zipper, I began pawing through the pack in search of the missing apple chunk. I then pulled out a t-shirt (my favorite one, might I add, that I bought in Belize) and discovered a massive hole through both the front and back.

I was still naive, and just after Erin noticed the shirt and muttered, "Tiffany, I'm scared!", we caught a glimpse of a furry brown creature doing cartwheels in my pack. Erin and I both squealed in terror, and I threw the bag down. A tiny mouse scurried out of the opening, took a look at us, and ran back into the bag. Of course, this encouraged more screams from us silly girls. Finally, Erin grabbed a big rock, I kicked the bag, and we watched Mortimer streaking away in terror, missing Erin's attempt of killing it.

After a restless night of sleeping in the great outdoors (every slight sound awoke us in terror of expecting to find our sleeping bags infested with mice seeking revenge), we had a wonderful day of climbing.

Two things I learned this week: #1. Never remove my wallet from my bag and #2. Never leave my bag unzipped when camping.