Tonight we went over to our neighbors’ home for dinner and feasted on delicious Mexican food, French wine, Guinness Ale, Belizean and Korean dessert. The wife is from Belize, and she did a fabulous job conjuring savory tastes from Latin America (we don’t often eat delicious Latin American food in this part of the world). The husband is an accomplished drummer, and he showcased his talent with a few licks on the drums. My son enjoyed the entertainment so much that he gave it a try and drummed a few chords of his own–before we dragged him off the drum set. I wasn’t about to find out how much it would cost to replace drum equipment! Our neighbors’ home features an eclectic collection of treasures gathered from around the world, the product of years of living overseas. We previously had our neighbors over for dinner in July, after they arrived from Beijing. At that time, we decided to get together again, but we hadn’t had the chance to meet until tonight. I’m glad we had the opportunity to see them again before the holidays. I cannot believe how fast time has flown by since we arrived! It seems as if summer was only yesterday, and now Christmas is almost here.
Our neighbors invited a few other guests over tonight. I was surprised to discover that one guest is none other than the blogger who writes "The Marmot’s Hole," arguably the most popular blog in the Korea blogosphere. (The Korea Life Blog was number one until the blogger moved to Beijing, China and started a new blog, the China Life Blog.) We met "Marmot" (not his real name) along with his wife, who is from Mongolia, and a very nice Korean couple who own and operate Seoul Selection, a shop focusing on expatriates living in Korea. They are all very nice people. I haven’t visited Seoul Selection yet, but I may have to stop by soon. I wandered over to Marmot’s blog tonight and read some entries. If you want to get a feel for the pulse of what’s really happening in Korea, check it out. It provides far more information about Korean culture than what you will find here at World Adventurers. My blog tends to focus on a few issues about life in Korea and analyzes them to death (or so my wife thinks!). The Marmot’s blog touches all areas of the Korean universe.
I was especially interested in hearing more about Marmot’s life and how he became so famous in the blogosphere. He laughed when I told him that I had heard of his blog and that he was quite famous among Korea blogophiles. (No, he did not know about my blog but said that he would stop by sometime.) Now that Muninn has returned to Boston for school and Shawn Matthews (Korea Life Blog) is in Beijing, Marmot really is king of the proverbial ant hill, whether he wants to be or not. He said that popularity of "The Marmot’s Hole" grew primarily by word of mouth and through links from other popular blogs. While I wouldn’t mind 3,000-4,000 blog hits per day, I would much rather that World Adventurers remain a hidden gem readers stumble upon by accident. I’m always happy to see visitors such as Athena stop by and post nice comments about this blog. Still, I enjoyed meeting a fellow blogger and learning more about him and his wife and about their life in Korea. I admire the fact that he’s stayed here so long and is so plugged into this fascinating society. It takes years of cultivating relationships–and a good grasp of the Korean language–to really get to know Korea. We won’t be here long enough to become intimately acquainted with the Land of the Morning Calm. I’ll probably find my own niche when World Adventurers moves to China in the future and I become reacquainted with a culture I know far better than Korean culture.
Gosh, I’m really honored that you would mention my name in your blog entry. I’ve wanted to come back and visit before now, but have been very busy with my out of town guests these last few days. Now that I have a little more time on my hands I shall sit down and read through everything properly.