10,000 Steps ...

Every morning, the counter on the "Walking Mate" App on my Samsung S4 begins at zero.  And every evening, for at least five days now, I have met my goal - 10,000 steps.

Steps Goal Reached

Like the rest of the world, I can't get abide without my phone for very long.  It has everything I need - LINE (for instant chatting), an alarm clock that wakes me up in the pre-dawn winter gloom for class, and the all-mighty camera, which I can use to upload pictures instantly onto Facebook or Twitter, into the babbling internet void.

And it has the aforementioned "Walking Mate" App, which not only processes my footsteps, but creates instantaneous charts via which you can track your daily, weekly, and monthly progress.  A bit of limited exercise, goal-setting, without the gym fees.


For the last couple of nights, 10,000 steps has translated into walks into the bitter cold, usually toward the east campus of Woosong University at dusk, which is lit up like a secret government complex in the dark shadows of the looming mountains.  

Korea is like America in the winter, with people shuffling along as fast as they can through the darkness, cloaked and shivering, trying to get somewhere to warm their bones. 

Ten thousand steps is a little over eight kilometers.  This is no grand march, no ascent up a mountain peak, but it is enough that you have to make some effort and think about where you might go.

I'm trying to avoid routine with my walks, using the daily goal of 10,000 steps as a catalyst toward new destinations, like today, when I sought out the end of the subway line, walking the highways and bi-ways until I found the terminal "Panam" station.  The only significant thing I noticed along the way was how close the road came to the rail lines, and the consistent whoosh and rush of trains heading south.

The End of the Line

Daejeon, as I have mentioned before in other places and at other times, is an unending assortment of roads, apartment complexes, and other bric-a-brac of "urban modernity."  I have learned to recognize some corners of it, but it all blends together after a while, even as I admire the hillocks that pepper the area and the mountain landscapes that surround the town.  What little remains of historical value is almost all certainly gone.

But there is still much to discover, new roads that I have not been on, and access routes to hiking trails that I can bookmark in my mind for warmer days.

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" said the Chinese philosopher and poet Lao Tzu. 

So then, it has begun ...

Let's see where ten thousand steps a day will take me ...