When it rains

This is probably a lot more somber than my usual posts so those of you who come here for my low brow humor should probably just skip this one. Don't worry though, the low brow stuff will be back in the not so distant future, I promise.

As there is no more reason to not post entries on my blog regarding the recent tragedies in my family, I guess I should just go ahead and get them out of my system.

First, this past Tuesday, my grandmother passed away at the age of 81 with what I can only imagine as the majority of her loved ones surrounding her hospital bed. As bad as this situation was, it was not an unexpected one and I’m just glad that she had the time she did to see everyone. I was fortunate enough to be able to meet her twice during my recent trip back home and though part of mind knew it could be the last time on this earth I could see her, the optimist that always guides my actions refused to let me treat our meetings as such.

When I finally did get to talk to her on the phone for the last time, my mind was poised to try to say everything I needed to say to her in a few short sentences since I knew she couldn’t respond to me. After fighting off the urge to say the trivial “How are you doing?” at the beginning of the conversation, I couldn’t realign my thoughts. My mind started flooding with thoughts and emotions and I was for a brief moment completely silent as I realized that nothing I will ever say after this moment would ever touch my grandmother’s ears. After doing my best to sound stable and saying the few things I needed to say, I hung up and found myself back in my silent company bathroom, with a loud horn playing in my mind. I will miss you, Grandma.

R.I.P. Grandma

A few days before this happened, an unexpected tragedy happened: our family dog, Colt, died. Since he was only about 5 years old, this was really a surprise and when my mother recounted the events, I was sad she had to go through the night-long ordeal without me or my brother there. Colt was a great dog, as anyone who knew him could attest, and it’s a real shame he had to go the way he did. I will miss you too, Colt.

R.I.P. Colt

Now it would be completely inappropriate to follow this sort of entry up with a story about how my Christmas went, wouldn’t it? Well, if I had a happy, merry, whatever Christmas then I’d probably agree with that but since I didn’t, I’ll sum it all up here with as much humbuggery as possible.

I got pretty sick from some sort of flu bug which I have now recovered from on Sunday, or Christmas Eve-eve. The bug lasted just long enough to keep me pretty much incapacitated in my apartment by myself until the day after Christmas. So the only real celebrating I got to do was watch the occasional 30 minutes of Scrubs and hoist my huge bottle of orange juice to my lips before I fell back asleep.

So all in all a pretty good couple of weeks.

When it rains, huh?

Office Party and Random Updates

Well it’s that time of the year again.

In my company, we don’t have what would be considered a Christmas party at the end of the year but we have something called “Nielsen Day” which normally occurs around December 15th. It’s sort of like a Christmas party in the sense our entire company gets together for a string of activities including eating and drinking but it doesn’t carry a Christmas theme. You might be thinking, “Well, why would they celebrate Christmas in Korea?” and to that I say “Contraire mon frere, about 1/3rd of the population of Korea is composed of Christians”. So it is possible, like in America, to find Christmas trees and decorations pretty much everywhere and because of that it is easier to get into the Christmas spirit here than say, Japan. Unlike America, however, you will not find houses that look like they are single-handedly using a trillion watts of electricity per second to power abhorring, mechanical Santa/Reindeer/Jesus and the Techno Colored Dreamcoat scenes that can be seen from space. I think that is a good thing.

In any case, today should be fun if not at least somewhat amusing.

After we finish at about 10pm tonight, I head face first into my weekend. I am starting to get my new year’s resolutions in order by slowly introducing them into my daily life now. For instance, I am now spending 2 hours every Saturday and Sunday studying Japanese and Korean. I plan to have that up to 4 hours every Saturday and Sunday and at least 30 minutes every weekday. I will pass the level 2 proficiency test (one lower than the top) in Korean before the end of 2008. I’ve also been hitting the gym with a bit more fervor lately since I plan on getting to the gym 5-6 times weekly next year. But enough with my new year’s resolutions because they merit their own post in the not-so-distant future.

Now on to a list of random things that have been going on in my life:

Work can be mind-numbingly long sometimes but it is challenging and interesting so I don’t notice it as much. There are also a few changes happening here that I look forward to seeing the results of and so far it’s looking pretty good.

Outside of work, I am now an accomplished, Hard-level Guitar Hero player. I’ll probably never be able to “Through the Fire and Flames” by Dragonforce on Expert level, but honestly that isn’t on my list of goals.

I haven’t been to a karaoke room in about 2 months. I believe that is the longest period in which I haven’t gone in about 6 years. I will probably go tonight though because I’ve been practicing on my Gnarles Barkley “Crazy” in the shower and I’m getting pretty good (I think).

Finally, I’ve painted a face on the now rock-hard orange that has been sitting on my desk for 8 months or so and I now refer to him as “Executive Orange”. I also insist that people who have been at the company for a shorter period than him do the same. Don’t worry though, if it starts talking to me, I’ll get help. Okay, if it starts talking to me AND I LISTEN TO WHAT IT SAYS, I’ll get help. Probably.

As you can see, life is rather copasetic for me at the moment. I hope it’s going just as well for everyone else too.

Home Trip '07

As promised, here is the post from my trip home.

This year I got tickets to go home from Nov. 7th until the 18th. Not really a lot of time considering I would be spending a total of about 2 days of that time on an airplane but since my work schedule was sort of hectic, I figured it was the best I was going to be able to do. So I snatched up the tickets, made the necessary preparations, and flew out on a Wednesday afternoon.

After arriving in Chicago, my Mom met me at the airport and we drove home discussing what exactly I was going to do now that I was home. After arriving home and greeting everyone and almost going into a stroke after seeing how much weight my Stepfather had lost, I settled into my brother's room as it was the only vacant room at the time. Then I decided to call Ralph who I knew had the next day off of work.

Once Ralph arrived it was like old times hadn't skipped a beat. We immediately headed over the the closest bar and proceeded to catch up on the last year. After more than a few drinks, we headed back to my house where we passed out thus ending my first day home.

I spent the next couple of days hanging out in the morning with my Mom and Grandmother and doing random shopping, talking and eating. I decided to knock out the remains of my jet lag before the weekend hit because I knew I was going to have a big night out on the town with my friends so I pretty much just laid around and caught up on sleep.

On Friday I picked up Ralph and drove into the city to meet the rest of the people I would spend the evening with. We met up with Marc and though we had reservations at a Brazilian restaurant for dinner we ended up cancelling because we had arrived to early and just decided to go to Hooter's. After catching up over a few drinks and some food, we met up with Mike, Erin and Danny and headed out to the Apartment (a bar club near Fullerton and Halsted) where we started to get our party on.

Ralph, Me and Marc at Hooter's

The night continued on rather well and after getting thoroughly tipsy and partied out, we snatched taxis back to Mike and Erin's house where the night would end. After waking up and engaging in a bit more tomfoolery, Marc and I went to my house and slept the remaining part of Saturday away as I had an early Thanksgiving dinner in my honor the next day.

Danny, Me, Erin, Michelle, Marc and Mike at the Apartment

Sunday went down without a hitch and thanks to all of the hardwork from my Mom, Grandmother and Stepfather, we had a wonderful feast complete with all of my favorite dishes and family members who I hadn't seen in about a year. After eating half of my weight in turkey and various other dishes, I sat around and caught up with everyone and watched the Bears game which they surprisingly won despite the fact that I was in Chicago.

Soon after everyone left, Ralph, Marc and myself carried ourselves to the local watering hole and got down on some darts and pool while enjoying our libations. What happened after that will go down into the halls of pure, unadultered idiocy and I will refrain from describing it here due to the questionable legality of it but I will say that its something the three of us will not soon forget. "GAHHHH!!!"

This was the spread at my early Thanksgiving dinner. *drool*

Marc, Me and Ralph before we got STUPID

After making poor Marc take the train to go to work after 2 hours of sleep, I recovered for the rest of the day. The following days saw me meeting up random friends, family members and old coworkers in my feeble attempt to meet any and all people who actually still remember me. Before I knew it, it was the weekend again and I was left with only 2 days before I had to get back on the plane bound for Seoul.

On Friday night, I met up with Chris to hang out for a while and bullshit about what has been going on with each other. After catching up a bit and meeting up with Marc, we went out to meet Ralph and other Mark at Buffalo Wild Wings to hang out for awhile more. The night ended at Ralph's house with copious amounts of alcohol consumed while playing Guitar Hero and making loud asses of ourselves much to the discontent of Ralph's poor mother. Mark was also pretty pissed after the discovery of all the marker tattoos that blanketed his face and body when he decided to unwisely pass out. All and all, it was a good evening.

Mark, Ralph, Me and Brandon at Buffalo Wild Wings

Mark's sentiment is understandable after you look at the artwork we endowed his face with

The next morning when Ralph had to rush out to work, I had to say my goodbyes to everyone because I would be leaving early the next morning to jump on the plane. It kind of sucked that the vacation was ending so quickly but I'm sure we have all grown accustomed to it as this would be my 4th time returning for a brief period before leaving again. At least I got to spend a lot of time with my homies. I'm sure they would gladly give up the sleep they missed again for the chance to see me. Ha.

My last day at home allowed me to spend some quality time with the family and my Mom hooked up my favorite dinners all in one day so I made sure that I had them before I left. I got to hang out and talk with everyone on a one-on-one basis and it all reminded me that it would be another year before I could see them again. I also got to finish a bottle of wine with my Mom as we discussed the near future plans for ourselves. Overall, my last night there was probably one of my best.

In the morning before I left, my Father came out to see me one last time before I left and we got to sit and have some coffee before I had to get on my way. My Mom, Stepdad and Grandmother were all nice enough to see me off at the airport, which they have done every year I've been back home to visit. Eventually I'm going to have to stop making them have to watch my back disappear slowly in the distance as I head back to my foreign residence. Not too much longer now guys, I promise.

Anyways, this has been my long and drawn out description of my trip home. Overall, it was a short, yet sweet, trip home this year. I can't believe it will be another full year before I get to see everyone again but if history is an indicator, I will be writing another "I'm going home soon" entry into this blog before I know it. Here's to hoping.

My sister and father at my early Thanksgiving dinner

Colt, my brother's dog

Me and Marc at the Apartment

Me and Chris in his basement

Me and Ralph at the Apartment

Ralph eyes his breakfast while Marc looks on with clear disgust

Me and my dad outside of my house

Ralph somehow made this impossible shot into the dartboard keyhole

Me and Uncle Jerry

Me and Chuckaluffagus

Picture from the expressway heading into Chicago

The wall in Chris's basement that outlines all of my trips abroad in random messages from over the past few years

And so shall it be

Okay, I will seriously get to posting about my trip home, complete with pictures, this weekend. I will also continue to play the “I was busy with work” card to justify my laziness because honestly, it’s the only card I have.

I will also follow that up with another post, once again complete with pictures, of Matt’s recent trip to Seoul.

What I will follow up with beyond that is actually the subject of this post.

Not to get into any further detail about the trip home because as I stated earlier, that will receive its own post, but while I was there I stumbled upon a portable external hard drive that I used to use to store things from my laptop back in ’03. I also found my old picture CDs from my trip to Japan. After bringing all that back with me and loading all the pictures, videos and whatnot onto my current desktop at home, I started to take the all too cliché trip down memory lane.

I have a juxtaposition of the last six years of my life in picture format to pore over and sort this weekend and I have to admit I’m kind of psyched about it.

Instead of just dumping all of that content into one, gigamegamongous post that would surely take weeks to create, I’ve decided that in the coming month (read: months) I will create several posts chronicling my journey over the past six years. I’ll start from the beginning, my trip to Japan, and post random pictures and try to dreg my mind for the remaining bits of memories that are still present.

As Matt said while he was here, that year in Japan changed a lot of people’s lives. After thinking about it, I would have to proudly include myself in that group. Who knows what my life would be like currently if I hadn’t taken that turn in the road. I guess the coming posts will help me remember myself as I was and also allow me to reflect on how things have changed.

I’m looking forward to it.

(Of course the recent home trip post comes first though…)

Ruminations

I was originally going to save my next blog entry for after my triumphant return to Korea but decided to drop a quick update before I left anyways. I will save details for my next post upon returning to Korea, but here is a quick summary:

This has been my 4th return to America since I started living abroad. One could say that all of my friends and family have become relatively acclimated to my yearly trips home and these trips seem to have become holidays in their own right. Not to say my ego isn't large enough to believe (falsely) that I should have my own holiday, but it seems my friends and family only come together while I am visiting. That was also the case this year.

I had a couple of large family gatherings complete with incredible home cooked meals and also a few liquor-soaked evenings out with my good friends. I met a few good people I haven't seen in years and I got a rush of various, vivid emotions while going through all of my old boxes that contain bits of my past. I have a lot of stories, a lot of pictures (I'll post them next time) and a lot of memories to remind me of my latest trip back home. Coming back here reminds me why I miss it but it also reminds me why I have to leave again...

There are still things I need to accomplish and a couple of things I haven't given up on yet.

Let's see where this next year takes me.

Until next time Chicago, when your earth bares my travel weary feet yet again.

Sweet Home Chicago Revisited

The last time I wrote about visiting home was when I first started this blog over a year ago.

A lot has changed since then but due to the brevity of this post, I will write about that in another entry.

Even though this trip home will only be about half as long as my last visit, I plan on making up for that by making sure everything I do has a purpose, is well thought out, and is meticulously executed. Either that or I’ll just do what I always do and wing it. No matter what happens though, I know I’ll have fun.

Lots of activities are planned and for the sake of me having a way to remember them, I shall list them here:

- Hang out with the Moms and Pops
- Visit Grandma in the hospital
- Have an early Thanksgiving dinner with the family and catch up with all of them
- Go to a Brazilian restaurant with my best friends and probably end the night laying around in a vat of our combined bile
- Hang around with sis
- Screw up my brothers room and mess with his stuff so he knows how I’ve felt for the last decade
- Go clothes/gift shopping
- Get my suits refitted (I’ve lost over 20 pounds since I bought them)
- Eat all of my favorite foods
- Make sure I’m running at least a few days a week because of the above reason
- Visit with my old boss and co-workers
- Try to meet as many friends as possible
- Play with the dogs
- See if Buddy Guy’s Legends is still around, and if so, go there
- A veritable cornucopia of other things

So that is my rough list of things to do. All of a sudden 12 days doesn’t seem like much anymore but I’ll do my best to get it all done and make sure I need a vacation from this vacation.

Until then, it’s all about the excitement of traveling back to my hometown.

I’ll see you soon Chicago. Hope you’ve missed me as much as I’ve missed you.

Now I got a plane to catch...

8 Minutes till lunch

A lot of the things I do at my job consist of little mini-projects that take a lot of time to complete on their own. Some of them involve simple database manipulation and number crunching which can be completed rather quickly if I focus like a laser beam with the I-Pod on blast.

There are, however, very, very few things at my job that I can complete in the 8 minutes before lunch which comes inevitably at noon. Therefore, instead of starting something, not being able to finish it, then coming back and wondering where I left off, I always screw around for the last few minutes with whatever is currently capturing my limited attention span.

Examples of this include checking the latest news blogs, bothering my co-workers with pointless babble, flashing my laser pointer around the office, seeing how the 6 month old orange behind my computer is progressing, etc. and of course, updating this blog.

Today I decided to update the blog since I didn't want to get up and bother people and the orange behind my computer has been giving me the evil eye since I got in this morning.

You guys got lucky.

I'm back again

Okay, so I lied.

I wasn’t back later in the week like I promised and now it’s been a whole month since my last post. I guess I should blame it on work, which has definitely been one of the reasons for my prolonged absence, but I can also blame part of it on sheer laziness. Most of you who know me well know that I am renowned for my ability to procrastinate, so this shouldn’t surprise you. Anyways, I’m back.

So lots of stuff has been going on since my last post.

I went on Chuseok break (I will not attempt to try to explain it since all of you have Wikipedia at your fingertips) which was the longest break I’ve managed to get since I started working here. I got off from Friday to Wednesday and managed to relax, have some fun, and get some things done around the apartment. All and all it was a great time but like all vacations, it ended way too quickly and before I knew it I was back to staring blankly at my work computer screen.

As you can imagine, after getting back from a 5-day vacation it took me a little while to readjust to the work atmosphere and I sort of dragged ass through the first week back. After that, work sort of went into overdrive and hasn’t let up since. I’ve got plenty of presentations, translations, and whiny clients to keep me busy for the rest of the year and 12 hour+ work days have become the norm. This outlook might sound depressing at first, but there is a light at the end (in the middle?) of the tunnel: I’m going home to visit soon.

Yep, after spending yet another year outside of my home country, I am finally getting back for a visit again. I bought my plane tickets and will be flying into Chicago in the afternoon on November 7th. It will be good to finally get back home for awhile and see all my family and friends. The unfortunate thing is that I only get about 11 days or so before I have to come back to Korea but I guess I’ll have to enjoy it while it lasts. Of course only visiting for 11 days means I have to plan this vacation with a bit of foresight so as not to waste a second, but just like I stated in the opening paragraph, my procrastination is legendary. I guess I’ll need some help planning what to do when I get back from some of my friends and family who read this blog. *hint*

In any case, I’ll try to drop another blog entry or two before I get out of here to go back home. Thanks to all my patient readers for being so….patient. I promise to update more soon.

On a final note, this post marks about a year since I created this blog. I actually didn’t think I was going to carry it on past the first couple of months.

Here’s to you, blog. Happy Birthday.

A few pics

Just adding a few quick pictures. I will be dropping a post later on in the week. Enjoy.

This is my team at work. This was our team dinner about 3 weeks ago.

This is at the top of Suri mountain. It's about an hour and a half south from my house and it took us about an hour and a half to get to the top.

Me at the top after I climbed out onto this rock.

We always have to carry a beer with us to the top of the mountain to drink on the way down. It makes the decent that much more fun.

Cancer keep your damn dirty hands off my loved ones

This is my grandmother. She is currently undergoing lung cancer treatment which ultimately leads to a lack of hair. I'm so happy to see how well she is taking it. I only hope that I can take life's hardships as well when I have to face them. I love you Grandma, I can't wait to see you when I get home.

Why I love living in Korea, Part 2 & Updates

First, updates.

Work is the same as always. I haven’t had an insurmountable amount of work but just enough to keep me on my toes and make sure I’m not leaving at some ridiculous hour every night. I have a new client who I won’t name yet but let’s say they are by far the hugest client I have ever been given. I see some long nights in the office on the horizon because of them but I guess it’s a good opportunity to show what I can do. I’ll keep people updated about my progress with them because something tells me my performance with this account will hold bearing over a lot of my career here for awhile.

Gym progress is also going well. I’ve started mixing my days and routines up a lot more so I’m about ready to take my workouts to the next level. I’ve also noticed quite a bit of physical change but I’m going to wait for people to see it for themselves when I get back in December.

Other than that, things are pretty much the same though I’ve picked up a few new hobbies and started a few old ones up again. I’ve started writing again which I haven’t done in quite a few years. Me and Jayce are planning on attending an open mic night sometime in the near future to give a brief live set which should be interesting. I’m also picking up painting, which is much more relaxing than I ever imagined. Other than that things, life is pretty much the same.

Oh, and I am also hereby declaring war on any and all things mosquito. I am going to kill you all you little bastards.

Now on to my “Why I love living in Korea” post.

1) There is ready to be consumed food EVERYWHERE at any hour of any day.

Seriously, anywhere you walk there are restaurants, little food pubs, food stands, etc. Plus it is cheap, dirt cheap. You would have to literally have your mouth removed to starve in Korea.

2) You can buy beer at a convenience store and drink it in front of said convenience store.

Yes, and they also set up chairs and tables for you to sit at no less. This is the common way for people to get together and drink when they are on a budget. The other cool thing about this is there is no such thing as public intoxication. I mean you would have to go stone cold Nicolas Cage from “Leaving Las Vegas” before the cops would even bat an eye in your direction. Not that I’ve ever taken part in anything like that mind you.

3) JimJilBang.

For 10,000 won (about 11 dollars) you can sit in a variety of hot bath tubs, swim in the cold bath pool, bake in a wide range of saunas, drink beers in the ice room, watch movies, eat, etc. all night and even sleep there. This is all in one building. I swear this is the idea of the century.

I’ll leave my list at that for now to give myself time to think about more things to add and people who are interested in asking questions about the stuff I’ve listed. There will be further lists in the future.

Last but not least, a happy belated birthday goes to my Father who just turned 49 again. Love you Dad.

Why I love living in Korea, Part 1

Korean eye doctors kick ass.

I can find no other way to accurately explain how I currently feel about Korean doctors in general and Korean eye doctors in particular. But before I get into my love for doctors in Korea, let me explain what brings me to this conclusion.

This past Friday I had a 회식(hoeshik) or company dinner gathering. These are gatherings that happen intermittently in Korean companies and usually involve dinner, lots of drinks, karaoke, and lots of drinks. The cool thing at my company is that they rarely happen (at some companies they happen very often and are completely mandatory), but when they do, they are very fun. Also, since I haven’t been drinking at all lately, it was a good chance to get out and grab a few cold ones with my team who, due to their work load, have been unable to converse with me in any detail lately about anything unrelated to work.

So after work Friday we went to a little meat restaurant called Mani. Our entire team is comprised of 10 people of varying ages, backgrounds and temperaments but we all came together for one purpose that night, to have fun. Since my immediate team member, lets call her Tee for intensive purposes, hasn’t been able to do anything but work lately, she was hell bent on drinking soju and lots of it. Of course being the only guy there at the time because my bosses hadn’t arrived yet, I had to match the girls in shots of soju and before I knew it, 4 bottles were gone in 25 minutes. Then the bosses arrived and the mandatory group drinking began. 헉.

So after a polishing off a few more bottles I started to realize that since I haven’t been drinking at all lately and following a pretty healthy lifestyle, my tolerance had fallen substantially and I was starting to get pretty damn tipsy. After we finished there, we went to karaoke where the bosses had to (of course) order a huge bottle of whiskey. 헉2

Now during this whole debacle, I had been trying to escape to Itaewon to Joel’s goodbye party because I wanted to see him off before he left that Sunday. As much as I tried, the bosses were like “Ah sure, go ahead, right after this shot” which was usually followed by “Oh, and this shot here too”. By the time I finally got to leave, I was so drunk that I could barely walk straight. I looked at my clock and it was a quarter till 11pm. I figured that since I had eaten, I would be able to go home real quick and catch a quick nap before I would go and meet Joel and everyone by like 12:30 or so. It sounded so good in my mind at the moment. Drunken-Plan-Action-Man, Away!

I arrived at my door around 11:10 or so and dug around in my pockets for my house key. Then a revelation struck me as my memories faded back to the karaoke room.
*clouds*
*my friend Jay asking to borrow my bottle opener*
*bottle opener attached to house key ring*
*my hand giving Jay my bottle opener/house key*
*clouds*
When I finally realized where my damn keys were, I sat down on the stairs right in front of my door to figure out what to do. Then I took a nap. A long one. With my damn contacts in my eyes still…

So I awoke with a start at about 3:30am, eyes burning like Richard Pryor running down the street. It took me awhile to gather my thoughts but I realized I was sober again and laying on the stairs in front of my door. I hurried down to meet Joel before he went in and managed to stay out for a bit longer before crashing out at a friend’s house. The next day, my eyes looked like someone colored them with red magic marker and they burned horribly. So I pretty much stayed in Saturday and Sunday nursing my poor eyes.

Finally on Monday I could stand it no longer and made the mad dash to the eye doctor down the street from work. I waited for 5 minutes and the doctor sat me down, looked at me and said “Ah, sleeping in your contacts, eh?” as he proceeded to put drops in my eyes. 30 seconds later, my eyes were white and didn’t hurt at all. I was back in the office in 25 minutes. The cost for all of this? For two doctor visits, three examinations, and prescription, 8000 won or about 8 dollars. EIGHT DOLLARS. Plus the entire time I spent there was a grand total of about 9 minutes. As I walked back to the office, I started thinking, how much would this have cost me in both time and money, back in the States? I shudder to think about it.

I sit here and type this with white, pain-free eyes and profess my love for Korean eye doctors. You guys kick some serious ass.

Oh, and this reminds me of my 5 dollar wisdom tooth removal I had about a year ago. So you Korean dentists out there, you kick ass too.

Tokyo Beach Bash 2007

No matter how long I've been away, it's always nice to get back and enjoy Japan even if for only a little while. This time I was going out to meet Doug, Matt and a few others from the old Chiba crew to celebrate Matt's birthday and the 5 year anniversary of the beach party we started back in 2002. It had been about a year or so since I met Matt and almost 5 years since I've seen Doug so I was determined to kick it old school and have a blast.

Unfortunately, since everyone lives in seperate areas of Japan now, I wouldn't be able to meet Doug or Matt until Saturday. I still managed to meet up my old friends Kaise and Myi in Tokyo for awhile to get food, drinks and spend a few hours in karaoke (where I was able to drink alcohol!!!!!). I also met Kaise's co-worker SoYoon who speaks the same 3 languages I do. It was fun, albiet sometimes confusing, to go back and forth in Korean, English and Japanese.

The thing that kind of sucked was that since Kaise had to work, I was just wandering around with Myi for 5 hours or so before we could meet them up. I managed to check out some stores and eat some gyuu-don before we met though, so it wasn't a total waste.

After meeting, we went to a Mexican-style bar in the Ebisu area. The Mexican waiters in there spoke fantastic Japanese and were really quick to serve us our drinks. I also had a lot of fun trying to figure out how exactly somebody ripped the toilet seat off the men's bathroom. After a few Long Islands, a few shots of Tequila, a margarita or two, and a couple beers, we all went (staggered) to karaoke. It was great being able to find a songs they didnt have in Korea, so of the 3 hours we did karaoke, I was probably singing 5 out of every 7 songs. Needless to say, my throat hurt at the end of the night when we finally went home.

Kaise and SoYoon at karaoke

The Mexican bar we went to for tequila shots, which would also prove to be the place of Kaise's undoing


Kaise, Myi, and SoYoon


Myi, SoYoon, and Me


After finally getting to Kaise's and crashing at about 4am. I found myself waking up in the middle of the night a couple of times to blow my nose and cough up mucus. Yeah, I know, it HAD to happen on my vacation and on the day I've been most looking forward to in the recent 3 months. Yes, I had caught the flu. Son. Of. A. Bitch.

I ended up waking up late because I wanted to sweat as much of the flu out of me as possible. After showering and saying bye to Kaise, I set out for the train. Now, I've been used to Korea's subway map for awhile and though it can be somewhat difficult at times to get around, it is very rarely confusing. Japan's train line, on the other hand, is possibly the most confusing attempt at mass commuter transit in the history of the world. Doug said it best when he described it as " a bunch of fucked up spider webs super imposed upon each other". After finally getting out to the beach and meeting up Doug and Matt, we started getting the party ready.

Since we were the only 3 there at the time, we had to lug all of the stuff Matt brought in his truck for the party down to the beach by ourselves. It took us about 45 minutes and by the end of it, me and Doug were sweating bullets. We freshened up and started setting everything up when people started to arrive. We set up the canopy and barbecue (despite the oyaji's complaints) before we started making the jungle juice.

For those of you who know what jungle juice is, you may skip this paragraph. For those that don't continue reading. In lament's terms, jungle juice is God's gift to summer, beach-going drinkers. Its vodka, gin, rum, Malibu and whatever other clear liquors (this is how I do it, I know there are other recipes) mixed with an array of fruit juices and chopped up tropical fruit all mixed in a giant cooler with ice. Lots of liquor, none of the taste, all of the satisfaction. I have perfected my recipe for Jungle Juice over the years and this time, as usual, it did not disappoint.

After getting kicked off of the beach and moving further into the park, we continued our antics at a few outside camping tables. We would spend the rest of the evening there hanging out, talking, dancing, etc. until about 11pm.

This was the liquor stash that Matt brought, bless his soul

The first of about 10 batches of Jungle Juice we would make

Doug making his favorite face

Just when people started getting there

Yes, we should be careful with stingrays because not only do they have very mischevious faces and seek to do us pain, but they also apparently have two gigantic testicles

More jungle juice being made at the 2nd location in the park

These were some great people. I especially like the little Japanese girl on the right because she was absolutely hilarious.

As it got darker, more people started to show up out of the woodwork

This girl was drunk and loved Doug's "Gay Musik!!!!"

Birthday boy Matt. No that is not the visual effect of standing next to two extremely short Japanese girls, Matt actually is 400 feet tall.

Me and Doug near the end of the party

Now I wish I could say I ended everything on a great note but that unfortunately wasn't the case. Since I had to be at the airport at 6am on Sunday to fly out (there were no other tickets) and the flu that I had been attempting to ignore all day finally started to take over, I decided not to go out clubbing with everyone until 4am like originally planned and just took a taxi to the airport at around 12:30 so I could get some sleep. It really sucked not being able to hang out with everyone more since I was having a blast but I figured what the hell, I'll be back in February for a week or so anyways.

That was how Tokyo Beach Bash 2007 went down. Not exactly as planned, but easily one of the best days of the year anyway. It was really great seeing familiar faces and partying like it was the Chiba days again. I invited everyone out to visit me in Korea sometime but I have the feeling that only a select few of them will take me up on my offer. Let's see who those select few will be.

Thanks everyone, I had a great time. Let's make sure we do it again in February or sooner!

Brothers

Sorry I haven't been keeping up with the blog lately but I've been busy entertaining my brother on his second trip out to Korea. I will make up for the recent lack of entries by making this post long and picture-filled.

Saturday July 14th. Ryan arrives at Incheon Airport one hour earlier than expected but luckily, I also arrived an hour early. We have big plans to have my friend Jayce pick us up at the airport and drive straight out to Boryung for the Mud Festival. Since I have taken Monday and Tuesday off from work, we are ready to party hardy in Boryung. Of course, this all has to start with Ryan getting out of the gate at the airport and walking the wrong way...

So after 3 hours of driving (the last hour spent trying to get the last damn 10 kilometers) we arrived at where we would be staying the night. Rhett, Dave, Claire and Micah are already there and Rhett being the friendly guy he is, has already started drinking with the group of Korean college students in the room next to us. We dumped our stuff in the room and started introducing Ryan to everyone.

After getting to meet everyone and having a few drinks and eats, we decided to head down to the beach. Oh wait, we can't head down to the beach yet, Ryan decided to buy a bottle of Absolut Vodka from the convenience store. So we finished our Soju and ate some tuna concoction of Jayce's and took a stroll down to the beach. Now on the walk down to the beach (10 minutes), we decide to kill the bottle of vodka before we go swimming. So me, Ryan and Micah take turns make shooters in our mouth until the bottle is empty. Good for me and Micah, not so good for Ryan...

Ryan had been cozying up to one of the Korean college girls we met back at our place and they were awkwardly walking and talking with each other like cute little 19 year old idiots do when they first meet. So we get to the beach (this is after the 5 minute vodka chugging contest mind you) and Ryan decides to lay off on the beach with his new lady friend, away from everyone else. You might be thinking, "Ooooh, that's getting hot", and you know, I was thinking the same thing. Until he started throwing up all over the place as the girl went from gaze-thoughtfully-into-your-eyes mode to get-the-hell-out-of-my-way-this-douche-is-throwing-up-everywhere mode. It. Was. Awesome. So we did what any good friend or brother would do in a situation like that, and carried him (literally, feet were dragging) all the way back to the room and threw him in bed. That was after getting a few gratuitous photos though ^^

So after ending my evening by swimming around in the water drunk and wrestling with Rhett and Micah, I finally went back and fell asleep. The next morning, we all woke up and Ryan was having a wonderful time with a hangover that was making him throw up all sorts of neon yellow liquids. I still don't know what it was that made it yellow like that, but it was fun to watch as I stood over him with a bottle of water. After that, Ryan, Jayce and myself found another hotel for the evening. The place we stayed at was mosquito infested and by the end of it, the 3 of us were sporting over 500 mosquito bites between us. After spending a day at the mud fest and getting muddy, we took the 3 hour drive back home on that Monday afternoon.

Ryan at the sushi buffet. We ate a lot of damn sushi that night.

Ryan at the beach in Boryung. We got a bit more muddy after this picture was taken.

Unfortunately, Dave messed his back up pretty badly at the mud fest and was unable to join us for anymore activities during Ryan's stay. Ryan gave his shouts out though with this marker tattoo on his hand. It literally says "Hawk beak-nose forever".

Ryan was quick to devour shrimp heads

Ryan on the balcony at Joel's house. It has a pretty decent view after you hike up the steep ass hill...

This was taken in Insadong, one of the "traditional" areas in Seoul city. It rained too hard that day for us to get any really good pictures or gifts, but it was fun.

Dave hurt his back so we visited him in the hospital to cheer him up and have Ryan punch him in the stomach...

Ryan's first karaoke experience. He really needs to learn some new songs.

After arriving home, we showered, ate, and went out to meet more people. It pretty much continued like that for the rest of the week. Unfortunately, I had to go to work all through the rest of the week and the full week after that. So needless to say, I'm pretty damn worn out from having to get up every morning, go to work for the full 10 hours, then come home and show him around the rest of the night. It was worth it though.

Ryan in Woodstock, our favorite little bar in Gangnam. Pictured behind him are Joel and Hee-Jung

Ryan in front of the temple right across from my workplace. It's too bad the guys with the spears weren't there at the time because they look cool and you can mess with them and they aren't allowed to do anything back.

Our last Friday out together. We went all around Hongdae with a group of about 14 of my friends. Ryan had a blast as you can tell.

Saturday night out with Jayce. We all ate some delicious sashimi and took this brother picture.

Ryan and the little cutie he spent most of the night talking to.

Brothers in arms at 5am in the morning at Tinpan 2.

Overall, it was a great experience for both Ryan and myself. We spent a lot of money, acted pretty stupid, and probably pissed off a lot of people, but damn was it fun. I'm glad that I got spend this time with my brother before he went off to the navy to become a man. This way I can say I spent some of the last few weeks of his childhood with him. It was sad to see him off at the airport but I know I'll see him again soon and hopefully then he won't be so damn pigeon chested :P.

In any case, I'm glad you had fun little bro. I had tons of fun too. Like I told you at the airport; "Make me proud, make Mom proud, make everyone proud, but most of all make yourself proud." Love you bro. Good luck and keep in touch!