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!

It goes one foot in front the next...

Progress is progress, regardless of how slow it is.

Work has been good at keeping me occupied and I’m happy to say that I am making some real progress here. I’m going to be getting a promotion within the next few months and my presentations have been going better than ever (even though I’m averaging about 3 per week now). I’m learning new aspects of the business and the bosses seem eager to give me more training so they can utilize my abilities more (read: give me ass loads of work). One of the coolest things for me has been the level of responsibility that has been placed on me. In the beginning I spent so much time giving dry-runs of presentations and having my data checked over by my bosses. Now they pretty much leave me alone and let me do my thang and it feels pretty good. So overall, work has been really great for me.

Another thing I have been focusing on is my gym time. I’ve been going pretty steadily for the last 5 months (as my loss of 20 pounds can attest) but I haven’t really made a goal list or check sheet to keep track of my progress. Starting next week I’m going to be taking a pen and pad to mark down what I do and my new schedule at the gym should help me focus more on parts of the body that need the most attention. My goal is to be able to confidently say that my 26 year old self (and especially soon-to-be 27 year old self) could easily kick my 20 year old self’s ass. I’m up to benching sets of 90 kilograms (198 pounds for you Americans) and I hope to be breaking the 100 kilo (220 pounds) mark before the summer is over. It’s great to have goals, right?

Though most of all, I’m focusing on the relationships with my friends. Some of my friends have really stepped up to help me through the hard times I’ve had and made me realize how I should be handling them. I have realized that no matter what, I’m never alone in this wonderful place I now call home. Thanks a lot guys.

Overall, I am remaining optimistic about everything. I have gained a clear idea of what I need to do NOW to better myself. Up until this point, I feel that I let the flame for life I used to have diminish itself by focusing on what I thought I had to do for the future. I’ve realized that the future is now. I’m going to keep pushing for what I believe is right and I’m sure it’s going work out one way or the other.

Just. Gotta. Stay. On. That. Bike.