Went Convenient Store Drinking...

on Thursday night, and it was quite convenient! This post is a sandwich.

The Bread: I'll start this post where I start most of my days, in the morning. Oddly enough, after being in Korea for a little over a week and a half I had my first experience of truly missing home. I remember waking up and looking around and thinking to myself, "being home would be nice right now." I had no time to dwell on that though as it was my second day of training and I had to get on the Korail Subway and head to Jongno 3-ga which takes about a hour. Heading out the door of my love motel I followed my typical routine of locking the door and turning my Ipod on, with the usually dilemma of what to choose (picking a single band out of 40+ gigs is a bit tedious but God Bless problems like that). My scroller lands on Band of Horses, great, I hadn't listen to them in ages. It had occurred to me that Band of Horses would be splendid walking music especially on such a gorgeously clear morning but as the album begun a feeling struck me. The same as when I woke up but now it was induce by this auditory stimulation, Band of Horses makes me miss home...and Casey Shnitzer for some odd reason (I don't know the connection either, perhaps the time we listen to them on the dock at Steve's). I didn't dwell on my homesickness for long because I was soon on the adventure of finding my way through the labyrinth of Korail Subway System, which I'm terrible at navigating.

The Meat, Lettuce, and Tomato: After a full day of TTP Training, our little group of 9 decided to celebrate the evening by grabbing some dinner together and exploring the downtown area of Seoul in which we were located called Jongno-3 ga. Rick, our trainer and trusty mentor gave us the grand advice that drinking in convenience stores is not only cheaper but much more fun that drinking at bars. Cheap is my middle name (just after Jeffery and before Danger) and everyone else agreed. We decided to make a circuit of the area drinking, while stopping occasionally at convenience stores to grab some alcohol. See, anyone can drink on the streets in Seoul and this plan was bloody brilliant plan. A beer at a gas station is anywhere from 1200 won (12 oz.) to 2000 won (liter) which is dirt cheap ($1=~1200 won). The issue we came across was finding a place we all agreed to eat at especially with two vegetarians among us, one of which was full vegan. Mind you that Korea is a country that eats dogs; finding a meal without meat is like finding a queer at the Republican National Convention. Not to mention it was past 7 which means all the businessmen are done at work and are getting started on their fifth bottle of Soju, so space for 9 loud North Americans (some of us were Canadian) was going to be a dodgy task. Meanwhile, my limp from my torn MCL was getting more and more evident and the group as a whole was beginning to feel the drinks that had accumulated over the past few convenience stores. Luckily, your trusty narrator, me, found a place that served chicken (which one of the vegetarians would eat, the other had already left us) and had room for 8. The catch was that the only place we could sit was in the back of the restaurant in the alley. I thought this was spectacular, we could be loud and obnoxious and not give a damn. Others needed more encouragement. That encouragement came with alcohol. Since we were in the back alley this meant we could scurry away quick-like and grab some Soju and drinks from the near-by convenient store. This made the night a grand time with a plethora of food and drinks for all. A plate of Korean Fried Chicken(KFC), Hot Wings(Korean Style) and a sausage plate. Over drinks we all got to know each other, where we're from, what our plans were, and why we came to Korea. Truly a great group of people, each with interesting backgrounds wrought with pleasurable tales. But in great times of enjoyment drinks go fast and food even faster. The time had arrive to move on into the night to experience the other adventures awaiting us. Like the one at Rehap, a new bar in the same district. Rehap was supposed to be called Rehab but the construction workers messed up the "b" and placed it as a "p" much to our amusement. The club was brand-spanking-new and the drinks were on the house and I don't feel the need to reiterate my frugality, so we were all in. The club was mostly dead except for us, remember it was a Thursday night. But it was a spectacular club, full of white leather furniture, chic menus, massive dance floor, lasers, mirrored bathrooms, hallways with modern art, and a hot Asian DJ that played techno from all over the world. That all said, it's not my sort of bar but when drinks are free your bound to have a good time.

The Bottom Bread: Although the night was young, I understood that staying longer would probably lead to spending more money and eventually making it much harder to wake up for training the next morning. It was time to head back to the Love Motel from which I hadn't seen since that morning earlier where I was struck with home sickness. That illness was far behind me at this point, as I had just had a great day and night with a bed to look forward to and a nights rest ahead. Getting back was a task unto itself. If the subway is hard when your sober than its a Rubik's Cube when your inebriated only with more colors. Despite my stupor I was awestruck with the number of people on the subway, so much so that I missed my transfer to Line 1 which takes me home, which meant I had to get off at the next stop and find my way. Like a fool, I left the subway and walked out only to realize that decision was one a fool makes. So I had to pay AGAIN to get back on the subway at which point I had the fortune of running into some of the English teachers I'll be working with, one of which I'm replacing. They did me the extremely kind service of being my guides back home like the great Samaritans they are. Finally, after a few more subway stops I reached my love motel and crashed down on the bed. I picked up my head and shot a glance at the computer on the counter and decided to check my E-mail before I went to sleep. This was an unfortunate decision. I found an E-mail from my mom detailing an incident that had happened a few days prior. My Chocolate Lab, Tootsie, attacked my mother's Pekingese, Punker. The fight was in the absence of myself and my father, and as such it was a bad one. Tootsie lit into Punker and damaged him quite severely. So bad in fact that Punker will be without his right eye for the remainder of his life. My home sickness had returned ten fold. Had I been home Tootsie would have never been in the position to feel any dominance in the house and even if she had attacked Punker she would've know that it meant a kick in the ribs by your narrator. But, alas, I was not home. I am in Korea and helpless. That night, once asleep, I dreamt of Punker and of A Clockwork Orange. I was the main character, Alex, in the scene where he and his "Droogs" rape a woman in front of her husband (I'm speaking of the book, not Stanley Kubricks film although it is great). The scene was vivid and exactly the same except there was a dog in the scene, Punker. I can remember seeing him and thinking of innocence. I immediately attacked my mates and awoke from the dream. Home is a powerful thing. You can be on the other side of the world and it still touches you.

This was a sandwich that came hard to swallow. Plus I hate tomatoes.

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A Night Out in Soul

After a week of hardly speaking any English to anyone at all, you could imagine my excitement to be meeting up with Nikola and Natalie for a night out in the University District of Seoul. Natalie and Nik are some fellow Texans that had flown over on the plane with me from Chicago, they both graduated from U.T. but they're still great people. We had arranged to meet in front of the Outback Steakhouse by where we'll be working at 9:30, but I was a bit early so I bought a slice of pizza and just walked around a bit. Then, out of nowhere, I hear someone calling me over. I look behind me and two Korean guys in their lower 20s were waving towards them. They were on their smoke break chatting outside of the Daewoo dealership they worked at. I couldn't imagine why they would want to talk to me besides the fact that I'm obviously not from that area. One asked me in very broken English if I played soccer. Apparently, the one talking to me had already told his compatriot that he had seen a tall ginger playing soccer at the local field. He had been eating his lunch when he watch me play and now he was complementing me on how I looked out there. Flattered, I told him I couldn't be that great since my knee was shot and my ankle blown. He didn't really comprehend what I was saying so I just thanked him then returned to the rendezvous. Natalie and Nik were crossing the street when I had just gotten back to the front of the Outback Steakhouse and we all agreed we should get some food before we went out. See, in Korea the bars never really close so, unlike in America, we were in no rush to get out and start drinking. At the restaurant we ordered Soju. Soju is the local alcohol that the natives drink here. It's a sort of Rice liquor a lot like Saki, it has a alcohol content of 19.5% so you take shots of it. We went through a bottle pretty fast, enjoyed the delicious Korean BBQ chicken and then it was to the subway to head out.

You know your heading in the right direction when on the subway you see Expats (people not from Korea) up and down the train. It's quite a relief when you see people you KNOW can understand you. So once we were on the streets I was down to talk to anyone. Of course, this meant I made mistakes. Like the French couple that didn't understand me, I got mad at them when they didn't respond to me. I digress. Now you want to talk about getting hyped up, I saw the area we were going to be partying at and it BLEW MY MIND! It had to be three times the size of 6th Street and just as busy, we had no idea where to start. No problem, leave it up to me. I was in the mood to meet people so I just started asking people where to go. Two nice girls recommended Club Zen because of the cheap drinks and numerous Expats. So away we went. Pretty soon, due to the sheer size of the area, we were lost. Not being afraid to ask for directions I walk up to a fellow name Ryan Stratford, from Toronto, Canada, who was actually heading to the same place to meet up with friends. Together, we all headed to what we would soon discover was not only a great place but had excellently low prices; prices that would rival Mexico's, and without the consumer-beating bouncers! In fact, everywhere we went I was typically the biggest guy in the room which, as you all know, isn't saying much. For my first round I ordered a shot of Jack Daniels and a bottle of Thai beer called Tiger. The total was 6400 won which is ~$5, and the best part is there is NO TIPPING! We spent some time at Club Zen, met a half dozen people, decided to act like we were in Texas and went bar hopping. After asking some other Expats where we should go, we started our way towards FF Bar which I can only assume means Foreigner Fun Bar. And boy was it fun. We got in and the first song to greet us was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Presidents Of the United States of America. You can imagine how Asians reacted to this song. It was immediately followed by "99 Red Balloons," a remix I've never heard. The night continued with great music from The Offspring- "Self Esteem", Nirvana, RadioHead, Rage Against the Machine- "Sleep Now in the Fire", Muse and much more. I absolutely loved that place. I was sad to leave but it was 4 in the morning. Nik, Natalie and I decided to split a cab and enjoyed a pleasant drive back, well Natalie didn't she passed out. After I was dropped off, I walked the three blocks back to my place with a grin on my face that didn't escape me even after a full nights rest. Because in Korea, everyday is beautiful. When I checked my wallet to see how much I had spent that evening the grand total came out to just under $30, thats for a meal, all the drinks till four in the morning, and the cab ride. Got to love it.

Thinks he tore his MCL and fractured his ankle...

So yesterday was my best day in Korea so far even though I'm almost positive that I tore my MCL and fractured my ankle but I'll explain that in due time. The day started off as any other with me waking up at 5 a.m. since my sleep cycle is completely off. The worst part of being off your sleep cycle that many don't realize is that your eating habits are off also. I'm hungry at crazy times of the day. So yesterday I decided to face my hunger head on and had my first authentic Korean meal. I guess when your starving anything is good yet, surprisingly, this meal was quite delicious and more importantly it was most satisfying. But my goal yesterday was to play some soccer. So I headed to the nearby field to watch a pick-up game while I read my Brave New World (how appropriate) book. Again it was a bunch of old men playing an organized game so I decided to just practice some freestyle tricks off to the side. But before I knew it I had Koreans sitting close-by and watching as others decided to jump in and play along. One of those that jumped in was a spry old man of 76, Mr. Chae. Mr. Chae speaks English as well as someone who knows and never has anyone to speak it with. His first question, "Where you from? You Canadian? 'Merican?" To which I responded, "Texas sir." He asked me what I thought of ex-pres Bush and Obama. We joked back and forth as we kick the ball to one another. Meanwhile, during all this the organized game that had been going on had finished. They had been playing on a half field and apparently wanted to play on a full field but need more players. So one of the older fellas, prob 70, who spoke semi-English asked me if I wanted to play. Ha, of course, that was the whole reason I went out there. So here I am, 23 years old, six foot three playing against men whom none of which were younger than double my age. I decided not to play full throttle and just distribute the ball to make it fair and not seem like such an American. I was playing in my indoor shoes so it was actually easy not to play all out since I had no grip. Although I wasn't playing at my best I still managed to score twice. Then half time. This is where everything got fun. The old men huddled around me and started joking with me, "Your speed, ok." They pointed at my indoor then to their cleats. Obviously, they knew I should be playing in cleats so I dug out of my bag my Copa Mundials. Anyone who knows anything about soccer knows these cleats are the Rolls Royce of soccer shoes, timeless and the best. The Koreans knew this and all of them came over to feel my cleats and show me theirs. One joked that his name was Beckham another that he was Ronaldiho. But, the best part of all this was they were all smoking cigarettes, at HALFTIME! This blew me away. These old men were running as much as me but where smoking. Second half starts and my knee starts aching horribly which affects how I play. Then while chasing a ball my ankle gets crushed by another Korean's cleat. Now I know that some would say that red heads feel more pain but this knee problem was unbearable. I went home and lied in bed and I still haven't gotten up till just now to write this. I had to put a pillow under my knee just to take the pressure off the joint. But, I wouldn't trade today for anything. It offered me my first true interaction in the local culture and with actually Koreans. I will always cherish that half-time where we all sat around joking and laughing as the older gentlemen enjoyed their cigarettes. What a great place.

Planes, Games, and Porn. My First Day in Korea

Who knew atrophy could occur in 12 hours? Me neither. Apparently sitting in the same seat that long will pretty much render a fit individual into Christopher Reeves (post Superman). See the problem with traveling that long of a trip is you have to prepare yourself for the complete boredom of travelling for over a day. My trip actually started Saturday night with a trip to Ridglea Theatre for a concert in which I moshed like someone who knew they wouldn't be able to mosh for a year. Immediately afterwards, around 1 a.m., my mother and I decided to visit 24 Hour Fitness. Then I boarded my first flight at 7 a.m. and I wouldn't be done flying till 3 a.m. U.S. central time. Those of you who know me probably consider me a tall person, well to Koreans I'm a giant, a ginger giant and they did not build their planes with me in consideration. For the 12 hour flight from Chicago to Seoul I sat with my knees bent and turned sideways. Now all that activity followed with a day of restless travel equates to a body left abandoned of energy and physically depleted. One of the highlights of my trip was when the TSA officer at the security check in Chicago pulled me aside and asked me if I was Christopher Reeves' son... As flattered as I was it actually discouraged me. What does it say about our airport security who's sole occupation is to ensure passengers safety when they mistake ME for the son of Superman? That said it's hard to feel threatened on a plane full of Asians. The plane was pretty cool though. Our flight attendants were all Asian girls wearing Kimonos with Chopsticks that held their hair in place and wore oriental-style bandanas around their throats. I had my own screen in front of me where I watch the new Star Trek and The Hangover. I also played alot of Tetris on it but mostly I just jammed music in a futile attempt to get some rest. But here I am, in Korea! It's 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday here and I'm in my posh little hotel room. I have a giant flat screen on my wall and a computer which I'm writing on now. My first impression of Korea is that they are more advanced than we are technologically i.e. I put my room key in a slot by my bathroom to turn on all the devices in the room, and when I leave it turns them all off automatically. Korean television is NUTSO! First channel on when I powered up the flat screen was a show where Koreans play each other in video games and they were playing Star Craft!!! Also porn must be an accepted part of their culture because it's on three stations 24/7 and the best part is that the girls are constantly laughing...its soooo hilarious. Now I'm going to get some sleep. Hopefully today I can find a place to play soccer or workout and maybe get some food. Buying food here is intimidating because no one can tell you what's in it.

This is MJ reporting from Gwangmyeong (Seoul), Korea. OUT.