My Birthday, My Friends. My home. My hope.

I'm gonna try to cover multiple topics today, so lets get started.

First, my schedule at work has been changed. I now work from 6:30 to around 3ish everyday. Which is fine with me-better than spread out all day-except it means I have to be in bed by like 11 at the latest every night. Which means my schedule isn't conducive to talking interacting with people back home. Kind of luckily, the only people I talk to instantly, for the most part, is mom and dad. Still kind of a bummer though. Oh well, can't have your cake and eat it too I suppose.

I failed to mention in my last update what I did on my birthday. It was actually a bit of an eventful day, so I'll share. We had a company party the night before(which led to the picture of me rocking the mic), so I slept in a little late-till 11 or so. Then Alex and I met Tazz in Itaewon to go to the travel agency. I know have everything booked and settled to go to China from July 27th to August 2nd. We'll be staying in a traditional Korean village about a mile from Tienamen Square. I'm really looking forward to it.
Anyway, after we finished that up we went shopping in MyongDong. Alex wanted an American baseball cap. He was unfortunately settled on buying a Yankees cap-I was devastated-but couldn't talk him out of it. Hate the Yankees. As a condolence, and maybe a bit of a birthday present, he bought me a Cardinals hat. (None of this was knock off by the way, I actually own a Cardinals hat bought from an MLB store in Korea-yet I don't think Ive ever bought one in St. Louis. Oh the ironies.)
After baseball hat shopping we had to humor Tazz and go handbag and shoe shopping for a bit. Such is life-can't complain too much about standing in a swarm of women, even if they all had the crazy eye in search of the elusive perfect pair of shoes...
All the shopping made us tired so we sat at the entrance to Myong Dong and people watched for an hour or so. I can't properly describe how busy the entrance is, so I won't try, but needless to say-there were a lot of interesting people. Korean, English, French, Russian-it's all at Myong Dong. The beautiful, the ugly, and the weird-they're all at Myong Dong.


Tazz left the party after that and Alex and I headed to another part of town for Chicago Pizza. I loved it. It was wonderful. Especially on my birthday. Alex couldn't handle it. He made excuses out of the quesadilla appetizer we had, but there is no excuse. His attempt was pathetic. Alex fails at being an overweight mid-westerner. He is crushed, I'm sure.

Anyway, after the defeat we headed back to Nowon(home) where we met up with a few Korean friends for drinks. These are the guys I mentioned in my last entry.

One of the guys was in my class the first term. He goes by "Uncle Paul". He's in his late 40s, He's the one that I go to baseball games with, the one that kicked my ass hiking up the mountain. He's a great guy to hang out with, always has a very deep-and more to the point VERY concise-thought on every subject. Something that makes you go "Well, yeah, I guess you're right". My only complaint is that he says Obama won't make a good president. He doesn't know much about him but he says "if he's as good a man as you say he is the job will run him over. You have to be a liar to be president" Then he cited Jimmy Carter as an example. And, well, he sort of has a point. I still refuse to believe it. Anyway, so here's "Uncle Paul" the wise Korean with a story and an idea for any situation. A stoic man who never confuses his mind with alcohol or tobacco.
And then there's Young. Young's a few years older than Uncle Paul. Young is, an entirely different type of enigma. I don't believe I've ever met Young while he was sober-and if I did he quickly went into a state of drunkenness. A couple of weeks ago the sneaky little guy managed to convince me to go out drinking with him on a thursday night. It was just a beer or two at our regular bar, but then it was to Oldies for a "Corona like America!", then it was "Mr. Bret, we must have Tequila after Corona. Like America! I know the place!" so we're off to another bar for tequila. And then it's "Mr. Bret! I have tried American style, now you try Korean style!" and we're at a Soju bar drinking a couple bottles of Soju.(Soju is a vile drink, like vodka without the aftertaste-which makes it much easier to drink but not nearly as deadly. It's like the symbol of the entire country, I swear. Google it for more info)
Also, Young gambles, a lot. I fully expect him to someday have his kneecaps broken by some Korean Mafia Don's burly Vietnamese thugs. Every time I see Young my first question is "How much did you win today!" and I have yet to have an answer besides "I lose (insert amount more than $100) today. Tomorrow though, I make it back!"
Cracks me up every time. Eventually, I have no doubt it will crack his kneecaps.
So those are the Koreans I've spent most of my time with. Both men over 45. One a monumental man of wisdom and intelligence, the other a chain smoking hooker chasing drunkard. And they're best friends. What a world!


As for Lala's question. I do miss home. The idea of home in general, and certain aspects more than others. For the most part the easiest way to explain what I miss about home is that everything I do here has the potential to be a struggle. If I walk into a store-don't know the word for something, and the woman behind the desk doesn't know English, I'm basically screwed. So every time I step into a store or restaurant or anywhere I do so with just a bit of apprehension. I miss being able to walk into a friggin McDonalds and not have to worry about whether or not there will be a language barrier...or at least I should say not have to worry about the language barrier being my fault. In America I can blame those dirty Mexicans behind the counter for their lack of English. LEARN THE LANGUAGE OR GET OUT OF THE COUNTRY!(Irony intended)

I won't say that I'm "homesick" per say. Things like that aren't really constructive emotions. Nothing I can really do if I we're homesick, so no point in thinking about whether or not I am. Things here are good and bad both, things at home would be good and bad both. Do I wish I was working 2 hours away from home instead of 30? Sure. But that's life. Especially in the world we live in today-if I want to talk to mom I'll write her an email. If I want to see Little Billy I'll pull up the webcam. I'm much much closer to home than people 10 or even 5 years ago would have been.

Enough for now. Questions and comments please. They both motivate me and give me a starting point for my next entry. You help keep the beast alive!

By the way, if you want me to come home go to www.barackobama.com. If you REALLY want me to come home, donate to the campaign. I swear if a Republican wins the election I'm not coming back to America(I'm about 30% serious on that), and the Democrats are about 99% just as bad. They're as big of sleazebags and same old gaurd as the Republicans, they're just the sleazebags with the better ideas.
Obama is the change. Trust me. He's my great hope.

Enough politcs, You know how quickly I can go over the edge on that. I'm done.