For those of you who are not historically inclined, Korea is still technically at war. Korean War
It sort of made me smile a little when I heard the first air raid siren around the middle of March. I'm living in a country at war. Not like in the states, where we are at war in a more imperial sense...like Napoleon was at war in Russia (And how did that go?). South Korea is still technically at war and I'm 30 miles from the front lines.
I smiled slightly less last weekend when I read this. Now, don't get me wrong, I am FAR from concerned or anything. It is what it is, and I realize that. But, the idea of being in a city 40 miles away from the last Stalinist state with a certifiably insane person who has a couple dirty nukes....far out. If he gets Alec Baldwin on his side, we're all fucked.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
One more thing...
I want to be the first to predict it...so that I will get the credit when it happens...Pirates 162-0.
This is the year of perfect seasons...19-0!! WOOO!
WE WILL!
This is the year of perfect seasons...19-0!! WOOO!
WE WILL!
Mini-update
Man, I haven't done a thing to this in forever.
Things here are going well and I'm still truckin' along. The biggest thing (which I've bragged to most people about already) is that I'm going to THAILAND in 10 days!!! It's looking like a couple days on a beach island south of Bangkok and then heading to Ayutthaya for a day to visit some Buddhist ruins and an ancient city (I eat that historical crap up). Then...best of all...I'M RIDING A FRIGGING ELEPHANT!!!
Jeeeez. 12 months ago, I was hoping to get a last minute invite into Temple's Ph.D. program...now I'm riding elephants in Thailand. I didn't even have a passport then.
It's funny how travel really lets the Peter Pan syndrome set in.
Things here are going well and I'm still truckin' along. The biggest thing (which I've bragged to most people about already) is that I'm going to THAILAND in 10 days!!! It's looking like a couple days on a beach island south of Bangkok and then heading to Ayutthaya for a day to visit some Buddhist ruins and an ancient city (I eat that historical crap up). Then...best of all...I'M RIDING A FRIGGING ELEPHANT!!!
Jeeeez. 12 months ago, I was hoping to get a last minute invite into Temple's Ph.D. program...now I'm riding elephants in Thailand. I didn't even have a passport then.
It's funny how travel really lets the Peter Pan syndrome set in.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
More amazing sentences
These are not from my kids, they are from my co-workers. But they are awesome, nonetheless.
Word: Frigid
Sentence: My wife tells me I'm frigid.
Word: Turn on
Sentence: Something that is a turn-on is sexually exciting.
Word: Frigid
Sentence: My wife tells me I'm frigid.
Word: Turn on
Sentence: Something that is a turn-on is sexually exciting.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Korea Goes Green
I figured that Saint Patrick's Day would be moderately low-key here. I'd find a bar, have a few Guinnesses and enjoy Irish music on my computer. Little did I know, there is an "Irish Association of Korea." This is one of the most homogenous nations on the planet...and there is a friggin "Irish Association of Korea." Anyway...I discover that there is an Irish festival planned for Saturday in one of the regions of Seoul. I head down there with Byrne and Freshman and Christine (Hyunae). Again, I figure it's going to be low-key and uneventful.
We get there right in time for the parade...which was one of the most hysterical things I've ever seen. Imagine about 2000 drunk Koreans, celebrating a holiday that 90% of them do not understand. They are all sporting their green shirts and Guinness hats (I'm pretty sure Guinness sponsored the entire thing). There was a guy dressed as a bright green dragon (east meets west), and about 40 small boys inexplicably dressed in drag. There were at least 2 marching bands, a dancing mug of Guinness and a Guinness float. This was actually the first Saint Patrick's Day parade I've ever attended...and it's in Korea.
Moreover...no open container laws here, so Mike, Pat and I are walking around, slamming beers, and in complete disbelief that we're in Korea...and there are several thousand people celebrating St. Patty's. On stage, there was a band, comprised completely of Korean people, fresh off a tour of Ireland, where they were playing Irish music. Imagine hearing "Whiskey in the Jar" wrap up and the band thanking the crowd with "Kam sa ham needa."
However, the greatest of all...was the line...of free Guinness and Irish stew. Now...the stew was nothing to write home about (isn't that the case for Irish food? Just boil it until it's edible?), but as someone who wishes it rained Guinness, there is nothing better than free Guinness. We'd get our beer...eat our stew...get back in line. Get a beer, eat some stew...back in line. All to the tune of five Koreans playing pretty good Irish music.
Pictures are up.
We get there right in time for the parade...which was one of the most hysterical things I've ever seen. Imagine about 2000 drunk Koreans, celebrating a holiday that 90% of them do not understand. They are all sporting their green shirts and Guinness hats (I'm pretty sure Guinness sponsored the entire thing). There was a guy dressed as a bright green dragon (east meets west), and about 40 small boys inexplicably dressed in drag. There were at least 2 marching bands, a dancing mug of Guinness and a Guinness float. This was actually the first Saint Patrick's Day parade I've ever attended...and it's in Korea.
Moreover...no open container laws here, so Mike, Pat and I are walking around, slamming beers, and in complete disbelief that we're in Korea...and there are several thousand people celebrating St. Patty's. On stage, there was a band, comprised completely of Korean people, fresh off a tour of Ireland, where they were playing Irish music. Imagine hearing "Whiskey in the Jar" wrap up and the band thanking the crowd with "Kam sa ham needa."
However, the greatest of all...was the line...of free Guinness and Irish stew. Now...the stew was nothing to write home about (isn't that the case for Irish food? Just boil it until it's edible?), but as someone who wishes it rained Guinness, there is nothing better than free Guinness. We'd get our beer...eat our stew...get back in line. Get a beer, eat some stew...back in line. All to the tune of five Koreans playing pretty good Irish music.
Pictures are up.
PITT WON THE FRIGGIN BIG EAST!!!
There is nothing like 8am basketball to really get you in the March Mood.
This last week, I got to wake up every morning...at 8 am or 10 am depending on game time, and tune in, via Slingbox, to Big East Championship basketball. I was turning down going for drinks after work each day (well...most days), telling my co-workers I had to get up early to watch basketball. So each day, I'd come into work...they'd ask if I had to wake up early again...and surely I would.
WOOO!!!
PS...thank you mom and dad for the slingbox...I would have probably ended it all if I hadn't got to watch the last 5 days of basketball.
This last week, I got to wake up every morning...at 8 am or 10 am depending on game time, and tune in, via Slingbox, to Big East Championship basketball. I was turning down going for drinks after work each day (well...most days), telling my co-workers I had to get up early to watch basketball. So each day, I'd come into work...they'd ask if I had to wake up early again...and surely I would.
WOOO!!!
PS...thank you mom and dad for the slingbox...I would have probably ended it all if I hadn't got to watch the last 5 days of basketball.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Sexy bar...sans sexy
There are a variety of bars here in Korea. You have your traditional beer and whiskey bar, which is the closest to what we imagine as a Western bar. You have HOF's, which I guess would be Korea's equivalent of a bar and grille. And then you have sexy bars. Sexy bars are bars where you can be in the company of fine women...sometimes clothed, sometimes less clothed. You will go into the bar, take a seat and have a woman sit next to you. For a Korean man, she is there to flirt, talk and make you feel like more of a man. For an American who knows 7 Korean words...she is just awkward.
Well...after work the other day, Jacob and I decide to check out a new bar in the neighborhood. We have to keep finding new bars as he has a penchant for shutting down our favorite drinking establishments (as soon as he steps foot into a place it gets shut down and gutted--he was even able to close a new bar we found just by thinking about drinking there). Well, we walk in to this small, back alley bar, completely ignorant to what we were getting ourselves into. There were two posters of nearly naked women on the walls. We enter amidst giggles from the two women who were managing the bar and who spoke absolutely zero English. After ordering some beers, since that is one of the few things we can do in Korean, I notice that the woman has put out 4 glasses. I turn to Jacob and quietly say..."Jacob, I think this is a sexy bar." Jacob turns to the two women, whose combined age was not possibly under 100, and says "no wayy, those are for water." She pours us a beer, looks suspiciously at us for a minute or two and then walks over to where she had been sitting.
Well...we split the 5 beers brought to us and get ready to pay...when we see the check of $55 for 5 beers and a plate of nuts and sliced up American singles. Jacob jumped on the grenade and payed for it, clearly getting assraped on the price. Clearly, the two lovely grandmothers were waiting for an invitation to share our $11 beers and love us up with some 1960's good times. Who knows...women here age well...it's possible they were born during the Korean war...I'll never know.
I'm just hoping Jacob shut this place down.
Well...after work the other day, Jacob and I decide to check out a new bar in the neighborhood. We have to keep finding new bars as he has a penchant for shutting down our favorite drinking establishments (as soon as he steps foot into a place it gets shut down and gutted--he was even able to close a new bar we found just by thinking about drinking there). Well, we walk in to this small, back alley bar, completely ignorant to what we were getting ourselves into. There were two posters of nearly naked women on the walls. We enter amidst giggles from the two women who were managing the bar and who spoke absolutely zero English. After ordering some beers, since that is one of the few things we can do in Korean, I notice that the woman has put out 4 glasses. I turn to Jacob and quietly say..."Jacob, I think this is a sexy bar." Jacob turns to the two women, whose combined age was not possibly under 100, and says "no wayy, those are for water." She pours us a beer, looks suspiciously at us for a minute or two and then walks over to where she had been sitting.
Well...we split the 5 beers brought to us and get ready to pay...when we see the check of $55 for 5 beers and a plate of nuts and sliced up American singles. Jacob jumped on the grenade and payed for it, clearly getting assraped on the price. Clearly, the two lovely grandmothers were waiting for an invitation to share our $11 beers and love us up with some 1960's good times. Who knows...women here age well...it's possible they were born during the Korean war...I'll never know.
I'm just hoping Jacob shut this place down.
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