shabu shabued out 00:55

I'm really starting to hate boiled vegetables. I went out for shabu shabu with the pool champion of Korea tonight and I decided that I would never eat boiled vegetables again. Soggy vegetables... mmm...

babariman 20:59

This is one of the funniest words I've learned here in Korea so far. 바바리맨 (Babariman) comes from the word "Burberry," the famous British clothing company, and "man." It's someone in a trench coat who likes to flash people. In Asia, rather than streaking in front of a crowd, men like to look conspicuous and flash people when people least expect it. It's also quite interesting that Burberry has become synonymous with trench coats here, similar to how kleenex is to tissue in America.

happy lunar new years 05:49

I left for Jeju Island early Wednesday morning to catch a flight to Tokyo in the evening. My friend Tim and I decided to meet down there because we would be able to avoid the madness of people traveling in and out of Seoul. Lunar New Years is one of the two biggest holidays here in Korea.

Tim took me to a bar/restaurant called Bagdad in Jeju City that served Indian food. It's a bit random that it would be called Bagdad but a lot of things here in Korea seem random. I never really liked Indian food but the food here was amazing. Definitely would love to go back there again. We then went to the airport and enjoyed what has become one of my all-time favorite fruit - Hallabongs. I believe that they are a cross breed of some Japanese Satsuma Orange and Jeju Island Mandarins. We hung out in the airport for about 3 hours or so. By 11:30 we were in Tokyo.

Tim and I stayed with my friend Takuya who I met in Tokyo back in the summer of 2006. I got to meet his family and they were especially kind and welcoming. We had dinner with Takuya's family every night so it really saved us money. The whole time however, Takuya tried convincing me into moving to Tokyo with him. He even tried looking at jobs for me. I guess it's still an option for the future... I actually would love to live there.

Rather than being tourists, Tim and I just hung out with people. We met our American teacher friends, Emily, Meredith, and Kirsten, who were also in Tokyo, their military friends Davia and Derek, hung out with my Japanese friends Tetsuya and Wataru, and met two British girls who were also vacationing in Tokyo. 

Things I realized in Tokyo:

1) My Japanese is very rusty. Takuya even said that he noticed that I forgot a lot. Kinda disappointing. 2) Only if you want to throw away money, try avoiding Roppongi Hills. It'll drain your wallet fast. 3) I really really like Mister Donuts. 4) The taxis remind me of Transformers. 

the city of filial piety and samsung 19:26

Last weekend, my friends and I decided to take a trip to Suwon, a city an hour south of Seoul. A king back in 1796 had tried to move the capital city from Seoul to Suwon but failed miserably. The story goes that the king missed his deceased father so much that he decided to build him a great tomb. Instead, the tomb ended up becoming a fortress. The king then wanted to be closer to his father's burial place so he tried to move the capital. I think it's a neat story of honor and love. An interesting side note, Suwon happens to be where Samsung headquarters is. This is where all those designs for cellphones, flatscreen TVs, and flashdrives come from.

Prost! I think that's German for Cheers. My German friends taught it to me when we were in Suwon.