Reboot!

Hey-o

Haven't been here in a while; it's not for a lack of news; rather, it's because of a tremendous amount of news of which I can't even fathom where to begin with.

Well;

- I've moved into a new place, and to a new job (hallelujah!)
- I'm not balding, it seems (I'm kinda bummed since it's something that inevitable - you know the worst part is the waiting)
- Leah also has a new job and a new place - which is with me!
- I've ran around like a chicken without a head for Leah's documents, packing, moving, etc. and we've had to move *TWICE* to get a decent place.
- My mom visited here from the US - when she was around, she managed to buy Leah a hanbok
and introduce "us" to the fam-fam. Of which I was not clearly aware of (I went there wearing jeans and a sweater).

Anyhow, just living the good life now - gound a Kyokushinkai place nearby, I've been going to a dissappointing Muay Thai place nearby of which I stopped going because . . . it was dissappointing. Duh.

No Tokyo for Dan. . ..

Ugh.

So it appears that, at this time, Tokyo has eluded my grasp (sigh).

Well, this is why - I've got to move into the new place and start work a full week sooner than expected when I told them that I had the week free (me and my stupid mouth)! So I have to move.

Appearantly, though, it's possible to rent a car as long as you have a license - not strictly an international license, either.

Minds are a' brewing, folks . . ..

(Time to get packing)

Tokyo, Packing, and Tattoos

So, I'm changing jobs.

Why?

Well, for several reasons;

• For another, the place I work at, while filled with great staff, SUCK because they only take two holidays off a year. And no, other places do NOT do that.
  
• And it's not Christmas, New Year's Eve, nor No Pants Day - and frankly, I don't want to be associated with an organization that doesn't celebrate No Pants Day. (Not, that the new place would observe the holy day, but they have more holidays, at least)
  
• Another complication was that a few months ago, Leah's school decided, without Leah's input, that she would work the morning shift.
• Let's think about this one:
• Lil' Daniel goes from work from 3PM to 10PM (which, coincidentally, kills his chances of him joining ANY clubs/activities)
  
• Lil' Leah goes from work from 9AM to 5PM
• Leah and Daniel live/work about an hour away from each other, which means that either Leah would have to leave Daniel's place at 7:30AM to go to work or that Daniel would arrive at Leah's place at 11PM, only to see his wife go to sleep at, oh, I don't know, midnight.

Like I said, with the exception of the holidays thing, I like my job - I like my coworkers, I like my boss (well, he is very absent-minded, but I think it may be a Korean "your-boss-is-a-god-so-suck-his-cock" kind of thing), and I like where I live(d)!

Having said that, this (08/18 to 08/22) is my last week with my current employer.

And,

• My current boss, William, tells me that I can move out whenever I'd like - so, since this is my last week AND the fact that I've paid rent for all of August, I thought I'd move out next week at the end of the month, when I'm NOT working all day and when I DON'T have to travel an hour to get to/from Leah's place.

Well, that's apparently not the case.
William conveniently tells me last Thursday, that I have to move my shit out by the end of the term - meaning, this Friday (I did, however, get to convince him that I should get the last week refunded to me). Did I mention that I have to work all afternoon?

You know what, I don't think I like my boss that much.

So, I start searching for new jobs - and I interview, after interview, after interview - and you know what? Every single place tries to either dick me around, saying that they would NOT give me housing (which they do for, "full-blooded Americans"; you know, honkys), or they just tell me outright, no Korean-Americans (actually, Leah's soon-to-be former employer stated that they don't want African Americans working there; yeah, anti-discrimination laws don't exactly exist here yet) - until I go to this new place.

My god. The place is new, and I go for an interview, at which point, I'm taken aback - the owners are w.o.n.d.e.r.f.u.l human beings. I mean, wow. So, I get the job (thankfully), and I actually convince Leah to interview with them - and she loves it too! I mean, her other job kinda sucked to begin with, so there's nothing much to compare it with, but I'm looking forward to it, I tell you what.

But, having said this, I get two weeks of vacation from my previous job to getting the new job - which means I have time . . . to TRAVEL! I am excited, I tell you what; for 4~5 days, I think I'm going to hit up Tokyo, as in Tokyo, Japan.

And when in Rome . . ..

Being less ambiguous, here's a lowdown of things I want to see/do while I'm in Tokyo;

• I want to stay at a capsule hotel; yes, because I'm a nerd.
  
• I'm pretty much planning on sticking around Akihabara; yes, because I'm a nerd.
• I'm definitely going to visit the Kyokyshinkai Honbu; yes, because I'm a nerd.
• And who could forget? The Kodokan . . . and yes, because I'm a nerd.
• (While I'm in Korea, I might visit the Kukkiwon. Maybe.)
  

And, of course . . . (and this one might surprise you guys a little)

• I might get a tattoo. I don't know about this one, as it will be pricy (it IS Tokyo) and I AM flighty, but I think I'll look into it and if it's possible, then why not? I'm looking into getting a half-sleeve if possible, but we'll see what I can swing . . .. I guess this is also because I'm a nerd(?).
  

(If I missed anything, or if you have criticisms/advice, dish it out!)

Anyhow, at this time, the plans are still tentative. What with moving and changing jobs, I'd hate to leave it all to Leah willie-nilly; I'm sure she'd do great, but it'd still not be fair.

So, to sum it all up; I'm busy as hell, but I can't wait.

Jeju Island (a little late, perhaps?)

Well, I'd like to give you a reason for not talking about Jeju Island . . .. Why? Well, no reason other than the ol' standby (because it's true) - I'm laaaazy.

Anyhow, Leah and I went to the isle for about a week. And it was, surprise surprise, awesome. For the most part, we just beached around, and hung out, nothing spectacular.

Jeju is a small island, and we rented a scooter (the cheapest ones go for about $10/day) and I tell you what, it was a blast. I mean, this being Korea and all, it's only 125cc and it did 50MPH max, but it was just great being able to ride again!

And as far as the rest pf the trip gpes, we also checked out some other tourist areas - we did the submarine tour (which sucked - there were no marine life to speak of, and the poor narrator guy was trying to excite us with what basically amounted to floating kelp in the sea) and we got this lil' nifty picture at a tourist spot called "Love Land" - for the neophyte, or just the person who is too lazy to click the link, it's a place to educate people about sex - well, Koreans nowadays are pretty educated (but from what I hear, they don't use protection, which is . . . well, let's just say I'm glad I'm married), but apparently even 20~30 years ago some newlyweds didn't know how to do the horizontal tango.

And Jeju being the honeymoon destination for Korean newlyweds, a new business market grew out from then on . . ..
(On the downside, I was expecting XXX when all I got was a Skinamax R)

Last but not least, the beaches. Oh, the beaches. There was this one particular spot that was nearby the hotel we were at and I have to say, it was beautiful there - the island is volcanic, so the sand had this beautiful mix of gold and black and the beach itself was (what was told to me by a friend of mine here) a "pancake" beach - which means that the beach water was flat and you could go out, pretty much, for about 200 yards and you'd still be waist deep.

All in all, I think it was a blast - as far as vacations go, I'd give it a solid 3 1/2 stars out of 5.
(I've taken down a star because we were stupid enough to go beaching at the sunniest hours of the day, on the first day, without sunscreen. We paid for it dearly)

North Koreans

First of all, sorry; I havent' kept up with this blog as much as I should.

Not, that there's like a blog-o-meter or something.

Anyhow, been back from Jeju Island and just finished peeling all my skin off. Pleasant to itch my back only to find a sliver of skin has decided to jump ship from my back . . . onto my hands.

(A full week of beaching on a volcanic island was kinda nice, though.)

Anyhow, now that that business is done and over with* I have another topic I want to (aimlessly) ramble on about;

North Koreans.

I mean, where to begin, right? Well, let me be a little more specific here - I've been to North Korea, the most totalitarian nation on the face of the Earth, before this whole fiasco - right before, and to the same damn place, actually, and let me give you an impression of the North Koreans I've seen there.

Stiff as a board.

You may ask yourself; what, are they bored stiff**? Are they dead? Are they the stereotypical-hard-nosed commie types we've all seen in 80's codl war movies? Are they scared stiff?

My answer, and of course I could be wrong here, is that it's a mix of all - and in retrospect, an uneasy fear, especially around caucasians.

Why do I being such a topic up, you may ask? First, I'd say get out of my head, and secondly, I'm currently volunteering to teach North Korean refugees English through a small church*** - essentially, they get a free college education but they have to qualify to enter - and admittedly, I've just started to help, but damn.

It's kind of weird to see them in person - what I mean is, they are, physically, just the same as South Koreans - but they do have a North Korean accent, and they seem just as friendly and outgoing as any of us - it still blows my mind that just two months ago I've seen others like them in North Korea, standing stiffly, monitoring our evey move and anxious to not be around any white people. And that they had to risk their lives to get here.

I'm not saing that we should be grateful to be here (where ever that "here" may be - America or S. Korea), but goddamn that outs some things into perspective.

I tell you - one the one hand, I feel for what they may have had to go through, but they have my utmost respect.

*I'll post pictures later. Maybe.
**Rimshot
***No, I've not suddenly turned fundie Christian - it's a coworker's church that I've decided to help out in.

This week in review: From a Wednesday(07/16/08) to another(07/23/08) - part 2

So, the rest of the week, nothing else interesting happens . . ..

Until Tuesday.

Did I mention that Korea is prone to monsoons during Summer? Well, it is.

This is a long one, folks - I hope you have time to sit and enjoy. At my expense.

Well, being a good grandson who hasn't really seen his Grandma in 20 years, I have a weekly habit of spending the night at her place on Monday nights. Unfortunately for the both of us;

1. There is no AC in her place
2. My sleeping schedule is absolutely fucked from working a 3~10PM shift*

So, on continuing my charade of being a good grandson, I wake up usually at 10AM** because, everyone at grandma's sleeps according to the sensible, regular kind of schedule.
*Please take note that I am currently posting this at 4:30 in the fucking AM.
**After going to sleep at 5AM - but grandma still thinks I'm being lazy. I mean, I AM lazy, but it's not the point.

Well, I wake up, take a shower, and eat breakfast, and go to my place in the subway*.
At this point, I'm standing in the hot crowded subway and I'm tired. So, upon reaching my stop, I ride my bike back to my place, and take a short nap. It's about noon, and I'm thinking I was going to take a 30 minute~1 hour nap, and I should be fine.
*Fuuuck I'm starting to hate the subway

So, I go to my place, a studio apt, throw my clothes off, and plop on the bed to promptly pass out. After a little while, I hear this din and think nothing of it, thinking that it is just construction outside*.
Well, I figure that it's time I should wake up and do some errands or whatever, when I sit up.
Now - and this part is relevant, I promise - remember the part when I said I threw my clothes off? Well, I threw them off, if you get my drift. At this junction, I've just woken up, sat up stark-ass naked and pretty much blind without my glasses off when I notice that my front door is slightly ajar and is letting in light.
*There's construction going on all the time in Seoul

Didn't think too much of it . . . and then I hear the landlady* say, "I didn't know you were home".
*An ajumma in the classical sense, as mentioned prior

Turns out that she was doing some maintenance work and the din I heard wasn't construction, but it was her knocking on my door to see if I was home. So my landlady saw me buckass nekkid.

Ah, whatever - I kinda feel bad for the lady, as she's this unmarried Christiany-Christian person, and she's normally pretty nice.

Well, so I get up, and check the time; shit, it's 2:45 - I take a peek outside to see that my trusty bike is . . . stolen. Yep, it's gone.

I throw my clothes on and go around the block, just to make sure that no one maybe moved the damn thing, but it's gone.

Damn.

So at this point, the landlord's seen me naked, and my bike's stolen. I'm not exactly upset, as I've left this bike in front of the place unlocked (like I said, I expected to be in and out) and a coworker/neighbor of mine says he saw the bike when he left for work at 2:25.

Well, I guess I was asking for it. Anyhow, some of the other teachers and students, when I mentioned this, suggest that I go and steal someone else's bike. Not, that I would, but I guess it happens frequently around here.

Like I said, I'm not happy about it, but being upset doesn't do anything either, so, blah.

Anyhow, onto today . . ..

Well, since it's a Wednesday, that means I only have a half day of work. So, I gather my coworkers, and go down to the same burger place to hang out and have some burgers. On the trip there, nothing. We get over there, take our seats, and order our grub.

And then I feel a slight tap on my shoulder.

I look over, and a green cicada has decided to join me on the back of my shirt sleeve. That fucker was huge - about as big as my thumb - and did you know that you can skewer them and eat them? Anyhow, back to the story - it's really not that a big deal - I reach for it, and flick it off my shirt.

Except that I don't look up to see where I'm flicking this off to.

Whoops.

I flick it off and I turn back to my burger, thinking nothing of it. Well, I hear a couple of girls scream bloody fucking murder and it turns out that I've hit that critter right at them.

At this point, they're still screaming their head off. I go over, and it's on the ground. As I'm pondering whether to step on it and save its pain of having to hear those two shrill screams, the owner, Y, comes and picks it up, and lets it out.

So at this time, I'm somewhat embarrassed, and I genuinely apologize to the girls.

Their reply? "Yeah". One of them was so shaken up that she had to go to the bathroom.

Later on, I find out that did they only not get up as they saw the whole event transpire before I flicked that guy, the goddamn thing didn't even hit them nor go on their table at all.

For fuck's sake.

So that was my week, folks. I don't quite know if all that was that terrible, but was odd nevertheless. Hope that entertained you at least a wee bit. I'll get to my regularly scheduled blogging as something new comes up!

This week in review: From a Wednesday(07/16/08) to another(07/23/08) - part 1

What the hell.

Well, interesting(?) things have been happening to me recently. Not in the mind-blowing sense, mind you, but rather in the sense of slightly odd series of events. So let's begin.

Last Wednesday: After a half-day at work, I, as well as a few other coworkers decide to go check out this burger joint that Leah and I found*. So we are in the subway** and it being Seoul, it's pretty busy - on the way there, we're chillin', making small talk with coworkers as we're standing as there are no free seats, holding onto the handles, and just waiting for our stop to come.
Well, on one stop, this older ajumma that was sitting down right in front of me, decides to stand up. Nothing out of the ordinary, right? Well, at that precise instant I was talking with my coworker/boss, Nate, and had my hand turned away.
*Actually, this place was opened by the owner of a bar that Leah and I frequented. It's also in the foreigner district, so all the clientele are essentially expats.
**If you've read the other posts so far, I'm hoping that you know at this point that we use mass transit extensively

Anyhow, you would typically think, knowing the Dan you guys knew in the States, or, possibly in Korea, "What did you do this time, you ijit?"

So, what did I do?

Nothing. Not a god damned thing.

I was just standing there, talking to Nate like I said and standing still, holding onto the subway handle when the lady decides to headbutt my elbow (on the arm that was holding the handle, by the way). Yeah. She wanted to find out who'd win; her head or my elbow. Unfortunately for her, my elbow won.
Smartassedness aside, I quickly turned over to see her and muttered an apology to the lady.

(Was I supposed to apologize at this instance? Anyhow . . ..)

Turning back to Nate, who saw the whole thing, we kinda had an awkward chuckle as we both weren't sure what kind of response to take.

Well, I guess that was a bad move, as her daughter, on seeing me talking to Nate(a white dude - stand up guy, by the way) in fluent English, maybe thought I was laughing at the lady.

So naturally, she decides to go off on me, saying things like, "You shouldn't have been in her way/you need to look out for them/blahblahblah" in Korean, while her mom is pulling her out of the subway.

Now at this point I'm stupefied more than anything at this point, and I'm just staring at her(and so is Nate), not knowing exactly what to say to all this.

Then, it gets kinda weird. The girl, seeing that her screaming in Korean is not getting the reaction she wants and seeing me hanging out with a whiteboy, proceeds to do her best to scold me in her best "I speak English" impression while the mom keeps pulling her out of the subway, which just stupefies me even more.

Then the doors close on her as she is screaming.

At this point, for some kind of karmic balance and entertainment value, I would love to say that "Oh, the doors closed on her noggin, her head got chopped off and everyone lived happily ever after" and all that, but real life being what it is, she was out of the subway, the door closed, and we went on our merry (and now somewhat awkward) way.

The rest of the week gets weirder. Just wait.