We're Not Dead!

Hi! We're not dead. I guess it has been a bit long since we posted. I figured I'd better get on that. Well, I've been figuring I'd better get on that for some time now to tell the truth. Whenever exciting things happen to me personally, I usually rush to tell Mel and that's that. I forget about bothering to blog. Whenever stuff happens to us together, we usually rush to tell our friends. Either those scenarios, or the stuff is actually not exciting once we get to thinking about it. I can type about boring stuff. I'll do it! You can read about my lunch in intricate detail every single day....

Actually no. I'm far to busy for that ;)

Anyways, let me try to work up some exciting things. I have a couple pictures too, so that should help. So, one evening it was a friend of ours' birthday. Mel was off at orientation, but I was happy to attend the festivities. We went to a nice little place and had Galbi. Galbi is delicious pork (or sometimes beef) that they grill at the table for you. One can also have Samgyupsal grilled at the table, but that's fatty and not nearly as yummy.

So, eventually I found myself with the impending need to urinate. I headed off in search of the bathroom. Eventually I did find it. You see most Korean establishments don't have bathrooms. There's just these communal ones for the patrons of all the businesses on that floor or what not. So, this one appeared well worn. This was actually one of the worst bathrooms I'd been into in Korea. The smell was appalling. It was just a wave of nasty, old urine stench. Then, as I'm struggling not to breath, lest the smell render me unconscious so that I can slowly asphyxiate on the floor of this nasty bathroom, I noticed this sign above the urinal....

Ironically, the Asian man appears to be succumbing to the stench of a white guy smoking a cigarette. I think the greater concern would obviously be the vile odor just hanging in the air waiting to attack unsuspecting patrons.

Here's a cute puppy. It is really quite irrelevant to most anything I actually have to say. I'll add something about it though just so it doesn't seem too out of place.

We found a new pet store relatively near to our house. They have many varied cute kittens and puppies. However, they had something we were in dire need of: a covered litter box. Now the cats are no longer slinging litter all over the place! Nice! Also we got them a cat tree to climb on and scratch up. They were in need of that too.

The litter box is actually pretty sweet. There's 3 bottom trays and one is slotted. Then there's the lid. So you simply lift the slotted pan and shake it a bit to get all the good litter into the tray below. Then just dump the ickies into the trash. Shuffle the trays around a bit and it's all win. Woot!

So, after lunch Il-kyu and I usually walk leisurely in front of the school until it is time for the next class. Well, one day the walk in front of the school was just amazingly hot. The sun was beating down extra fierce. So, we decided to walk behind the school. We chanced upon a group of 6th grade boys and Il-kyu set them to playing (what I beleive to be) some kind of traditional game...

Guy #1 stands there. Much like the kid in the blue shirt. Guy #2 bends down and firmly tucks his head into guy #1's balls (see guy in plaid). Then guy #3 tucks his head into guy #2's ass. I believe the rules allow for a longer chain dependant upon the number of players.

Then the running and jumping begins. The other half of the people take turns running and jumping on the turd log (my name, not theirs). The goal appears to be to get everyone on the turd without the log breaking...

So, yeah. Gay people don't exist in Korea, so inappropriate touching is A-OKAY!

Here's a close-up of the blue shirt kid's shirt. Notice the Lucky Strike logo. It actually says "Fucky Strike". The rest of the shirt is also covered in rip-offs of American logos such as "Berger Kim". Intellectual property and copyrights don't exist in Korea either.

Actually the other day I heard a rip-off of the Jackson 5's ABC. It went "ABC, ABC" and then a bunch of stuff in Korean. It was the exact same tune though. Happens a lot here.

So, what's next? The kids here go nuts if you call them crazy. There's a lot of stigma surrounding mental health issues. So to them crazy can't even mean something like "you're acting silly". It just means bat-shit insane. So, it's fun to joke with them and call them crazy. They go nuts, we all giggle, it's a good time.

One day, a 6th grade girl named Kim Yumi was being particularly silly. I drew this on the board...

LOLZ!

In my Top Class (best of the best grade 5 and 6) we had a couple lessons on Island Survival. So, they're boat is going down, they can only take 7 items (out of like 25 or something). They work together to decide the items and explain the reasons why. So, we worked on that for a couple of days and then on the 3rd day, their task was to plan ways to get off the island....

Well, those are certainly some spectactular methods of "escape".

In other news, I bought a bike. It was $115 after I had them put on the basket. Yes, I have a basket. It's handy for carrying crap to school. It came stock with a nice bell *ring ring* and she threw in a bike lock. Good stuff! I get to ride it (to school) about three days out of five because we're apparently in the rainy season.

*NERD ALERT*

Also, I may have mentioned our hunt for dice before. Because we're huge nerds and we like D&D. We've been regularly playing with that group for some time now. The four of us really enjoy ourselves. We just hit level 6 :O Although one of our party died the big death at a boss encounter and had to create a new character.

One of our group is getting ready to start another D&D game set in the world of Eberron. Another player will be joining us for this and we're all really excited. It's a world of magic that's kinda steam-punkish, but set up for some good noir. There's also the ability to dungeon crawl Indiana Jones style. It's just a cool world. My paltry description doesn't do it justice (and may contain some inacquiracies) so don't bitch at me (Kender).

*END NERD ALERT*

Let's see.... Oh! That's Galbi place with the stink shit box? There's a really funny story about that place. You see, that wasn't the first time I had ate there.... It was just the first time I paid to eat there. But, that's a whole other story. It was a rather amusing night. Hopefully I'll be back to type it up soon. If not, maybe Mel will. Well, what she remembers of it anyway... ;)

For now, I gotta get out here. Gotta hop on my bike before the rain hits....

Aaron