Sunday, July 30, 2006

What's up with...

Seriously, what is up with Koreans and Steven Segal? And on a tiny bit lesser level, Jean Claude Van Damne (sp?)? Every time I turn on the fricking television, there is at least one movie staring one of these creepy guys. Seriously...I am getting scared. Korean people, these guys are gross! Stop watching their movies! LOL!

Saturday, July 29, 2006

End of vacation!

So, it is Saturday, and my week of summer vacation is officially over. Tomorrow is Sunday, and that starts the "getting ready to go back" process, and therefore does not count as vacation time. So today is my last day...and I didn't do a damned thing for the whole week! It was mildly heavenly. I even forgot as my 2 month mark slipped by (July 26th) and spent the week sleeping in and going for walks in the rain--yes it is still raining here--jogging (a mile and a half, three times a week so far), and attempting to utilyze my Windsor Pilates series (jeesh is that HARD)! I also made the trek to Insadong with Jillian (about a 30 minute subway ride) and bought the cutest little fan...it is pink with a soft wood frame and I just adore it! I feel like Karl Lagerfield (Jacob will get that reference)I walked about a half mile to the kimbap place several times, and discovered a new treat there...hasta su mandu...basically mandu in a sweet and spicy sauce with lots of veggies. It is delicious, but I am saving it as a treat. Seriously though, this kimbap place that I go to is regarded as fast food...I would love to see one of our fast food places back home serve up a filling meal, with as few calories, for the approximately $2.50 I pay at this place for an order of kimbap and mandu!

Ok, I just erased about a half a paragraph on what I cooked and ate this week. I determined that it was just incredibly boring, and no one would be interested in reading about it! LOL! Isn't self-editing the bomb? Anyhow, I only have one more thing to tell about from my vacation week...I went NOREBANGING! For those of you not in the know, a Norebang (pronounce nor-ee-bahng) is a place where you go to do the karyoke...bu thte best thing about these places, is that it is your own private room. I mean, I went with Jillian and another girl Danielle, and we had our own room, but there were rooms that would hold 20+ people. Inside, there is a disco ball type light, a nice 4 screen tv display, and 2 microphones. There is also a table, two booth style couches, and a tamborine (which I seem to have a bruise from today). The rooms are sound proof, and the glass in the door is frosted so that you can only see in through a little slit, I suppose so that the proprietor can make sure that no hanky panky is going on! ANyways, we snuck in a couple of bottles of soju and some jiuce, and proceeded to get fershnickered! Now, you all know that I am totally against singing in public, and so I didn't realize quite how smashed I was until I realized that I was singing Scorpion's "Rock You Like a Hurricane" in my best rock star voice, at the top of my lungs. Needless to say, I had a blast, and have no voice today!

Well, anyways, that is the end of the excitement for my vacation...tune in again to see what happens next, in the life of Sojourner_rho!

Post-note:
As my fabulous "little-bro" points out in his comment, I totally failed to mention the most awesome news! Baby Ethan is now a full-on member of the free-breathers! Welcome Baby Ethan...you are so beautiful, and your parents love you with all of their hearts! I can not wait for the day I get to meet you! Listen to your big brother Logan...he already knows the ropes! All my love goes out to the family in MO!
Give the new baby a kiss for me, Brettimus!

Monday, July 24, 2006

Mud Festival

So, we went to Mud Festival, and I discovered a very important fact about myself...I HATE being dirty! LOL! The weekend was ok, but it rained the whole time, and everything was covered in MUD! Go figure, right? Anyways, here a re some pics for ya'll to take a look at...like the new way of displaying them? Loves!

Friday, July 14, 2006

Korean Commercials

Wow! Korean commercials are a total trip! I have three top favorites that I want to share with you!
The first is three Korean girls sitting around a table drinking lemonade. It is an American brand, which caught my attention. What really kills me though, is that the three girls sit around this table, drinking their lemonade, and they all suddenly start having massive orgasms. It is totally surreal!

The next commercial is this guy sitting in a pew in a large traditional church. All of a sudden, you hear this horrible sound of someone gulping (like nails on a chalkboard times 10 to me). The guy looks over his shoulder and this priest is sitting there drinking a glass of milk! He gives this little guilty shrug, and the first guy kind of giggles. It grosses me out every time!

The third is my personal favorite! It is an ice cream commercial and it starts out with this ice cream cup thing walking down the street. It is very obviously a "she" by the long legs and sulty walk. The "she-cream" goes past all of the "he-cans" of soda, and then, once she gets past them, she turns her "back" to the camera and then opens her "coat." All of the "he-cans" suddenly blast their pop-tops and spray white liquid high up into the air...Quick zoom around to the "she-cream" and you see all kinds of chocolate and nuts and caramel swirling around in her innards...The "he-cans" continue to blow their tops! It is fricking hilarious! I am sure most of you can see why!

Anyway...Korean commercials really trip me out!

Thursday, July 13, 2006

My Birthday Weekend--Dirty Fun in the Sun

Ok, for those of you who forgot...here is your reminder! Saturday is my birthday! Yaaaaaaay! E-cards are very acceptable gifts...especially if they are incredibly cheesy! Anyways, Friday night, we are FINALLY going to see Pirates of the Carribean 2, and I am very excited. Then, on Saturday, I have to go to GS Mart (think giant super-dooper wal-mart) with Christie and Jillian to find clothes for the Mud Festival, and if we don't find it there, then we are going to head over to Itaewon (there are more western clothes to be found there) and then have dinner at one of the foreign places there....there is this awesome Indian food place that has incredible chai tea! We will make Saturday night a pretty early one, as we have to be up and on the subway by 8 am the next morning, to meet the bus going to the festival...then it is two full days of dirty fun in the sun! I can't wait! So, I will have pictures and updates for everyone next week. I am so excited for this weekend, that I am not even focusing on the fact that I am now officially OLD! Ok, well, at least not completely! I do feel that maybe I should bring some arthritis medicine for after the mud games...Anyways, cheery-o and all that butter!

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Weekend Past

So, its been a fairly exciting last couple of weeks. The night with the girls went over really well, and we all had a blast. We hung out at my place and ate junk and played cards and goofed around for a couple of hours, then some went home and the rest of us went out to Mr. Yu's...That is our bar! The owner loves us and is so nice. It was a lot of fun, and little Jerry was there again, and he was very drunk, as usual, but still very funny. The poor guy went away to the army on the 10th. They have mandatory serving time here; two years he will be up along the norther border. Poor Bambino (my nickname for him, as he is only 20). Well, here are a couple of pics from that night.

We started off at my place...


Sahng-mi and Sunjung playing around...

The girls heading out to Mr. Yu's...

Laura and InHee glammin' it up for the camera...

Mr. Yu himself (aka Kevin) and Jerry (Bambino)...

That Saturday day, Jill, InHee and I all went to the Picasso exhibit. It was amazing! I still say he is not one of my favorite painters, but his work is incredible. He has this one painting called "Femme de fluer en gris" (I think that was it's name) that just captivated me. I seriously stood in front of this piece for about 20 minutes, just staring at the amazing depth it conveyed. I was in love! Unfortunately, I look like a giant troll in my only picture from the exhibit, so I am refusing to post it...just take my word for it...I went! LOL!

Last Saturday evening, Kevin (Mr. Yu) took Christie, Jill and I out for dinner. It was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed myself thoroughly. I was nervous at first about this older guy taking us to dinner, but seriously, he just enjoys our company, and practicing his english, so it is all kosher...for those of you with alarm bells going off! LOL!

This weekend, I did not go to the DMZ on Saturday, like originally planned. And no, it wasn't because of the whole missile catastrophe with the North...we all just decided that we had a lot going on this month, and in the interest of finances, we decided to put it off till September...plus, it will be all nice and cool then, August is supposedly a beotch here! What we did instead, was have a pretty crazy weekend. Friday night kicked it off with Jill dragging Christie's and my butts out for an evening on the town. I had really not wanted to go out that night, as I was incredibly tired from the week, but I was really glad I did, it was so much fun. We went to Sinchon, which is the next hood over from Songpa-gu (my hood). This is a prime people watching place, as it is where all of the young people go to do their drinking and partying. It is kind of like Mill Ave in Tempe, only with less hippies and lesbians! LOL! Anyways, Christie and Jill know the owner of a bar there, too, so we went to Crista's and were given the total VIP treatment. I mean, this table they gave us was beyond the best in the house. It was right at the front of the bar, in front of the big picture window that looked out over the street and all the goings-on down there. It also had a nice unobstructed view of the television which was showing, you guessed it, soccer! We ate this awesome chicken dish, and had marinated cuttlefish, and drank kiwi soju! All of these random people kept walking up and talking to us, as well. And it was just a ton of fun...We left about 12:30pm and took a cab back to our street. Then, cause we were all still talking, we sat at one of the little tables outside of our local convenience store (People do this a lot here, as you are allowed to drink in public, and these little stores all sell beer and food) and ate ice cream. And again, random people kept coming up to us and talking...they would ask to sit, join us for 10 or 15 minutes, and then leave again. It was so fun and interesting meeting all of these people. I love Korea so much! I didn't take any pictures of these things, unfortunately, but this next section has a ton!

Saturday day, Christie, Jill and I all went to COEX (big mall!) and went shopping. They insisted I take the following picture...I guess he is some big Korean Movie star. My face is way too big...I look like a bobble head! LOL!


Saturday night was absolutely CRAZY! We all went out for Christian's birthday (friend of Christie's). We went to the Hongik University area and had dinner. We had Duk Galbi, which I was not too keen on at first because it is incredibly spicy, but it was so good. I mean, it was definately spicy as all hell, but the flavor was incredible, once the fire went out! Then we went to this bar called The TinPan. Here was where the craziness started. At first, I really didn't like the place...it had a terribly seedy feel too it. You know how, in college, or younger days, we used to go to bars where the "frat boy" partied, and he would be incredibly drunk, and just hitting on anything lacking a penis? Well that is what this bar felt like, only they weren't frat boys, but the "western guy" and the girls were all these really dumb Korean girls...It seriously had the feeling of a "Me Love You Long Time" kind of place. The girls came here to be picked up by western guys, and the western guys came here to do the picking. It was a drunken meat market. But then I started gettting plastered, and really didn't care anymore. I was having a lot of fun with my friends, and guys are stupid everywhere (No offense to those of you who are not stupid!), so I just ignored the worst of them. There were a lot of fun western people there too. I met a couple of really nice girls in the bathroom. I can't remember their names, cause I was pretty loopy by then, but they were very nice! LOL! Anyways, we also met some really funny people that night...there was Chris from the UK, these two really cute Korean girls, one of whom we did get a picture of dancing with Jillian, the other I liked a lot...she was very sarcastic! And I got hit on by my first Korean guy. It was actually kind of hilarious...he walked up to me and said, "I want to tell you something, but you will get mad." And of course, I was all "What? Just tell me!" So he leans in real close, and whispers, "You have really big boobs...they are great! Korean girls all have no boobs. I like your boobs!" Ahahahahahhahaahaha! I just about died, right then and there! And he really did keep calling them "boobs." It was just too funny. I had joked about meeting a guy with a breast-fetish, and here he was! And he was kind of cute too...really good arms! LOL! Anyways, I talked to him for a little while, flirting, and trying out my "western game!" It was fun. We also met a very drunk guy from Boston who later got into a fight during ABBA's Dancing Queen (How do you get into a fight during that song? I mean, seriously?) and then, after we left the bar, we met two brother's from Ireland, whom I entertained by asking if they all knew how to dance the Riverdance (They laughed and said no, but Phillip did a wonderful impression of a Leprachun's side leap...nowhere near as good as Turk's though), and if they farmed potatoes (Yes I was drunk and very playfully mean). I also asked if they had see the movie "Darby O'Gill and the Little People!" They hadn't though. I was very disappointed. Anyways...the first of the brothers told us his name was Phillip (In the pic with me, wearing the red shirt and wristband), and I immediately blurted out that that was not a very Irish name, and shouldn't he be called Seamus or Lachlan or something of that nature, and his brother (the very cutest of all boys, whom we only got a side view of, but it shows his rather fabulous nose off to advantage) laughed and sheepishly told me that his name was Lachlan! I about fell over I was laughing so hard. Anyways, we were going Norebanging (Karyoke) and invited them to join. Lachlan wanted to go, but Phillip wanted to go to another bar. Lachlan and I were both a little disappointed...I will venture out on a crazy limb here and say that I think he was maybe at least a little interested in me...but I was drunk, so my perception of reality was really not what it should have been. Anyways, after they walked on, and Lachlan turned back to look and give me a final wave (tee-hee), we decided we were too tired for Norebanging anyways, and all piled into a cab and headed to Christian's house, after which, I left and came home. The cab dropped me off in front of my place at about 4:30 am. I did not get up for church the next morning...matter of fact, I didn't even get up for lunch, or dinner. I just barely made it to Mamma Mia!

Here are Jill and Christie! Aren't they pretty?


Jillian dancing with her Korean friend!

Me and the birthday-boy, Christian.

UK Chris.

My Korean boyfriend with the "boob-fetish!"

The drunken Boston fighter, when he was much happier.

Irish Phillip.

Lachlan...my future Irish husband...as soon as he comes and finds me! LOL! Don't you just love his nose? I have discovered that I am a nose girl...I am totally turned on by his schnoz!

Mamma Mia was AWESOME! It was Jill, Laura, Christie, Sora, Sahng-mi, and I, and we had the best time. It was all in Korean, but there were captions, and of course, I knew all the lyrics to ABBA's songs, so I totally was rocking out. You all know how excited I get at stuff like that. I was giggling and bouncing around in my chair the whole time. I guess at one point, the Korean couple behind us laughed and the woman said to her date, "She must really be enjoying this!" Sahng-mi told me about it at work the next day. But it was such a great production, and the actors were amazing singers. I cried at the part where the mom gives her daughter away at her wedding, for obvious reasons, and cheered at the end! I was also one of the louder singers, although definately not one of the better, in our group. At the end, they play all of the songs again, and everyone gets to sing along! It was fabulous! Anyways, that was my weekend, and I hope you all enjoyed reading about my crazy antics in Korea! Here are pics of Mamma Mia night! Lots of love!

This is the theater...isn't it cool looking?

This is us before the show...

This is the giant Mamma Mia sign...good pic, huh?

And here is Sora and Sahng-mi next to a blurb about the play, written in Korean. They are supposed to tell me what it says! LOL!

Monday, July 10, 2006

The Next Craze...

Anyone want to go see this doctor?