Happy Birthday to ME!!

Yesterday was the best birthday I've had in several years. I thought it was just going to be a low key, mellow night. I worked all day and went home for a much needed nap. Then, I headed downtown to meet Trash. She was supposed to meet me after band practice for a birthday date. We were gonna hang out, just the two of us, for a little bit and then go to hang out with her band members at the new pub that Park (her drummer) is opening on Friday.

I was on my way downtown, and Trash called to say she was running a little late and Yumi would meet me to show me the way to their practice studio. When I met Yumi, she talked to Trash and said it would be a little while because they were still practicing. I have to admit, I was kind of ticked off. I mean, it's my birthday, and my girlfriend let band practice run overtime by half an hour. Plus, I knew she'd need time to get ready before we went out. Anyway, Yumi and I were "walking to the practice studio" and we passed a little pub. Yumi said that one of her friends wass in there and wondered if I'd mind swinging in to say hi. My answer... "Sure. No problem." My thoughts... "Oh yeah. I'm in no hurry. It's not like it's my birthday, and my girlfriend is running late cause she has something more important to do."

We stepped through the door, and I saw that there were a lot of people but was so frustrated that I barely noticed when they all yelled, "SURPRISE!!" Apparently, band practice didn't go overtime. Trash just needed a few more minutes to get my AWESOME surprise birthday party ready :) Boy, did I feel foolish (Na neun Babo.). Now, those of you who know me may have trouble believing this, but I was speechless. I just kind of stood there with a dumb look in my face for about 5 minutes (in my head it felt a lot longer). All of my friends from Hongdae were there, and Trash even spent over an hour searching online for my church's website so she could invite Pastor Robert and Jenny. It was fantastic.

We were there until about half past midnight. It was the best birthday I've had in years :)

I don't like party hats.

That's much better.

It wouldn't be a birthday if friends didn't put icing on your face.

...but I got my revenge!

Honggu was more than happy to get some on him too. Haha.

Me and Bang

Jae

Yena stopped by for 2 mins to say hi and give me my present :)

Me and Park (our gracious host)

Hongu, Yumi, Diane

What a great night :)

Pictures Online

When I first got here, I was posting photo albums on MySpace, Facebook and Webshots. That is a lot of work, and as I will probably be here for a long time, I'm not going to keep doing it. I have discovered, however, that I can post a link for people to view my photos on Facebook even if they aren't members...so here they are. These are the photos from my two days in/near Busan:

Saturday - Arriving and on the Island

Sunday - In Busan with Trash

Enjoy.

From the Kindergarten Halls

When you spend a lot of time around large amounts of little kids, you hear some funny things. I heard one of the other teachers yell this while I was walking up the stairs yesterday....

"No, you can only throw the SOFT toys. Ow!! What did I just say?!?!"

:)

Delicious

I've been taking a lot of videos lately and thought I'd share some. These are two of my favorites. I mentioned that I ate FRESH sushi when I was in Busan. Here are two videos of this wonderful experience with Trash :)

Get Out of Town!

Last weekend, I had a much needed trip out of Seoul. My friend, Jesse, is leaving Korea in a few weeks so we decided to do one, last, big trip. 13 of us took the KTX bullet train across Korea to the southeast coast. We went to Busan and then took a ferry to a small island about 45 minutes off the coast. It was beautiful there. We spent most of Saturday afternoon/night at an abandoned amusement park on top of the mountain on the island. That was so much fun. I was able to do all the things I ever wanted. Did you ever want to climb up to the dragon head on top of the swinging viking ship ride? I always have wanted to, and I did :)

Oh Yeah!

It was a lot of fun. We searched through the different buildings and climbed around on all the different rides. Who knew an abandoned park could be so much fun. We all (the better looking ones are Jon Dunbar's) got a lot of great pictures too.

Diane and Trash on the Carousel

Princess Cherry Blossom

Outside on the park's pool balcony

Saturday night was pretty mellow. We went out for dinner and then just chilled at the hotel. Sunday morning, most people left early. Trash and I stayed behind and just hung out in Busan. We had FRESH seafood. By fresh, I mean that we picked the fish out of a tank and they served it to us raw about 10 minutes later. We had octopus that was cut up, but still alive and moving...delicious! Then we just hung out on the beach until it was time to catch the train back to Seoul.

Trash with live octopus hanging out of her mouth

It was a fantastic, much needed weekend. I love life in Seoul, but like anywhere, it's always good to get away for a little while. Monday, I felt so refreshed and ready for work. It's good to have a little more energy during the week :)

The Life and Times

It's been a while since I put anything up here. I've been so busy the last 2 months because of moving and changing jobs. Life is finally settling down. This week was the first time in over a month that I actually had a night I could just stay at home and relax. Actually, I had three nights like that, and it was wonderful. I'd really been neglecting my guitar and felt bad about it so we had some quality time together. I was also able to go out for dinner and coffee with Pastor Robert, which I hadn't done in a while.

I had my first field trip with the Little School this week. It was really cool. We went to a place called The Living Gallery. They had some pretty advance computer hologram projectors that made pieces of art come to life. For instance, at one point, it seemed as though we were looking at Renaissance statues, but then they "came to life" and started moving and talking to us. They had an LCD of the Mona Lisa with voice recognition software. You could ask her questions about herself, and she'd start to move and answer your questions. All in all, it was a really fun exhibit.

It's been such a blessing having my new apartment downtown. I'm able to see people throughout the week and don't have to worry about the subway closing. As I said above, I've been pretty busy, but it's been a good busy. I've had a lot of the normal nights out in Hongdae. That's always a good time. I have a great crew of friends over here. Below are some random pictures from the last few weekends in Hongdae.

Jesse and his namesake drink, The Jesse Sunrise

Aaron doing guest vocals with Suck Stuff

Honggu and Rachel

Zombie Trash

Mental Patient Trash - Yeah, we're all worried about her.

Almost Respectable

Saturday was a really good day. First of all, the weather has finally turned. It's getting warm! I woke up early Saturday morning (not easy for me) and headed downtown. I met my friend Trash (Yes, that is her nickname. No, I'm not allowed to tell you her Korean name...she made me promise). We went to a local art museum because it was the last day of the Vincent Van Gogh exhibit.

The night before, we'd been talking about heading to the exhibit, and I made a joke that we needed to dress up. You see, Trash is the kind of girl you can know for years and never see dressed "like a girl." I was completely kidding, but she thought I was serious and agreed to dress nice and wear makeup. The catch, I had to wear a tie. So yeah, that joke kind of backfired.

Anyway, we both got dressed up all snazzy and headed to the museum. It took us about 30 minutes to get into the museum and a little longer to actually get to the exhibit once we were inside. It was CROWDED, but really worth it. It was cool to see paintings I'd only seen in books. Van Gogh put the paint on so thick that it looked fresh. Almost like they'd been painted that morning. It was really cool.

Afterwards, we went out for lunch. Bibimbap (rice and various veggies) with spicy octopus. It was delicious.

Next for me was heading uptown to jam with some guys. Then it was down to Hongdae for a normal night of hanging out. It was quite possibly the best day I've had since I came to Korea.

Shirt, Tie, Sweater Vest. Oh Yeah!

Holy Crap! Trash in a Skirt

We are Classy