Physical/Drug Test

    Today was a full day, dad and I had to go into the city to some military personnel compound to get my physical and drug test done.  I felt like a complete moron because all the paperwork and the computer testing stuff was in Korean so I had to have a translated English version on paper and just answer accordingly on the computer.  Luckily there was someone who spoke some English so I was able to go through the paperwork pretty quickly.  After all that mess was over with, we had to go change and get ready for our physicals.  Now for those of you who know me, I'm a big dude lol.  Being raised in the US, I was lucky enough to play school sports like football and go to the gym while growing up.  I swear I felt like the Hulk walking next to these scrawny little Korean boys.  Anyway, after all the blood work and pee testing was over, the last thing left was to get our weight and heights measured.  Apparently there is a weight limit you have to meet to go into the military...WTF.  I was over by 4kg (8lb) lol.  I don't even think the kids bigger than me (I don't want to hurt their feelings by saying fat, not saying I don't have fat but I've got a pretty good deal of muscle, yeah?) went over the limit.  It's almost as if they're saying I'm not fit enough to join, which I think is utter bullshit.  So during the checkout process I was told that I had 1 month to lose that excess to meet the weight limit, haha.  I've got to lose weight to meet their standard of what a man in the military should be...do you sense a theme of vanity in this country anyone?  I won't have any problems losing the weight but I think it's funny.  If this were the US, there wouldn't have been any problems.  Maybe I need to start thinking more Korean.

    Afterwards, we went to one of the big service providers phones main offices to see if they could transfer their services to my iPhone.  Since my iPhone hasn't been jailbroken/unlocked, they couldn't, so we just got a new iPhone, LIKE A BOSS (instantboss.org).  While we waited, the pops and I enjoyed our ice creams that he bought while we were waiting for the paperwork to go through.  When we got home, I finally got to have some food I haven't had since I was here last, which was 10 years ago.  Pics down below.  Other than that, I'm happy I got a new phone, I'm happy I have an uncle who's willing to take me out to drink from time to time, I'm happy I have family that's trying to make my transition living here easier, most of all I'm happy that I'm feeling like I'm finally settling into a comfortable place in my mind.  I've accepted that I'm here for the next 2+ years and I'm going to enjoy it while I'm here.

Anyways, FOOD PICS and other randoms:

Typical Korean meal at home, fish, rice, soup, then assorted side dishes.  My grandma also makes a lot of this one dish called Gae Jang, it's pretty much raw crab that's left to marinade using lots of seasonings and spices, it's the red stuff in front of the rice.

Live octopus. Get on my level hater, it's sooooo good.  Haven't had it since I was a little boy.

Ventured into the city a little bit and it wasn't even the city part of the city.  I'll be going to the advertised part of Seoul that all the tourist see this weekend.

The subways were super nice.

Lots of stores and buildings with neon lights at night.

Seafood Jjajang Myun (noodles with seafood,veggies, and meat in a soy bean sauce), fried dumplings, and Tang Soo Yook (basically it's tenderized beef that's been deep fried and you dump this sweet and sourish kind of sauce on top with veggies).  This was delivery food, ballin'.