A year in the land of unicorns

     Well kiddos, it's almost been a year since I've arrived in the motherland and it has gone by in a flash.  Seems just like yesterday that I was sulking over how much I hated it here and how much I missed Fayetteville.  That is no longer the case and I find myself turning into a full on Koreano more and more each day.  I've acclimated so well that sometimes I find myself entertaining the thought of living here after my service.  Too bad we don't have teleporters so that we could go back and forth as we pleased.  Someday though, someday ^^.  Having experienced virtually everything that I could have here, all that's left is finding me a woman, yeah!  Actually, I've been meeting girls here and there and although it's fun, I still haven't been able to find a keeper.  When I mention that I'm going back after I'm done with my service, they seem to put in their mind that I won't be as serious a partner as someone who would live here afterwards.  The youngest girl I was talking to was 20 years old (go ahead, call me a cradle robber) but it turned out she was too immature for my taste.  Out of all the girls I've met though, the ones I really liked were nursing students/nurses.  Actually, I still like one of them but I haven't said anything because they kind of think I'm a man whore because I went around and collected all the girls' numbers.  How the hell does that make me look like a man whore if I didn't have a hidden agenda in getting the numbers.  Korea's funny that way.
    I haven't had anything exciting happen to me in a long time.  Just going out after work with friends and enjoying the bountiful pleasures the city offers in the evening.  I'm patiently waiting for winter to get here.  It's only been up in the 90s here but that coupled with the retarded high humidity and there is no way that you can walk around with sweating and feeling nasty the entire day.  It seriously feels like the rainforest here, especially on days when it rains or the days following it.  A couple more months and I finally get to come back home for a week and a half or so.  It'll be the last time I visit Fayetteville before and after I finish my service so I need to take advantage of every single day I'm there.  So much to do and so many people to see, my brain's exploding just thinking about what all I want to do when I get there.
     I wish I had more to say, but honestly I've been way too busy lately and never even think about writing in this thing anymore.  It used to be that I'd be looking forward to writing about what I did that day, but these days I find that it's more of a chore.  No matter how much I write to show how much fun it is here, I feel that words will never do the actual experience justice.  If it means anything, anytime I go and do something really fun with my friends here, I can't help but think that it would be even better if all of you were here to enjoy it with me.  Especially to all my friends who love karaoke, the noraebangs here (private karaoke rooms with food/alcohol service) are like heaven for people like you and me.  Around $18/hour plus however much time the front desk gives you as service, it's awesome.  Drink as much as you want and belt out your favorite tunes with no fear of embarrassment or judgement from complete strangers.  My Korean has gotten to the point where I'm comfortable singing/rapping in Korean now.  Haha, if only you guys could listen, it's a trip.
    That's it for now, don't really have anything else to say.  I don't know who reads this anymore (Russell you bastard, can't believe you haven't read a single post) so it might be last post for a long time until something worthwhile happens.  모르겠다, 담에보자 친구들아, 빠이빠이! ^^
Korean typing FTW bitches.  Miss and love y'all.
~JK

Blog entry 7/5/2012

It’s been almost a month since Andrew’s been here.  Although I’ve had to work for most of the time, we’ve still managed to venture into Seoul and enjoy its’ offerings, the main course being alcohol and the food.  Korea, unlike the US, has a limited amount of tourist spots.  Lots of old palaces and temples, historic villages in the countryside, and regions that have their own particular tourist attraction.  I can see how someone who’s visited a fair amount of the attractions could get tired of seeing the same thing in a different location.  Don’t get me wrong, seeing the culture and history of a foreign country is interesting and all, but I find living like a local to be far more appealing, especially if your stay is longer than a week or two. 

            Andrew has seen most of the touristy spots with and without me.  I’m sure he’ll post plenty of pictures, as he doesn’t hesitate to take pictures of the little oddities and quirks that you come across while walking the streets of Seoul.  The funniest of them being the ridiculous English fails on signs and posters.  Aside from the tourist stuff, I’ve taken him with me around the city to all the places that I frequent and met some of my friends who showed him how real Koreans spend a night out.  This usually ends with Andrew passed out on the table while my friends and I are still drinking and eating.  Also, thanks to Andrew I’ve been able to find some tasty new places to go to when he leaves.  One of them being this Mexican place called Tomatillo.  Oh how I’ve missed the taste of home and this place satiates my intense love for south of the border cuisine.  I also had to increase my alcohol tolerance for the first couple of weeks since I rarely get to go out and imbibe due to my hectic schedule. 

            Even though my room constantly smells like fart (thanks, Craig) and has been hard at times, it’s been nice to have someone from home to hang out with here.  Aside from my trip back to Fayetteville this November and Andrew being here, I probably won’t be seeing anyone from home for a very long time so I’m enjoying every moment I can.  I feel bad at times that I have to work and can’t show Andrew around some more but my hands are tied and it’s shitty.  I’ve some long overdue pictures to post so here they are.  Enjoy.  Until next time, love and miss y’all.

~JK

           

EDIT:;;

            We took a trip to the biggest water park in the world by square footage this past weekend called Caribbean Bay.  Went with Craig, my mom, and my youngest uncle’s family.  It was probably similar to Silver Dollar City size wise, just imagine Silver Dollar City converted into one, big water resort and that’s what it was.  The rides were all fun, the most thrilling one had to be this one called the Aqua Loop.  You stand inside this chamber with a trap door for the floor.  It counts down from 3 and the door releases, sending you plummeting straight down about 25-30 feet inside a tube and at one point you go up the tube and the tube twists again sending you down into the landing zone.  Watching people from the outside, they look like mail packets being sent up the tubes you see at the bank.  I also saw some girls who couldn’t make it up the tube since they didn’t have enough speed going down. 

            Another fun attraction was the wave pool.  However, the fun was sullied by the sheer amount of people and jackassery that took place there.  I can’t believe how big of safety Nazis the lifeguards were.  They had rope setup to limit people from getting too close to where the waves were being generated (don’t know why they would, but whatever), but they stopped generating waves because people were too close to the rope.  What’s the point of the damn rope if you’re not even going to let people up to it?  I kind of understand their point of view though since it did look like the Titanic had sunk and all the survivors were floating in the wave pool.  I’m surprised no one drowned.   It was also hilarious because I’ve never seen a lifeguard jump into the pool at any pool I’ve ever been to but at Caribbean Bay, I saw 3 to 4 lifeguards jump in, all within 30 minutes to drag people off or diffuse a situation. 

            The other thing that was worthwhile was the lazy river that ran through about half the park.  I floated it with my Uncle and his daughters first.  I just attached myself like a barnacle to my youngest cousin’s tube and floated with her.  Though it was fun, again, it was way too packed to be really enjoyable.  It really made me miss floating the rivers in Arkansas.  Don’t think anything could beat floating the Buffalo with an armada of Craigs in the middle of summer with a nice  flow rate and high water levels.  Anyway, Andrew leaves this Friday and I’m working the entire week without a break, which es no bueno.  The journey has come to an end for a Craig and hopefully his stay was pleasant.  Even though he could’ve partaken in more of the stuff you could only ever do in a foreign country, it was fun regardless.  

DOUBLE EDIT:::

     I started teaching again for some extra money.  It's only for 4 weeks and I'm teaching math this time around instead of English.  My pay got bumped up some so that's a bonus.  Other than that, life is back to normal for me.