Catching Up

Sorry for the long hiatus. I'd love to say I've been too busy, but that is not the case. I've been lazy. Oh well. Time to change all that. Sooo, what to write? Hmmmm....

Well we had am 80's party one weekend. Actually we started the day with a picnic in Peace Park, right by the water. It's a nice little spot with the Yeongsan River on one side and Ibansan on another. We played a game of frisbee in which 2 players on either side try to knock over the 2 beer bottles on the other (the name escapes me), took some pictures (everybody had their SLRs out) and just had a nice afternoon. We left that and went to Jason and Abby's place to get ready for the main event. Dawn and I weren't going to get all dressed up for this event, as it's not usually our style, but our hosts were going all out, and Abby wasn't going without us. Luckily for Dawn, Korean women's fashion is very 80's right now. Spandex, long shirts and tights under skirts are extremely popular. So she went to the corner store and bought some leggings and wore one of Abby's skirts with a sparkly top, and she was done. I borrowed one of Jason's polo shirts and wrapped a sweater around my shoulders for a pompous, preppy look. Abby had a long shirt and leggings, and leg warmers for the 'aerobic' look. But Jason had us all beat, shaving his full beard to a moustache, and adding short shorts, half unbuttoned dress shirt and aviators for an acceptable Magnum P.I. However, people ended up asking him all night what he was supposed to be, because they all had people he looked like. I agreed with the "Goose" from Top Gun one.

This past weekend we had a really nice birthday dinner for Jason. We went to the remote but beautiful Hotel Hyundai (probably sounds dumb if you don't live in Korea). This hotel is probably 4 star (tough to tell, really), set on a hill overlooking a beautiful bunch of islands and the Hyundai shipyards. We (Abby and Jason, Dawn and I, and Emanuel) got there in the early evening and had drinks on the veranda overlooking the water. Nice view, but it was a little windy. Almost thought the table was just gonna fly away with us on it. So it didn't take long for us to move inside to the restaurant/cafe area, which houses a nice white piano. Emanuel decided to take full advantage of the combo of being foreign in Korea and a white piano, and played some Elton John for us. At dinner time we sat down for the best buffet I've had in a while, including a steak bar! It was really good, though it was largely seafood, which I am not fond of. Could have used some pasta or something, but it was good nonetheless. After that we went back to Jason and Abby's place for an awesome cake that Abby made, and we watched Fist of Fury out of the Bruce Lee box set Abby bought Jason in China. The box is almost perfectly like the real ones, but you open it and get a bunch of burned DVDs in little plastic holders. Still cool.

Last night we surprised Jason for his birthday. We bought him a shirt with crazy drunken Konglish on it (always a great gift), some funky bikini girl socks (for the upcoming bachelor party), and a Thomas the Train candy dispenser (which doubles as a drinking game). We got to see where our counterparts work when we went to get Abby. They work at a hagwon called Say Say, and it's actually really nice, if a little cramped. When we got back to their place, we had Tim Horton's coffee, and Abby made scones and bacon. It was awesome. We left about 2am. When we got home, there was a security car outside our building. Never a good sign. I was afraid there was a break in. Luckily, it seems as though when they were closing for the day the door must have come off its hinges. There was no sign of anybody robbing the place, so that is the only thing that makes any sense.