I'm high on life (cuz I can't find anything else here...)

I must be getting my fiber, cuz I've been so fucking regular with these here blog posts. Wow, apologies for that last sentence. It just popped into my head and I knew immediately that it had to be put down on paper, regardless of how inane and absurd it may be. But it is true, as I've been relieving myself of my thoughts on a weekly basis. This one looks to be shorter than most, as I'm in an insanely good mood with nothing to really complain about, and everyone knows that 90% of the energy expended to open and close my mouth goes towards bitching, with eating taking up about 8% and saying nice/good/happy things filling in the last 2%. If I'm in a good mood, I usually shut the hell up, so as not to ruin it with the sound of my own voice. There are exceptions to the rule, especially when events of an EPIC nature are unfolding, as the world deserves to know just how EPIC that one beer pong match was. For those of you in the dark, trust me, it was pretty fucking EPIC.

On the job front, not too much new. I've settled into the standard job niche, where one spends every waking second there thinking about what the hell they are gonna do as soon as they clock out. The bonus is that there are actually things to look forward to once I leave. God, there is so much shit going down in the coming months that it's making my head spin. I'm pretty sure sometime over the weekend I had an epiphany where it dawned on me: this is what having a life is like. Man, its not half bad, now that I think about it. Not to take anything away from the weekends spent alone in my apartment, writing my poetry and listening to Dashboard Confessional (man, Chris Carrabba, you so get me), but I think this “life” thing might actually be better. But more on future plans in a little bit, as I should probably finish with the school stuff. As for the extra classes that were proposed for me last week, I was told the next day that they had been canceled cuz no foreign teacher would that that shit with a 10 foot pole, surprise, surprise. Problem solved. The only other issue at present is concerning my next job. I've managed to find a recruiter that deals with SMOE (the public school organization for Seoul) and have successfully sent in the paperwork, so now all that remains between me and contact with actual school is the interview with the recruiter. Unfortunately, its a phone interview, so I can't take advantage of my most powerful aspect: my gorgeous and glistening ivory skin. Don't worry, I'll find a way to sneak it into the conversation. “So where do you see yourself in 10 years?” “Well, that's a good question...did I mention I'm white. Yup, white as white can be. Shit, my mom and brother are basically gingers, I'm that white.” Done. Hired. The interview also poses the unique challenge of making sure the recruiter sees who I am, but not too much of who I am. I keepz it realz, perhaps much too real (and for the record, I still stand by my decision in the SAFEWalk interview. Drunk people do make me laugh. The shit they do is hilarious. End of story. I should have gotten that job.).

As for the highlights of the weekend, there isn't a huge amount to say. Since there was no ridiculous encounters with Koreans, no bullshit to wade through, no soul crushing disappointments, there isn't a huge amount to say. Saturday saw the group heading out for Jethro's birthday. We decided to head to Apgujeong, the ritzy of the ritzy in Seoul, supposedly, since it is also home to Seoul's only reputable jazz club. The group stopped for dinner at a fusion Chinese or something restaurant in the neighborhood. This place had a freakin' Koi pond in the middle of the restaurant. That's how we knew it would be good. Actually, I got good mixed up with expensive. A Koi pond guarantees that the restaurant will be expensive, not necessarily good. But this place just so happened to be both. I, per usual, ate my fill, as the majority of the party was unable to finish their dishes. Enter the Human Garbage Can. 3 other party members' dishes later, and I was satiated....kind of. From there, we began our long and drawn out journey to the jazz club. Thanks in part to my inability to perfectly read a Korean map or write down the telephone number, to several Koreans inability to know the difference between their asses and holes in the ground, and simply lousy maps, we journeyed long and hard. Sadly, as we didn't pack enough rations and supplies for the journey we were forced to consume one of our party members to survive the journey. It's true what they say, Asian does leave you hungry in 2 hours. My major faults withstanding, we were lead astray by a lousy map that insinuated that the jazz club was near the Apgujeong subway station instead of 30 minutes away and various Koreans that didn't even know the direction to the fucking enormous department store located near the jazz club. At long last, we found the club and not a moment too soon, as I was becoming increasingly frustrated. I was walking at least 25 yards in front of the rest of the group instead of the usual 10 or 15, that's how angry I was. The jazz club was everything that I was looking for, but sadly it didn't appeal to the majority of our group. Probably had something to do with drinks being 3 times the standard price here in Korea. Maybe. Either way, Jethro and I were badly outvoted and we moved back to the bar “Beer Hunter”, yup, for cheap and copious amounts of liquor.

Sunday brought the first official capoeira park gathering for the new year. The group was scheduled to meet at 2pm at Olympic Park and I arrived fashionably late....2 and a half hours later. Though, it wasn't my fault, mostly. The traffic was bad enough to add an additional 30 minutes to my already lengthy bus ride and I ended up going to the wrong subway stop and ended up having to walk all the way across the park to meet the group. Going to Olympic Park? Go to the Olympic Park subway station, right? Fuck no. That would be logical. Finally, I arrived to discover that it wasn't a practice, it was a demo. Oooops. Now, I thought the crowds back in Madison were ambivalent to our performances. That was before Korea. Seriously, we had 5 or 6 guys pulling off the manner of floreio that only Carlos could do back in Madison and the crowd gave us nary a woop. I couldn't blame them at some times, as the music was pretty god damn weak. Even though we had a group of 10 or so, I felt like (and probably was at times) the only one not on instruments involved in the music, whether by singing or clapping. On a side note, Olympic Park made me very happy, as I saw real grass, you know, the kind you can sit on. Though, in true Korean style, the Koreans don't actually sit on the grass without a mat or some kind of buffer between themselves and the ground. You know, cuz you wouldn't wanna get dirty or get yucky grass all over you. Fuck no, that would be awful. Clearly. I didn't think I would be excited about grass, but then I realized I haven't seen green grass in 7 months, let alone sat and relaxed in its sweet embrace. Hot.

Back to the future plans. God damn it looks busy in the near future. Just finished up paying for my Philippines ticket and finalizing travel plans. We are just in the infancy stage of planning for what we are gonna do while we are there, but already we are all starting to get pretty antsy. Amy started looking at scuba diving packages today and I nearly pooped myself of excitement. Cept we may have to take a ferry to travel around. The ferry: my nemesis. We meet again. In brighter news, I believe they may be attempting to “hook me up” with some of the locals. The following conversation appears exactly as occurred. Person: “Hey, listen that reminds me. You said you'd never pay for sex, correct?” Me: “Go on....I'm listening.” Person: “But what if...when we are in the Phils, a girl would say...come up to you? Not asking for money or anything. She just likes you. Would you prefer that? Because I'm told that it can be worked out.” Me: “I do prefer consenting sex, yes.” Interesting, is it not? But even beyond the Philippines, things are looking up. The weather is getting even more gorgeous, but will soon be moving into sticky and uncomfortable, but I really couldn't care less. I'm just tired of being cold. Warm weather brings weekly capoeira rodas in the park, as well as baseball and soccer season. Having spent the majority of today trolling various Korean sites to find schedules for said sports (it was a slow day, alright, lay off), I have before me a comprehensive list of games. I shall now commence attending said events. Last we have an upcoming trip to the DMZ, coupled with bungee jumping? Naturally, since those things go together like bacon and chocolate chip cookies (but wait...those two things do go together, hmm...). I've been assured that we won't be bungee jumping into North Korean territory or even into the DMZ, so I'm less excited. I've also been told there will be rice cake making, but not during the bungee jumping. Again, a let down. Korea is just not eXXXXXtreme enough for my tastes. I'll have to settle for plain old boring bungee jumping. But then again, we will presumably be jumping off a bridge that services motor traffic. And since we are in Korea, we are liable to get hit at any second. That probably knocks the whole thing up to maybe a two X, but not the 5 X I was looking for. The car accident thing is no joke. I live in a third floor apartment on a small alley and I'm still afraid of being hit by a car, in my apartment, most of the time. You just never man. You never know.