Please Don't Float So Fast

Hello everyone out there in Internet land.

My post is a little bit late, but I got in really early to Seoul and didn't sleep so I didn't post on Tuesday. But here we go:

I really haven't been up to all that much in the last month and a half. lol. A good brief summary would be eat, sleep, party, study(kinda). There's no way I'm going to be able to remember all the stuff I did in April, but some of the highlights include a few birthday parties, exams, cherry blossoms, and just having a good time with all my friends here in Korea.

One of the more memorable birthday parties was for two of my friends, Max and Sebastian. We went out to Apgujeong for the night, went back to Monkey Bar and drank alcohol out of buckets. Good times. We then went to a club called Circle which was EXPENSIVE. It was 30,000 just to get in (30 dollars). But it was pretty awesome, all the girls were super hot and the music was really good. I had a really good time, but I dunno if it was worth the price. I think I'd rather stick to the cheaper clubs, cause you could easily spend hundreds of dollars in one night in Apgujeong. Other birthday parties include Hana and Elin's birthday party which was in Sinchon which was fun as well, just mostly hanging out and having some soju and beers. My friend Jasper also had a birthday and we went out for dinner, bowling, and then bars. I managed to bowl a 200 and a 194 so everyone thinks I'm super awesome at bowling now. Not exactly what I want to be remembered in Korea for, but it's a good start.

I went to the cherry blossom festival in a place I can't recall the name, but it was kind of disappointing. I got a lot of good pictures from Yonsei and there, but it wasn't on the grand scale I thought it was going to be. It was still really beautiful and you can check out all of the pics here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2068605&l=758cc&id=15201480
and here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2071359&l=13199&id=15201480
I also got really curious if cherry blossoms tasted like cherries so I started munching on some cherry blossoms. Turns out the more reddish ones actually do kinda taste like cherries. Who knew?

Exams went really well. No wait... that's a lie. Haha. I did ok on my psych exams (a C) but I totally bombed my Korean midterm. It was partly it's a really hard language to learn, and partly a lack of motivation. I love my teachers though, and I always have a really good time in class, but when it comes to the tests, I just find it really hard to put in 20 hours a week when my grades don't count. I'm trying a bit harder, but mostly I want to learn for me, not for any test. That's why I'm here, isn't it? I think I will study harder though for the final just to get a C, unless Starcraft gets in my way.

Speaking of Starcraft, I've been playing a new video game. Namely, Starcraft. It's HUGE here in Korea. Not just like, a lot of people play it, but it's the biggest E-Sport because of Korea. There are 2 channels of the T.V. dedicated to televising Starcraft games like, 24/7. It's a lot of fun, most of the people on my floor in the I-House play it, and I'm getting pretty good. Anyone wanting to challenge me to a game when I get home, game on.

Some of the awesome stuff I did in April was go to the Zoo and Pusan. AWESOME times. The zoo is pretty much like any zoo in the U.S., but it's still a zoo. I went with Casey, Kay, and Marvin and it was a blast. Little things were different in the zoos here, most notably, they sell beer at the zoo. Which totally makes the zoo at least 35% better. You can check out my pictures of the awesome zoo trip here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2073224&l=ffe20&id=15201480

And Pusan was really cool as well. One thing I'm not sure about Pusan is how to write it or pronounce it. Some times I see it written as Busan or as Pusan. It may be that there's both a Pusan and a Busan, but I still don't know. But it was interesting, it was kinda a "welcome home" without feeling at home like all. For those who don't know, I was born in Pusan, so I really wanted to go as it does have a significant amount of meaning to me. The day in Pusan was awesome, night life... not so awesome. It was just me and Casey going to Pusan, and spent Saturday night through Monday night there in Pusan and came home really early Tuesday morning. Saturday night me and Casey went to a place that was supposed to be a college town, but it was dead. And people just wouldn't let us do stuff. Like, we went to a club, they took one look at us and said no. I dunno, but that particular area was pretty lame. We came back to where we were staying and hit up a local casino. No Texas Hold 'Em though. BOOOOO. But I did win about 140 in roulette and blackjack. :) We stayed up that night and watched the sunrise over Pusan, which was awesome. We sat on the beach and watched as it slowly got light out. I have a video of it, and I'll upload it to YouTube so everyone can see it. Sunday, we slept in a little late, but went to the open fish market that Pusan is famous for. It was really cool, and we ate raw stuff. And by I mean raw, I mean still alive. Heh, yeah. The platter we got was octopus, some red stuff, some black stuff, and some orange stuff. Sorry, I don't know what the other stuff was called. But the awesome part is that it all moved when you poked it. We had to be careful with the octopus though, apparently if you don't chew it up good you could die because the suckers are still alive and it sticks in your throat. But the good news is that I didn't die, and it was delicious. (Well, the black stuff wasn't so delicious) I also have video of that which I'll upload to YouTube as well. That night we hit up a club but that was kinda boring, there just wasn't many people there. Monday, we were going to go home, but went to a PCbang to look up to see if there was anything else to do, and we decided to check out a Buddhist temple which was AMAZING because Monday was Buddha's birthday and they had the lantern festival. I can't really explain how awesome it was, but I have some pictures that will be much better at explaining it in my Pusan facebook picture album. (which is: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2074189&l=d6a70&id=15201480)
After we went to another town that was supposed to be an awesome college town, but it was such a disappointment. It was totally dead, and we ended up staying up all night looking for something to do, and ended up playing Halo 3. We took the 6:30am bus back to Seoul and got back around noon. I do want to go back to Pusan, but I need to thoroughly research Pusan's nightlife before going out at night again.

And I think that's about it for this post. Except for one more thing I guess. If you don't know, it's my birthday today (May 14th) and it was actually great here in Korea! So many people wished me a happy birthday, my Korean class drew me a huge birthday card before I got to class today, and I went out with a bunch of friends for food, and later we ate an AMAZING cake that mom and dad sent me along with some flowers. It was really cool. I love you Mom and Dad, thank you so much! I'm going to have a joint birthday party with my friend Dawn (her bday is the 22nd) on Saturday, so I'll let you know how that goes, but I think it'll be a blast.

Love you guys, and I can't wait to come home.

-tk

P.S. I was reminded by Hannah that I didn't answer the questions I said I'd answer. lol. Sorry, but here are my answers:

DID I PASS MY MIDTERMS IN KOREA?

I passed Psych but failed Korean miserably. I actually drew dinosaurs on my Korean exam because I couldn't figure out the question and I thought that would be a fun thing for my teacher to find.

IS IT TRUE THAT I HAVE A GIRLFRIEND, AND THAT THIS GIRLFRIEND IS ACTUALLY THE RICK ROLL?

No. No girlfriend as of late. And I think Rick Astley would cheat on me.

IS IT TRUE THAT I HAVE BECOME AN INTERNATIONAL OVERNIGHT KOREAN POP SENSATION?

Soon. Just you wait, Korea.

WHY DOES PEPSI TASTE HORRIBLE IN THIS COUNTRY?????

I think it's the water they use, the Pepsi has like a cinnamon taste to it, and it's definitely weird. Coke is better anyway.