Halfway Point

I'm so beat after doing roughly an hour of straight Noribong (karaoke), so I'll just do a quick update and do more tomorrow. But, as a sidenote, my friend and I got four straight scores of 100 and nothing lower than a 94 after, doing every song from "Never Gonna Give You Up" (the lead off song, obviously), to "Thriller." I have no voice left, but well worth it to impress the two chicks with us. The older woman who owned it gave us an additional 20 minutes extra after our initial shift was over, and then was going to give us free beers and another 20 minutes, but we were so exhausted we (or had the girls, who were Korean) politely decline the offer.

Today was an adventure: we went to Everland, the biggest amusement park in Korea I think, though it took us awhile to get there and we only had about 5 hours to enjoy it. I even went on a rollercoaster somehow. It's like the Korean Six Flags. We even made new friends: Jun, a stocky 12 year old who we met on line for the coaster, and Yung, a 20ish hipster with a hot girlfriend who said we made some type of "connection" on the coaster since we were both in each other's pictures. How do I attract only men? The streak continues.

I also finally had Domino's. I have been craving this for months, and they had one nearby, so I scarfed down a large pepperoni like it was my job. I'm gonna stop here. Tomorrow is likely bowling and then eating LIVE SQUID. That'll be interesting. Cheers.

UPDATE: Rest of Wednesday...the theme park was really cool. The lines were really long, but that's to be expected at a theme park and at 5pm, when it closes at 10pm. Over here, every girl wears heels too...no matter how old. The guys here dress oddly too: I saw a guy with a t-shirt and a bowtie and some crazy storm trooper boots. And apparently that's trendy! So glad I'm untrendy then. I went on the rollercoaster just to keep with my mantra of "No Regrets," but regretted it as soon as I dropped what appeared to be a million feet down. It's an all wood coaster too, so my friend saying things like "I hope this doesn't break when we're on it" didn't help at all. While on line, we met these precocious kids, one named Jun, the other was a skinny kid who kept touching and poking Jun. They looked like they were like 10 years old, tops. They kept looking at us, mainly because my friend bought these fake bunny ears that he was wearing on top of his head, but maybe because they thought, "Who the hell are these old guys?" After we left the park, we ended up seeing them leave, so we waved to Jun like a mom saying goodbye after sending her son to sleepaway camp. He waved back, wearing a huge cat's paw. It was quite a moment. I ended up buying these ridiculously expensive plush boxing gloves, with one being in pink because they didn't make blue left hands, for some odd reason. We came back, exhausted, but still went out for some drinks with these two girls my friend knows here. One was definitely into me, although she had a subpar face but a very nice body. I felt bad that I had to speak to them like a caveman ("Me tired"), but they didn't really grasp the English language all that well, even though they were Korean teachers teaching English (weird, I know).

Sidenote: I forgot to mention two days ago, we went back to "Times Square," except not to do anything sexual (though we were propositioned by what appeared to me a female pimp). We met up with my friend's friends at the batting cages. I did OK, it's been awhile since I have swung a bat, but I got it back after a bit. I also did a game where you determine your punch power; I ended up garnering the second best score of the night, right-handed no less. I tried to win a cool (fake) BMW lighter in the grab machine too; but unfortunately was unsuccessful. I was also able to drink a huge Korean 40 oz. (or whatever the non-metric equivalent is) in the streets, which was cool. I'll miss that when I go back. After all that, I kept coming back to this area in the middle of the street where you could break these boards for prizes. Like breaking wood in a karate competition, except it was these tiles. I'd say they were a little stronger than ceiling tiles. I saw all these guys doing it, I had to try it. I was a little nervous I'd break my hand, and didn't really want to check out a Korean hospital. But I saw these guys who looked less stronger than me doing it, even though they were using a lot of forearm and elbow. So, I tried to channel my inner Bruce Lee and focus all the power into my hand. Holding my breath, I jumped up and drove through like a hammer hitting a nail...and BOOM, they all break. All 10 of them. I was exstatic, feeling like I could take down the world. I won this stuffed toy coyote; ugly, yes, but still a decent toy for $5. My friend told me I should give it to one of the good-looking girls watching, so, feeling very Clooney-esque, I did. The only problem was, she spoke no English. So even after having one of my friend's friends try to talk to her, it didn't work. She apparently wanted to talk to me, but couldn't. She kept looking back as she walked away, but I did receive a handshake and two hugs. The guy in front of me, who was like Obi-Wan to my Luke in terms of telling me how to be victorious on board breaking, said I was "Casanova." Long story short, I broke another stack, though it was the same amount unfortunately, as I asked for more but was denied. I guess they were afraid I'd hurt myself and sue or something. My hand's a little sore, and my pinky's a little swollen, but all in all, a success.

We went to a bar after for a bit and some guy basically followed me into the bathroom as I went...he was like literally an inch away from me...so weird. Later, he was upset at us for speaking English in the bar, and everyone wanted to fight him, but he was supposedly "connected" so we walked away. It'd of been better for him anyway...there were four of us there, and one of him. Even in other countries, people just don't know how to have a good time.

Sidenote: Everyone here eats squid jerky like it's regular jerky. It's so disgusting. I tried it; it tastes like shit-flavored wax. Now it's off to live squid!