I eat my Ramen hot. With a side of naked.

Alright, I'm only posting because Heroes hasn't finished downloading yet. Korea has been getting on my nerves lately. I'm sure I'm partly to blame, but during the week here life is a lonely and isolated existence. There's just no meaningful connection taking place with anyone, especially at work. When I go out to the bars during the week, it's often a good time and it's also often with good people, but I'll be 25 next month and the whole drinking every night just doesn't work for me anymore. As much as I loved college, that's a time in my life that has now long since passed and it's just not a lifestyle that's all that appealing to me anymore. Most of all though, yeah, I just miss those simple connections with people. I saw two older Koreans guys sitting outside before, sipping on a beer, and just enjoying the interaction. There's just not enough of that here for a white guy, especially for one who knows about 3 words of Korean. It's kind of tough to explain to an audience that hasn't spent 8 months surrounding by millions of people who speak a different language, but that outsider feeling can take its toll and I've been feeling it lately. It's not that I want to leave Korea for good, but man, a week on American soil would be glorious. Just not glorious enough for $1700 and 16 hours on a plane.

Anyway, onto other crap. Sometimes I do wonder if Koreans were created by God just to drive me crazy. I went into the store today to buy new headphones for the third since I got here, after the other two broke. Great, only 4 bucks, i can handle that. Get back to work, open the box and the cord to the right earphone is about a foot longer than the left side. Back to the store. I lay the thing on the counter, the cashier seems to understand the problem, so I grab a different $4 set off the rack. I'm feeling more confident with this one because the genius Koreans who made the package were sure to include on the front "Good Design for Human!" That was huge, since I hate it when I pick up a pair of headphones and they are specifically designed for cat ears. Start walking back to work again, break the box open and same damn thing. One cord much longer than the other. At that point I chalked it up to Koreans being Korean, sucked it up and went back to work. Really, what could possibly be the rationale behind that? Are they trying to save a few cents by making the cord shorter? Do some Koreans have ears that are a couple of vertical feet away from each other?

Quick side note, how great was that Sopranos scene where Tony put the guys mouth on a table and then kicked him in the back of the head? That was just gruesome, and amazing. Anyway, as far as what Bender reports about my actions with the Canadian girl on Friday night, I will plead no contest to the facts. I am terrible. But going out with me in any situation, especially one including alcohol, comes with an inherent disclaimer, one that states that I will inevitably cause you at least some embarrassment through the course of the night. The extent of this embarrassment can range from reactions of "Wow, that was a little stupid" all the way to "Wow, there's no way I should be your friend" and the incident on Friday night falls closer to the latter. However, in my defense, the Canadian girl is a bitch. Bender also did get his revenge when he savagely beat me with a little Chinese doll over and over again, which caused minor internal bleeding.

On Saturday night, we went to the hip-hop club right around the block from me, it's was pretty much a I guess we have to check it out once since it's right there kind of thing. There was smoke everywhere, and man, I love smoke. But seriously, the horsehead got no attention. It was almost as if there had been a huge horsehead party at the place the night before and everyone just thought I was the loser who got the nights mixed up. So that was depressing. Damn it, the horse head demands attention. Later in the night, a Korean girl started yelling to her friend at the bar who was on the other side of me and Bender. She must have done this for a good five minutes. Either she didn't know the girl or she was trying to make me break a bottle over my head. The girls there were all pretty awful, i.e. they were very Korean.

I've been weak with the pictures lately, mainly because I hate my camera and well, all of Korea looks the same now. I plan on getting back on the photo train once my new beautiful camera gets here. We have off this Thursday for Buddha's Birthday, which is great, because Thursdays are the worst day of my life. Ah Heroes is ready and I need to get the ramen in the microwave.

Great Man of the Week: Buddha