Sunday, June 26, 2011

Weekend Wrap-Up - (Korea) Days 208 & 209


The sign outside our barracks fell victim to the monsoon and the
strong winds that came along with it.

Saturday: I woke up about 0800 and video chatted with my wife while eating breakfast, but unlike most Saturdays I changed it up a little. I headed off at 0900 and played basketball with the ROK soldier in our sister office. He and some of his fellow ROK soldiers play on Saturday mornings and he asked if I wanted to join. We ended up playing 3 on 3 and I got a pretty good workout.

I then headed back to my room and did laundry while video chatting some more with my wife. I then had to work on a paper for school. Saturday afternoons give me a lot of time to catch up on any schoolwork. I then did some SkillPorts from my room and spent the rest of the night watching the rest of the "Game of Thrones" that I have. I need to get the rest of the shows…and soon!!!

I was planning on going to a Korean soccer game, but the weather just sucked outside. I guess we're in full monsoon season now and the rain was just beating against my window. Makes it just one of those days you want to just hang out inside and watch TV…and that's what I did. I found out later that the stadium had covered seating, but I guess I just wasn't in the mood.

Sunday: I woke up around 0800 and video chatted with my wife once again. I then cleaned my room pretty well. It's been neglected lately, so I took a little time and cleaned up everything including a good sweep and mop.

The young hawaiian gave me a call and asked if I wanted to try out a free poker tournament at a local casino. We met up for lunch at the food court and then took off to Paradise Walker-Hill Casino. The nice thing about Seoul is that the subway system can get you pretty much anywhere…and cheap. We took the subway to a stop near the casino for less than a dollar and then rode a free shuttle to the casino.

The tournament had about 50 people counting the late starters. The cool thing is that it was totally free to play. I had never played with strangers before, so I was nervous as hell playing. I played very conservatively, only placing bets when I had a pretty good hand. It took a while before I started feeling a little more comfortable. I think a couple more Sundays and I may feel normal playing with these guys and girls. The top 5 in the tournament win $100 and then have to use that money at the real poker tables for at least an hour before they can leave. The young hawaiian was pretty aggressive and ended up getting knocked out early. I hung around until about 13th place. My stack was getting short so as soon as I got a decent hand I went all in. When I had the big blind I decided to go for it with a Queen and 7 of hearts. Not exactly what I was waiting for, but I didn't have much time either way. The one person that called me beat me with an ace high. It was fun while it lasted and it didn't cost me anything. Maybe I'll have better luck next time.

We left and had dinner at a Korean soup restaurant. I had Ox tail dumpling soup and they had some of the best kimchi I've had so far in Korea. We headed back and each went to our separate rooms. I did some schoolwork and then was planning to go to sleep when I got a call from SPC Roy. Turns out he's doing a side job for his uncle translating a number of power point slides, but it's taking him a lot longer than expected. He asked if I could go to his office here on post just to keep him company. He doesn't ever like to be alone…ever. He always does stuff for me, so I couldn't say no. I took my laptop and watched a couple shows at the desk next to him while he worked. I thought translating would be pretty easy, but he would come across a lot of phrases that he couldn't just translate literally because it really wouldn't make sense. I got asked a lot "How would you say this or that?…or What do you call this or that?" Turns out it's a bit harder than I thought it would be.

We ended up calling it a night and I went to sleep around midnight…quite a bit past my normal bedtime.

People watching on the subway...these two were sleeping and I was wondering
if they were going to miss their stop or not???

More people watching on the subway...or footwear watching. Korean girls like their
high heels. What you see here is a pair of high heeled rain boots!




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