Good News: Al Got Photo-Happy

You almost got this blog a week ago. Why?

Well, turns out that with my new schedule Mondays and Fridays are horrible evil days full of misery and pain. All hope disappears in a cloud of despair.

But Wednesdays I have a wicked long break.

If that weren't enough of an inspiration, I also picked up a new camera. Top it off with an old friend's blog inspiring me to be a better writer, and the only thing I was missing was the time to actually write the damn thing.

Lucky for you all, it also turns out she (the old friend) also writes blogs that don't equal the length of a short novel. Viola.

Well, I gave it a shot. But I kept thinking of more and more things to include, and now look what happened... oh well. Onward and upward.

This is our new toothpaste. As you can see, this particular brand is Anti-Calculus. I bought it for this reason, since I also am Anti-Calculus. But we have some differences. The toothpaste takes a much softer stance on Calculus. It's willing to settle for economic sanctions, with the understanding that it will eventually withdraw from the areas of middle school and lower high school. But no timetable. And I'm like 'What the hell?' Mathematics has already proven itself to be evil. Calculus is one of the most evil expressions of an already evil group. I will not settle for less than a total and immediate withdrawal. English and Science classes are too permissive, meanwhile P.E. and Music are paying the price for their apathy. It's sick. Just freakin sick. I know I'm in the minority, but if it were up to me, I'd go straight for it's total annihilation. We can beat around the bush, but in the end it just has to be done.

Jen's not a huge fan of the picture, by the way. But if you all don't realize how absolutely beautiful she is, a better picture of her holding toothpaste won't cure your blindness/bad taste.


So this was funny:
Sometimes I think we should be paying more attention to which folks we let leave the country. They're making us look bad. Recently Jen was walking with a group of the foreign teachers, and one was commenting on how he didn't understand how Koreans don't pay attention to whats going on around them. He went on to hypothesize that perhaps the shape of their eyes limits their peripheral vision.

You can't make this stuff up. You really can't.

Jen's reply was misunderstood, but for the best. He admits, 'jokingly', to being an Asiaist (As in prejudice against Asians). I won't share what I think.

So as you gathered from the last post, Daisii made it safely to South Korea. She and Jen have been running around and having a blast, and as you can see the travel didn't change much. I confess that I have joined them on a misadventure or two. But thanks to the magic of torrents, I also now have a couple hundred old Super Nintendo games on Jen's old laptop. So when the estrogen reaches dangerous levels I have a safe haven. ::phew::







Church is still good. I can't help but getting a little excited when I hear the pastor speak. The cynical part of me supposes that it has to do with the fact that I don't really know him. I still don't have pics of the place, but I'll get them up soon. Cool side note: They have the coolest chairs ever. I confess that I have been distracted by them during service. But seriously, is anyone surprised?









Hey, let's meet some new people!
Sarah and Rob come to us from Canada, a little north of Maine. I didn't know anything lived up there.
Correction: I didn't know anyone would live up there. I thought we had the technology to move away from places like that. They showed up together, but just as friends. Imagine their surprise when they found out they would be living together!
Sounds like they should get a sitcom so we can follow all their wacky hijinks. But they get NOTHING. You're already reading my blog. No backs-ies.



Anyway, here's Sarah with Mark:
















And here's Rob with Jessica. (Seems only fair.)














Wednesday we did a big golbi (Korean BBQ, remember?) night. Plus (our job) paid. I ate too much. Here's some pics.




This is the restaurant. It was a nice place, so I took a picture.

This is Chris and Sophie. Both very cool people. Chris is a sub, Sophie is his girlfriend. She cooks a mean batch of golbi.



This is Mr. Yea. (I have no clue how it's spelled.) He's the general manager for our branch of Plus. Very nice guy, but his English isn't the best.



And here's Jen and I with Moon and Angelica, a few of the Korean teachers. Good times were had by all.


One more picture of Angelica. She's one of the only teachers than doesn't avoid the camera. Which is good, since we had a camera.

Thanks for your comments, by the way. Jen and I love reading them. I've now got it set so that any comments you leave get emailed to me so I can get them quicker. It just makes us happy. So thanks again.

And to reply, yes, I have lost 25lbs and counting. I know a lot of you have been wondering how. Well, here's my secret.

First, spend a few years eating fast food, and drinking too much Coke. Make sure you avoid any serious exercise, and only walk from the front door to the car door. Then move to a country where most of the main dishes are something you don't like (seafood, in my case), be forced to walk everywhere, and strap on 10 or so pounds of stuff in a backpack wherever you go. Just to make sure, though, Korea has no concept of what a "large" is. The biggest cup they offer at McDonalds is about the size of a medium back home. All that, and suddenly you've dropped some poundage.

Seriously though, I feel great. I'm liking the way I look, and I have more energy than ever. I am drinking a LOT more water too. The Korean food is just healthier. But McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts are starting to get big out here, so watch out my skinny Korean friends. Your obesity epidemic is right around the corner...

Ok, I'm going to wrap this one up. I've got 15 other things to share, but I want to get this one up and out. For grins and giggles, I'm going to leave you with 2 pics. The first one is at one of my going away parties, the other is another recent shot.




Ok, one more. Since I'm getting a little cocky, here's an embarrassing photo of my buddy Sam and I. We shaved our heads earlier tonight, and tried to take a picture. It didn't come out as cool as we hoped.




Much love,
Al and Jen