More Houskeeping Clutter

originally posted on 9/8/07

Well, it's now been too long since I've written or posted anything, so it's time to throw out some random mini-stories about Thailand, travel, and things that annoy me. Maybe I'll elaborate on some of this with a longer, proper post at some point, but it's likely that I'm far too lazy to ever do that.

On Thailand, briefly - it kicks ass. No surprise here. The weather is worse than Florida, but what do you want? Also not surprising - I had a beer or two while there. I stayed near Khao San Road, Bangkok's backpacker paradise/ghetto, depending on your perspective and current level of drunkenness. In fact, I will expand on this in a later post: backpackers, Khao San Road, and that sort of thing. I have a lot to say on that. Oh, and Bangkok's new airport. I'll write an extended post on that too, though the only people who will read that will be airport nerds like myself, aka Wiley, who never reads this anyway. I don't care. I'm doing it. Anyway, unlike the Hong Kong trip, I was quite social this time around. In fact, at various Khao San bars, I hung out with and drank with, over various nights, Thais, Canadians, Brits, Irish girls, a Pole, a Dutch woman, a Croat, Italians, a French couple, a girl that goes to Yale, and, on the last night, a Korean. I went to wats (temples), crazy markets, spent at least an hour every day in a taxi (traffic sucks, takes an hour to get downtown, but only costs like $3) and ate maybe 6 times a day because the food was so fucking awesome. Oh, and drank tons of orange juice. A half liter bottle of OJ costs like 40 cents, and it's the best fucking orange juice I've ever had in my life. I miss it already. and of course, I saw weird shit aplenty, not the least of which was a baby elephant walking around with some guy at 11 pm right in the heart of downtown Bangkok, though unfortunately I never did find the ping pong show. That would have ruled.

One quick story from the Khao San bars - I was walking from my hotel to the main Khao San bar area (a 10 minute walk) and it started to rain, and then to pour, so I immediately ducked into the first bar I saw. I sat drinking my large Beer Chang, and a dog came into the bar to get out of the rain and laid down under my table, unnoticed by the staff. He didn't bother me of course, he didn't beg for beer or anything, just slept, so I let him stay. When I ordered another beer a few minutes later, the waiter (waiter seems like the wrong term here, you think cheesy vest and bow tie. I don't mean waiter so much as the guy that gets you your beer. Barmaid would work if it was a female, but i don't know what the term is here for a dude) noticed the dog and yelled at him in Thai (for some reason, I never get over the whole dogs understanding different languages thing. I know it's only sensible, but its disconcerting to think that there are non-dinner dogs walking around Korea that understand more Korean than I do). Anyway, the dog got up and limped toward the exit, holding up one of his back legs and hopping around on three legs. People at the bar were taken, pitying the injured dog, asking the bar-dude to let the dog stay. "No, dog is fake!" he said. "Watch." I looked out the window to the rainy streetscape and watched the dog trotting along naturally, looking, as I soon would be, for his next bar. I have to say, I was impressed, I've never seen a dog fake an injury before.

Next subject - soccer. look, I would personally adopt the metric system and British spelling is soccer would just go away. Don't get me wrong, the game has its merits, and I love the World Cup, but it's a vastly inferior game to football, basketball, baseball, even hockey. Yet, no matter where you travel in the world, it's on TV, and probably at least 80% of the time, it's English Premier League. Do Brits really travel that much more than Americans? Why aren't there more satellite NFL games? I know that everybody outside the states gets soccer and doesn't understand football, but does everyone care about the EPL? You'd think that soccer-crazy Aussies or Italians or Mexicans wouldn't give a shit about seeing English soccer despite liking the game, just like i don't give a damn about the CFL or NFL Europe. Even Itaewon here in Seoul, the foreigner neighborhood makes no sense on this level. North American English teachers easily outnumber European or Australasian English teachers, plus the U.S. is the only western country with a military presence here. It's safe to say that at least 70% of the foreigners at Itaewon bars are American or Canadian. Still, the only option for watching football is the Monday Night game on Tuesday night, which is like the stupidest night of the week to go out. However, if I were, say, a Liverpool or Chelsea fan, I could probably see ever one of their games at one Itaewon bar or another.

Next up - girls. Always a good topic, I guess. Remember when I said I had 5 different girls of varying degrees of interest? Well, that's been passe for a pretty long time. Somehow, I've become a bum again. The girl i was really into doesn't work at my school anymore, and I've kinda lost touch with her. And kinda lost touch is my artful way of saying she doesn't return my calls. The crazy girl, well, that's all kinds of passe. But sometimes i miss her. She was certainly never boring. As for the other three, I don't even remember who they are at this point, I'd have to look at my notes. But there's a bartender girl I like, and that's not going anywhere. there's a new girl at work, but she's basically so ridiculously hot there's little point in making any effort. I mean, I work with her, and if she asks something mundane like if I know where the level 7 B attendance class folder is, I'm like, why are you talking to me, you're too hot. So there's been little happening in the girl tip for awhile, and by little, i mean that there is nobody in the country of Korea or likely the Asian continent that knows more about fantasy football than me. Plus, I've been on a severe budget for awhile due to the new computer, the Thailand trip, and now my impending (and booked!) trip to Tokyo in two weeks. When I get into severe budget mode, the blinders can be pretty absolute.

Last night, I did have a bit of a revelation on the budget issue. No, not the usual revelation that I have some $40,000 worth of credit cards, that's always a bad revelation. But, sometimes I forget, I do in fact live in a very foreign and different country than my own, and I can't just sit around doing nothing for the sake of saving money. Last night, on a night I wasn't feeling my oats (due to a long night out Thursday with co-workers) I ended up in a situation almost reminiscent of my mountain club dinner way back when. After hanging out with don at Noblock, and planning to leave early when Don left at midnight, I ended up sticking around the bar and finding myself in a strange Korean experience. One of my bosses, Hanbok, was at Noblock as well, and he had to work the next morning, so I couldn't possibly go home at midnight if he was still out at the bar, it would just be bad form. Anyway, so I end up meeting a couple of girls, then going with them and Hanbok (and later a buddy of Hanbok's and a Noblock bartender and some dude in a pink shirt and suspenders) to a nearby Chinese restaurant at 3 a.m. to eat dim sum and drink soju. So, like, 80% of the conversation is in Korean, as I'm with 6 Koreans, and we were eating Chinese and Korean food and drinking only soju (no water, no beer, only shots of soju to wash down the soup and kimchi and pork) and finally, I'm glad to be out and not sitting at home watching Lost, as was the original plan. My soju drinking prowess even caused the Noblock bartender to declare that I was Korean, or at least must be part Korean, which is generally the highest complement that can be bestowed upon a whitey such as myself under such circumstances. As for the girls - I got both of their numbers, have some sort of vague plans to meet up with both of them later, and it looked as if though something would happen with one until the literal last minute. Yet, I'm still 97% more interested in the bartender girl and the girl that left my school. I should be shot.

Finally, on the subject of dates and dating. My buddy Don cracks me up with this one. He always talks about his string of bad dates, and how he has a date this weekend and that weekend. Maybe it's just terminology, but I've really never done dates, nor have my friends back home. My last "date," I would say, was in September of 1999, with this girl that was a regular at my Kwik Shop. That, or maybe 2003, as I technically had a date to erEika's wedding. my buddy D, who was long known for getting more ass than the toilet seat in a Tijuana cathouse, has long said that he's never been on a "date." to me, date seems like something that involves going to the drive-in or the malt shop, something that happened a generation ago. Then again, I don't think I've been involved with a girl whose last name i knew since the Clinton administration, so I'm far from an authority on the subject.