Alrighty then, so Jeff and I are back in the thriving metropolis of Seoul, though we are only here for the night, and then the Japanese adventure commences tomorrow, as we fly from Seoul to Tokyo in the morning. We will be in Japan until Friday, and then come back to Seoul, where we will then proceed down to Daegu, the town Jeff's aunt and cousins live in.

I actually have unlimited time on a computer here at our motel outside Gimpo airport in Seoul, but the internet connection is absolutely teeeeerrrrible...so downloading the driver I need for my camera to get the pictures off of it ain't gonna happen. Plus, now that I have about 350-400 pictures on my memory card...well that could take some time to take a swim through.

Today was pretty cool, as we spent the morning chilling at our incredibly posh and oontzy hotel, pimping it at the beach, and enjoying a nice morning swim in the East Sea (many maps refer to it as the Sea of Japan). We then had some shabu-shabu for lunch (extremely thin slices of beef put in a pot of boiling broth with vegetables), and now not only do I know the words for the food items; I can actually read the menu in Hangul and not need the English tranliteration! Brilliant!

Korea has been a total blast, and I am very much looking forward to Tokyo, where we will be at the mercy of the Nipponese (we've been on a tour the whole time thus far, and had Jeff's cousin to guide us elsewhere), and surrounded by a video game and anime overload. Joseph, hopefully I can find some genius anime contrivance worthy of my trip halfway around the globe (I'll try to scour for some cool Ghost in the Shell crap if I can find it, cuz frankly I want some too).

One kind of idiotic thing that befell us today, was that Jeff got yelled at for not having a swim cap when he jumped in the hotel pool, which we didn't really understand. The custom here when you are swimming in a chlorinated body of water is to wear something to cover your hair, as the chlorine damages the hair, and they don't want hair and oils from your head getting into the pool. Also, all the men wear speedos, and you receive inquisitive looks for wearing shorts or trunks. Of course, perplexed gawking of that nature doesn't really trouble me much, as I am already a stark contrast to what the Korean people are used to seeing.

One other bit of idiocy that I somewhat expected, but was not prepared to understand the full magnitude of, was the Korean obsession with Starcraft. In fact, obsession is not a strong enough term. Life-dominating infatuation might be more apt. We had the TV turned on to a Korean station and saw what appeared to be a rock concert, with thousands and thousands of people in a field near an elaborate stage setup, holding signs and other familiar concert ilk. What I didn't expect to see, was the spectacle the crowd was watching...two tool looking dudes playing Starcraft...and that was it. It was apparently a final (team Samsung won, yeah, the Starcraft teams have corporate sponsors) and when the dude won, his "victory toast" was comprised of lifting a large water bottle above his head and emptying the contents onto himself in an elated, celebratory manner. I definitely had a good laugh at that sight.

Okay, good gosh I have to get up tomorrow at about 5 AM for my flight, so I'd best end my post and get some sleepy mctired-rest. Hope everybody back home is doing well, and hopefully I can write while I'm in Tokyo. Otherwise, I should have plenty of time to post when I get back to Korea and am in Daegu. Alright, Lacey, out.