Dave in South Korea: May 2009

Hey Everyone,

I know it has been a long time since I have blogged, my apologies; I hope people are still checking. I have posted several pics from Jake's trip here which was amazing. It was so great to have him here and spend the time together. We definitely had a blast and have some great memories from Tokyo, to wonderful airport lounges, and hanging in Seoul. I am truly blessed to have such a great brother who treats me like gold. It was two of the best weeks ever. Unfortunately it has been so long since I have blogged that my memory is lacking details, but here are some of the highlights.

Tokyo was really cool. It is a lot more expensive than Korea though so I think we were ready to leave when we did. But the city was so clean and it was neat to see how people follow certain "social rules". Everyone waits for people to get off the train before getting on (which I was corrected on by a Japanese man the first time we rode, haha) and people stand on one side of the escalator and walk on the other. These rules are not so well followed in Korea. Anyways, was just a neat observation.

On our spare time, like after a long day of tourism, Jake and I would watch Arrested Development. He got me hooked on it. There is nothing better than hanging in a beautiful hotel in Tokyo (courtesy of your big brother) with that big brother while watching such a witty show. We also had many laughs over our hunt for protein. Some meals, we would order an egg and get one cracked in a bowl uncooked, ew. But, it was all part of the fun I guess.

Seeing the different parts of the city was really cool. I really enjoyed Yogori Park. People just go there and be who they are. We saw all different types of groups doing different activities like dances, games, juggling, and such. Also, eating sushi was awesome. We all really enjoyd that I think; it was so fresh and tasty. I put away quite a bit! Some of the most fun I had was doing karaoke. The place had such a great selection of songs and I was especially impressed with Jake's skills. We sung songs from way back in the day; it was good times. The joke was on us though because we spent 80 bucks for about 2 hours and it was all you can eat and drink but we found that out after the fact, oops! We drank four waters. Ah well, we had fun, at least that is what I keep reminding myself when I think about how much food I could have eaten. But, the trip to Japan was awesome. Lastly, another really neat thing was going to a shrine in the center of the city. It is just interesting that there in one of the busiest cities of the world with buildings all around there was a Buddhist Temple.

For the last few days in Korea we just hung out. Jake did some exploring while I was in school so he can tell you about that. The last two nights, we stayed an amazing hotel. It was so nice to relax there. They had a beautiful gym and we really enjoyed the area. Thanks to our wonderful mother and grandparents, we enjoyed probably one of the best breakfast buffets ever two days in a row. It was quite expensive, but boy did we get the money's worth. I had steak, eggs, omelets, frsh fruit, baked good, fresh fruit juice, coffee, chicken, waffles, pancakes and the last goes on. All the food I have been craving was there so I feasted haha. The first day I think we ate enough to feed a family of 6. Needless to say, we enjoyed that.

Then my big brother left. I was sad to see him leave but was really happy that I got two weeks with him here. So those were our adventures in a nutshell. Since then, not too much exciting to report. Still working out a lot, playing baseball and basketball, and just enjoying my little vacation. I went to Membership Training this past weekend with my baseball club but I will blog more about that in a few days. I have to study a bit now and go to sleep. Miss you all a lot and I will blog more regularly again. I am trying to get that attitude I had when I first got here back of really taking everything in and appreciating things; I think I lost it along the way some where. Anyways, keep the emails coming.