More Travel Channel

It's Friday morning, I'm at my desk, and I can hear my coworkers either milling about in their cubes or chatting amongst themselves. We've got students coming back to school on Monday, so the energy level in the office is ramping up a tad. A lot of my coworkers have been under the weather. I was feeling a little crappy too, but I'm muddling through. I took the day off on Wednesday and just laid on the sofa with no energy, enduring a headache and nausea. I'm better now, but still not quite right.

If you've read my blog from earlier in December, you might have read that my dream job is to be a guy like Anthony Bourdain, who's got a travel program (No Reservations) and goes from country to country and meets with locals, hangs out, and eats. What could be better? On Monday (New Year's Eve) , the Travel Channel had a "No Reservations" marathon. On Monday morning, I was still in my jammies, Goobs was enthralled with his new "V-Smile" educational game with the small TV we bought the kids and the Bun was busy hammering on something near me in the living room.

I flipped on the Travel Channel out of sheer habit, and there Bourdain was, somewhere in Seoul, in a Pojang Macha (a street tent/bar-eating establishment), eating ttak Dongjjip (chicken butt) and knocking back soju. He was being taken around Korea by a young woman by the name of Nari. Nari took him to a variety of different places...an arcade in what looked like Myongdong, various bars and eating establishments, and a noraebang (singing room) that was decked out in pink with stuffed animals around the place. The one real thing that stood out about the whole thing was that Bourdain was "blasted" almost the whole time. The soju never stopped flowing through the whole debacle. Nari even took him to a combination yontan (charcoal) factory/ natural sauna to sweat out the alcohol. Following the sweat, samgyupsal (pork) was served with the obligatory soju chaser-for breakfast no less. By the end of the program, I felt hung over and I was drinking orange juice and eating toast.

Korea, more specifically Seoul, holds such an important place in my heart. It's where I had a pivotal change in my life...where I grew up...where I believe I learned to be a man. The funny thing about my personal transformation is that Seoul is where I first learned how to live life without alcohol. Odd, since alcohol seems to be such an important part of developing personal relationships with friends and coworkers. Maybe that held me back from becoming closer to some folks there...Koreans have a word (Jung) which kind of translates to "deep bonding." Perhaps I missed out by not sharing the experience with getting drunk with a group. I know that some folks off on official occasions when asked to drink and I refused. I did come up with the story that I had an allergy to alcohol...which is definitely true. I think some of them felt sorry for me that I couldn't fully dive into deep bonding with them. I think I'm a better man for it...even though I lost out on a little "jung." I've climbed mountains, sipped tea in peaceful settings, smoked cigars on rooftops, been obnoxious in noraebangs, played soccer, skated, cooked, ate...and always had a hell of a lot of fun. I can remember all of it...and I never puked during any of those experiences. I hope that Anthony Bordain got to see and do some of the cool things that I had the pleasure of taking part in.