Where Are You Spring?

Hi all,

As you can guess by the title, or even by looking at the little weather tool I have on the side of the blog, the weather here hasn't quite reached or maintained the normal, comfortable levels that I've been used to.  Slowly but surely we're getting there, although the weather dropped down over the weekend, today was warmer and tomorrow (fingers crossed) the forecast is for a high of 71 F, which would be amazing.  Good enough for me to check out the rooftop garden on my building and get some quality tennis in.  Speaking of which, last Thursday Alex Mory and I played tennis against the same Korean Army guys that we usually play against in Bugok (where Alex lives, roughly 10 min from me on the subway).  Afterwards, they wanted to take us for dinner, which we went to, and then afterwards they took us to the basement of this building, which was home to an underground ping pong society.  We played a few games ( I was extremely rusty), but I thought it was great, the place seemed right out of a movie.  In other news, not too much excitement over the weekend.  Friday night I hung out with some friends in Suwon.  The birthday plans for Alex (Samel) on Saturday had to be postponed due to some food poisoning, courtesy of some oysters, that hit both Dave and Alex.  So, instead of celebrating with them, we decided to celebrate in honor of them.  Saturday afternoon we met up in Hongdae, which if I haven't mentioned it before, is a university area in west Seoul, that is very artsy and has an Uptown or State St. (in Madison) feel to it.  Lots of cool little boutiques and vintage places and coffee shops/cafes/restaurants galore.  We partook in all the aforementioned and had a delicious dinner before the real night events began.  In short, it was a great night and great weekend overall and there was plenty of noraebang.  My highlights were "Maggie May," "Under Pressure," "More Than a Feeling," and "Back in the USSR."  Yesterday I got to catch some NHL playoff action, as well as NBA playoffs via the Slingbox, which was nice.

Today, I bought my ticket to the World DJ Fest, which is happening in Seoul on May 8th.  It sounds pretty interesting and is an all day and night affair, which should be a lot of fun.  There is also a summer music festival here at the end of July called the Jisan Valley Rock Festival.  The full lineup hasn't been released yet, but it's basically Korea's Bonnaroo or Lollapalooza.  The headliners are Muse, Massive Attack, and Belle and Sebastian (very excited to see).  While the lineup isn't as strong as the other festivals I've been to in the past, I think it will still be fun, so hopefully I end up going.  I also want to catch a Korean baseball game soon, I'm definitely missing some live baseball, can't wait to go to Target Field when I'm home, which brings me to my last point.  I'm tentatively looking at being home in North America for most of the first three weeks in August.  I'll obviously let everyone know the exact dates when I get them, but that's the plan for now and I am definitley planning on heading to Toronto (and possibly Madison) when I'm home.

Top 5 things I'm currently craving:
1.  Lox and cream cheese with capers on an everything bagel
There is sashimi-grade salmon in Korea, but it isn't even comparable to good gravalox (I hope you're taking notes Mom, I guarantee I'll still be craving these things in 4 months).
2.  Pastrami on rye with good dill pickles and brown mustard
No real delis in Korea (maybe I'll change that...).
3.  Chipotle burrito
4.  Punch pizza (sad, but true)
5.  Trader Joe's
Definitely going to make a trip there when I get home, probably just straight from the airport.  But, last summer I basically lived off their food.  It's sooooooo good.

Ok, that's all from here.

What I'm listening to: "Sometimes" by Rhett Miller

Links:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFcVlQPx11w

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O4GagrfqO8

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeFlPxMTP24