2012 Trip to America

Jeong Mi and I got home for the first time in two years during the last week of June and first week of July. It was well worth the wait, too. We packed as much as we absolutely could into the time, including new sites for Jeong Mi and meeting family and friends.

First and foremost, if you're traveling all the way to America or Canada, get ready to spend. Even by avoiding a direct flight, you're still digging deep into your pockets for the ticket price. And in an attempt to save some money, we had to go through more transfers than we would have liked.

The Plane Ride to America

Let me start by saying we had really good fortune with flights both home and back to Korea. We ran into zero delays, had smooth flights and had no luggage issues. Since we knew we would be in Franklin at Mom and Dad's place every three or four days, we only had to pack enough clothes for that. With that in mind, we decided against checking luggage. Wow. If you get a chance to go that route, snatch it up. It saved us a ton of time and headaches.

To get home, we went through Tokyo, then Chicago and then to New York City. It wasn't ideal, but again, all went pretty smoothly.

New York City

New York, for a first time visitor, is everything is seems in movies. It's big, exciting, busy, dirty, smelly and hot (in the summer). Some of it is great. Some of it adds character. Some of it is disgusting. But I suppose it's that way with any big city. And since I've been to NYC quite a few times, a lot of the charm has gone away. But it was great to take Jeong Mi around for her first time.

As far as big touristy things, we went to the top of the Empire State Building, rode the Staten Island Ferry past the Statue of Liberty, went to Coney Island and walked through Times Square and Central Park.

Because my brother lives in Astoria, we also got some of the local flavor. We also got to hang with some of my buddies from Pitt. It was great to see everyone again and hang out.

Franklin, PA and Pittsburgh

Franklin, about 90 miles north of Pittsburgh, is a town stuck in time. And I mean that as a compliment. There are about 6,000 people, a beautiful small downtown main street, mountains, trees and rivers. It's an incredible area of the country.

We took the time at home to relax as much as possible. We took in the small shops, coffee places and restaurants, but we also just rested.

The Wednesday after we got home, we headed to a neighboring city -- Sharon, PA -- so we could have dinner with some Uncles and Aunts. While there, we got to see my grandparents, have a nice Italian meal and go to a Bike Night. Bike Nights are obviously a rare attraction in Korea. So to head to Quaker Steak and Lube to see all the motorcycles and the ... let's just say style ... of the people, was a ton of fun.

On Thursday, we made our way down to Pittsburgh to see some of my best friends. In the past, we took advantage of Thursday to go to 80s Night at my favorite bar. But I guess time has a big effect on everybody. No one was really up for the late night at 80s Night. Such is life.

But we still got to hang out and play some darts with good friends.

On Saturday, we had a big party at our place. June 26 is both our anniversary and my birthday. This is one year for us. So Mom and Dad hosted a big open house party. A ton of family and friends came to celebrate with us. It was great -- especially after two years -- to see as many family and friends as possible, all in one place. We're so grateful to everyone who came in to see us and wish us well.

Niagara Falls

The very next day, our adventure continued. We headed up through Erie to my sister's church. We saw her run the show and then jumped in the car for the quick ride up to Niagara Falls.

Niagara Falls truly is one of the natural wonders of the world. It's a beautiful site, and worth seeing at least once in your life. I'm fortunate to have grown up in an area that is about three hours from the falls, so I've been there a ton of times. Once again, this was a first trip to the Falls for Jeong Mi.

We had it coincidentally timed that we were in Niagara Falls on Canada Day. So a place that is normally a zoo, was ten times so. But we did all the fun stuff, and even stayed in a hotel on Clifton Hill -- one of the main tourist strips.

We rode the Maid of the Mist and did the Journey Behind the Falls. In the evening, we got some poutine (I know it's Niagara Falls poutine, but it was still great) and hit up and Karaoke bar that was literally touching our hotel. I put my name in the hat, and we waited for about an hour. But I was just too tired. They hadn't called mu name by then, so it was time for bed.

The next day, we drove by the Falls once more and made our way back toward Franklin.

Back to the 'Burgh

We headed back down to Franklin for a day of rest. And on Tuesday, it was back to Pittsburgh for a Pirates baseball game. We went down a little bit early and showed Jeong Mi the University of Pittsburgh, where I went to school. While it's just a university, it's unique in that it has the second tallest education building in the world (tallest in the Western hemisphere). The Cathedral of Learning is 36 stories and houses various classrooms and department offices.

We went to one of the local college bars and had some pizza fries and super tasty and inexpensive beer. I mean -- seriously -- $6 for an entire pitcher of Yeungling. That is absolutely awesome.

Fourth of July

I think Jeong Mi has been in America for the Fourth of July, but she was on the west coast. This was her first time to experience in a small town. We grilled up some buffalo burgers (which we bought from a buffale farm on the way home from the falls) and had a lot of good food for a barbecue. We then crossed the street from our house and sat by the river to watch the fireworks, before lighting some sparklers and tanks in the backyard.

Playing on the Lake

On Thursday, some family friends invited us to a place nearby called Conneaut Lake, where we could do some boating, jet skiing and just some hanging out. It was a lot of fun, and a great way to start winding out trip down.

Last Night in Franklin

That Friday would be our last night in my hometown. We met one more time with a great friend of mind, and just relaxed. It was a fitting last day to our trip.

Flying Back to Incheon

On Saturday, we got on a plane at 6 a.m. and left for South Korea. Fortunately, we only had to transfer once in San Francisco. It was a piece of cake. When we got back in, we crashed for the evening. I got up late and spent a few hours at LB doing some budget work. It was then back to work and normal life on Monday.

Wonderful Trip

There were really no bad issues, or even stress, with our trip this time around. We saw a lot of great sites, saw family and friends and had a super fun time.

We were fortunate to have our good friend, MOB, run the bar while we gone. Even though the kitchen was closed, MOB served drinks and hosted the usual weekly events. From what we've seen and heard, all went well while we gone.

Knowing he can run the show with no problem gives us hope for a few more weekend-type vacations in the future.

What a great trip! Thank you to everyone!!! We love you guys -- both in Korea and America!!!

Check out all our pictures:

America Trip 1

America Trip 2

America Trip 3

April and May Happenings

I wouldn't go as far to say that being busy is the reason I haven't updated this in awhile. It's more or less that I don't really want this blog to be just a big, dumb ad for Liquor Burger. Making things difficult is that even the events we do now happen mostly through LB.

Back in April, we took 40 people to a Strawberry Festival in Yangpyeong. It was really a great time. We rented a bus and took an LB crew. We made strawberry bread, picked strawberries, ate some bibimbap, rode a tractor, made some rice cake and drank some maggulli.

It was a lot of fun to see what a strawberry farm is like in Korea. Because of the weather here, they raise the strawberries in greenhouse-like tents. I guess I'm not sure how they raise them in America. I just always pictured an open field. I suppose anywhere without a perfect climate would need something this, though.

Keeping with the theme of LB events, we took about 40 people to an Incheon SK Wyverns baseball game in May. With the summer here, we wanted to do more for the Yeonsudong crowd to make they get some cool experiences in Korea. While many of them have been to baseball games before, very few of them sat right down in the reserved seat fan zone.

So we booked tickets for all our buddies, made LB/Wyverns t-shirts and went and had a great time. Fortunately for us, Incheon won. There were even fireworks!!!

We did actually take a day off and go do something by ourselves! At the end of May, everyone had Monday off from work. We decided to close the bar on Monday as well and head to Gangwondo and Seokcho on the east coast. Over there, we headed to Seorak Mountain.

Everyone in Korea knows Seorak mountain. As far as this country goes, the east coast is my absolute favorite part. It's all countryside. There are mountains, rivers, trees and clean air. It's really incredible.

So we went hiking all day on Sunday, and then just hung around the east coast on Monday, when the weather didn't cooperate as well. It was an incredible time to just be by ourselves and get away from the city, the bar and school for a couple of days.

Everything at Hambak has gone really well through the first semester. I really like my co-teachers. We don't work directly with each other on normal days. But they're very professional. We discuss everything. They don't give me late info (unless it's late because of another source). The students all know me and we have a nice vibe in our classes. It's still a really pleasant work environment, and I'm happy to still be a member of the staff there.

On the side, I'm still teaching Mr. Kim's son for two hours a week. We even added one of his buddies now, as well. It's great to have a second student in the class. One-on-one can be tough unless the student's level is incredibly high. Now that he has a friend there, he is a little more comfortable and is quicker to answer questions. It also makes game a ton more fun.

While I am tired and do get a little stressed from all the odd hours, I'm very comfortable over here professionally right now. Outside of bar business, Jeong Mi and I don't even have the smallest squabbles. And we understand that when we fight about the bar, it's business-only. I'm sure there would be tension with any business partner. Things are obviously kicked up a notch when the person is your spouse.

As the end of June approaches, we have a couple of big things happening. One is our one-year anniversary. It's on June 26 (same day as my birthday, of course). The great news is that we'll be in America for the anniversary. We'll be home for the last week of June and first week of July.

While we're gone, we'll have one of our Korean buddies and a couple of part-timers running the bar. We'll still do our usual events. This is a guy we totally trust, so we're fortunate to have him. Neither of us were really looking forward to just shutting down for two weeks.

I'm sure there area bunch of things I'm missing in this update, but that's the basic scoop of everything that is going on here.

The bar is open now, so I guess I'd better get to work! See you all in a couple of weeks!!!

Check out more of our pictures here:

Strawberry Festival

LB Wyverns Game

Seorak Mountain trip

Two Months Worth of Events and Fun

Wow. To say we've been busy lately would be the understatement of the year. During the last two months, we went to Jeong Mi's brother's wedding, saw Cats (the musical), held countless events (including St. Patty's Day) at Liquor Burger, went to two Wyverns games, one Incheon United game and even went to a Cat Cafe.

Pile on that the fact that I've been working at Hambak three days a week for the last month, as well as teaching a private lesson two days a week and teaching my Vice Principal's son every day for the last two months, and you can understand why it's been awhile since I've last posted.

Let's get the Liquor Burger stuff out of the way first. We've made some big changes to the bar, and everything has been going well. We previously had a long bar stretching along one of the walls. Well, it wasn't really being used. No one sat at it really, or even stood at it. So we decided to cut it out and move it across the room, next to the dart board. We were able to slide a table into the spot, and now have really opened up the bar. It would be nice to have a little more room (not a bad problem to have), but we're feeling comfy right now.

We also got two new beers on tap at the bar. The company's name is 7brau. They're the first Korean company to get a national brewing license in more than 70 years. At the time we got their Pilsener and IPA installed, we were only the third bar in Incheon (and one of only a handful in the whole country) that offered. It's a quality beer and has been a big hit with our friends and customers.

Trivia night has grown above and beyond what we ever expected. It's a very popular event which has inspired some fierce rivalries. Throw on various parties and events, and the bar is really having a good run right now. It's sad to see our old friends cycle out, but exciting to meet their replacements. Such is the life of an expat bar, I suppose.

In February, Jeong Mi's brother got married. We went to the wedding in Bupyeond, a neighborhood that is about a 20 minute subway ride away. The event hall was the same place I met her parents for the first time. So that was a nice memory.

In my typical style, it wouldn't be an event without me taking place. Jeong Mi's brother asked me if I wanted to sing the congratulations song. And I jumped on the chance. We had a CD made with just the music, but the key was very high. I fiddled with it online and brought it down. But when I gave it to the event organizer, he said not to worry and just sing with theirs. Well, I was worried, because I can't sing that high.

Well, it turns out that there were two violinists and one pianists there to play along. They just so happen to have known the tune I was to sing. It's a popular Korean wedding song. So I got to sing in front of a live band!!! It was really awesome. I'm glad I got to be a part of my brother-in-law's special wedding. It's just another example of how great her family is towards me.

Baseball preseason is underway, and soccer season is a few games in. We've already gone to two baseball games and one soccer game. The soccer team plays in a beautiful new stadium. The baseball team is in the same fun spot as before. We'll make a point of getting to as many of those as we can (just like we always have). It never gets old having a couple of beers outside while watching the games.

After one of the baseball games, we found our way to a Cat Cafe in the neighborhood. You pay 8,000 won for a cup of coffee, and get to hang out with about 20 cats. Needless to say, it's totally awesome.

Jeong Mi and I also went to see the musical Cats. It was my birthday gift to her. It was a lot of fun. All the songs were in Korean, but that didn't take away from it. Maybe it even added a bit to it, since it was like a brand new experience for me. Unfortunately, there are no pics from that day. But it was really great, and I'd love to make a habit out of seeing more musicals here.

That might catch you all up on the things we've been doing lately. Like I said, it's been busy. But that's better than boring, right?

There are a ton of pics for you guys to check out. See them all by clicking the links below.

Liquor Burger pics

Incheon Wyverns

Incheon United

Cat Cafe

Min Uk's Wedding

Enjoy all the pics, everyone! We miss you! We're going back to visit America in June. I'll get you the dates soon!!!