Sat Dec 12

After a long night/morning woke up around 1:30. Evan, Max, and I made our usual weekend feast of eggs and toast and an episode of Seinfeld. Recuperated and talked about the night we just had and laughed about the fake phone number I received and how much dancing we did. Evan then left to go back to his place and crash and Max and I just hung out for a bit. I called my buddy Choi from the gym and made sure we were still on for 4PM. Left the apartment around 3:45 while Max stayed and relaxed, while reading some interesting news about the world. As I was walking toward the gym I noticed one of the guys that worked there was also walking to the gym. He lives somewhere in my neighborhood but the language barrier was to great to know exactly where he lived or to tell him where I lived. So we walked to the gym with little conversation and some body language to explain what we could with each other. I told him that I was an English teacher who taught children ages 4-12. I think he understood and respected it.
Entered the gym, dressed up in the locker room and headed upstairs to the weight room, where I already see Choi pumping iron. I get on the bike to start my routine, while he does his thing. After the bike I headed over to the weights and started chatting with him and told him what I did the night before. He laughed and then told me he was going to a nooribang (karoke) that night with some of his friends. I continued my workout of bi,tri, and shoulders with more conversation with Choi. If I havent mentioned this before he is a Judo master, so I asked him if he could teach me some moves. He told me to join a judo gym, but I told him that I wanted to learn from Master Choi, so he agreed to teach me one move every time we met. The move he taught me today was a swooping lift where he grabbed one of my arms and then he put his other arm under my groin where he preceded to lift me over the shoulders. He did it 4 or 5 times and I laughed every time he picked me up. Then it was my turn and after the third or fourth try I got it right and lifted him up. After an hour or so I finished my workout and headed back downstairs to take a shower and put my regular clothes back on. As we were heading out the door he invited me back to his apartment to grab a quick bite and talk. I agreed and walked to his house and conversing about my home town and what we were famous for and then he tried to translate it for me in Korean.; He taught me some Korean words, like tree, peach, car, etc. Got to his apartment building, which was one of many is this small little area. They build so much within a tiny amount of space, at least I think so.
Entered his home and knew right when I got in their that it was a totally different atmosphere and type of living than or other buddy Lim. No TV, not caught up on materialistic things, many books, and a white board in the living room where he studies English and such. He handed me a sweet potato and a drink and then called his parents who lived in the apartment building right across the parking lot. You could see them across the way. They invited me to dinner at their place, so we headed over their. I did not know if they knew any English or not, I assumed they didn't, because they had to be in their 70's and it would be very hard to learn the language. As we entered their apartment I was greeted with a warm American 'hello' and found out they knew some English. There apartment totally different than their son's and had a flat screen TV and nice sterling material. In addition, their family is very big into flowers so they have them all over their screen-in porch, both Choi and his parents. He showed me his favorite flower that I did not know existed, which was the Green Rose. Very cool, if I was into flowers. Dinner was ready and we sat down, just the men did. The mother served us and rarely sat down and did not eat while I was there. We had some beef, rice, kimchi, and other side dishes. Very good and unbelievably nice that they invited into their home for dinner. Sliced some fruit up and also made me tea and told me that anytime I wanted to come over that I was welcome to. A very generous offer that I hopefully will take because they were such nice people.
After dinner Choi drove me home and I told him thank you for dinner and that I will give him a call later. Headed up the stairs into our apartment and told Max about my day. He enjoyed the story and then told me about his day of reading and learning about lots of cool things. I then proceeded to my bed to take a nap for a few hours as did Max to his bed and then we woke up debating whether to go out or not. We decided to go out for a little and go to Ice Bar where we had a few beers and just talked about our experience thus far. Headed to McDonald's for a late night snack. Then came back to the apartment, where I then fell asleep.