Of Weddings and Blown Tires - Part 2

I forgot to add this to the previous post, but here's what James does every night:

Yeah, he's addicted too. Just wont' admit it ;)

Now we're on to Day 2! Yeah!

Anyways, we were supposed to go out in service this morning so we had to wake up early. Too bad we woke up 45 minutes past our wake-up call and try imagining 4 people needing access to one bathroom. It's not a pretty sight. Enjoy our morning schenanigans:

If you're a regular reader, you know I can't help myself ;)


Daniel is in "time-out" *snicker*


Yujung is too hardcore to use a wimpy hand blow dryer

After dressing/ironing/Facebooking (sad huh?)/screaming at eachother, we all headed out to the Kingdom Hall. The thing about Phoenix is that it's a very, very, very, very, very, (did I say very?) very spread out city. A place that's "close" is considered 20 minutes away. TWENTY WHOLE MINUTES? That's like, a whole TV episode. Sheesh. In any case, we finally got to the Kingdom Hall a little late, but since James is so important, the field service meeting didn't start without him. Psh!

Before we came there, James and gang warned me about this sister who was really tall. I was thinking, "Okay, maybe tall for an Asian girl." But golly, I don't think I was prepared for what I saw. I think she must have been Goliath's Korean little sister or something because, DUDE, was she tall. @__@ Her family is quite interesting, which is something I'll get into later. Anyways, we had the meeting, set up our service groups, and headed out.

The Korean field in Phoenix has a fair amount of Koreans but just like the city, everyone is spread out by a lot. I believe it almost took us 35 minutes to just get to the territory which was considered "average" distance. I almost felt like we were heading out into seldom worked territory...

We took a break at Burger King since Yujung was craving coffee and she wouldn't take Starbucks. At that BK, I was introduced to an entirely new delicacy. Now, what I'm about to describe is something so awesome it will blow your mind...

...

You ready?

...

Ketchup with pepper on it.

YEAH I KNOW, RIGHT?! I would have never come up with that but we all shared a large fries and Yujung whipped up some ketchup and put pepper all over it. I was kind of leery at first because it was so strange, so new, so exotic I had no idea what my reaction would have been... But am I ever GLAD I did. I will never forget that wonderful experience. Mmmmm.. (yeah I know, I'm a drama queen, but at least it makes my average life more interesting! :p)

We eventually hit up a mall because apparently some stores are owned by Koreans. Incidentally, this was the very same mall I went to when I was in Phoenix back in April. It was also where Thanh won a prize at the claw machine and where I also found out my lost wallet had been found. Oh the memories. Not to mention, the arcade where Thanh won his loot closed down too. That was a little sad. :(

Now, as we were walking around, we passed by a sunglasses kiosk and I took a look... and I was nearly heartbroken. The day before, I had bought some cool shades at Payless for 10 bucks. I thought I came away with a rather good deal but... well... the sunglasses kiosk had a sale with every pair of sunglasses for 5 bucks only. WHAT?! Totally unfair. If only I had waited an extra day. If only I could tell the future and knew that I would run into this kiosk and get a pair of sunglasses for half of what I paid just the previous day. If only if only if only. Sigh. Did I mention I always get the shaft? I know what'll lighten the mood... PICTURES!

Trick question: Where is this photo taken from?

Hint: Find the photographer. He's really there.

I'm pretty sure I told them to smile...
Koreans, what can I say? :p

After service, we went to get some Thai food (Pad Thai nom nom!) and then headed home. James had a little bit of work to do so he was going to be gone for a couple of hours. We decided to watch "Last Chance Harvey" which was a very awesome movie. It did get a bit depressing at times at which point I wanted to throw myself out of the window but I was supressed by Daniel and Yujung (aw thanks guys! :]). After that, we did our usual thing:

Welcome to Facebooker Anonymous
It's an addiction man...

When James came home we all cried, "Daddy's Home!" at which point James just shook his head in shame. :( There was a gathering that night at a couple's home (who was in James's congregation) so we prepared for that and arrived. We came a bit too early so we just chatted it up. When I say "we" I mean just James and Yujung. Daniel is the "quiet" one and I simply don't speak Korean on account of growing up with a Vietnamese family. Nuts! :(

Is that even comfortable? O_o

Meet Chloe, the most adorable little brat you'll ever find.
She's a brat, but she's adorable, so it's okay! :D

She wouldn't talk to me though.
These girls learn faster and faster every year to avoid me! :(

That can't be good for your back.


This refrigerator has a TOUCH PAD.
Technology = AWESOME!!!!


What do Koreans eat at a gathering?
BURGERS!
... wait what?


I was real tempted to eat these, but 3 burgers is my limit. :( Yes, thy were that good :D

During the course of dinner, I got to talking to Gloria (Goliath's Korean Little Sister, or GKLS for short). To my surprise, I found out that her brother was Jerry Cho. This was significant because he and I played ping pong a lot back when I used to live in New York. This guy was probably one of the funniest guys I ever met.

Check this: When we played ping pong, we both played the penholder style and we were still learning so we'd come up with goofy names for our moves. Jerry had something called the "Dragon Claw" so when we would rally and out of nowhere he's scream "DRAGON CLAW!!!!!!" I'd get scared and scream "OH NOES HERE COMES THE DRAGON CLAW!" I bet the other guys in the table tennis room thought we were just a bunch of crazy Asians.

Another example of his hilariousness: I used to room with two other black guys. Both would sleep on the opposite walls so I had to sleep on the floor inbetween. Upon finding out about this situation, Jerry said "Paul's room is an Oreo. But if it was two white guys and black guy, it'd be an 'Uh-Oh.'"

Oh man, I'm still laughing about that one. *giggle*

But in short, Jerry was an awesome guy and it's so strange that I ended up meeting his sister. Small world huh?

After feasting we got to chatting and eating dessert. There's ALWAYS room for dessert! :D

The thing was, most of the conversation was in Korean so Daniel gladly translated for me and that kept things going. At one point in the conversation, we were discussing the differences between Asians like Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, etc. I explained that my method is dependent on the eyes and facial structure of the person.

For example, Chinese people have sharper eyes and a thinner face (on average). Vietnamese people have unusually large eyes and typically have folds. Japanese people have rounder faces. Now get this. I lastly mentioned that Koreans have bigger cheeks because of the language. Each particular language uses a different part of the face and throat, and Koreans have a tendency to focus a lot of their language on the cheeks. As a result, Koreans have something I call "chipmunk cheeks," which I find to be EXTREMLY cute. In any case, once I mentioned this, each sister started looking at each other and started screaming. Yujung was a prime example:

She looked to her left: "AHHHHH!"
She looked to her right: "AHHHHHH!"
She looked at me: "AHHHHH YOU'RE SO UGLY."

Wait... what?

Group picture time!
Notice Chloe doesn't want to look at the camera. What a brat!
... But so cute!

Eventually the sisters went off into some room for some girl talk and James got to talking about something with the sisters. I think I ended up taking a nap for about 20 minutes and woke up groggy. Not understanding Korean in general, I got kind of jumpy so I had to calm down and do something with my hands.

This is what I ended up doing.


The finished product.
Notice the "For Chloe" at the bottom. Since I colored it for HER, it's not gay!

I wonder if her mom is going to go through the book and say "WOW CHLOE YOU SO GOOD!"

We ended up going home and Yujung decided she was hungry again. I felt a little peckish so I decided I would join in and so she made ramen with kimchee for everyone. Man, we are such PIGS. But how come she's still skinny and I'm so fat? It's not fair I tell you! :(

Paul + Kimchee + Ramen = NOTHING IS SAFE!

We ate while watching a movie but ended up being so tired we couldn't finish it. But we weren't tired enough for more Facebooking!!!!! Me and James ended up staying up till 3 in the stupid morning (yes the morning is stupid) talking about our assignments and all that and finally passed out. Fortunately, I don't sleep very much so I woke up early for another "sleeping" photoshoot... of which you'll see the results in the next post. Stay tuned y'all!