The first time we met, I went down to the city to where he lived to show him where the buses were and how to get back to my place. I got a motel room for the night and then met him once he got off work. We went to Chili's on base for dinner.......Holy shit ! I had the most delicious American Ribeye steak there ! South Korea has banned the import of American beef as they are afraid they will catch mad cow disease. I say like Bill Shatner " I've already got the mad cow." So I just don't care ! Man I pounded that steak down !
After dropping our packs at the motel, we headed into the streets to find a place to sit down, have a couple of drinks and do some catching up. So many of the bars are thumping out this loud music....not my scene at all, especially for talking. So we find this quieter little sports bar with very few people and decide that is where we will start at........not knowing we will finish there also.
So we've both been working all day and a little burned out.....definately calls for Jager bombs to light the fire. They have a menu board with a ton of different shots on it. I think we ended up having about 1 of everything. Now neither one of us set out that night to get ripped. Just kinda one thing leading to another. Then this guy comes over and buys us a round of jager bombs and starts chatting, turns out he is from Portland Oregon as well. Small friggen world ! Well, over the course of the night, I lost track of how much we drank.....except for Kyle saying, "hurry up ! I'm 2 ahead of you ! " The trips to the toilet became more and more dangerous as the night went on also. You had to use this side door, go through a hotel lobby, down an uneven and curving staircase and into a tiny litle broom closet which was converted into a toilet.
I remember the two of us chatting up the Korean girls working there and using their computer to put on the music we wanted. Then I paid the bill ( about $200 ) and Kyle informed me later that I tried to pay it twice ! I can be happy in the fact that Koreans are honest at least. You know, life ain't easy with the mad cow !
After we shut down the bar, Kyle still wanted to go somewhere else. we tried going into another bar and they told us no. I don't know if it was because they were closing or because Kyle was crawling up the stairs ! So we walked back out into the street. Kyle meets a few of his work buddies, I walk into Popeye's Chicken to use the toilet ( or so Kyle tells me, cuz I don't remember ever going into Popeye's....Mad Cow ! ) He procedes to order some chicken from a street vender, eats a few bites, gives it too his buddy and proceeds to puke in the middle of the street. It was at this point which the Military Police take notice of him. I walk out of Popeye's and see them all talking. They got his ID and saw he was 20 and slightly enibriated. I say it's ok, he is staying with me and we are at this hotel right here....which the hotel happened to be right next to us. The MP wanted to see my ID, so I showed him my Korean green card instead of my passport. He had no idea what it was ( it's all written in Korean with my photo) Then he asked for my Military ID. Because of the mad cow, I can't be sure of the exact wording, but it was something along the line of "pfffft ! You think the military wants me ? You think I could even pass the physical test ?" Then I gave a brief explanation that he was my son and it has been years since we saw each other and blah, blah, blah." I knew that there was absolutely nothing they could do to me as military law doesn't apply to me, but I also knew that if I was a real dickhead, they could make Kyles life hell. They had already made threats to take him to jail for underage drinking. Eventually they escorted us to the hotel, and mind you, not to the front door, but all the way INTO the room lol. Kyle was given orders that he was not to leave the room for the next 8 hours.
So I crash out in one of the beds and turn on the TV. Kyle is sitting over at the desk using the computer. I watch some of the boob tube and drift off, only until my stomach wakes me up and says "DUDE< YOU GOTTA PUKE ! " So I sit up, Kyle is still on the comp and I go blow chunks in the toilet. Nice move, puking in front of your son ! Yup I can handle my booze LOL. Well I flop back onto the bed. I wake up in the morning.....well around 11 or 12 and need the bathroom. Kyle is crashed out in the other bed, but I find that he has carefully laid out a minefield of vomit between the beds and the bathroom. Now I don't feel so bad ! Well at least not until my bare foot gets vomit mine hidden in the entry way ! Little bastard ! And there's puke in the bathroom ! not even close to the toilet ! At least in the front room, he tried to use a wastebasket to puke into ( even though 100% of it was next to it and 0% inside it ! )
Well I wake him up and we are both feeling like cattle headed to the slaughter house ( mad cow thing). He eats some Chinese food, I have no appetite. Go to the bus station and ride the bus to my place. We then proceed to do nothing but eat and sleep and watch movies for the rest of the weekend. He also got to spend a little quality time with his step-mom whom he had only met for a few hours before.
The massive drinking is out of the way now. Two weeks later he came back and we went to Seoul. Right now this blog is getting too long, so I will save that trip for the next time.
My wife is 14 weeks pregnant as of this writing. Next month she is going back to Thailand so that she can have a Thai Dr. take care of her. The language barrier is just too much here. She is due in Oct. and I will be moving back there permanently in Sept.
That's all for now.
