Generally a tad grumpy at the end of everyday because I have this retarded commute to and from work. For those of you who know the Jason from Portland this will come as no surprise to you. I always try to find work within a thirty minute bike ride from my house. This has worked my whole life, until now. But the grumpiness subsides shortly after I pass out in the passenger seat of Choi Boi Young's car. I get a tug on the shoulder saying "Jason you're home is now." So I wait for the ridiculously long crosswalk signals. You see to cross when the little man is red is essentially a death wish in this city. At home a lot of the time you can use your better judgment and be fine. Here, boy howdy! Cars make U-turns, motorbikes use sidewalks as a second thoroughfare, and cars only MOST of the time adhere to the traffic lights. I get home throw my bag on the couch and throw on some tunes. Then because I didn't get enough of being online I'll generally check my email and facebook accounts real quick just in case someone wrote something to me since I left school. What I'm waiting for I have no idea. Perhaps I have an unhealthy longing for attention. Who knows? Sometimes I'll read the news if I didn't already get enough of that in at school. Sometimes I'll make a quick snack of pb&j or a smoothie. Other times I'll grab the guitar and have a quick jam for a bit. Then I gather my things and run off to the gym with Alex. We talk about our days, how they went, frustrations with Korea, if anything significant was in the news, and saunter off to the gym.
Sydney Total Luxury Fitness is located on the 6th floor conveniently located across the street from my building. So it makes it nice and easy to keep up with the routine. We go to the counter, the super cute Korean girls working the counter swipe our cards and give us a pair of matching black shorts and t-shirt, a "sweat towel" and a mini towel barely suitable for drying off a large squirrel, and a key to our locker. We always start off with a ten minute warm up. He hops on the elliptical and I on the stationary bike. During this time I always dream of cycling through the Gorge, riding along Skyline looking at the amazing views to the east and west, riding along Marine Drive gazing at the expansive Columbia River, dodging rush hour traffic downtown on my way home from PSU, and just riding around Ptown. I try not to think about how sucky this bike is. How huge the seat is. Clearly the people who design 90% of all stationary bikes have never actually ridden a bike for longer than ten minutes and that might even be a stretch. Then I'm off to the weights. Mondays and Wednesdays are chest and tricep days; Tuesdays and Thursdays back and biceps. We generally finish off with a nice soak in the hot tubs in the locker room. I didn't start using them until like two months ago. I don't know why? Perhaps is was the staring factor. I get stared at enough with clothes on. Now I'm naked, naked and freaking hairy amongst the hairless. One time as I got out of the hot tub one man was doing the up and down thing with his eyes and then pointed to my chest. "You hair good. Make power in bed." I shit you not. This is what he said to me. There is also a cold pool next to the hot tubs. I love dipping into it immediately after the super duper hot tub for the polar bear affect. On a different occasion one man said to me, "Cold bery good for sex-uh." Then he made a pumping action with his fist. So either I must look like some kind of freakish sex machine to these people or everything you do in life will make you a better lover. I'd like to think its a little of column A and B. I've been running a bunch these days but I generally do that before the workout. I thought about squeezing that in before mentioning the gym but it screws with the flow of this paragraph.
So I get home and generally I'm shaking with hunger. I snack while frantically making some food for myself. I generally do the Thai curries or some form of stir fry and utilize my rice cooker like I've never owned one before, because I haven't. These things are God's gift to rice junkies. Plug in rice cooker. Pour rice into rice cooker, rinse with warm water. Add water to rice. Shut lid of rice cooker and press "on" button and wait. I would mix up the food a bit more but to do anything that I know how to make from home is just dang expensive. Eating out is cheap enough here so I gotta keep it simple to justify cooking at home. The thing with eating out too is that every time you go out its like playing Russian Roulette with your dinner. Who knows what the hell you just ordered and when I'm shaking with hunger now is not the time for this.
I rapidly stuff myself as I watch a movie, documentary, episode of Flight of the Conchords, or read more news. Then I check the email and facebook again, see I told you I had a problem. But at this time there is generally someone to chat with. We do so for a while and then sign off. By this time its about 10:30-11ish and I try to wind down for sleepy time. Sometimes I can ween myself off the computer and actually do some reading. I do this more often than I give myself credit for. Its just that I've never lived alone before. At home I always lived with roommates and could kick it with them or I could always call someone up and hang with them for a bit. But here, people just want to do their thing on the weeknights for the most part. Fair enough I mean but c'mon there's nothing wrong with a few games of cribbage or Scrabble or something. I think the living alone has increased my net time tenfold. I don't mind it at times. Other times, however, I feel like this thing is attached to my head.
Thats it pretty much. On the extreme odd evenings I'll go out and meet up with friends for Galbi. Tomorrow night one of my Jen friends that just moved to Jangsan is making me dinner! I love having dinner made for me! Its the best thing in the world, well . . . there are a few things that are better but its up there. So yeah. An evening in the life of Jason Brown in Koreatown. Not that exciting or interesting, I told you. Why are you still reading? K well I'm off to check facebook one last time for the evening and then retire to some reading. Good night all.
