So May has been interesting. The first two weekends have been an absolute blast. The second involved merely a night out in a bar called Beer-O-Clock. A buddy of a friend owns the bar there, who i found out not long after plays darts with my Uncle Paul's good friend who lives here, Doug. I've gone out with him and his wife many times, and they happened to mention that they play darts together every Friday. Small freaki'n' world. In a city of 10 mil, you realize when things like this happen repeatedly, how small it really is. I've gone to that one bar in Sinchon, and Doug knows this one guy there who works this bar. What?!

So the first weekend, the one after Jindo, I went on a Cinco de Mayo trip - affectionately dubbed Cinco de Drinko. My friend and I went out the night before because his friends had a going away party. This was one of the first weekends I got to see Hongdae by day. Or night if you will. And the PARK in all its glory. This was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. I mean, there are no open container laws in Korea, and while I'm sure I've mentioned this before, it can never be said too many times, that you can grab a few beers from the gas station, and walk out, drink as you walk down the street, and sit on a playground in the park and listen to live music and watch a fight club. Normal.

So anyway, we hung out for a while, had some drinks, some laughs, and we were responsible people and went back to my apartment before waking up early to drink some more. So I got to go out and help set up a trip early for the Cinco trip. I helped cook, make some Mojitos, and set up a rooftop bar. The beach wasnt really a 'beach' per se, but it was wayy out on an island, and we had the area pretty much to ourselves. We took the most crowded bus in the world to get there, and motion sick that i am, had to basically sit on the steps leading out the door so i wouldn't throw up over everyone. It was 25 minutes and on a bus built for 30, maybe, there were probably close to double that. And we were the last stop.

Getting there was worth it though, as we got to spend the whole day in the sun for the first time almost all summer. We played flip cup and North America championed. 4 years of college was worth something I guess.

Love being one of the youngest people here.

The night was great, but sad, as one of the European boys we played against, at some point in the night, fell off the roof .... and died. No one really knows what happened, but ... it's a grim reminder. During trips and adventures, you forget that this is real life. I'll be honest, I feel like this year hasn't really counted. Yeah i've gotten a year older, and done AMAZING things and seen incredibllllle things. But, it hasn't seemed real, almost. So to get struck with mortality on a celebration weekend ... very surreal.