Day 1.1: Arrival in the Land of the Morning Calm...

... which is Korea's nickname, at least in the western world. If you think of Japan as the "Land of the Rising Sun," makes more sense.

I know it's been awhile since I have blogged. Even after finishing up my Tanzania/Dubai posts last month, I hadn't intended to take this much time off, except I took on another all-consuming project... buying a house! Or a townhouse, to be exact.

(Photo courtesy of MRIS.com)

Haven't quite moved in yet, but all the big things have been done, and it's BIIIIIG. So, if you find yourself in the DC area, come on down! There is definitely room for you.

And with my month-long hiatus, I would remiss if I didn't mention my fellow bloggers, two of whom, Nithin and Mary, have been fairly prodigious over the last month. Which all segways nicely into my next journey, as it was when I first met the Choqs!

Well, technically these Choqs (Mary and Andrew). The origins of this journey got back all the way to 2007, when I was in Iowa working on then-Senator Obama's campaign as an outreach intern transitioning to Polk County GOTC Director (sounds fancy aye - believe me, it wasn't). We were staffing up big time for the caucuses when I met two of my campaign-friends-for-life, David and Patrick. The two were completely different individuals, and yet also exactly the same. But I guess I can say that about any two people.

This is David. After a great federal appeals clerkship out West, David was working at law firm in Chicago a few doors down from one of President Obama's best friends. President Obama had actually been one of his law professors at the University of Chicago law school, and David became a big fan, so when this New York Giants fanatic and First Amendment expert got the opportunity to come to Iowa, he jumped at the chance. And with both of us being lawyers, we got along swimmingly well.

Patrick, on the other hand, had just spent two years in Ghana on a Peace Corps mission, following in his father's international developmental footsteps. (Unfortunately for the ladies, I do not have a picture of Patrick handy, as he was not on this trip.) An Iowa native, he had just gotten back stateside and was on his way to Hawaii to send a few months with his then significant other, when he heard President Obama speak at a local gathering. Captivated, he promptly cancelled his ticket, broke up with his significant other, and enlisted on the campaign.

Oh, and they both played sports at Grinnell College. And Patrick and Andrew are brothers. And David and Andrew are best friends. And David and Patrick are roommates here in DC. They're all very close. You get the idea.

Anyways, fast forward to 2011. David has gotten a position in the administration and moved to DC, and just gotten some stability in his life, when decides it is finally time to take a long-deserved vacation. And who better to visit on this vacation, than one of his best friends Andrew, who lives in the exotic Hermit Kingdom with his wife Mary.

Coincidentally in his mind, he has this friend "Mike" who happens to also be Korean, and so asks him to come along. While Mike had been to Korea in 2008 to visit his grandfather one last time (passed away a month later), he had never made the journey with friends - only with family - and so he accepts. After putting together a motley crew from New York (John), Minneapolis (also David - gets confusing later), Los Angeles (Eric), and Bangalore (Rahul of Dubai fame), we embark on our East Asian adventure.

After flying out of Dulles, our first stop on journey is actually Tokyo-Narita, where we have a short layover. In a nice bit of timing, however, John's layover coincides with ours, so he comes to hang out for a bit.

John was part of the Andrew/David/David crew at Grinnell, and is currently also an attorney, who had taken a sabbatical in the Dominican Republic. As you can see, we are eating sushi. "What's the big deal?" you ask. Aren't we just eating sushi in Japan like any normal tourist? Well, the big deal is that the only promise David had made his poor mother about the journey was that he would not eat any sushi in the area, because this was just 45 days after the Fukushima earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster. In other words, there were legitimate fears that there was a lot of Blinkys in the water.

(Photo courtesy of simpsons.wikia.com)

So, what do we do as soon as we land in Narita? Get sushi. And it wasn't even that good. Yeah, we are probably idiots. We also neglect to get rid of our water bottles as we go through polite-but-super-strict Japanese security, and they don't have trash cans, so we have to empty a full liter into our bellies in like ten seconds. Not pleasant. Which leads us to the super-fancy Japanese bathrooms, which are pleasant.

A great start to our journey, aye?

Anyways, after our short hop to Seoul-Incheon, we pass through security (and they do not try to draft me into the army - that's another story), and exit the terminal in order to meet Eric and Andrew. We set up a meeting spot at Dunkin Donuts, since we don't have cell phones at this point, and we find Eric (beat us by three hours) without any issues, but have problems spotting Andrew (he was coming in from China). A bit confused, we get our reserved cell phones (you MUST get one - super cheap and absolutely necessary), and call Mary. She informs us that Andrew's flight has been delayed, and that we should just take the bus to their apartment in Seoul - directions which Andrew had thoughtfully provided to us before. So, we wait for John and the other David, go out the curb, find the right bus line (tons of guys around who are pretty helpful - Korea is very law and order - not much tourist crime besides pickpocketing) and get on. A little over an hour later (the airport is actually pretty far from the city), we are dropped off a block away from Trump Tower Apartments. Yes, that Trump.

We arrive to find a very friendly Mary extremely happy to see us. After introducing ourselves and cracking a few beers, we decide that despite the jet-lag, we can't waste a good Friday night, so we decide to head to a bar in Itaewon, aka GI and knockoff central. There, we find a table at a trendy western-style lounge, and settle in for the evening.

This is David (right) and the other David (left). The other David is actually half-Korean, and married with a son. David was originally skeptical that other David would come, but it turns out other David's wife is pregnant with their second child, so she agreed to give him this week of freedom before... well... you get the idea.

This is Eric (and me, of course). Eric has been one of my best friends since middle school and lives in LA. He actually has even more of a wanderlust than I do (already has Peru, Australia, and Vietnam on his resume), so he was extremely excited about joining me on this trip. Anyways, we are a few drinks in (beers - too early in the journey for Soju), when in comes our host Andrew.

I guess I should back a bit. Andrew and Mary got married a little over a year before, and then immediately moved to Korea because Andrew got a job at Samsung (also known in Korea as the Evil Empire), after graduating from business school, doing international business development. Andrew had traveled quite a bit (gave me advice about climbing Kili), but this was definitely an adventure for Mary, especially as a newlywed! After perusing her blog, however, you can quickly see she adapted quite nicely, albeit language problems was a recurring theme. Another "problem" had been that Andrew was on the road quite a bit - probably about two out of every four weeks. So, it wasn't a given that Andrew would be around for our visit, but as luck would have it, he was able to be in town for our stay, albeit he was going to be inordinately busy and so couldn't really entertain us for part of it.

Anyways, with the gang all here, some of us got more boisterous with beer energy...

... while jet-lag caught with others. I was probably more in the latter camp.

And who can resist kid photos?

Anyways, after getting sufficiently happy (but not too inebriated), we headed back to Casa de Choqs...

... which is always an adventure in Korea as (1) the cab drivers drive like maniacs, (2) they don't know English, and (3) street addresses mean nothing. You literally navigate by landmarks, which in our case, was "Hangang Dae Gyo Buk Chok," which roughly translates to "just north of the Hangang bridge." I had to commend the Choqs on their ingeniousness (or survival skills) with that one.

We arrived without incident, and while most went straight to sleep, some of us got the munchies. After all, we had a buzz and some had only eaten sushi in the past couple hours. We stepped into one of the ubiquitous 7-11 type establishments in Seoul, and ever the adventurer, Eric chose to eat dried squid with a spicy red pepper sauce. It's actually one of my favorites.

And with that, I bid you adieu. Stay cool, and talk to you (probably) next week...