Chapter 12

A Time for Seouls and Mates

MAY 17th, 2006

I wake up in the mornings and check my pockets and look in the mirror to notice two facts just staring directly at me. I'm getting old and my friends are getting married. Those tuxedo rentals do add up. Slowly but surely this is the way our lives are heading. But these are things I guess we should be embracing rather than fearing. Esp the friends getting married part.

But what makes this story even more unique is the fact that it involved John H. Kwag. My best bud from years back, the only man I can honestly say I've known since I was 13. He asked me to be his best man at his wedding in South Korea this may. It was my honour to pay tribute to someone whose had such an impact on my life. But of course, how can you write a speech about someone and more importantly about our friendship when there is so much time and unmentionable stories between the pair. Of course, i did what i always do, I winged it.

What made this trip back to my old stomping grounds so special is that John specifically invited the recent star of my exhaustive, dramatic adventure, Ksenia, to the festivities. She of course was not only intrigued by the bright lights of Asia, but also was dying to see me make a fool of myself in front of hundreds of Korea wedding guests. No matter what the reason, her company mixed with our ever implusive chemistry made this trip one we will both remember fondly.

I show up early, on a Thursday to get the groundwork going on the trip. We stay at the Hyatt hotel Namsan which is right across the street from the NamSan apartments I used to live in. They've torn down the NamSan apartments and looking at the sight where my home used to be was very disturbing....even more so was the fact that my hotel room was overlooking my old home during the whole trip.

I met up with John and his future was Je Hyun in Itaewon to plan out the next couple of days. We had to talk about my role in the wedding, our lives in general, and of course the friday night bachelor party. Of course as one who follows the code of manhood, I'm not going to diverge details of this night....but lets just say it was unforgetible in its own tragic kazmi/kwagster way. In fact every one of these I've ever thrown are stories in their own right.

Ksenia arrived on Saturday and I went to the airport to pick her up. We managed our way back to the hotel in the Korean humitidy and she quickly passed out from the long 9 hour flight. Kwag, his wife and I rehersed the wedding, ate, relaxed, and waited for our Russian guest to wake up before we went out shopping.

We went to the Lotte department store in Myongdong first and shopped our hearts out. Afterwards we went to a traditional Korean old style resturant to try all the delacacies Korea had to offer. I was later told that there was dog meat on the menu but luckly no one offered this to us. We discovered this amazing rasberry Korea drink that prompted us to buy bottles of the stuff at the airport. After many frantic calls from their parents on being out so late the night before their wedding, we concluded the evening at the resturant and looked forward to tomorrow's wedding. What was amazing is that this was the day before their marriage and the happy couple spent all their free time with us. I'm lucky to have such great friends.

Our evening did not stop as the jet lagged, buzzed emotions of being in such a strange place led us to continue on that night. We explored our strange hotel with its sweeping night views and felt like we were acting out a scene in the movie "Lost in Translation". We went to J.J. Mahoneys, a famous hangout from my old days, and saw huge display of pink poodles stuffed animals. But the highlight of the post dinenr party was stumbling upon a No-rae-bong club or private Kareyoke bar. Being 'intoxicated' with the moment we rushed into one of those rooms, ordered our poisons and sang out hearts out for 2.5 hours. The songlist was a mixture of terrible sappy pop songs, and modern alternative classics from the 90's. There was this amazing rendition of Losing My Religion that was done by my squirrily friend. It was so impressive and sanguine that i demanded a repeat preformance. "That's me in the corner.......Thats me in the spot light...........losing my religion" Blasphomy never sounded so.....russki

After closing down the bar, and ending the perfect evening, we rushed back to catch a few hours of sleep before the frantic day ahead.

posted by RU ETL @ 2:41 PM