It’s been two countries and almost two months, and I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t feel twinges of homesickness once and a while. I talk a pretty good game about being stoked to be away for who knows how long, but sometimes it hits me that I don’t know when I’ll see my friends and family again. And all it takes is for me to log on to facebook to discover that a friend’s baby has been born, or that there’s yet another wedding that I’m going to miss, or just an epically fun night out that I wasn’t there to witness for it to really sink in.  I love the Jet Set Zero crew, but they just don’t cut it for being able to take my mind off the fact that I’m so far away from home.  So it doesn’t happen often, but there are points when the homesickness finds its way through a fissure in my relatively tough shell.

So what do I do when this happens?  Usually, a Skype call to a few select people is enough to brighten my day, but lately the internet has been intermittent at best and the call is more frustrating than anything.  So I’ve had to find alternatives.  Some people take great comfort in the familiar taste of a McDonald’s french fry in their mouth when they’re missing home, but unfortunately, there are no McD’s here.  Instead, I’ve developed a different tactic.

The first thing I do is put on my iPod and select a playlist designed by a close friend with a collection of my all-time favourite songs.  I turn it up loud to try and block the sounds of traffic and horns.  And then I go to the local supermarket.

There’s something about a big, air-conditioned, modern supermarket that makes me forget where I am.  I don’t actually need to buy anything, but I take great pleasure in going up and down the aisles and spotting Pringles, Knorr Soup Mix, Nescafe, Spam, Lipton tea, Snickers, Listerine, Colgate toothpaste, Juicy Fruit gum, Oreos and Fruit Loops.  I briefly consider buying a huge block of blue cheese and some Ritz crackers and think better of it (on this particular day, I’d probably eat the entire thing in one sitting).  They have big bottles of Wyborowa vodka (my favourite) for $15 but again, this is probably a bad idea.  Then I spot a package of Chicken-flavoured Instant Porridge and some unidentifiable meat products and remember that I’m still in Asia.  But for those few precious moments, I have escaped back home.

So much cheese. Love it.

As you can probably all imagine, leaving home is never an easy thing to do. Some people get frustrated with the actual details of packing up their belongings and attempting to squish their life into a suitcase/backpack that can be easily maneuvered, others have a hard time leaving friends, and some just have a hard time leaving their routine.

Well, I had a pretty hard time with all of these, but saying goodbye to the friends I had made in LA was the hardest of all. The recording studio I worked in had become a second home for me. The majority of my best friends were my coworkers and we all hung out together in our spare time despite the fact that we were usually spending about 60+ hours a week working anyway.

I had far too many porch parties at work with all my coworkers at Conway... They usually looked something like this.

I had other good friends outside of work that I will miss just as much, but the ties that I had at work were something that will never be forgotten.

LA quite honestly rocked my world and I’m going to genuinely miss it. As excited as I am to be a part of the Jet Set Zero team, there will always be a piece of me sitting in Los Angeles. It was never the dazzling lights of Hollywood, the fake styrofoam Grammy statues (yeah, those made me laugh, a lot), or the rockstars, it was all about the people I’d met on the sidelines. Sitting in a dark deserted bar bullshitting about the stupidest things somehow became one of my favorite activities because I love people, stories, and well, beer.

The Short Stop - Best Local Bar Ever.

My lovely ladies...

So here’s a little taste of my last day in what I frequently called Lala Land, and how I felt about joining the team literally hours before departure. You even get to see my last beer, which as I mentioned is always pretty cool in my book.

Brian and I originally met in Seattle, where we started Jet Set. However, we would never have met each other if it hadn’t been for our great mutual friend, Max. Max and I have been friends since Jr. High School, and he was Brian’s roommate through most of college, making him a bizarrely strong common link. Well, after trying to convince him to come out to visit us, country after country, he chose Istanbul.

(Warning: 15-second clip ahead)

If you’ll remember, our last visitor Serene (also my friend growing up) had a great time, and even bought Jen and myself tattoos. Hmm… I wonder what happened to her?

On Thursday I woke up to my phone ringing.  It was our old high school friend Will letting me know that just as he had said earlier (I had forgotten), he had arrived in Seoul.  He had an eight hour layover and I was going to show him around the city for an afternoon.  I scrambled around to try and find some half clean clothes, and ran to the subway to meet him.  We then grabbed some lunch and a beer as I told him about our life in Seoul.  Somehow that lunch turned into a two day series of new friends, ridiculous adventure, and wandering through half the city.  I don’t think I made it back to my room for a solid two days.  And Will’s 8 hour layover somehow turned in to a 48 hour layover.  This is more or less what it looked like for us:

Our new friend Mina helps us to move Will’s flights.

Will takes a quick breather at one of the Hofs.
 
Will finds a friend!
Oh and it just keeps getting better.

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Relatively recently, we were treated to dinner by our old friend Ben Glickman, the CEO of Footprints Recruiting.  He’s been a strong ally, an informative resource, and a good friend, and this night he did not fail to live up to all of those again. 

He took us to a little restaurant buried in a back alley and clearly off the tourist radar.  The place was run by a Buddhist monk, and the cuisine – all vegetarian – was plentiful and delicious.   77 bowls in total, all of them empty when we heaved ourselves off the floor.  Bowls of Macalee (fermented rice), bowls of kim chi, bowls of soup, bowls of dried seaweed, bowls of things I didn’t know, and 2 bowls of things I hope to never try again.  (I just don’t remember what they are)  The dinner included traditional Korean dancing and drums, which I’m sure you’ll see footage of at some point.  We ate with 2 of his friends, both of whom proved solid company – ‘good people.’  It remains one of the most memorable experiences I’ve had in Korea.

But the restaurant has nothing on the bar he took us to afterwards…

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And on the 8th Day, God realized that Jet Set Zero would crash-land in Tokyo, and that the days would be long, the food unhealthy, and guesthouse cold and lonely.  And so He sent a man to save them from despair, to teach them the ways of sushi and yaki soba, to watch wrestling with them late at night, ultimately to give them a reason to miss their trying times in Japan once they left.  That man’s name was Hiro.

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Oakhouse Miyazakidai is the name of our current guesthouse, the home of 5 Americans (us) and around 20 other residents.  Given that our financial limitations afford a short leash, Oakhouse is our most common restaurant, office, and bar – it’s where we eat, work, and play.  And when Jed arrived, we ate, worked, and played aplenty.

This was just the beginning

Here is a picture from Jed’s birthday, and there are so so many things to point out.  Yes, those are 4 bottles of Wild Turkey, and yes Rob seems transfixed by them.  Yes it’s cold enough inside that we wear jackets and beanies, even when drinking.  Yes the walls are mottled and dirty, and yes those computers are probably from the early 90’s.  And, finally, yes Jed is not in this picture, but don’t worry, he was very much a part of these festivities.

With Jed out here, this was one of our first gatherings with everyone, and I have to say it wasn’t a mild night…

Oh Jed, we all know how this is going to end

The irony here is that we didn’t buy all this alcohol – in fact, we’re trying to detox after all our bonding with our Vietnamese friends.  Mr. Isume and Mr. Mickey – in the top photograph – supplied all of this, and what were we going to do?  We can’t be rude guests in a guesthouse to our gracious friends…

So here at Oakhouse, we were well on our way to bonding as a team and bonding across cultures.  And we’re unfortunately finding that sharing drinks so easily fills the gaps left by their limited English and our virtually nonexistent Japanese.