*My sister had her wedding in Hawaii last week. It was great being able to see my family and friends again, and wild seeing them interact together. Lindsay, Nick, Lindsay B, and I all took kayaks out to the site of Captain Cooks death, I just finished reading "Blue Latitudes" (which is about Cooks expeditions) so being able to see the site was pretty cool. We snorkeled and Lindsay fake stoned me to reenact the death scene. The wedding was on the beach at sunset, everything went pretty smoothly and I think everyone had a good time. It was hard saying goodbye to everyone, I miss my friends and family like a mutha...especially Daisy.

*After the wedding, Lindsay and I headed off to Tokyo for a day. I was blown away by how awesome the city is. I expected a large, crowded, somewhat dirty city full of skyscrapers. I guess I expected a larger version of Busan. This was not the case at all. Tokyo and the surrounding area are shockingly green. The city is next to dense forests, and the heart of downtown is chock full of trees and killer parks. The huge buildings are mixed in with old relics, a giant ancient castle, koi ponds (I saw a bright purple 3 footer!!!), San Francisco style parks with people reading and relaxing, and European style canals. There were cool shops and delicious restaurants all over. The city was amazingly clean too. Everything ran efficiently and the people were super friendly. I LOVE JAPAN!

*I may have found my calling in life. It turns out, Tony and I are phenomenal dodgeball players. We had a tournament last Saturday and absolutely dominated! We were undefeated all day, but I think we drank a little too much by the end so we tanked in the semi finals. I am still sore.

*I'm still having picture upload issues, but they should be up soon.

Update!

-I'm having issues with pictures so I don't have much now, I'll post them when I can.

-A few weeks ago I went to a temple up north to stay for a couple of days. I thought I was just meditating and hanging out with monks, but right before I left, one of the monks told me I needed to bring exercise clothes for the martial arts training! I had heard about fighting monks and got pretty excited. The fighting monks turned out to be mild-yoga with some kick moves monks. I think they fight so they don't get taken over like the monks in Seven Years in Tibet, but I'm not sure yoga poses are going to scare the China warriors. It was cool though, the temple has been around since 500 A.D. and was super peaceful and relaxing. There was also a large ancient Buddha carving on a hill face, built in 720 A.D. I meditated a bunch and got to ride a grizzly bear (my spirit animal) through the forest, ask him advice, and eat salmon.

-Mark, the head of the sailing club, took us out sailing on a 45 ft catamaran. It was a blast! I'd never been on a boat like that. We were flying around and I even got to skipper for a bit, my first time using an actual wheel. I felt like Captain Ron.

-Tony and I grew beards for summer vacation. We looked rugged and tough. I eventually shaved it into a Tom Selleck mustache, which was hideous, but I liked it anyway.

-I had the last 5 days off for Chuseok, which is like a mix between Thanksgiving and Christmas. For the holiday, my principal presented me with what I initially thought was a new laptop....turned out to be canned tuna, a giant box of canned tuna. It was a nice gesture though, he is the coolest boss I've ever had.

A group of us foreigners went camping on an island west of Busan for the holiday. There were a ton of problems getting there, a 4 hour trip ended up taking up over 24 hours. We island hopped, rode ferries, buses, and taxis, and ended up missing the first day. It wasn't too bad though, the area was chock full of cool-looking islands and we saw some rural Korean villages that were unlike anything else I've seen here so far. The camping was on a random beach, we drank soju and did jump kicks. Happy Chuseok!