i own 3 spoons, 4 forks, and 20 chopsticks

[Evan sez: 10 pair chopsticks]

Kiwon's parents live right across the street from my school. MJ,the mom, has a brother who is a vice president of a giant departmentstore (think Macy's + Sears + Food Court + Schnucks + NICE Restaurants all stacked on top of one another. HUGE.) and they have bought me a new mattress because my current one is giving me back pain every morning and keeping me up at night. I am deeply humbled by this because it is a really nice mattress. They said it was their way of thanking our family for putting up...err, i mean taking Kiwon into our family. They tell me he misses STL a bunch. God, they took me out for the best Japanese food i have ever had.

6 course lunch (salad > sashimi > sushi > soup > rice dish > fruit for desert). It was incredible. Besides the raw fish texture (i kept my gag reflex in check for the entire meal. a truly inspiring performance as i was constantly on the verge of dropping my jaw open and rolling my eyes into the back of my head while my tongue catapults the raw fish out of my throat) it was delicious.

My address is as follows:

Evan Watters

Room # 807, Solo Ville 1623-3,

Seocho1-dong, Seocho-gu

Seoul, Korea 137-878

Kiwon's dad wrote it down for me after verifying the zip code(there's no 'Z' in the Korean language, therefore "gip code"). This year will be their 20th wedding anniversary. I spent most of Saturday with them looking for a new mattress and having them show me a bit around town and also their home. There is a bitchin' picture of Kiwon in a taekwondo uniform. Also one of him horseback riding on Jeju Island, a pretty sweet vacation spot where they have a condo! I'm invited to all of the family activities if I have time; i'm already ready to get out of town. There are so many buildings it's like a maze instead of a city.

I'm still considering getting a pet cat, but costs for something like that will have to come after a few steady paychecks. I miss Sketch. I've nearly gotten over my cold and have been eating healthier than a pure ramen diet, which is what Kiwon's mom was afraid of, ha ha ha.

Actually, Kiwon is right(...!), the Korean ramen here is exceptional compared to our dirty bricks and dust we call ramen. It's still bricks and flavor packets, but it's

BETTER. Spicy is my fav. so far.

[Evan sez:The above is entirely taken from an email to my parents. Original text follows.]

There was a dead calico on the sidewalk this morning. It looked as cold as I felt.

The tuna with rice dish (cham chi dup bob("bop")) is easily my favorite meal here. Yesterday Zack, Bobby, John, John, and I walked around their gigantic COEX mall. There's a big movie theater, subway station, bus station, hotel, and aquarium located in this sprawling metropolitan hotspot. Stores seen list as follows: Evan Records (music and movies), Aniliving (anime and other cute stuff) paired with the Nintendo outlet (6 DS demos), Sanrio outlet (i almost vomited), and another really touristy store where everything i saw was pretty ...well... touristy. Got postcards. I also hit up their arcade. Most of the games were in english, and it was only 500 won (50 cents) to play anything. House of the Dead 4 was intense. And they had Tetris. TETRIS.

One other thing. They had Sbarro. I got a slice of supreme and a slice of pepperoni. It was greasy fantastic delicious. I miss the nastiest foods in the states. Had a dunkelweisse at Beer Factory with Bobby, Zack, and Jennifer Agnew. We then went from Gagnam (pronounced kacknem) to hongdae for some more drinks and FREEZING OUR ASSES OFF. This place is going to be really nice after it warms up. I really despise going out into the cold unless it's a short walk and a fun time. Hitting up several bars ends up wearing me out and stringing out a lot of cash in the process. Maybe i'll find my own way to have fun around here, but right now i'm relying on other people for socially exciting endeavors.