2009: An Asian Odyssey

Randomness May 25, 2009

We’ve received plenty of positive feedback thus far in regard to the content of the blog. We’ve also received some negative commentary as well, particularly when it comes to the frequency of the posts we’re making. As a result, I’ve decided to pull up my socks and set up shop at the nicest Starbucks I’ve ever set foot in to bang out a new post.

It’s been brought to my attention that FLAP has yet to be featured on our blog even though he made regular appearances on the Mulloskey blog. For those of you who don’t know what FLAP is, it’s an acronym of the caption on a t-shirt that was created by our group of friends to make fun of Josh for no reason whatsoever. These kinds of shirts are common for male bonding events like stags or a boys’ weekends, but we decided to make one for Josh on a cottage weekend in July with no theme of any sort. Let’s make Josh feel stupid was our goal, and this t-shirt (nicknamed FLAP because of the caption) has been a staple in our wardrobes ever since. It’s also made  more appearances around the globe during its 3 year tenure than most people make in a lifetime. Check out FLAP’s travels here.

Therefore I decided to finally unveil FLAP for his long overdue appearance on the jorkat.com blog. If you want more information on FLAP, feel free to email Josh at josh.mcivor@sonybmg.com. He would be happy to answer any questions you may have. This picture is of me in front of our new favourite store. UNI QLO is chain that started in Japan and has over 700 stores across Asia. It’s similar so your standard GAP or Banana Republic in terms of style and quality, but has H&M prices. I didn’t expect to be buying many clothes here but this store is hard to resist. Check out their website at www.uniqlo.com. They have one North American location in New York.While we’re on fashion for a moment, I thought I would take this opportunity to report that my shoes are doing just fine. As I’m sure everyone recalls from one of my initial posts about packing, I experienced many sleepless nights trying to decide which footwear to bring with us overseas. I agonized for countless hours and even sought counsel from my father and brother-in-laws. Ultimately I took Ronny’s (father-in law) advice and went with the black dress shoes, my brown Ecco’s, the brown Lacoste’s, my Asics, Crocs sandals and North Face all-terrain’s. Thus far all shoes have been worked into the rotation on a regular basis, and I haven’t once yearned for any that I left behind. Thanks to Ronny and everyone else for their input and support.

This is a picture of our shoes that Katie took while we were eating duck on a mountain.My mom sent us a care package on March 27^th which finally arrived today almost two months to the day after being sent. The package contained amongst other things, feminin hygiene products which rhyme with dampons, toothpaste (the here toothpaste is weird), hair product for yours truly and a set of sheets. We had originally intended to buy sheets upon arrival but were shocked to learn that a full set of quality sheets can cost up to $200. As a result we made due with the one mattress cover we had thinking that the sheets would arrive in a couple weeks. Not only did we not have adequate sheets but there wasn’t any curtains or drapes so we woke every morning like we were sleeping on the sun and had trouble sleeping in a weekends despite going to bed just before sunrise on several occasions. Fortunately the MacGyver (or should I say MacGruber) in me came up with an ingenious idea to make our own curtains. I “borrowed” some velcro and a large portion of felt which we use to decorate the classrooms at school and made our own makeshift curtains which we can put up or remove with ease. I’m not sure what’s more pathetic – how proud I am of these curtains, or the fact that I’m writing about them on the blog. I’ll let the readers to decide, but please keep in mind that when you’re living in a slum like we are, you truly learn to appreciate the finer things in life. Like clean sheets and curtains.Speaking of the finer things in life, Katie and I have been talking about what we truly miss since we’ve been gone for just over three months now. Aside from the obvious/mandatory answers like friends and family, the only things that jump to mind are golf, golf and golf. Food wise we have it pretty good here but we’ve already been discussing what we want our first big meal of consequence to be upon our return and we both agree that Filet Mignon wrapped in bacon with sweet potatoes and a vegetable of some sort prepared on a BBQ is the current frontrunner. Here’s a picture of our typical weekend breakfast which we make every couple weeks (God Bless Costco). And yes, that’s maple bacon and it’s as good or better than any bacon I’ve had back home (with the exception of Mullin’s maple syrup/brown sugar masterpiece).In sports, I have some very exciting news which I’ve been dying to share with everyone. As some of you may know, I’m a pretty diehard Red Sox fan and still follow the team on a daily basis. Just last weekend, we were at a bar in Itaewon when I was introduced through a friend of a friend named Brendan who shared my same passion for sports and we immediately hit it off. This guy knew hockey, baseball, basketball, football as well as anyone so it was pretty much love at first sight. I became so entrenched in the conversation that I didn’t even notice that the song “New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra was being played as Katie glared at me from across the table. Just as our bro-mance was entering unchartered territory, I notice a guy across the bar who looks familiar. I turn to Brendan and say “doesn’t that guy look like Kevin Youkilis?” He agreed and we debated what the odds were that it actually his brother or his cousin or something. For the uninformed, Kevin Youkilis is the All-Star first baseman for the Red Sox and was featured in Michael Lewis’ critically acclaimed book – Moneyball. The book is all about baseball statistics and a new way of interpreting them and is being made into a movie starring Brad Pitt. I’m not kidding. Back to the story. After a couple more drinks and some encouragement from Brendan, I approached the Youkilis-lookalike and had the following exchange:

Me: Umm, do you like baseball?

Him: Yes.

Me: Umm, do you know who Kevin Youkilis is?

Him: Yes.

Me: Umm, has anyone ever told you that you look like him?

Him: Yes.

Me: Wow! Cool…

(awkward silence)

Him: …

Me: My name’s Jordan, what’s yours?

Him: Steve Youkilis.

I don’t remember what happened at this point as apparently I fainted and an ambulance had to be called. But once I regained consciousness, Steve was kind enough to pose for this picture with me as long as I promised to not follow him around and try to be friends with him.

Here’s Kevin, minus his trademark goatee.

I hope you enjoyed today’s post about our new favourite store, my shoes, food and the Youkilis brothers. Before you decide to comment with something derogatory about how dull our lives are, or how we’re running out of material, keep in mind that you were obviously bored enough to read it. Stay tuned for our next post about drinking beer outside of convenience stores and eating intestines. I’m not kidding.