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This had to be one of the most random things that has happened to me in Seoul so far. It was last Tuesday and I was walking on campus going passed the international dorm house where I live headed for class. A Korean guy walked up to me and stopped me to ask me a few questions. He asked me questions about Eminem,  if I knew that Eminem’s new album had just been released in Korea that day. He asked me if I liked Eminem and I said “sure I do.” He then told me that he works for Universal Music, the company that is head of the record labels that Eminem is under (as well as The Killers, Lady Gaga, and several more). I was surprised. He said that they were putting on a promotion at COEX mall (the largest underground mall in Asia that is in Seoul). And they were looking for someone to be Eminem at their promotion and that they would pay me 100,000 KRW (about $85) for the three hours of the promotion. I asked what I would have to do and he said I would just be hanging out and people would be taking pictures with me and such, and just act like Eminem. I told him I don’t want to do any rapping because of course then people would know “Wow… he’s not Eminem.” He said I wouldn’t have to do any of that.

I thought about it and figured I’m here to do different things and this sounds pretty different and fun so I said yes. He was thrilled and took a few photos of me to take to his boss.

It’s odd really. I do like Eminem, I’m not like his biggest fan but I do listen to his music. Several years ago back when I was doing computer work I was spending a lot of time working at Harley Davidson Seattle and I had dyed my hair blond. I had only been working at Harley for a few days so not all the guys knew my name yet, so they ended up just calling me Eminem and that nickname stuck at Harley for the next couple years.

I also do enjoy doing an Eminem song at the noray bang (Karaoke) from time to time.

I got ready for the part on Saturday, I had a Nike set of matching sweat pants and hooded zip up sweat top. I also had a black Nike ball cap. I went to the event that they had set up and people were already gathering. They had a big poster that had several squares on it, each square had a number and prizes labeled in the squares. People would draw a square from a box hat had a piece of the album cover art on it and they would past it to the corresponding number and win a prize if there was a prize on that square. In the end the picture would be the new album cover.

Hundreds and hundreds of people came. They never thought there’d be so many people. I remember turning around once and there had to have been about 70 people surrounding the event area in a horshoe shaped crowd about 4 people deep all taking pictures. I just remember being surrounded by tons of people and cameras. They all had their cell phone cameras out and cameras taking pictures. It was crazy. Several people were coming forward and asking to get a picture with me. Girls, guys and I even took pictures with little kids.

After the event the Universal crew took me out to dinner and paid me. Later I met up with one of the guys and we had some drinks together. He gave me Eminem’s new album as well as a few other Universal label band CD’s. He told me that everything worked perfect. He said that so many people had actually thought I was Eminem. Even though they didn’t tell people I was Eminem, he said that some groups of friends were arguing over whether or not I was really Eminem, and that a lot of people had just assumed.

In fact I had found a blog post online, it was written in Korean and I showed it to a friend of mine and he started laughing and then translated it for me. This is what it said:

I saw eminem at coex today
I think the record shop invited him -_-;;
There were lots of people gather together so I just went
.. and Eminem was there
He gave Free Hugs, took pictures, and gave signatures
He looked just like the way he looked in the movie 8 mile
I personally really like him
and it felt really weird having seen him in Korea.
I took several pictures and i had to leave with my girlfriend because of the movie time… ^^;
I wanted to take a picture with him but;;;;

I didn’t do any signatures though, they probably would have been in legal trouble for that. But yeah, apparently I can pull of Eminem. They had to pull me away from the crowd and people were begging for “One more picture! One more!” and people were moaning as they took me away. It was so funny. It was very hard to not be smiling during the event. You  know you look at all of Eminem’s pictures, he doesn’t smile. So I tried to play the part. It was hard because it was a good time, it was really funny and generally I just smile a lot. But I felt like a celebrity for one day, it was pretty insane. All the attention and pictures.

Universal is supposed to be sending me some pictures they took during the event. They took several. I will post them when they come in. Here’s one I found on the internet, it’s not very good I think it was right before the event actually started. Here is a girl holding a poster of the album cover. The album is titled RELAPSE.

Click to enlarge photos.

Sunday I woke up at 6:30 am to get ready to head to the locker room to meet the football team. We were headed out to play a very important game. This game would be the first of the tournament and our first opponent would be our toughest. They won the tournament last year, and both years before that. Yonsei hasn’t won this tournament in 10 years. We had been practicing a lot, and training hard. Many of us had gave up drinking for a while just to have that extra edge of health.

It had been raining for two days up till Sunday. The dirt field had become a few inches deep of mud. After the first quarter of the game you couldn’t make out the numbers on the players uniforms. The game was hard fought. It was the fourth quarter and neither team had scored yet. The other team seemed to be tired. We powered a drive down the field and were able to run in a touchdown. There wasn’t a whole lot of time left on the clock when we kicked off. When we got possession of the ball back there was just over a minute left on the clock, we took our knees and ran the clock out and won the game.

We had a big celebration after the game. We ate dinner, drank a lot, went to a bar, drank some more, then went to another bar and drank some more. It was a very important victory for the team.

Our next game will be this coming Sunday, with a final game the Sunday following granted we win this one. Pictures were taken at the game, when I get them I will be sure to post.

Tuesday was Children’s Day in Korea. The schools were closed so we had no classes. Monday night my friend Mike and I discussed what we wanted to do for Tuesday, we didn’t want to stay in Shinchon (the area where we live in Seoul). We decided since the weather was going to be nice that we’d head into Incheon and go to the beach. But for Monday night we decided we’d make a visit to Doctor Fish. Doctor Fish is a cafe where you go and soak your feet in water that has fish in it that eat at your feet. Supposed to be good for your feet. Mike and I headed out there and met up with Samuel and we went together.

It was ok, but I felt like I had more dead skin left on my feet when I got out of the water than when I went in. I think just from being in the water for quite a while. It feels so strange. It definitely tickles, and at first you want to pull your feet out immediately because it’s unbearable, but you just leave them in there and get used to the light pinchy feeling allover your feet.

Tuesday morning Mike and I met up and we headed out to Incheon. It took only 45 minutes on the subway, then we had to take a bus to go out to the island where the airport is and beaches. The bus ride seemed like a long time, it must have taken another 45 minutes. We noticed when we passed the airport that the bus went by the Hyatt Regency hotel and in the hotel was a casino. This would come into play later.

We got to the beach, but as we approached the beach on the bus it appeared very foggy out. When the bus stopped at the beach we got out and immediately felt the cold chill of the temperature. The beach was all foggy and cold. Everyone out at the beach was in jeans and hooded sweatshirts or jackets. The two of us are in flip flops, shorts and t-shirts. As if we didn’t look like foreigners already…

So the beach was too cold, we found a restaurant and had some seafood which was good. We noticed the convenience stores sold fireworks, so we each bought a firework, just because. We then decided since the beach was so cold we would go at least check out the casino. We got back on the bus and headed back toward the airport. As we were coming up to the hotel I told Mike that I had seen the hotel online and saw that they had an indoor swimming pool, so I said maybe we could go sneak in and go swimming.

We went inside and went up stairs to check out the swimming pool. It was fairly crowded but we found out it was open till 10, so we decided we’d go to the casino first then go swimming. We went into the casino and went to the blackjack table. We gambled for probably an hour and a half or two. I was down about $55 and Mike was up about $60 or so. We decided to take a break and go for a swim.

We went up to the swimming pool and noticed the entrance was through a fitness health club in the hotel. The club had a workout center, sauna rooms and sauna pools and then the main swimming pool. The club was for members or hotel guests only. Mike asked how much it was and they said “Oh it’s free for guests, are you a guest?” and Mike wisely replied “Yes.” The man then handed Mike a sheet of paper and said “We just need your room number and signature.” so Mike signed the paper, made up a room number and we got our locker keys. We went in changed and then worked out on the weights for about 30 minutes. We then went to the jacuzzi, soaked for a few and then swam some laps in the pool. After that we went back the locker room went to the sauna room and went in the sauna bath, then in the sauna rooms. We showered, used all the fancy amenities then headed out.

We thought we’d get some food first before going back into the casino. The restaurant in the hotel was doing a special that day for Children’s Day. They were having a buffet for $16 a person. The lady who seated us asked Mike if we had vouchers, I think vouchers were given to guests to use at the buffet. Mike said we didn’t have any vouchers. We were seated and later the waiter came to ask if we’d like any wine to drink. I asked him how much the wine was and he said $10, I then asked how much the buffet was and he said “Oh it’s free with your vouchers.” Because he said that, I decided I wouldn’t order any wine. Mike and I helped ourselves at the buffet. They had roast duck, pork, BBQ ribs and all kinds of great stuff. They had a desert buffet with several different kinds of cakes, fruit, gelato, pudding and everything. It was one of the nicest buffet’s I’ve ever had. We filled up, then went into the kids section where we wanted to get our faces painted. Mike wanted to get the ace of spades playing card on one cheek and ‘BLACK’ on the other cheek. I would then get the Jack of spades on my cheek and ‘JACK’ on the other cheek. We asked the lady to paint that on our face but she didn’t know how to or didn’t understand. She told us we could paint eachother’s faces so we did. Mike was definitely better at it than I was and it was his loss, but it looked alright.

They then gave us icecream cones and cotton candy. And the whole thing was free with the vouchers we didn’t have!

In high spirits and feeling lucky we went back into the casino with painted faces and sat down at the blackjack table. We must have been there for a few hours. I had won all my money back and Mike was up a total of about $200 for the day. We decided it was a good time to leave, it was 11:30 and we had class the next day.

I went to the concierge at the hotel and asked what was the best way to get to Seoul at this time and he laughed and said “there’s no transportation going there now.” I asked about the subway, bus, airport shuttle, anything and he said the only way was taxi, which would cost about $100. I asked how much a room was at the hotel and he said “$250 is the cheapest room”. I couldn’t believe it… we had been enjoying this hotel all day and in the end we might actually have to pay for a room. We thought for a while, we hunted around the hotel looking for a place to sleep and thought about all our options. We did find a big couch on the second floor we figured could be a serious option. I suggested we go to the airport and hitch hike a ride back to Seoul. Some people had to be going from the airport to Seoul. We decided we’d do that, we walked over to the airport and we were lucky to find that a bus headed for Seoul had not left yet and we were able to get on for $14 a person. We fell a sleep a bit on the bus ride back, got to Seoul, took a cab to our dorm. We got to the dorm and lit off a firework in celebration of a successful day. We had for a little bit really thought we would be stranded in Incheon till morning. But we got back.

Our day didn’t turnout like we imagined, relaxing on a sunny beach, drinking beer, reading and listening to music. Instead the beach failed and when we were discouraged we turned the day around and turned it into a good story. Not only did we get to enjoy the hotel hospitality for free, we got more money out of them from the casino and came home with more money than we had left with.

April 30th was my 26th birthday… mid twenties right? Not late twenties. In Korea my age is 27. My age was actually 27 even before my birthday. In Korea you are born at age 1, then you go up a year after the Chinese New Year.

My birthday was celebrated quite thoroughly. Wednesday night we had football practice and we went out to dinner as a team. The coach called me over to his table and there we chatted and drank several shots of soju (customary thing, It would be rather awkward to say ‘no’ maybe even offensive). The coach talked to me about how he feels the team is important to me as an exchange student because I’m part of something in Korea, and I’ve made lots of friends on the team. He told me to mak sure I stay connected with the friends I’ve made on the team and also to stay connected with the team. He encouraged me to come back and visit the team in the future, even if the team is all new students he said I should come visit them as I am always part of the team.

After drinking several shots of soju a group of the team wanted to go to a bar and continue drinking. At this time it was about 11:30 and one of my friends told the guys it was my birthday in 30 minutes. When they heard this, suddenly partying was a must. We went to a bar and one of the teammates came back with an ice cream cake. I got to pick the beer that I wanted and we all ate cake and drank beer. Then they started making me do things, like drinking beers in one shot. Then my good pal Mike turned on me and did something horrible. He took a little pitcher and poured a whole beer in it, then he took a soju bottle and poured 3/4 of the bottle of soju in the pitcher. Then I had to drink it all in one shot. The whole team does the team call which is sort of a chant while I drink the entire thing. It was fun spending the evening with my Korean friends and teammates as they were happy to celebrate my birthday. I was very appreciative. My night soon ended shortly after that and I missed my classes the next day.

Since it was somewhat of a surprise birthday party I didn’t have my camera. Only my cell phone. You can see a couple guys in the photo. The main guy there in white is Yongsan. He’s pretty hilarious. Good guy.

Thursday evening the day of my birthday a group of friends and I all went out for mexican food. We then stopped by a bar to pick up another friend and when I walked in several people from the international dorm house were there and began singing happy birthday when I walked in. They had a cake there with candles. We had a little celebration there and then headed to the movie theater to go see Wolverine.

The following day (Friday) it was my friend David’s birthday. He wanted to do a double party so he sended out a Facebook invite to all of the international students. We were all at our common bar in the area. This time I didn’t drink at all. I was working on being healthy for the football game coming up on Sunday.

Sunday we had our first football game. We were playing Korea University. Korea University is the rival school of Yonsei University. This game was just an exhibition, it doesn’t count toward the national tournament we are playing in beginning the 17th. For this game we hadn’t done a whole lot of good position practice, mostly conditioning, so we relied heavily on our veteran players. I was placed as a starter on special teams on the kickoff team. We won the coin toss and kicked off first, so I played in the first play of the game. We later scored and had another kickoff where I went out again, this time I played the killer position on the right side. As killer your job is to tackle the guy with the ball (as if it isn’t anyone elses job). Unfortunately the kick went to the left and the returner took it up the left side.

Our next game I hope to play more. Right now I’m currently second string on free safety and corner back. So if our free safety or corner back player’s get tired or injured I go in for them. They wanted to put me second string on wide receiver for this game also, but I said I hadn’t practiced enough with the offensive team to know all the plays. We have two weeks to prepare for our next game. I hope to get time playing more corner back and wide receiver positions to be ready and hopefully get a starting position at one of those places.

Since the game was just a scrimmage/exhibition we didn’t use a real football field. We didn’t have goal posts, so there was no field goal game. The game ended in a tie 6 to 6. A tie since it wasn’t a real game, they didn’t want to do a sudden victory.

I will soon have more photos from the game, including team photos. But this is all I got so far.

That’s me #63. Jersey’s were given out at random. Numbers don’t matter to positions in Korea. It seems strange playing a defensive back with a number like that. But… doesn’t matter here.

#56 is Jeremy, #63 is me, #83 is Mike, #42 is Eddie

The Yonsei Eagles are in blue. Korea University is in Red.