Day 148: Goodbyes Suck!

Another busy day for me...  It was Saturday and I *so* wanted to sleep in but, alas, not today young, fair Scotty....  I had to get up at the crack of dawn (well, 8am, which is too damn early to be up on a Saturday!) so that I could be driven to the Immigration Office to get my new Alien Registration Card. 

My Director Chang picked me up at 9am along with Charles and Peter who also work at Poly and we made the big trek out to NE Seoul which is where the nearest Immigration Office is.  It was a quick and easy-breezy visit fortunately.  Right in, right out, and everything was a-ok.  All our paperwork was perfect and we could pick up our new cards next week.  Sweet - the final, last step for my new life in Korea is at last complete!

We then went back to Ilsan and I hung out with Steve while he packed up all his gear.  In only a few hours Steve was gonna get picked up and driven to the airport so he could start his next adventure.  Although I was totally excited for Steve and his trip (6+ months trekking across Central Asia!) I was really sad and depressed to see him go!  Steve has been a great friend to me since I met him through Brad a few months ago, and has become an even closer bud since Brad and Andrea departed in early June.  What was once The Core Four was whittled down to the Hotboyz and now I was going to be the only one left...  After today my three bestest buds would all be gone and who knows when I'll see them next.  Leaving your friends is really no fun at all, but being the one 'left behind' even more so.  I hate goodbyes - they totally suck!!!

The afternoon disappeared in an instant and it was time to bid my friend Bon Voyage.  Kelsey and I gave Steve a big hug and then he was gone... 

After that Kelsey and I decided to go and do a little shopping in Namdaemun Market in Seoul.  Kelsey's leaving in a few weeks herself to go on a 3-week African Safari with her father and needed to pick up a whole shitload of gear for the big trip.  We made our way to the insane and wonderful chaos that is Namdaemun and actually had a blast picking up all her items.  Kelsey and I are always ridiculously silly whenever we're together and we were having way too much fun with ourselves while shopping!  Good times!  She managed to get most of the gear she needed and then I had to head out to meet up with Michael and Eric.

Michael and Eric had invited me to go white-water rafting again tomorrow so we were going to have dinner together and then I'd crash at Michael's so that we could get up early to make the drive north.  I subwayed it to Itaewon and the three of us had a really lovely dinner at quiet and relaxing French restaurant.  After dinner we cabbed it over to our favourite board game cafe and played...you guessed it...Risk! 

The three of us are such huge geeks!  Here we are, on a perfect Saturday night, and we're *excited* to go and sit and play a silly board game for all hours into the night!  LOL!  But hey at least we're self-professed geeks, which makes it half cool!  hehe...  We had the biggest, bloodiest match of Risk yet and I ended up winning by a hair.  Yah, me!  It was a great night just chilling with friends and actually most of today was a good reminder that even though the Core Four are No More I still have a lot of great friends here in Korea!  Lucky me!  :-)