There aren’t many similarities between Frank Underwood and myself. Frank is more of a PS4 FPS kind of guy whereas I lean towards Nintendo and Super Smash Bros. Frank is a masterful orator, breaking the mind, body and spirit of anyone who stands in his way, along with the 4th wall; I on the other hand, am more of a written wordsmith, but the only thing that I break is your will to continue reading. Frank is a cold, calculating, ruthless psychopath whose hunger can only be satiated by absolute power over others; me? I just wanna play soccer and watch breakdance videos on YouTube, while eating pizza…..and beef.
Which brings us to what Frank and I do agree on – that the Hamburglar can be the hero. Why steal what was already yours to begin with? Why live your life taking when you can give to others?
The Hamburglar, historically, has been misunderstood. Underneath that mask and black and white striped shirt is a little man with a big heart, simply trying to feed a family that’s allergic to fruits and vegetables. Shunned by bosses, co-workers and the general public for decades, it was nigh time that the Hamburglar made his long awaited return, not as the criminal he had been made out to be, but as the hero everyone knows that he can be.
I think my body realized what I wanted to be for Halloween before I did. I had eaten two massive burgers at my new favorite burger place in Seoul, Brooklyn Burger the night before leaving for Taiwan and proceeded to eat McDonalds on my trip a further three times (Disgusting? Yes. Necessary? Also yes). A group of friends and I actually love this place so much (keep an eye out for my food post which I will drop…not imminently but eventually) that when discussions were ongoing as to what to be for Halloween, part of the conversation deviated towards Brooklyn Burger—>Brooklyn Burglar—>Brooklyn Hamburglar.
At this point I’m quite certain that being the Hamburglar had hit my subconscious, but it wasn’t until KJ flat out said to me on a train ride somewhere “dude, you should just be the Hamburglar and not some random Brooklyn Hamburglar” that my subconscious was officially bitch-slapped into reality and I finally had my idea.
Fast forward to Halloween. Myself and multiple friend groups decide to go to a Haunted Factory in Gangnam which was being hosted GSM, the same group who organized the Gatsby party. If this party was half as fun as Gatsby, we knew we were in for quite a night….
And make no mistake, the Hamburglar came prepared…to the tune of six burgers and two McChickens. Now were half of those eaten by the Hamburglar himself over the course of the night? Yes. But did he give a burger to a hungry ninja that just finished fighting on an empty stomach? Or to a few Korean K-Pop looking ladies? How about to a group of people who didn’t come correct in the costume department that he felt sorry for? Yup, yup, YUUUP. The Hamburglar put his five finger discounted burgers to great use that evening.
The night couldn’t have ended any better…with a trip to Brooklyn Burger where the Hamburglar proceeded to eat his sixth and seventh burgers of the day. Unfortunately by that point he had entered food coma land of which there was no return so no pictures were taken of the grand finale but that’s ok, I’m sure you can picture the beefy onslaught that occurred.
Much to his surprise, the cheese on top of the patty came a few days later in the form of a runner-up prize for the beef-burglar!
Two round trip tickets to Jeju Island, two bottles of champagne and a 100,000 won ($91) gift card to a skincare clinic/hospital?! Chincha (really)?! I’m sure there’s a catch but whatever…now I can get a discount on that nose-job I’ve always wanted!
Hiking Bukhansan
This past Saturday, Chelsea, Connor and myself went on a day hike to Bukhansan National Park. Bukhansan is an incredibly popular mountain to hike as it has a variety of trails that vary in length and degree of difficulty and unlike most other mountains in Korea, is accessible via the Seoul subway and a short bus ride.
The three of us opted for Baegundae Peak, the tallest mountain whose summit stands at 836.5 meters. The course is a little over 4 kilometers to the top and when it was all said and done, it had taken a little over 3 hours to get up and back down. During the middle part of the ascent and descent, I really had to channel my inner billy goat as the trail has you climbing from rock to rock for a solid 45 minutes each way. Towards the last part of the ascent, steel cables/ropes are set up that you have to grab onto in order to pull yourself up to the next rock/keep you from slipping down.
Admittedly, we didn’t quite reach the top…we underestimated how many Koreans would be hiking at this time of day and there was a huge bottleneck at the final ascent which looked none to pleasing to be a part of. Our indifference at not making it quite to the top was probably due to a) knowing we could come back anytime we wanted and b) we already had a pretty great view that most people were passing up on in order to wait an extra 30+ minutes to make the final ascent.
After a solid three hours worth of hiking (and fasting to boot for yours truly) and an extra few hours on different kinds of public transportation, it was time to feast. Mexican food was on the cards and Connor knew of just the place to go. El Pino. El muthafuckin Pino. Holy moly. This is another one to save for the food blog post so I’ll spare you the juicy details and instead ask you to look at this tasty torta below….
Boom! Another blog post done and dusted. One for the ages? Only time will tell. But before I sign off, I’ll leave you with this two word question to ponder over…..
