Friday, February 21, 2014

Charades

I've been in Korea for about 4 days, so I'm almost fluent in Korean.

Until I get to that point, moments like these will continue to happen:

Here I am, reenacting a real-life situation wherein I ask a HomePlus (akin to Walmart) employee where to find some garbage bags...


This was unsuccessful.

Then I tried looking for contact lens solution...


This time was more successful.

After returning to my apartment, I discovered that I already had contact lens solution...at least I had extra pantomime practice.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Fly like paper getting’ high like planes

No, this isn’t a post about getting high (gosh, Mom). It’s just an update that I’m writing in the fourth hour of my 12 hour flight. It will probably get posted when I get on the ground, get settled, and remember that I’ve written this…so in other words, June. We’ll see.

The last week has been full of goodbyes, packing, and pictures with the family dog.




The last couple days have been jet-packed. The parentals took me to SLC international airport, and thanks to Skycap and online check-in, I said “NO THANKS” to the check in desk and went straight to security. Instead of booking the trip to Seoul, which would have involved an 11 hour layover in San Francisco (as Sara-without-an-H would say, “EW!”), I decided to book the flights on two separate tickets: SLC-LAX-SFO on Southwest Airlines on Feb. 15, and SFO-ICN on  Singapore Air on Feb. 16.

Now, you may be thinking, “Gross. That’s a lot of flying time,” or, “this is SOOOOO boring,” or, “why did Princess Toadstool’s name change to Peach? Did Nintendo not think that we’d notice?”

I’ll address these starting with the last question, then the second, then the first.


  • I totally agree with you. Life just hasn't been the same since Mario 64.
  • Please purchase one of these so you can bat it around and allay your boredom.
  • Yeah, in a way, it wasn't great. I tend to feel dirty after flying, for whatever reason. That said…I’m pretty happy with this itinerary. Please see the list below as to why.

Reasons Brad Did it Right
  • Guys. Southwest. I love it. The seats just seem comfier and the flight attendants seem happier. Best quote from yesterday’s FAD (Flight Attendant of the Day): “Alright guys, we’re gonna go so fast, we’re gonna fly.”
  • It was the best option. For whatever reason, when I checked, I found that there weren’t many (read: any) direct flights from SLC to SFO that cost less than eleventy-billion dollars. C’mon, San Fran. Open the runway to the U-ttractive flights from the Beehive State! You won’t regret it!
  • I got to catch up with a few friends:
o   Joe and Whitney – okay, this was a phone conversation that could have happened anywhere, but a lot of good things came from this phone call due to the timing. For instance, Joe and Whitney now know what a “South Korea” is…a country.
o   Carrie – we were in the same ward in Virginia. She has an amazing life. She also let me crash at her place and chillax with her awesome lab/hound mix, Oliver. The following also happened at said place:

Male house resident peeks into kitchen to find the protagonist, Brad, eating mandarin oranges and drinking a glass of water. The male has just left the shower and has no clothing to speak of save the towel around his waist. Brad, on the other hand, is clothed. Carrie is not on stage in her room.

Towel-donned male: “Um, hey.”
Brad: “Hey.”
[Pause]
Brad: “I’m a friend of Carrie’s.”
TDM: “Ah, gotcha.”

Clearly, cooler heads prevailed in what could have been an awkward moment of him presuming that I was an intruder. He would then need to calculate what kind of action he’d need to take to get me out of the house without dropping his towel. Maybe he’s the kind of person that would chase an intruder out, towel-be-danged. Anyway, moving on.
o   Tyler – it’s still a bit strange to call him Tyler, since we served an LDS mission at the same time and I typically referred to him by his last name. Anyhow, we hadn’t seen each other since our days at BYU. He let me crash at his place and eat his food. I also met his roommate Jesse, who’s a cool guy.

- (<--- Blogger is giving me grief about bullets and mocking my OCD tendencies. I'm glad I vented about that). Singapore Air is incredible. I mean, just look at this!


Interactive games. You now know the Korean word for beef. You're welcome.
Yes, it's poorly lit, but that was lunch, and a darn good one at that.

This classy menu includes "light bites", a light meal (not to be confused with the "light bites"), and dinner.
Speaking of classy, the flight attendants are dressed to the nines. One of them, Desmond, told me I remind him of a college roommate of his college roommate, which was nice to hear because he didn’t say I remind him of Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory (I’m sure he’s a great guy). Then we chatted for a bit. And you're fascinated.

Well, I’m in the fifth hour of flight, and it looks like we’re currently over Alaska. Specifically, it looks like we’re flying over the very hill from where  Sarah Palin keeps watch over the Russians, which means this is a good place for me to stop for now.

My goal for the rest of the flight is to figure out more ways to use “light bites” in my vernacular. Any suggestions?

Monday, February 10, 2014

New blogventure

Oh hey world.

I hope you are well as you are reading this post. I, for one, am doing great. Currently, I am visiting my family in Utah (USA) before undertaking what, for me, is a dream I've had for almost two years now...living abroad. In less than a week, I'll be traveling to South Korea to teach English at Sahmyook Language Academy!

Flag of South Korea, courtesy of futuregov.asia.
The intent is to provide updates of the adventure as time goes on. I figure that a big life shift such as this is blog-worthy, even though this is my fourth attempt at blogging...wherps.

In addition to giving updates of the adventure, I'll probably touch on other things, including and not limited to:

  • What I did to prepare for this new step.
  • Why I wanted to do this.
  • The (what will surely be at times) emotional roller coaster.
  • Things to know about moving / living abroad.
I'd like to make this blog interesting to readers, so if there's a question you have about life abroad, feel free to ask! Also, if you have a perspective to offer on any post, by all means, share away.

I'm going to keep this post short and sweet, but before I close, I'll share a bit about the title of the blog and the blog URL:
  • Title: Bibimbap is a tasty Korean dish that includes rice, vegetables, chili paste, meat, and an egg. Bulgogi is thinly sliced meat (usually beef) that I've seen a lot in my limited Korean cuisine ventures. If I have to explain why Brad is in the title, then you've accidentally stumbled onto this blog and probably meant to go here instead.
  • URL: Meehan is...if you're wondering, you probably wanted to go here rather than this blog. No worries. Hanguk is the term South Koreans use to refer to their country. If you'd like more info, or are tired of looking at Instagram pics of cats, here's a long Wiki article that delves more into the term Hanguk.
Once again, please let me know if you have any specific questions about my impressions of Korea, living abroad, what it's like to eat kimchi 13 times a day, or anything else*, and I'll do my best to answer them.

Alright, I'm out for now.

*Don't take anything else too literally. If you have a question about where Chuck Norris came from, for example, I'll likely redirect you to a parent or other trusted adult.