By: Stuart Brooks

Well since the last time I checked in with you readers, I had the absolute best Korean style bacon dinner, which was right down the street from the WEG office. CAN had talked me into trying it. It was Korean bacon or Burger King, and I think we made the right choice. That bacon was probably some of the best food I've had in years. It was so awesome, words can't describe it. We topped off that dinner with a bottle of Soju and after it was all gone, CAN stood up and said "I am king!". You have to love confidence like that.

The next day was a day of sadness, as we saw many good players and friends leave from that airport to where ever their destination might be. CAN picked me up at 6:30 in the morning, which was entirely too early, but mTw|wizard had the earliest flight of the day, so I just swallowed my dislike for being up at dawn and sang along to the 80's mix tape that CAN had in his car. Don't act like you wouldn't sing along to such 80's hits as "Shout". You don't gotta lie to kick it. The next group of players to arrive were, Quick and MOG (Xeqtr) from NoA, the mTw team, as well as 4K|ToD and GG|Shore. There were a few problems with people who didn't have their tickets on them, which caused my buddy CAN a little stress; nothing a few cigarettes couldn't handle. We had to wait for the ticket courier to arrive with ToD's and Shore's ticket, but the guy went to the wrong airport so the wait was even longer. You think if someone says Seoul Airport, they wouldn't show up at the airport in Gimpo. Apparently he thought the two sounded very similar, but at least those guys got their tickets and are now safely home (I hope). We had to kill a few hours before EG and the lovable ShaG showed up to the airport, so CAN thought he could take me at Soul Caliber. CAN got lucky in the first matches, barely beating me with his character, but later on he was no match for my nunchucks of justice. The score was even but I felt I won the whole thing, CAN might disagree though. The EG guys finally got to the airport, so they received their tickets and I thought we were going to head back to the hotel. I was very wrong. Somehow, three out of the seven flying home, weren't actually on the flight list. The three lucky ones were Blackpanther, Kolach, and scottie. The guys kept their hopes up that they would soon be back to the Great White North, but things were not looking good at that point. After about an hour and a half wait, the ticket counter workers called them over and they got on the flight. That whole situation was definitely not needed as they had plenty of extra seats on the flight. Hopefully all of the EG guys are home, safe and sound in their igloo's or whatever people in Canada sleep in.

Quite a bit has happened in the past few days. A lot of the players and myself have been going to a soju bar that is about a 5 minute taxi ride from the hotel. Some things are better left unsaid. As always, Korean BBQ is one of the favorite places to go eat. With cheap, delicious food, it’s easy to see why the players like going to them.

Siege and myself were in the area by the WEG office, trying to find one of the 24 hour Korean restaurants that I had gone to the previous day with Jennifer and Munne from WEG. We found the place and sat down inside. One of the problems of not being able to speak Korean very well or even understand most of what said is a problem, but when the menu has absolutely no pictures for us to point out, it turns out ugly. Siege had remembered what part of the menu it was on, but there were 4 choices in that same area, so it became a guessing game and we were only half right. We got part of what we wanted, but the rest of it didn't even look edible. I guess a large part of the Korean cuisine is an acquired taste. After eating part of the meal, we left in search of the noodle place nearby. A huge bowl of noodles for about a buck. That is just the kind of meal that I like, cheap.

DarK, masternook, Siege, and I all went out to dinner tonight. Masternook had told us of a Mexican place he found while out and about a few days earlier. We all set out in a taxi, trying our best to direct the taxi driver in the right direction because DarK and masternook didn't know the name of the area, so it was sketchy at best. We finally arrived to the area after a little directorial malfunction by DarK, turning on the wrong street. We stepped out of the taxi and low and behold, a huge sign with the restaurant’s name on it. All looked well and good, but we read a little more of the sign 'Opening in late June'. Apparently in the excitement of masternook finding a Mexican restaurant, he forgot he had the ability to read because this sign was literally the size of a small building. It was huge. We walked around the street for a few minutes, deciding if we were going to have Outback or TGI Fridays. We chose Outback and I think we made the right decision. When we were ordering food, it started off well until Siege ordered his food. He was trying to explain to the waitress that he wanted to substitute shrimp for chicken on his pasta. We thought she understood what he wanted, but when our food came out, she had given him two extra sides of chicken on top of the shrimp that he thought he had changed. It was a TON of food. I don't think any of us had been that full. We probably couldn't eat for two days and still be full after that meal.

Tomorrow the final matches of second group stage start, so we all have to be up pretty early.

Brooks signing out.