Guam, KAIAC Tournament, & DJ Festival

April- Guam Swimvitational: 

One of my duties as HEAD Coach of THE Morning Swim Squad is “Travel Agent for all international swim meets”... now this might sound pretty amazing, and I’m sorry- not to complain- it’s pretty annoyingly hard work. 

I took a total of 3, count them 3, swimmers to Guam, USA for a fairly dinky meet.. it was ok- the important thing is that the kids enjoyed themselves, regardless of all the junk I had to do.. 

Also, It was nice to go to “America” for 2 days... It was quite interesting seeing a Shell gas station from the airplane window as we were touching down.. SO America... AND  I went to 2 movies in a movie theater, ate Sbarro, and went shopping in a MALL!!! Thank God! I never realized how therapeutic shopping and movies were to me until I no longer had them... :( 

Also- WARM WEATHER!!! It was ABOUT time... 

After Guam, there was the end of the HS KAIAC season... my asst. coach is of NO assistance, so it was rather difficult to manage 30 teenage swimmers and complete all the tasks a Head coach should... needless to say, I worked my patootie off and the end of the season was somewhat successful... 

We had the final 2 day tournament @ SFS... and I FINALLY achieved my goal of bringing some team spirit to these children- we had a shaving party & potluck pasta dinner the night before the tournament & we all went to On the Border as an “After the Tournament celebration dinner”. 

This culmination of the season made me sad to say goodbye to my HSers who I’d spent literally all year with... They are a great bunch of kids and pretty much THE reason I will return next year to SFS... 

After the completion of HS season, I got a TINY GLIMPSE of what having a life would be like... 

(As quoted from a fellow HS Swim coach from another team: “Oh yeah, you don’t get to actually SEE Korea when you’re here... not with OUR job”. Tell me about it Sam, tell me about it! :( ) 

So, my life... 

I was able to go out with my friends once again!!!!! I had forgotten their names and what they looked like during HS swim season... 

I was able to experience ONE whole weekend OFF work before more swim meets ensued... and I didn’t know WHAT to do with myself... 

I went to the World DJ Festival where I saw Fantastic Plastic Machines- my new fave J-Pop band via Frank Kang, my Korean buddy. :) It was here that I thought: “I LOVE Asia, solely for the reason of things like this....” 

Now, I did NOT enjoy losing ALL my friends, which led to me meeting a random One-eyed Jamaican man that almost kidnapped me!!! (I luckily escaped by jumping into a moving cab and fleeing homewards, despite having spent all my money..) It was NOT fun when I could not find my phone and subsequently realized it was gone for good... BUT losing one’s phone DEF beats being kidnapped, raped, and killed... :)