I get a ton of couchsurfing requests, about 2 per day on average. I read them all, as my curiosity in people allows me no other option. I’ve had a father/son request, a request from 3 Japanese girls, a bunch from couples, even one last week from a 57 year old woman. While all intriguing in their own right, I almost always decline, as my quest for ‘normalcy’ doesn’t include random foreigners living in my apt for days at a time.

A couple weeks ago I got a request from a guy named Wooram Yoo. I checked out his profile and was immediately roped in. The first line in his ‘personal description’ section was, ‘Music Always Makes me HIGH’. After viewing his photos, I decided I needed to meet this kid. In my first reply back to him, I obviously called him ‘Woo’, and subsequently got permission to do so (don’t think for 1 minute that his name being ‘Woo’ with my affinty for ‘Wu’ didn’t play a huge factor in my green lighting him). Also, I figured while I’m building this international network of acquaintances, I needed some representation in the Pacific Rim.

Woo arrived on Thursday. He just completed a 6 month internship in Paris while working for the Hyundai corporation. On the way back to his homeland of South Korea, he decided to check out Barcelona. Woo is 26 years old, and has one more semester of college back in Korea, before getting a job, which he hopes is with Hyundai. He has a twin brother who is currently studying ‘sculpture’ in an art school in Toronto, who he hasn’t seen in years. In Korea, every male is required to go to the military for 2 years. Woo’s field of expertise was ‘missile rocket launching’. Can’t make this shit up.

When Woo arrived, he brought me gifts. A pack of chopsticks, some seaweed wrap, and herbs/spices. The plan was to make some sushi while he was here. Never happened. No clue what to do with my gifts at this point, so I’m sure if any of you come to visit there will still be said gifts sitting in my cabinet.

We went out all 3 nights he was here. Had dinner. Checked out nightclubs. Spent Friday afternoon at the beach. All in all, a solid weekend with my new homeboy from Korea.

At the very least it gave me the opportunity to send the following text message late Friday night as I lay in bed, ‘there’s a 26yr old Asian boy on the other side of the wall behind my head’…so that was fun.

Now if I ever make it to Korea to visit, I got peoples there, and that’s what this is really all about.

**only read following if you watch and know ‘arrested development’ (tv show not rap group)**

So I heard Woo answer his phone one time by saying, ‘Anyong’. When he hung up I immediately asked, ‘how do you say ‘hello’ in Korean?’ to which he replied, ‘Anyong’. After laughing for approximately 37 minutes, I explained to him the situation from the TV show where they adopt the little boy and call him ‘Anyong’, thinking that’s his name, and how he repeats it back to them thinking they’re saying ‘hello’. Woo thought it was hysterical. Needless to say I referred to him as ‘Anyong’ for the rest of the weekend.

Woo showing me my name in Korean

Me showing Woo a video of Supernatural, the best freestyle rapper on the planet