When Brian and I lived in Korea, one of our favorite dishes was Shabu Shabu. It's not exactly a Korean dish - more Japanese and Mongolian but it's amazing regardless. Shabu shabu is typically a family-style hotpot with tons of veggies and thinly sliced meat. Shabu shubu literally translates to "swish swish" which is exactly what you do with the meat. Because the meat is so thinly sliced, it cooks very quickly in the boiling hot pot. There really are no words. Look up a local shabu shabu restaurant and make a reservation, stat.
The following day was surf day. When I lived in Australia five years ago, I went on a
week-long surf trip and learned how to surf. I was never amazing but I could get up. When I was in Florida a few years later, I could still surf so I was confident that I would be fine. Brian had never actually learned how to surf (I guess 3 months in an Australian hospital will put a damper on that sort of thing) so he was keen to learn.We had our very own surfer dude Terry to teach us so we set out, once again, to Waikiki to catch a wave. Terry helped us pick out appropriate boards (I think mine should have been about 20 feet longer) and we dove into the surf.
I always get really frustrated with the paddling out part because you usually have to paddle out really far to get to the decent waves. Even though I've been working on my swimming, I always feel like I'm not moving! After about 4 hours, I made it to the waves. Ok, not 4 hours. Probably like 10 minutes. I'm an exaggerating surfer, so sue me. The waves were small and not very impressive, but there were plenty of people catching waves.
While waiting for waves, typically, you sit up on your board, straddling it with both legs. It takes a bit of balance but most people get the hang of it after a few minutes. Brian White is not most people. Brian would be sitting on his board, calm as can be and then suddenly flip off into the water. This didn't happen one or two times, either. More like 10-20. I was thoroughly entertained and I really wish I had video to share.
Brian did really well for a first timer and was able to get up and stay up for a few seconds. I was having a lot more trouble. I wasn't falling, I just wasn't catching waves! I was starting to get aggravated until a beaut headed our way. Brian and I both swung our boards into position and started paddling hard. I felt my board catch the momentum of the wave and I pushed myself up. Just as I was about to fully stand on a glorious wave, I was violently knocked from my board. I soon realized that my lovely boyfriend's board had taken a horizontal trajectory right into me. I was crushed. It was so not gnarly. So not righteous. A surfer don't. Sigh...
Although I half got up on a few, I never did seriously surf that day. But don't worry, I didn't walk away from the beach with nothing. Because I was originally surfing in my bikini (I later smartened up and put on a tank top) I had massively horrible board rash! The rubbing of my skin on a mixture of salt water and board wax and from all the friction of laying on my board and not surfing caused my skin to break out into a red rash all over. They almost look like tiny blood blisters and they lasted for at least a week. Ouchie mama.
Even though we were not the best surfers out there, we definitely had our surfing experience and ended our evening with a trip to Cold Stone (and ice cream place). Brian likes Cold Stone. A lot.
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