The Last Asian Wednesday

No, this is not a short story about Asia being destroyed on a Wednesday, or switching over to some crazy calendar that doesn’t have Wednesdays (although you are welcome to write one in the comments… I will give you a dollar if it’s good). Rather it describes an event, known as “Asian Wednesday.”

They are like stairs!

“Tell us about the origin of Asian Wednesday!!” clamors a mob of nearby teenagers.

Well mob of teenagers, Asian Wednesday has a long and glonous tradition — and cultual. Tuk under thurnb and held firmly.

“WHAT?!” they yell angstily.

Now you can pick up anything! …never mind. When I returned to Omaha from Seoul last March, I met up with my Korean friend Jong-hun, who had come over to Omaha to study English. He ended up living at an awesome place called Capitol Court, which is kind of like a dorm for international students, where he met many other international students, such as Mina Kang and Rumiko Niijima:

A chingu and a tomodachi.

I and some of my friends decided to have a get-together with these people every Wednesday, wherein we would eat food and watch Asian videos. President Bush, upon learning of our weekly outing, said, “I like to say, if America can’t have Asian Wednesdays, it’s not the America I know.” The name stuck.*

President Bush talking about possibly instating Asian Wednesdays as an American holiday.

Last Tuesday (yes, Tuesday) we had a special Asian Wednesday — the last one of its kind. Mina was leaving the next day on a two-week vacation to see America before she goes back to Korea, and I was about to leave on my second Leaf. What’s more, Jong-hun is going to accompany me for several weeks of this Leaf, and Rumiko moved from Capitol Court just two days prior. It just goes to show that Things Change.

Some things, however, don’t change. For example, men like cars:

Nice car, Shusei!

Even better, cars and girls!

Idyllic scene?

And pretty much everyone likes great food.

Idyllic scene.

We ate at a place called Jam’s American Grill. Not only was it ranked highly on websites about Omaha restaurants, but it had the word American in the name, which made it an excellent place to take international students for a final, special outing.

I posed them, like plastic toys!  But one of them moved.

I would like to mention that Rumiko is an excellent girlfriend. She has been my girlfriend for a while now, and I am her boyfriend number two, after Kim Jong-Il (President of North Korea). My efforts to oust Mr. Kim have thus far been unsuccessful. She is always interested in more boyfriends, so if you are interested let me know and I’ll submit your information to her. Unqualified applicants can expect to be boyfriend 500 or more, but applicants with appropriate qualifications (lots of money, President of a totalitarian nation) can expect to rank higher. Rumiko reserves the right to reject all applicants for any reason.

Rumiko is also a popular toy! Everyone likes to play with Rumiko.

Following our adventure eating at Jam’s, we went to the Shark Club. We were totally not sharks, but they let us in anyway. We played a fun game known as “pool.” We tried to act like sharks while we were there.

Rumiko the Pool Shark.

We also sometimes acted like humans.

Asian Wednesday's Asians

And aliens.

"It's like E.T." -Jong-hun

It is my wish that the spirit of Asian Wednesday will live on.

How to Have Your Own Asian Wednesday

  • Find an Asian.
  • Eat some food with the Asian.
  • Maybe watch a movie or something.

That’s it! Note that it does not even have to be Wednesday. Good luck!

* That part about the President is a lie.

4 thoughts on “The Last Asian Wednesday

  1. Once upon a time there was an entire village in Tibet that lived by a calendar which did not include Wednesdays. While this did cause some confusion concerning business practices and international relations, the Tibetans were unconcerned as it meant that New Years’ Eve lasted 54 days.*

    *note: the part about this happening in Tibet is untrue.

  2. p.s. i have always wanted to go hiking in Tibet. i wish it WAS true….

    since it isn’t you can keep the dollar. altho i may owe you one as it is a terrible story. but i did count, and there ARE 54 Wednesdays this year…

  3. welcome to the quirkiness of happiness – and its related flow chart fun! while thinking about something else later this afternoon it occurred to me that the use of the word “always” in my previous comment was a gross exaggeration. and in the interests of being completely truthful, i felt the need to say that. 🙂

    hope you are having a lovely and productive day here in Chitown!

  4. You probably could have made that number up and no one would bother to double-check. If someone else does the work for me and verifies that it’s really 54 Wednesdays this year, I’ll totally give you a dollar for that.

    As a side note, if there are 54 Wednesdays and New Year’s Eve is not a Wednesday, the holiday would then be 55 days long…

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