Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #419: Around the World

Episode Date: March 17, 2017

In my 21 years at Wizards, Magic has helped me travel all over the world. In this podcast, I talk about the sixteen different countries I've visited.

I'm pulling out the driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another drive to work. Okay, so today's podcast I'm calling Around the World. Okay, so there are a lot of perks of my job. There's a lot of things I love about my job. I'm going to talk about one of them today. So, since starting to work for Wizards, this is going to be my 22nd year, So, since starting to work for Wizards, this is going to be my 22nd year, I've managed to visit 16 different countries, other than the United States, obviously. 16 foreign countries.

So, today, I'm going to walk through all the different places I've visited. By the way, these are all countries that I visited through magic. In my life, there's a few other places I've visited, but I'm not going to talk about other places. Just through magic, through my job, these are the places I've gotten to visit. I'm going to talk about sort of why I was there, what I thought about the countries, and, you know, sort of walk through the different experiences. So this is sort of a travel-along episode, if you will. And where I can, I will point out other podcasts where I go in more depth on some of these stories. But I will definitely talk about the 16 different places I've visited.

Now, I've actually visited all six continents. I mean, okay, I haven't been to Antarctica, but of the continents in which magic is played on any regularity, I visited all six. So I'm going to walk through and talk about all of them. I'm going to start close to home, though. So we're going to start with North America. So I've actually only visited one foreign country in North America. There's only two. I've been to Mexico,

just not for magic. But I've talked about Canada. So I believe Canada, by the way, is number two in the most times visited of foreign countries. I've been to Canada a bunch of different times. So I'll talk about some of my highlights. One of the things about Canada, also living in Seattle, is that I can drive to Canada. I've actually driven to Vancouver a couple different times for Magic.

And we had a pro tour in Vancouver. But the first time I was ever in Canada was actually in Toronto at the very first ever pre-release, which was for Ice Age. I did a podcast on this, so you can listen for the more detail. But I got flown. It was one of the first time wizards flew me somewhere. And not the very first, but an early time that I got flown somewhere, and I actually participated. I played in the very first pre-release ever. I was reporting on it for the Duelist, and then I got kicked out.

After there was a two-day event, the top 32 advanced from day one to day two, and I actually made the top 32, but then they came to me and asked me to drop out because they had brought me there and they felt it was wrong that they didn't want me doing well at events that they had flown me to the event I I was playing it so I could write from the perspective of someone playing in it so I voluntarily dropped out and somebody else you know 33 whatever the next person didn't got that so they advanced 32 people just I dropped out

um I was also in Toronto. So we did this thing when we started doing pre-releases, you know, like Ice Age was a singular pre-release in one city ever. And then we did, after Ice Age, the next pre-release, I think, was we did an event for Homelands called The Gathering, which was kind of a pre-release. I mean, technically, I guess it was a pre-release. There was more going on to it. And the cards were known before the event happened, although the set wasn't out yet.

And then after that, we had a pre-release for Alliances at the Pro Tour. a pre-release for Alliances at the Pro Tour. One of the Pro Tour Los Angeleses had a pre-release at the event for Alliances. But the first time we ever had pre-releases in multiple cities was for Mirage. And because it was the first time we'd ever done it, I don't remember exactly how many. There were like 30 or 40 or something.

We sent a Wizards employee to everyone. And so I ended up going to Toronto. Originally, by the way, I think I might have told the story. Originally, I was, I had asked to go to, to, to Alaska. I'd never, to this day, I've never been to Alaska. I wanted to go to Alaska. And at the last minute, they swapped me because there was, there was some concerns about the people running in Toronto. And they just wanted me to, you know, I'd done a lot of tournament stuff, so they sent me to sort of just make sure everything was going okay. It was going wonderfully. It actually went really well. So at the pre-release for Mirage in Toronto,

I met Gary Wise for the very first time. I actually played him. I had made a deck to spell-sling with, and so I think the very first person I spell-slinged with was Gary Wise, who I'd never met before, who I would go on to obviously interact with quite a bit. He's a very famous pro player in the Hall of Fame.

But anyway, and I beat him, by the way, for those that wonder what happened the first time I played Gary Wise in Magic. I actually managed to win. And I have been to Toronto on numerous occasions. There was a world championship in Toronto in 2001. Tom van der Lacht from the Netherlands won. And so I've been to Toronto a bunch of times. I've been to Vancouver a bunch of times. I think that's the only two cities that I've

visited in Canada is Toronto and Vancouver. But between just those two cities, I've visited Canada, I believe, more times. There's one, number two. So Canada is my number two most visited city. We'll get to number one later today. But anyway, I've always enjoyed Canada. Canada's all, I mean, as of countries, as far as the deviation from America, it's not super, no, it doesn't feel super different from America. It's a little cleaner.

And the money's much more colorful. But, oh, so one of the things I do, by the way, when I go to foreign countries, is I like to visit shops to get a sense of, hey, how do magic players, what is it like? What's the local experience of playing magic?

Also, obviously, I often will go to events as well because that's why I'm there. But if I have a chance, and I had a chance in Vancouver. I don't think I ever did it in Toronto, but I had a chance in Vancouver to sort of drive around and see a lot of different stores. And there are a lot of very cool stores in Vancouver. And anyway, it was, it was fun. I've enjoyed all my Canadian trips. And for those that have never been to Canada, you should go visit. It's a lot of fun, especially for those here in America where it's not so far away. Okay, next we move from North America to South America. Okay, so I've been to South America

once a long time ago, back in 1998, I believe. And it was the second Magic Invitational in Rio de Janeiro. It was beautiful. But my biggest memory about being in Rio de Janeiro. It was beautiful. But my biggest memory about being in Rio de Janeiro, well, a couple things. First off, I brought Laura, my wife, down there. At the time, she was not my wife. In fact, it was in Rio that I proposed to my wife. What happened was I had her come down,

and then I and Laura and Richard Garfield and his wife and Peter Atkinson and Scaf Elias and a bunch of us stuck around for a little after, and we did some tours. You know, I saw the Cristo and Sugarloaf. Anyway, definitely had a chance to sort of see a lot of Rio de Janeiro. Once again, super beautiful country. My memory of it was we were there in their summer and it was really really hot. Like really really like afraid you're going to melt

sort of hot. I don't remember exactly. I think it was like 108 to like 112 during periods that I was there. It is the hottest I've ever remembered being on the planet Earth that I've ever been. It was the hottest I've ever been on the planet Earth that I've ever been. I mean, it was just very, it was also, it was hot for them. One of the stories I tell,

you can hear more of this if you hear my Invitational. I do a lot, all the podcasts, I do a series of podcasts on the Invitational. So if you want to hear more about the Invitational, you can listen to that.

We were in this old, old building, this really nice old building. And we were downstairs in the Invitational in this little tiny room that ended up being like a glass-enclosed room and we had air conditioning. I think we were the only air-conditioned room in the entire building. Meanwhile, Charlie Coutinho was running the Grand Prix upstairs, which was, I mean, just full of players because there were all these

excited players, except it was super hot, and there was no air conditioning, and there were a lot of players in this old, old room, and it was, I went up there once, it was, literally felt like a sauna. I remember Charlie used to come down every other hour just to rest for five minutes in the air-conditioned room because it was so hot, and he always looked like he had been swimming because he was just dripping with sweat. like he had been swimming because he was just dripping with sweat. The thing I remember about Brazil is the fans there were so excited. We had the glass enclosure and the entire time we were running the event they were pressed up against the glass.

Now part of that might have been the glass was very cool but they also were really really excited and it was neat. It was the first time I've ever seen Magic players kind of treated like rock stars, where we'd finish playing and people would walk outside the room and they'd be sworn by players that wanted autographs and pictures. And they were just so excited to have the invitational players there. So anyway, that was fun. And like I said, I always have warm memories of Brazil. Being where I proposed to my wife, you know. It's also fun to say, so do you have a story of proposing to your wife?

Like, well, we were in Rio de Janeiro. Okay, now we move. So that's North and South America. Now let's move over to Europe. Okay, so I believe, I'm hoping I don't forget any countries. I believe I've been to eight countries in Europe. So I'm going to go alphabetically here. So first off is Belgium. So I was in Belgium in 2001, no, sorry, 2000, for the 2000 Magic the Gathering World Championship. So that's the one where John Finkel defeated Bob Marr Jr. in one of the most dramatic, exciting finals,

world championship finals ever. Maybe the most. It was really exciting. And both of them obviously went on to be in the Hall of Fame. I mean, so... I mean, it's just... It's not often you see John Finkel become the world champion. And not only did John Finkel become the world champion, the U.S. team led by John Finkel become the world champion. And not only did John Finkel become the world champion,

the U.S. team led by John Finkel, which Aaron Forsythe was on, became the national team. So I think that's the only time that, I think, that America won both the individual and the team event. Japan did it once. One of the Japanese pro tours in Yokohama was... We'll get to Yokohama soon enough. But anyway,

it was it was fun. I mean, so my time in Belgium, here's my memory. One of the things I try to do when I go to foreign countries, if I can, is to go early. Arrive a little earlier, stay a little late, so I have some time to sort of actually see the city.

And I remember we arrived a day early so we could go look at museums and see different things. We found the statue of a little peeing boy. There's a famous statue of a peeing boy that we had somewhere in the city and we managed to track it down. But I remember walking through. They had a really, really nice art gallery.

And I remember while walking through looking at the art gallery, we were figuring out the events for the upcoming Magic Invitational. And I don't remember the timing-wise which Invitational it was, but it was a lot of fun, sort of like we were looking at art and appreciating things. And meanwhile, I was walking around with like Randy Buehler and a few other Wizards magic people just sort of like spitballing crazy formats for the Invitational. But anyway, I enjoyed Belgium and I in fact had

a Belgian waffle while I was in Belgium. That was really good. They make good waffles actually. But anyway, that was Belgium. Okay, so next is England. I think I've only been in England once. There was a pro tour in England in London.

That's one of the cities that I've been in England before. When I was 15, I did a tour of Europe, in which I went to England. So that wasn't my first trip to England, but was a trip to England. I remember, I really, really like fish and chips and I remember having a lot of fish and chips. That was my favorite English food. And we went to did we go to Arthur Treacher's?

There's a place that's here in the United States called Arthur Treacher's and I remember I mean, there's a bunch of like wimpies and a bunch of different things there. But I remember trying a whole bunch of different, like went to some fast food fish and chips and then some like, you know, fancy fish and chips and it was all good. So, yeah, my memory of, my biggest memory, this would be odd memory, is Randy Bueller. This was the last Pro Tour before he joined R&D.

And so he and I had gone out to dinner to discuss, I don't know, just random things. And we were sitting there in some pub or something talking. And then some woman excused herself to go to the restroom. And then her husband turned to me and basically I'd been too loud. I'd been talking too loud the whole time. Everybody was so polite to me, and basically I'd been too loud. I'd been talking too loud the whole time.

Everybody was so polite that nobody wanted to tell me I was too loud. But the guy finally, once his wife left, felt like he had to tell me and said, sir, your voice is, you know, several levels too loud. I'm like, oh, I'm so sorry. So my memory of England is being rude in a pub. So I apologize. And they were just so polite that nobody told me I was being too loud. So, if you know me,

I'm a loud speaker. But anyway, I've heard tons of stories from England. Like I said, I... England was another place where because when I'd been there once before and I'd sort of gone around and seen all the sights, I felt less

compelled on that trip to do a lot of sightseeing because I'd seen a lot of the sights of London, which were cool. Okay, so after England, number three is Finland. Okay, so Finland, most of these things I'm telling you, I actually went on Wizard's Dime.

Wizard of the Coast flew me to the event. Finland was a few ones where it was magic related, but I actually was brought by somebody else. So in, I think it was 1998, the summer of 1998, I was invited to RopaCon, which is the largest gaming convention in Finland, as the guest of honor. In fact, I think there were two of us, co-guests of honor.

And so basically I went and I talked, we had a few panels I did, and I did a lot of spell flinging with players and, you know, just did a lot of chatting. I really have an opportunity to see a lot of Finland. I had a bunch of time off. I had some tour guides. The thing I remember about Finland was, now this is back in 1998, was at the time, you know, there were cell phones in America. It was a thing. People had cell phones. But it didn't quite have the penetration that it now does. And when I was in Finland, everybody had a cell phone.

Nokia is from Finland. And so I didn't really know this, but at the time, one of the things Finland was known for was cell phones. And in fact, for being the guest of honor, I was given a cell phone. In fact, I called my wife on my cell phone. So it's like, I'd never before been a guest of honor. I'm like, oh, well, part of being

guest of honor is you get a cell phone for the weekend. And it was fun. It was neat. I bought some cool art from Finland. My one Finnish story is, I'm a picky eater. I'm not, I'm not a,

I'm not a adventurous eater. But I was like, okay, I'm in Finland. So I said to my host, I go, okay guys, okay, I'm going to do, let's go have some Finnish food. And they're like, yeah, we'll take you to Finnish food, but we're not going to eat the Finnish food. And they're like, yeah, we'll take you to Finnish food, but we're not going to eat the Finnish food.

And they're like, yeah, we're not so fond of Finnish food. And so I was like, how about Russian food? Do you like some Russian food? So I never actually ended up having Finnish food. I don't even know what Finnish food technically entails, but I had a blast in Finland. My hosts were great. Rope-a-con was fun.

I got to be in a whole bunch of saunas. That's another big thing in Finland is they do saunas. Saunas and cell phones. If you asked me the big things in Finland before I got there, I would not have known that saunas and cell phones would have been two of the big things. Now you know. Okay, next is France. So I think France is number three for the country I visited the most times for Magic.

I was at the World Championship in Paris. I was at the World Championship in Nice. I was at a Pro Tour in Nice. I was at Pro Tour in Paris. In fact, the very first European trip I ever took for Wizards was to Pro Tour Paris. Someone Mike Long beat Mark Justice in the finals. Very exciting. And that was my first ever trip um i remember i went early

um because uh i really wanted to be able to see paris and you know what i saw the eiffel tower and versailles and the louvre in fact um the when we did the world Championship in Paris, we actually rented one of the rooms in the Louvre. I mean, not the main, you know, it's a big place. But we were in the Louvre for the World Championship. And that's the one, I don't remember who won. I remember that it was the one where Gabriel Nassif was going to win. And it was going to be Gabe Nassif from Paris winning in Paris.

You know, we don't have a lot of people winning the World Championship in their own country. It's happened a few times, but not too often. But anyway, who won? Who won? I'm blinking. It was a Japanese player that won, I'm pretty sure. Sorry, sorry, I apologize. But anyway, I was in Paris a number of different times. It's funny that I'm not an adventuresome eater, so when I go to foreign countries, I was always

worried that I would never find things to eat. And what I found is there's meat and starch in every culture. So there's great baguettes. I love the bread in France. And so I usually have sandwiches and stuff in France. And I remember when I was in Nice for the World Championship, I think every day I ate a baguette. Every day. We went to Italy.

I did something in Italy similar. Okay, so that is France. Germany. I've been in Germany a couple times. Oh, France, by the way. I've been to a whole bunch of different parts of France. I've been in Germany a couple times. Oh, France, by the way. I've been to a whole bunch of different parts of France. I've been in Nice a couple times. I've been in Paris.

I think we had a pro tour. Might have been Marseille. Plus, I did a little bit of traveling. I went to Monte Carlo. So, anyway, it is... I actually have seen a bunch of France. France is very cool. And, by the way, before I went to France,

everyone told me that the rumor of France is that, you know, It is, I actually have seen a bunch of French. French is very cool. And by the way, before I went to France, everyone told me that the rumor of France is that, you know, don't try to be careful speaking English. If you can learn French, learn French. You know, the French are rude. And they were so polite. And I always spoke English because I don't speak French. And their English was awesome. And it is not true that the French were very rude. The French

on a whole have been particularly polite. So, just break some stereotypes. Germany. I was in Germany twice. There was a pro tour in Meitz, Germany that Matt Place won, who went on to work at Wizards, become a really good friend of mine. And then there was a...

In 2002, there was a world championship in Germany. Someone named Kuhn, not Janusz. Kuhn, Kuhn. Last name Kuhn. I'm blanking on the first name. He was also from Germany. So like I said, there's not a lot of world championships where someone from the country where it's occurring has won.

We did it in America, obviously, a couple times. And, oh, well, we did it with the very first one where Zach occurring has won. We did it in America, obviously, a couple times. And, oh, well, we did it with the very first one where Zach Dolan won. Did we do it again? I mean, other Americans. Oh, Brian Seldon won in 1998. Anyway,

so a German won in Germany. And, yeah, German, it's funny. The Mites was in a castle. That was really cool. That was the one pro tour in a castle. And I had a chance to see Berlin before Worlds. And I had a chance to go see the checkpoint between where East and West Germany is. There's a name for it, but there's a checkpoint.

And I saw remnants of the wall. So it was really cool. Yeah, Germany is one of those countries where... Remnants of the Wall. So it was really cool. Yeah, the... It was... Germany's one of those countries where I had less idea of... When I was in Paris, for example, I had a lot more idea of,

oh, what are the sites in Paris? So I had a lot of fun sort of seeing German stuff, but I was less aware. I had to sort of do my homework to learn what... I just... Somehow, like, the Eiffel Tower, I was a little more, to me, I knew it before I got there.

Okay, next after Germany is Italy. Oh, Italy. I've been to Italy a couple times. The second ever time I visited Europe was for Pro Tour Rome that Tommy Hovey, a future Hall of Famer, won.

And then I was in again for PT Venice that Osa Blibidovich won. I adore Italy. I actually was sad that I missed. There was a world championship in 2008. Not in 2008. 2004. 2004 I missed because my family was on a cruise. We had missed time on vacation.

It's the one world that I missed. And anyway, Italy is fun. The food is amazing. In fact, every meal when I was in Venice, every meal, I had pizza. I had pizza every meal, like breakfast, lunch, dinner. I had pizza every meal. That was awesome. They also have really, really good pasta.

That's my problem in Italy is I love the pizza and I love the pasta. So I didn't mix it up on the Venice trip. I did mix it up on that Rome trip. But anyway, Italy and just seeing the Colosseum. It's fun, really fun to sort of watch. Also, I had a chance to go to Vatican City, which I didn't count in my 16 countries. Technically, I guess it's a country. And I have a memory of like steering up in the Vatican at the Sistine Chapel

and hearing magic players entering, talking about magic. That's a very magic moment for me. Okay, next. I also went to the Netherlands. Originally, I was supposed to go to Pro Tour Amsterdam, and then my daughter, Rachel, was born,

and I ended up not going. But I did get back for the World Magic Cup was held in Netherlands a few years ago, and I ended up not going. But I did get back for the World Magic Cup was held in Netherlands a few years ago and I went to that. And that was a lot of fun. I learned that there's more bicycle riders per capita or something in Netherlands

than in any other city. There's a distance between where we were staying and where the event was. So I got to actually take a lot of public transportation. That was kind of cool. So I actually got to see a lot of the country. And it was neat. It was sort of cool. Like I said, I'd been to Amsterdam when I toured Europe when I was younger. So I'd done more of the, like you'll see Anne Frank's house and stuff when I was younger. But it was definitely neat. I liked Amsterdam. And then my final European city

would be Spain. I've actually been to Barcelona three times. I've never been to Madrid or any other city. The only city I've ever been to in Spain is Barcelona, but I've been there three times. First off, I went to an Invitational there. It was the third ever Invitational. Back when it was still the Magic Invitational, the one that Mike Long won. And then I was there for a Pro Tour, and I was there—no, two Pro Tours. I was there for two Pro Tours. In fact there... No, two pro tours. I was there for two pro tours.

In fact, what happened was I'd been there long ago. And then when we started doing all-day coverage, I had wanted... I wanted to get involved in the all-day coverage. I was really excited. So I went and did a whole bunch of interviews and stuff. I think Barcelona is where... Have you ever saw the video I did,

which was 20 years and 20 minutes, that was there. Marshall interviewed me, and I had 20 minutes to talk about all 20 years of Magic. At the time, it was Magic's 20th anniversary, so that was pretty cool. Okay, we make our way from Europe over to Asia.

Okay, so the first country I visited in Asia, alphabetically, and the first country I visited in Asia was Hong Kong. And this was before China took over Hong Kong. I was there for the very first Magic Invitational, a.k.a. at the time, the Duelist Invitational. We were originally going to hold the first Invitational in San Diego.

And then there was an event that was going to happen in Hong Kong. I think the first Grand Prix ever was going to happen in Hong Kong. And the Grand Prix got held back. And they wanted to do some big event. So they asked me if we could have the Invitational there. And I said we could. Because I said I would not mind going to Hong Kong. Hong Kong, we held the event in a mall.

Because in Asia it's very common to hold events in malls. So that was... And it had this weird... The mall we were in, this circular escalator. It was very weird. It was cool, but different. And Hong Kong, the best thing I can say about Hong Kong was

that it was this fascinating combination of ancient, ancient old things and new things. Like, there were buildings that I'm pretty sure were magnitudes older than my country, and it had, like, neon lights on it, like this newfangled technology

on these ancient ancient buildings and it really had this weird mix between old and new that Hong Kong really has embraced technology and anyway it's just it was fascinating to see and the trip actually inspired Richard Garfield was there

inspired him to make a game called Filthy Rich. I don't know if you've ever seen it. But the billboards on the ancient buildings, that all inspired Richard. And if you've ever played the game, it's a fun game. It has to do with billboards. Anyway, that was my, so the next country is Japan. So Japan is the country I visited the most of every foreign country. I've been to two world championships in Japan,

both in Yokohama. The first one was the one Kaibuda won. The second was the one where Japan won both the individual event and the team event. But not the promotional event that Aaron, Richard Garfield and I won. I've talked about that. I talked about a bunch of my trips

and I talked about my Japan trip in that one. My first trip to Japan actually was to a Grand Prix, which was the very first Grand Prix ever held in Japan. I think the first Grand Prix ever held in Asia.

And there was a period of time where I went to the Pro Tour for eight years and every single year, well, sorry, not the first two years, but from the third year through the eighth year,

the six years in a row, we went to Japan every year. And so I went to Japan numerous times. I went to, I think, six Pro Tours then. I went to two different world championships. I went to the Grand Prix. I think I've been there nine times, but I could be off one or two times. I've been to Japan a lot. I've been to Tokyo.

I've been to Yokohama. I've been to Kobe. I've been to Japan a lot. I've been to Tokyo. I've been to Yokohama. I've been to Kobe. I've been to a bunch of different Japanese cities. So it was definitely Kyoto. And I adore Japan. Japan is awesome.

And Japan is interesting because and this is I guess the same for Hong Kong. In Europe, most European countries you can speak English and enough people around you speak English that you can get by speaking English. In Hong Kong and Japan, most people did not speak English. I mean a few that did and

the trick I learned in Japan is that they learn English, they learn English in school so more people in Japan can write English and read English than can speak English. So a lot of times if you want help you can write things down and they can help you. Now often when I've been there I've had interpreters with me. Ron Foster for example is a wizard employee who speaks fluent Japanese. Having Ron is always the awesome thing to do in Japan. But anyway I've had so many different Japanese experiences and I've seen all different parts of Japan. One of my favorite things about Japan is they make awesome flannels in Japan. I like brightly colored flannels

and they like brightly colored flannels. So I actually have a decent number of flannels from Japan. The one thing is I'm an extra large. I have to buy an extra large in Japan. Normally I buy a large. Next, Malaysia. So there was an invitational in Kuala Lumpur. We actually stayed at a resort. There was a water park and stuff. And so that's the one that Chris Pakula beat John Finkel in the finals. One of the most amazing, probably the most amazing Magic Invitational finals. I had a chance to go to the night market. The story I tell in the night market is I wanted to buy my wife a faux Rolex, if you will.

So I walk up, I'll convert this to dollars, but it was in whatever the local currency was. And so I want to buy this thing and the guy's like, $3,000. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, okay, I'm not interested. $2,000, $1,000, $800, $700, $600, $500, $300, $200, $100, $50, $40, $30, $20, $10. one thousand dollars eight hundred seven hundred six hundred five hundred three hundred two hundred one hundred fifty forty thirty twenty ten five okay yeah sure i'll buy five and i i bought my wife a a fake rolex for five dollars um anyway that's uh i had a lot of fun malaysia was cool we we always do a tour when we do um or in the olden days, we went to the Magic Invitational, Duelist Invitational. We would do a tour, and we did a tour that day, and we drove all around.

I got to see the tallest, at the time, it was the tallest building in the world. Next, the fourth country I've been to, I've been to four countries in Asia, was South Korea. Have you ever heard me talk about in 1996 how I went to, that summer, I was gone the entire summer, but three weeks, well, one of the weeks, I went to Korean nationals, South Korean nationals in South Korea. And it was, it was really cool. I had a chance to actually visit a whole bunch of stores. So I had a chance to get, so all, Japan, usually the events were held in halls and things, but in Hong Kong and Korea and Malaysia,

I went to an event in a mall, held in a mall. Anyway, the Korean National was really cool. Seeing all the stores was cool. Talking to local players. This was a point where Korea was relatively young. I think we had just started making Korean cards.

It was one of the reasons we were wizards and sensitive people. We really wanted to learn about the Korean market. Anyway, I had a blast. Those are my four. Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea. That's my trips to Asia. Now we move to Australia nearby. I've been to Sydney twice. The first time was

for Magic Invitational, the one that John Finkel beat Ben Rubin in. And then the other time was for a World Championship, the one that Carlos Hamau from Brazil won. I love Sydney. I mean, I've enjoyed visiting all these foreign countries, but if I had to pick

just a few favorites, Sydney and Tokyo and Venice and maybe Rio, there's so many of these awesome, cool, really neat cities that I've gotten to visit. I really enjoyed Sydney. In fact, I think there's more art in my house from Sydney than any other country that I visited. And the Invitational there was a lot of fun.

We actually played in a hotel for a couple of days and then we went to the Grand Prix. We usually did the Invitational conjunction with the Grand Prix, but the Invitational is longer than the Grand Prix. So normally we play in the hotel. And then, yeah, and then the World Championship was great. I have a hat that I got for the, when I was in the Invitational. There was this Australian hat that I had for a long time. Then I lost it when my luggage got lost. I've since bought another Australian hat. But it's not, I mean, well, the hat's from Australia.

I didn't buy it in Australia. I bought it in Portland. But anyway, Sydney was great fun. Okay, my final continent to visit. I've talked about North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia. My final, the sixth continent, because I've not been to Antarctica yet, was

Cape Town, South Africa. We had an invitational there. Kaibuda won that one. We got invited down by South Africa is overseen by the European office, at least at the time it was. And so the European office had invited us down to Cape Town. We went on a tour the day we did a tour. I got a pet at Cheetah.

We saw wineries. We went shark, we went looking for sharks, although we didn't see any sharks. But we went out on the water and boats and stuff, and I had a blast. In fact, on the, it was just, oh, and one of my other favorite things I did when I was there was, I, they said,

do you want to see something really cool? I'm like, of course I want to see something really cool. So they took us out to, this is before the event started, so not, I think a few pro players went with me, but not all of them. So we went out to this beach and we walk out and be aware at the time it was probably 60 degrees. Like I didn't think I needed a coat. I went onto the beach.

Now imagine seeing a beach covered every inch, like you can't even see the sand with penguins. Just penguins as far as the eye can see. the sand with penguins. Just penguins as far as the eye can see. And what I can say is if I counted up every penguin I've ever seen in my life in person, at a zoo, on screen, in a movie,

I saw more penguins at that one point in my life than every other penguin ever combined. It was just a sea of penguins. And the funny thing was this before, you know, we had cell phones so I didn't have a camera. So somebody on it took a picture of me with all the penguins, and I never got the picture. So somehow the person's listening to this. I would love to see the picture of me with the sea of penguins.

I'm so sad that I don't have my sea of penguins picture. But it was really cool. I mean, South Africa was definitely one of the places I visited that I had no idea what to expect. The people were so nice. It was really neat. I bought some art there. It was very different and it had a very different sensibility. I don't remember what the currency was, but there was a great exchange rate at the time. And so we had a four to one exchange rate, except all the prices were as if, like all the prices matched what I would pay for in dollars, except the exchange rate was four to one.

So essentially everything costs a quarter of the cost. I remember I took out all, not all of them, but like, I don't know, like 10 of the Invitational players one day to like, to a nice restaurant, it was like $30. So anyway, it was, it was cool. And it was a very neat trip. I actually had a chance to go to a shopping mall after the event before I went home because we had an extra day.

And it's always interesting seeing shopping malls in other countries because they're similar but different. What I remember about that one was people walking around with semi-automatic machine guns because they're like, do not mess with our tourists. That's one thing I learned about South Africa

which was very beautiful. The people were really nice. But you got a sense that there was a lot of danger. You know, that you had to be careful where you went. You couldn't just sort of go off the beaten track. But the invitation was there. Kaibuda, that was another fun invitational. So I saw Kaibuda win Japan at Worlds, and I saw him win.

Actually, I've seen Kaibuda win many different countries, many different places. But I got to see him win in South Africa. Anyway, guys, so 16 countries. So we're talking, we talked about Canada, Brazil, Belgium, England, Finland, France,

Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Australia, South Africa. Magic has gotten me all around the world, and it's been so awesome. There's a lot of cool things about magic, a lot of cool things about my job, but one of the coolest has been how much of the world I've gotten to see,

and how much, hopefully, in the future I will still get to see. So anyway, guys, I'm now at Rachel's school, so we know what this means. It means it's the end of my drive to work. So I hope you enjoyed my trip around the world, but now instead of talking magic it's time for me to be making magic I'll see you guys next time