The Things You'll See

Oh, Seoul. What can I tell you about Seoul? Well, let me move chronologically so you get an idea of how my weekend flowed. Friday after work, I took the slow train to Seoul station. It took 3 and 1/2 hours. They stopped at every rice paddy that had any type of life along the way. That's fine, it gave me an opportunity for a much needed nap. I rolled into Seoul at about 9:30, welcomed by the Han River and a bustling city. Coleman met me at the station like the nice Virginian he is (he's from Charlottesville), and we got some kimbap for dinner before meeting up with the other friends I came to see in the outskirts of Seoul. We ended up hitting this bar wherein we were the only ones there besides this group of Korean dudes who we eventually mixed in with. I had my first "Blackout Korea" experience, too. One of the Koreans passed out at our table, so...we drew on him:

He had to be carried out by his friends. The bastards ordered a bottle of Jack Daniels. I mean, what do they expect? We played this hilarious drinking game. The rule was this: think of a number between 1 and 50 and enter it into your phone. Now everyone guess the number. Whoever guesses it drinks. Ooooh! I almost couldn't grasp the rule because it was so complex. I kind of messed up my wrist playing Girl Fighter. Girl Fighter is like that strength test where you hit the lever with the huge hammer and see how high the weight goes. The difference is that in this strength test, you punch the crap out of some bag and it measures PSI, but not in inches because they use the much more efficient metric system. So, I got 695 something somethings, and hurt my wrist in the process. We stayed at Bailey's on Friday night, which is definitely the nicest apartment I've seen in Korea yet. She has a loft and all sorts of cool stuff because the last Native Teacher left them there. Awesome place. I'm jealous.

Saturday, after waking up late and making an awesome breakfast, we went into Seoul to Itaewon, the main foreigner district. We checked out the English bookstore "What the Book?" and went shopping around that area while drinking on the street:I made my first successful haggle. I bought these killer sunglasses that were originally $20 for $13 instead. I said, "eolma-eyo?" She said, "Twenty." I said, "Bitch. Namu bissayo! Ten!" She said, "I'm very hungry! Thirteen." I took her on it. I don't want her to starve, you know. After a bit more shopping, we took the metro down to Hongdae, the other foreigner district, where we had Mexican food for dinner. I had a Negro Modelo, which tasted delicious comparatively to standard Korean beer, and a shrimp burrito.

That's when the night got totally out of hand. We met up with some of my friends' friends, and went for Makali (sp?). Makali is like a yogurty milky liquor made of rice. You drink it from a bowl. It's really tasty and will make for a good night/terrible morning. We eventually hit up a few clubs which were highlighted by "Unlimited Potatoes!" (you get fries whenever you want, which is good when drinking) and drunken Westerners making fools of themselves. Lots of that. I'm really cutting out a lot of stuff that happened, which may be mostly crappy for you, the reader, or for me many years later looking back, but it was a good night. Lots of people passing around my sweet new shades, lots of dancing, lots of drinking, and lots of Koreans. Here's some dude wearing my sweet and sassy new shades:One highlight was when we saw a bus driver get out of his bus and fight with some dude on the street. You don't break those fights up, you just watch them and chuckle quietly to yourself as Koreans get all sullied. Seoul is full of fun and Ho bars:I know it looks like it says "Ho Barv," but it's really saying, "Ho Bar Five." It's right next to Ho Bar Seven. There are ten in Hongdae, and they're always hilarious and full of American G.I.s. Also, what bar in America opens at 8:00 AM? That's devotion. Devotion to hos.

We spent the night in a Korean sauna. Yes, you can spend the night in a spa. I am no longer a stranger to the Korean sauna experience. I learned that it's actually called jimjubang. For those of you whom I haven't explained the "bang" thing to, "bang" is just Korean for room, I guess. Noraebang is "song room," PC bang is "PC room," and jimjubang is "Korean man love room." I'll explain the whole sauna process.

First they give you a key and a uniform. The key is to your locker, where you put all of your clothes. The uniform is for wearing, stupid. The first area is the hot tub/washing area. This is full of naked Korean men. You go in and shower first. You have your choice of either standing or sitting showers. Then, as naked as you came, you step into the hot tubs, which are of varying degrees, or the sauna. There's also a cold pool that is so refreshing after sitting in a hot room/pool. You'll have to forgive me if the details are a bit fuzzy. I was really intoxicated, after all. Anyway, it was really strange to be hanging out with people I had just met a few hours prior, but completely naked and in a hot tub. "Hey, man. I don't remember your name, but you want to get naked together and sit in really hot water next to a bunch of Koreans?" So, we did that for a bit, and then we checked out literally three floors of Koreans sleeping on the floor in uniforms. Hundreds. I expected to hear some kind of humming and see some soft glowing lights like they are charging up for the next day. We immediately called the jimjubang "the Hive." There's a PC area and a restaurant inside and a TV room, but mostly just Koreans sleeping on the floor. I eventually joined them and passed out for about six hours.

I got woken up at noon (yes, we stayed out until 6 AM. Sorry, Nana) by some dude kicking us out. Oh, and Nana, I took this picture for you:
Seoul graffiti. Nana, you are real. Anyway, back to the story. We lost Bailey somewhere in the jimjubang and didn't reunite with her until about 3:00. In that time period, we ate pho for breakfast (lunch?) and then went to a pretty sweet little flea market. Our friend Nate, who is an absolute riot, was approached by some Evangelists who wanted him to come to their church. What I heard of his response was this: "I know that I am going to Hell. Me and a ton of beautiful, smart, cool people are running as fast as we can straight to Hell together. Together, but alone. I've accepted that. You will never see me at your church. You will never see me again." It was pretty awesome to witness, but still kind of funny that the Evangelist didn't really understand what he was saying and just gave him a flyer anyway.

Sunday was basically spent walking around Hongdae, drinking beers on the street and shopping. I think the theme of the weekend was, "Life is sooooo easy." It's true. Life is so easy and so good. The sun was out, it was warm enough and we were in good company in a huge, gigantic world city. I really couldn't complain. My ultimate analysis of Seoul is that it's exponentially cooler than Daegu. There's more art, more life, and more beauty there. I was kind of sad to go home, honestly. I feel like I have more friends in Seoul than in Daegu at this point.

I took the fast train, the KTX, home. It got me there in half the time as the slow train, but was twice as expensive. I talked to an American G.I. chick who was stationed in Daegu at Camp Walker. It was nice to get that perspective of how life goes in Korea.

Ok, I'm going to go to bed. I have open classes tomorrow, which should be full of excitement. Yay, Monday! I know you all love those!