We had a long weekend due to the Chinese New Years. Friday night I met up with Chip and we ended up meeting up with Hoon and Gloria. Hoon is a Korean American, and Gloria is Korean. We went to a Hof in Kangnam, I ended up drinking too much Soju, and then practicing a new Korean phrase I just learned. I practiced it on nearly every Korean I saw- and there are a lot of Koreans in Korea. I learned how to say “I like ____”. I ended up using “I like to dance” a lot, but also mixed it up with random foods that I know. It was probably one of those nights that had Koreans slightly amused, and mostly annoyed with foreigners. After the Hof and enough Soju, Chip and I thought it would be a good idea to head out to Hongdae to meet up with some friends of mine at M2 (a dance club). James and Nate are some guys I met while doing Surprise- they are from Oregon. By the time we had gotten there, one of the guys had already disappeared- but the three of us had a great night anyway. At the moment I cannot recall any details, but I remember it was a good night and we were out until the subways started running again (so at least 5:30).
On Saturday I met up with Chip again, and celebrated round two of his birthday and New Years (I missed his birthday during the week). Chip was in the mood to go to a club, but by the time I had gotten into Kangnam, Seoul seemed like a ghost town. He convinced me to check out Apgujeong (a pretty expensive and trendy part of Kangnam) and see if a club was happening there. Apgujeong was dead- and we couldn’t even find the club. So we went back Kangnam and met up with James and Nate (the American guys from the other night). They were at a hip hop club called NB, and it was the place to be. It seemed like it was the only place in the whole city that had people there- and there were tons of them. The club was so packed when we got in we could hardly move on the dance floor. We got a lot of dancing done, and had a lot of fun. We walked a couple girls we met at the club to the subs at the end of the night, and got back to Chips around 6:00, and then just hung out and talked for a while.
Also, as a side note, Chip has finally updated his blog again (after about 2 months of nothing) and Billy has a new blog, as his old one has been busted. The links to the right should take you to their sites.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Sunday, February 11, 2007
69) Gwanaksan
Yesterday afternoon Chip and I went to a mountain in southwestern Seoul. It was nice to get out and do some hiking and sort of be in nature for a while. I say “sort of” because there are constant signs of modern man while hiking in Korea. You can almost always see or hear something that takes away from a serene moment- but I am not complaining, it was still nice. It is also pretty cool to get a view of the city from above, but when it comes down to it, I would rather just see rows of mountains.
After the hike we hung out in Gangnam for a while, went out to eat, and then made our way back to my area. We ate at a TGI Fridays, this was one of the few times I have gone to eat a Western restaurant, but I have really been craving steak lately so it was a pretty nice treat. After eating and some shopping in Gangnam we headed out to my place and went to a couple Hofs and then called it a night.
Friday, February 09, 2007
68) National Treasure number 1
Tonight I went into what could best be described as “downtown Seoul”. It is an area I like to visit on occasion just to feel like I am in “the big city”. I was pretty tired, and didn’t really want to do much tonight, but the weather has been mild and I haven’t done much photography lately, so I thought tonight would be a good night for taking some pictures. On the way to my subway stop, while drifting in and out of consciousness, I was thinking about how much better I like living in Seoul. Not like it is hard to step up from Suji or my old school, but I have really been enjoying my life here. There is the occasional odd and stupid problem at work, but I just don’t even let that stuff bother me anymore- I just show up and do what I do. Anyway, the main goal of my little excursion this evening was to take pictures of Seoul’s first national treasure- Sungnyemun Gate. A couple weeks ago Dave (refer to the links) posted a pic of this, and it reminded me that I should really try to get some shots of this beautiful structure. I have been sizing it up for a couple months everytime I am in the area, and thought a shot at night through the traffic would be cool.
This video is just random, we watched it at work one day and I was almost crying laughing. I believe it is a banned commercial.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
67) Two weekends
The last two weekends have proved to be pretty fun. It started out last Friday with Chip and I going to a club in Hongdae. The club was jammed with people (including its fair share of Korean models)- and that didn’t stop us from putting on a virtual clinic on the dance floor, we were getting down and dirty for hours. My calves were sore for 5 days after that! I didn’t get home until six or seven that morning.
The following day was pretty low key, I met up with Adam (one of my co-workers) and we got some food, and then went to a bar in Sinchon with his girlfriend Joo Hee and some of their friends.
Then on Sunday all I wanted to do was get some groceries and meet with a friend I hadn’t seen since I had been back to Korea. I never got the groceries (which by this day I have needed for a couple days now) but I did get to see my friend Sam, and his girlfriend. I taught Sam while I was living in Suji- he is a Korean guy, just starting college. We went out for Japanese food in Gangnam, and then to a noribang- which I am not the biggest fan of (noribang is like a karaoke room that you and your friends rent by the hour). But I hadn’t seen Sam in several months- and he really wanted to go to a noribang, so we had fun. I am pretty sure that Japanese food had me sick for several days- maybe some type of food poisoning. I left a little early that night because I wanted to get back by the subway. About halfway back on the sub it stops at a station and there is an announcement in Korean, and everybody clears out, and the lights go off. Apparently it was finished for the night- which is great, because I have no idea where I am. After some searching and calls I figured it out and took a taxi home.
The school week went by pretty fast- which they tend to do here- one day it is Monday, and then all of the sudden it is Friday. This Friday I stayed in and went to bed early because I was filming for the TV show again on Saturday, and I have to get up real early for that, and it usually lasts all day. Last time it was nearly a 24 hour day from when I got up to when I got to sleep. I think my roll was smaller this time than last time- but I am not too worried about it. Doing the show is nice because I get to see parts of Korea I would otherwise never see. This time we went about 100km east of Seoul, it was very mountainous and beautiful, and there was snow on the ground (something I don’t see often in Seoul). Some of the locations make me forget where I am- it is not often there is any silence in Seoul. I was able to leave early because one of the guys who had a similar roll to mine had a car there, and was going to leave when he finished. So I got home in the early evening.
So Chip and I went back to the same club we went to the previous weekend. This night didn’t start out too great. First I missed the last sub, so I would have to take a taxi. Then the taxi driver decided to pretend to understand what I was saying, but really had no idea. So my quick 7,000 won taxi ride turned into a long and confusing 15,0000 won taxi ride. I was not at all pleased- and worse yet, I ran out of money on my phone, so I couldn’t make any outgoing calls. I could only text and receive calls. So I am texting my friends- desperate that they will get the text and call me back. Thankfully Adam did and straitened out my taxi situation. Once I met up with Chip and we got to the club, we had a good time, but the music wasn’t as good as last time- and for some reason we had a hard time meeting girls this time. Last time we would just be out getting our groove on, and girls would come and dance with us- this time wasn’t so easy. The girls that wanted to dance with us were not girls we wanted to dance with, and the ones we wanted, refused our offer. It didn’t really matter; we still had fun, and still stayed up all night dancing.
I think today should be pretty low key. I finally feel better today after feeling sick for over a week. I think it was the food poisoning from last Friday that still had my system messed up. I got some medicine from Adam, and when I ran out I went to try to get some more from a pharmacy, because the last thing I wanted on Saturday was to be running to the bathroom between scenes. So I took the new pills on Friday night and Saturday morning- only to realize that I think the bastard at the pharmacy gave me laxatives, not the opposite!
I really only have two things that I want to do, and one that I have to. I really need to get some groceries today- I have put this off for over a week- and it is getting close to the time I was working for the Forest Service in Washington. My friend had just left for the summer, and I was alone. I didn’t go shopping for far too long, and was eating rice for two meals a day! The nice thing about Korea is that if you don’t have any food in your apartment it doesn’t matter, because you can eat a cheap restaurant anywhere. That was not the case in Washington. Quinault is a city of about 300, and there is virtually no place to go shopping within an hour of it. There were a couple of restaurants within an hour walking distance- but we had a bad experience at one of them- so I steered clear of that hazard.
The following day was pretty low key, I met up with Adam (one of my co-workers) and we got some food, and then went to a bar in Sinchon with his girlfriend Joo Hee and some of their friends.
Then on Sunday all I wanted to do was get some groceries and meet with a friend I hadn’t seen since I had been back to Korea. I never got the groceries (which by this day I have needed for a couple days now) but I did get to see my friend Sam, and his girlfriend. I taught Sam while I was living in Suji- he is a Korean guy, just starting college. We went out for Japanese food in Gangnam, and then to a noribang- which I am not the biggest fan of (noribang is like a karaoke room that you and your friends rent by the hour). But I hadn’t seen Sam in several months- and he really wanted to go to a noribang, so we had fun. I am pretty sure that Japanese food had me sick for several days- maybe some type of food poisoning. I left a little early that night because I wanted to get back by the subway. About halfway back on the sub it stops at a station and there is an announcement in Korean, and everybody clears out, and the lights go off. Apparently it was finished for the night- which is great, because I have no idea where I am. After some searching and calls I figured it out and took a taxi home.
The school week went by pretty fast- which they tend to do here- one day it is Monday, and then all of the sudden it is Friday. This Friday I stayed in and went to bed early because I was filming for the TV show again on Saturday, and I have to get up real early for that, and it usually lasts all day. Last time it was nearly a 24 hour day from when I got up to when I got to sleep. I think my roll was smaller this time than last time- but I am not too worried about it. Doing the show is nice because I get to see parts of Korea I would otherwise never see. This time we went about 100km east of Seoul, it was very mountainous and beautiful, and there was snow on the ground (something I don’t see often in Seoul). Some of the locations make me forget where I am- it is not often there is any silence in Seoul. I was able to leave early because one of the guys who had a similar roll to mine had a car there, and was going to leave when he finished. So I got home in the early evening.
So Chip and I went back to the same club we went to the previous weekend. This night didn’t start out too great. First I missed the last sub, so I would have to take a taxi. Then the taxi driver decided to pretend to understand what I was saying, but really had no idea. So my quick 7,000 won taxi ride turned into a long and confusing 15,0000 won taxi ride. I was not at all pleased- and worse yet, I ran out of money on my phone, so I couldn’t make any outgoing calls. I could only text and receive calls. So I am texting my friends- desperate that they will get the text and call me back. Thankfully Adam did and straitened out my taxi situation. Once I met up with Chip and we got to the club, we had a good time, but the music wasn’t as good as last time- and for some reason we had a hard time meeting girls this time. Last time we would just be out getting our groove on, and girls would come and dance with us- this time wasn’t so easy. The girls that wanted to dance with us were not girls we wanted to dance with, and the ones we wanted, refused our offer. It didn’t really matter; we still had fun, and still stayed up all night dancing.
I think today should be pretty low key. I finally feel better today after feeling sick for over a week. I think it was the food poisoning from last Friday that still had my system messed up. I got some medicine from Adam, and when I ran out I went to try to get some more from a pharmacy, because the last thing I wanted on Saturday was to be running to the bathroom between scenes. So I took the new pills on Friday night and Saturday morning- only to realize that I think the bastard at the pharmacy gave me laxatives, not the opposite!
I really only have two things that I want to do, and one that I have to. I really need to get some groceries today- I have put this off for over a week- and it is getting close to the time I was working for the Forest Service in Washington. My friend had just left for the summer, and I was alone. I didn’t go shopping for far too long, and was eating rice for two meals a day! The nice thing about Korea is that if you don’t have any food in your apartment it doesn’t matter, because you can eat a cheap restaurant anywhere. That was not the case in Washington. Quinault is a city of about 300, and there is virtually no place to go shopping within an hour of it. There were a couple of restaurants within an hour walking distance- but we had a bad experience at one of them- so I steered clear of that hazard.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)