Money

originally posted on 11/13/06

So, I finally got paid this weekend. So briefly, I have money. Which is awesome. Basically, this was the "Ted Kennedy" weekend, where I am, of course, throwing money around all over the place. Big change from last weekend, the "Pat Buchanan" weekend, fiscally, at least. I am sure it's been said before in more eloquent ways, but in my opinion, the best part about having money is the ability to buy random crap, and of course real food.

I kicked off the Ted Kennedy weekend with a bang, of course, going out on Friday until 6 a.m, where I ultimately ended up drinking in a soju tent late at night. Soju tents, for those that don't know, are pretty much random heated tents that are set up all over the place on Korean streets, and I'm not sure if they ever close. Ours was still hopping when we left. At soju tents, they serve random Korean food, soju, and beer. Nothing else, really. And, I probably should have learned this by now, but soju at 5 a.m. after a night out drinking beer is a bad, bad idea. It was fun though, amongst those sitting at my table (in a tent, remember, on cheap, crappy plastic stools) were two up-and coming, drop dead gorgeous Korean pop stars. And for some reason, they actually talked to me, despite not speaking much English, and I was basically thinking, wait, why are you talking to me? Do you have any idea how hot you are? If this were New York or Chicago or LA, no way these girls are talking to me in a makeshift street bar at 5 a.m., and if it were any other city in the U.S., they wouldn't be there to begin with, since there are no girls that hot in, say, Pittsburgh.

My quest to become a Korean cell phone (handa pone) owner has thus far been fruitless. So far, I just can't figure it out. The language barrier is huge in this sort of thing, but I figure, I have sold many a phone to people who speak no English, so how hard can it be the other way around? Well, apparently I need a Korean to go in with me, or to get a social security number here, just to get a damn pre-paid phone, the same type that anybody can buy in the U.S. or Europe at 7-11 or wherever. This has probably been my biggest cultural difficulty so far, this phone thing, which is especially weird to me considering the fact that I know more about the cell phone biz in the US than anybody would ever care to, but here, I am basically retarded.