You Must be Ronery

originally posted on 11/27/06

So I finally made my first trip, not counting the Japan run that the company sent me on. I'm talking solid, old school, show up at the train station and buy a ticket for the next train leaving (turned out to be Daegu), skin of your teeth travel.

I cruised on the KTX train (300 km/hour, I think that's still a cool 200 mph in real life) down to Daegu, and found myself a top quality nearby love motel. The Korean love motel thing, by the way is brilliant. I checked in at like 4:30 p.m. or so, and there was an old couple that clearly owned the place, behind the desk sound asleep, whom I was forced to awaken. The hotel is like 2 minutes from the main train station in town, and cost $30, which just doesn't happen in the U.S., at least outside the hostel-YMCA realm. Plus, it had features that I am not used to in my own crappy studio, such as a piping hot shower that stayed hot for longer than 10 seconds, and a real bed. Scratch that, a circular bed. Yeah, that's right. And it was as awesome as I imagined. I am totally getting one, whenever it comes to pass that I have some sort of place to live. On top of that, the love motel doesn't bother you in the morning, so I was free to sleep until 1 p.m. after a long night out in Daegu without somebody banging on my door at 10 or 11 a.m. demanding that I check out or buy another day.

Speaking of my long night out – it was a wash for most of the time. I couldn't find a proper bar anywhere. Daegu has a really cool pedestrian area downtown with a million stores open late (and all the stores are of the same type on the same block, like, the adidas store is next to the Puma store is next to the Airwalk store, and one block is only cell phone stores, and one is only puppy stores – presumably for pets rather than food) but every bar I went into turned out to be a hof. I like hofs, but they aren't any fun on your own. Basically, a hof is the standard drinking establishment in Korea, with table service, cushy chairs, and an awesome button on your table that you press when you want more beer, or food, or whatever. But, there is no actual bar to sit at, so it's really only fun with other people. It's kind of like sitting at a table drinking by yourself at, say, Red Lobster. Not that I've done that.

As I was on the verge of calling it a night, I happened upon the "Hip Hop Club" or something like that, which, in the traditional Korean bar-naming style, has absolutely nothing to do with hip hop, and they were playing the same shitty K-pop, J-pop, and U.S. pop that every other bar does. Anyway, so this place was actually a proper bar, so I bought a beer and started chatting with the people there. Amongst them were an American dude from upstate New York somewhere, a couple Irish girls, a Korean-American-Korean guy who moved recently from Baltimore (and actually lived like 2 miles from my mom and knows all the same bars I do) and a knockout Korean girl who seemed to be hitting on me. So, of course, I focused on that. Toasts were made, White Russians were downed, and this girl kept talking to me, so times were good. Then, she had to leave. I think I attempted to leave with her, but for some reason this plan didn't work. Later, I was talking to the American dude from upstate, and he seemed insistent on the fact that I somehow busted up somebody's game, or that she was involved with somebody at the bar, and I caused a rift between them. Regardless, I'm actually pretty proud of myself, that in what could well be the only night I ever spend in Daegu, Korea, my drunken shenanigans brought the drama. Anyway, if my actions did result in anybody getting hurt without me realizing, then I hope it was that guy from upstate, he seemed like kind of a douche.

I wasn't only in Daegu to booze, I did go out and do some interesting, cultural, temple in a mountain type of shit too, but I don't feel like writing about it. I will say though, I finally ate bibimbap, at a random Korean restaurant on the mountain (which called itself "good restaurant," who was I to doubt them?) and it was awesome, and if you haven't had it, you should.

I took the express bus home – it's half the price of the bullet train, and was actually pretty comfortable. I haven't done the Greyhound, and I hope I never will, but I am sure the Korean express bus is much better. The seats recline pretty far, and I'm fairly certain that the shadiest person on the bus, by far, was me.

The bus had a stopover on the way, at some random highway service area reserved just for these buses. A Korean guy from a different bus who spoke decent English came up to me to bum a cigarette. We chatted for a bit, and I told him I was new in Korea and teaching and blah blah blah. He said, "You must be ronery." Shockingly, that wasn't a joke set-up, as I've learned to understand the r/l thing much better, since in written Korean, it's the same letter.

I told him I wasn't, and that I have my fellow teachers that I hang out with and that I talk to and see every day, but it did get me noticing things, things I guess I have noticed before.

Like the hof thing. This is the Korean way, you go out with people you know, and have fun with your group at your table, rather than the old, "rugged individualistic" American/western style bar, where you can go on your own, sit at the bar, meet people, make your own fun, and if needed, bring the drama. But, there is Itaewon here in Seoul, which has tons of western-style bars, so I have that avenue for going out alone. Or the restaurant thing. It wasn't fear of unknown food or love of Burger King (which, really I don't care for, yet have had more times in the last 2 months than probably the last 5 years) that kept me away, it's that Korean restaurants are social. Galbi (Korean barbecue that you cook at your table) is basically un-doable solo, all of the meals are designed to be shared. Even bibimbap, which can be eaten alone, comes with like 11 side dishes (banchan), so you feel pretty silly at a table by yourself when they bring out the tray, which is probably 4 feet in diameter. But, there's the grocery store, and McDonald's, and the delivery chicken place down the street, so there's plenty of options for eating alone, which is pretty much what I'm used to doing anyway.

Then I went to work today. I spoke to a whopping 2 other teachers for maybe a combined 45 seconds, and then the two teachers that live in the next building over that I walk home with every day took off without me. So, I lost my usual daily 5 minutes of social time with people that A) speak fluent English, and B) were born before 1995. Which basically means that the, I don't know, 25 minutes a week that I spend talking to contemporaries is in jeopardy. Add to that, I generally go out with some teachers on Friday nights, and due to my lack of cell phone (at least that's what I keep telling myself, since I do have email and a home phone) that's the last I see of my co-worker buddies for the rest of the weekend. Saturday night means going out on my own, and though I have gotten quite good at making my own fun here, and have written a story or two to prove it, it's work too, yeah? I still have to start from square one with random strangers in Itaewon bars every weekend in a sort of reverse-Groundhog Day scenario where it's an endless stream of new people, but I get to tell my same best stories over and over again, charming new audiences every weekend, never to see them again.

Sorry to dump on you there, readers, and I'm guessing I'll probably dump this blog entry as well before long. It's just, it's Monday, it's November, it's rainy, I'm drinking soju, and fucking Craig Ferguson is on. And it's a re-run. That I've seen. This particular "type" of blog, you know, where I talk about thoughts and feelings and stupid crap like that, will not become a pattern. I promise to return to dick and fart jokes as soon as possible.

One last note before I go – how about those Kansas Basketball Jayhawks? I wish I could have seen that shit. Needless to say, it was a KU shirt day at school today, just to explain to 50 kids what a Jayhawk is.