originally posted on 10/1/06
I don't even really know where to start. I don't have the Internets at home yet, so I'm at an internet cafe. Maybe I'll start there. Internet cafes here, they aren't like the type you run into in the U.S.. or Europe. The chairs are comfortable, the lights are dim, it's loud, and you can smoke. And they are cheap, like a dollar an hour.
When I landed here Thursday night (Wednesday night so far as I was concerned, because the sun was out for the entire flight), I was picked up by driver holding a sign that said "Tobb xxxxx." I got in his van, and headed off from the airport, without a clue as to where I was going. At some point on the aimless drive from Incheon to Seoul, he got a call on his cell phone, and it was for me. Somehow, this made sense.
Anyway, I ended up at a motel that the school had put me in for the first couple of nights. It was clean and tasteful, but I'm pretty sure it was a hooker motel. The massage oils and condom (wrapped) on the dresser table was a pretty good giveaway there. Plus, the TV got free porn. Two different channels of free porn, in fact.
I haven't started work yet, I start tomorrow. It sounds like it won't be too bad after the first few days, plus this is only a 3 day week, Thursday and Friday are holidays.
I am already 85% sure that this country will kill me. The bars don't close. Ever. Any of them. Neither do the liquor/convenience stores. I've already had a night where i was out until 7 a.m. It's like a Vegas or a New Orleans, only there's 11 million people. Plus, you can smoke everywhere, and cigs are 2.50. I am also learning the evils of soju. It's this rice wine, it's 20% alcohol or something but feels like more. It's fairly bad straight, but I mixed it with juice, and discovered that the ratio of the drink can be like 90 percent soju and 10 percent juice, and it just tastes like juice. Oh yeah, and the bottles of it cost like 90 cents. And apparently, the Koreans don't drink like say, the french. It's not a bottle of wine with dinner. Everyone is out to get completely shitfaced. You see guys in business suits passed out at the bar, and nobody cares. From what I've heard, the entire city's policy on kicking someone out of a bar makes the Replay look draconian.
Lots of other cultural things I can talk about here, but I'll save it for later. Like, environmental stuff, I guess, is taken a lot more seriously than in the U.S. Like, you don't get bags at the grocery store, you bring your own, like Aldi. Which is a weird way to end a blog, but is the way this one ends.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Itaewon
originally posted on 10/6/06
Well, we're coming at you LIVE, from the belly of the beast at Itaewaon. Obviously, this night is not too exciting, as I am in fact on the Internets and ripping off Bill Simmons introductions.
Anyway, so last night was awesome. I came out by myself, and ended up meeting like 20 people, including the cliche gorgeous long haired brunette that, inevitably, ruined my life, if only for a short period of time. These things happen, I suppose.
Tonight, not so much on the interesting action. I still can't quite figure out the bars here. I was at a joint called Spy Bar, and drinks were abnormally expensive (like 5 bucks! fucking hell) and the place was chock full of ridiculously gorgeous girls, and generally schlub dudes, like myself. I figured, surely I must be in a ho bar, so I immediately left (well, after my overpriced beer). Now, if I were in a smiler bar in say, Chicago or LA or Paris or whatever, where all of the girls are basically model quality, and all of the dudes are the type that I can compete with, and well, defeat, then there's no way in hell I'm leaving. But, I've never been in such a bar in LA or Chicago or Paris or whatever, so I just assumed it must be a ho bar. Anyway, I ended up making friends with some dude that owned a bar down the street, and he said that it's not a ho bar, that it's totally legit, and that abnormally hot girls like to hang out in said bar.
Wait, why am I telling you all this? I'm going to fucking Spy Bar. End communication.
Well, we're coming at you LIVE, from the belly of the beast at Itaewaon. Obviously, this night is not too exciting, as I am in fact on the Internets and ripping off Bill Simmons introductions.
Anyway, so last night was awesome. I came out by myself, and ended up meeting like 20 people, including the cliche gorgeous long haired brunette that, inevitably, ruined my life, if only for a short period of time. These things happen, I suppose.
Tonight, not so much on the interesting action. I still can't quite figure out the bars here. I was at a joint called Spy Bar, and drinks were abnormally expensive (like 5 bucks! fucking hell) and the place was chock full of ridiculously gorgeous girls, and generally schlub dudes, like myself. I figured, surely I must be in a ho bar, so I immediately left (well, after my overpriced beer). Now, if I were in a smiler bar in say, Chicago or LA or Paris or whatever, where all of the girls are basically model quality, and all of the dudes are the type that I can compete with, and well, defeat, then there's no way in hell I'm leaving. But, I've never been in such a bar in LA or Chicago or Paris or whatever, so I just assumed it must be a ho bar. Anyway, I ended up making friends with some dude that owned a bar down the street, and he said that it's not a ho bar, that it's totally legit, and that abnormally hot girls like to hang out in said bar.
Wait, why am I telling you all this? I'm going to fucking Spy Bar. End communication.
It Continues
originally posted on 10/7/06
I've been to Itaewon for four straight nights. Which is like being at the Replay for 4 straight nights, if the Replay was open until 5 or 6 a.m. or something. I'm not going tomorrow though, I swear.
Last night, after posting, I ended up going to like 5 or 6 more bars, including the eternally evil Polly's Kettle House, where they serve up these horrible drinks called kettles. These basically consist of 15-20 ounces of soju and some mixer, for 5 bucks. Brutal.
So, hilarious thing about Korea, and I guess many countries in general - the gangsta wannabe type dudes. I was at The Loft tonight (a bar where girls drink free, yet tonight, no cute girls) and there's all these Nigerian dudes wearing random U.S. sports jerseys, clearly influenced by hip hop/rap videos. Yet, these guys have no knowledge whatsoever of U.S. sports, and all of the jerseys are fake Korean street vendor fare, so there are lots of dudes wearing jerseys of, like, Eddie George and Merton Hanks, and other random players like that that had 5-6 good years several years ago, but that nobody back home wears ever.
In a more serious and sad note, I am infinitely depressed by the death of Buck O'Neil, and all the more angered by the idiot hall of fame committee that decided a long dead Newark secretary was more worthy of enshrinement than baseball's greatest ambassador. For my own very small effort, I did spend much of the night telling rabid Korean baseball fans about Buck. I'd like to dedicate tonight's blog entry to Buck O'Neil, but I won't, because he deserves far better than a dedication here, on the interweb's most bush league address. I will say this: though I didn't know him, I feel like I have lost a friend. The world in general, and Kansas City in particular, is a worse off place today.
Good night (or good morning?) from Seoul. I'll write more about random hot Canadian girls later, but right now, I want everybody who reads this to think about Buck. Read Posnanski tomorrow (kansascity.com), I am sure it will be the column of his life, and one that i am not looking forward to reading.
I've been to Itaewon for four straight nights. Which is like being at the Replay for 4 straight nights, if the Replay was open until 5 or 6 a.m. or something. I'm not going tomorrow though, I swear.
Last night, after posting, I ended up going to like 5 or 6 more bars, including the eternally evil Polly's Kettle House, where they serve up these horrible drinks called kettles. These basically consist of 15-20 ounces of soju and some mixer, for 5 bucks. Brutal.
So, hilarious thing about Korea, and I guess many countries in general - the gangsta wannabe type dudes. I was at The Loft tonight (a bar where girls drink free, yet tonight, no cute girls) and there's all these Nigerian dudes wearing random U.S. sports jerseys, clearly influenced by hip hop/rap videos. Yet, these guys have no knowledge whatsoever of U.S. sports, and all of the jerseys are fake Korean street vendor fare, so there are lots of dudes wearing jerseys of, like, Eddie George and Merton Hanks, and other random players like that that had 5-6 good years several years ago, but that nobody back home wears ever.
In a more serious and sad note, I am infinitely depressed by the death of Buck O'Neil, and all the more angered by the idiot hall of fame committee that decided a long dead Newark secretary was more worthy of enshrinement than baseball's greatest ambassador. For my own very small effort, I did spend much of the night telling rabid Korean baseball fans about Buck. I'd like to dedicate tonight's blog entry to Buck O'Neil, but I won't, because he deserves far better than a dedication here, on the interweb's most bush league address. I will say this: though I didn't know him, I feel like I have lost a friend. The world in general, and Kansas City in particular, is a worse off place today.
Good night (or good morning?) from Seoul. I'll write more about random hot Canadian girls later, but right now, I want everybody who reads this to think about Buck. Read Posnanski tomorrow (kansascity.com), I am sure it will be the column of his life, and one that i am not looking forward to reading.
Fearing North Invasion and Fan Death
originally posted on 10/14/06
It's a beautiful day in Seoul, so of course I've been spending the afternoon sleeping, watching Korean MTV, and sitting in the subterranian interweb lair. Just thought I'd write on a couple random things I've learned so far...
Fan Death - I'm really excited about this one. Apparently, in Korea, fans can kill you. Ceiling fans, oscillating fans, anything, I guess. You can't run a fan in a room without the window open. It's forbidden. Obviously, the fan will suck the oxygen out of the air, and you will die.
Kim's Club - this is what a grocery store should be. I love this place. It's huge, and underground, and beats the hell out of any U.S. or European grocer. First off, there's a veritable army of hot girls in short skirts and knee socks that work there, they are set up with samples of free shit in every aisle. There's free samples of, like, everything, including Heineken. Yes, that's right. Kim's Club has a hot girl in a short skirt giving you free beer. Not much of course, but I think it's really the principle that matters here. I've yet to make it out of the store in less than an hour. I can't find the salt and pepper that I seek there, and nobody speaks any English at all, but what the fuck, free beer.
The job has been okay. A couple of the classes are really bad, chock full of bad kids. One class has this horrible, possibly evil kid, and when he gets going, he's a bad influence on another student, whom I'll call Lou here. Lou is really dumb. He's like, the Kerney of the class. I think he is probably 24 or so. He speaks almost no English. One of my co-workers theorized that he probably can't speak any Korean either. Yesterday, he got 100% on his test, so I am positive he must have cheated. He handed me his test book and said, "me smart."
Some of the textbooks are awesome. In one passage, in a dialogue about eating unhealthy food, one of the characters says something along the lines of "I don't care if I grow bigger eating sweets. I must satisfy the desires of my mouth." I actually have to not laugh at this in class, which is really hard. There's a ton of other hilarious Engrish examples in these textbooks as well. There's a pronunciation book, which is just speech drills on certain sounds. The other day, it was the -ar sound we were doing, so of course, I couldn't resist getting the kids to do it pirate-style. good to see that pirate humor is international.
I've been pretty low-key in the going out scene this week, so I have no stories there, but that should change tonight. Hopefully, I should have something interesting to say.
It's a beautiful day in Seoul, so of course I've been spending the afternoon sleeping, watching Korean MTV, and sitting in the subterranian interweb lair. Just thought I'd write on a couple random things I've learned so far...
Fan Death - I'm really excited about this one. Apparently, in Korea, fans can kill you. Ceiling fans, oscillating fans, anything, I guess. You can't run a fan in a room without the window open. It's forbidden. Obviously, the fan will suck the oxygen out of the air, and you will die.
Kim's Club - this is what a grocery store should be. I love this place. It's huge, and underground, and beats the hell out of any U.S. or European grocer. First off, there's a veritable army of hot girls in short skirts and knee socks that work there, they are set up with samples of free shit in every aisle. There's free samples of, like, everything, including Heineken. Yes, that's right. Kim's Club has a hot girl in a short skirt giving you free beer. Not much of course, but I think it's really the principle that matters here. I've yet to make it out of the store in less than an hour. I can't find the salt and pepper that I seek there, and nobody speaks any English at all, but what the fuck, free beer.
The job has been okay. A couple of the classes are really bad, chock full of bad kids. One class has this horrible, possibly evil kid, and when he gets going, he's a bad influence on another student, whom I'll call Lou here. Lou is really dumb. He's like, the Kerney of the class. I think he is probably 24 or so. He speaks almost no English. One of my co-workers theorized that he probably can't speak any Korean either. Yesterday, he got 100% on his test, so I am positive he must have cheated. He handed me his test book and said, "me smart."
Some of the textbooks are awesome. In one passage, in a dialogue about eating unhealthy food, one of the characters says something along the lines of "I don't care if I grow bigger eating sweets. I must satisfy the desires of my mouth." I actually have to not laugh at this in class, which is really hard. There's a ton of other hilarious Engrish examples in these textbooks as well. There's a pronunciation book, which is just speech drills on certain sounds. The other day, it was the -ar sound we were doing, so of course, I couldn't resist getting the kids to do it pirate-style. good to see that pirate humor is international.
I've been pretty low-key in the going out scene this week, so I have no stories there, but that should change tonight. Hopefully, I should have something interesting to say.
Japan
originally posted on 10/24/06
A few random notes on my brief stay in japan:
I noticed, and maybe this is a new development, that when I flew to Japan on Monday morning, (okay, Sunday night in my book, since I didn't sleep and I left for the airport at 5 a.m. after winning the Madden Superbowl) that flights can be quite hair-raising and scary when you are sober. I mean, you are flying in this enormous (and I don't know what the deal with Korean Air is, but I was in row 40 yet I was on the wing. There must have been 900 people on this flight) plane, and it's an hour flight, so pretty much the whole time its either taking off or landing, which I'm used to on a 737, but on this behemoth of a plane (an Airbus, which I don't know much about. I think an A-300) it's all the more scary. But then, I discovered, on the return flight, on the same type of plane, in perhaps worse weather, the trip was an absolute beaute, and I wasn't remotely nervous. The difference? Well, on the return flight, I was absolutely hammered. I think I may be onto something here.
Fukuoka, by the way, has a fine airport, in my opinion. The international terminal was totally empty. My flight was the only one leaving from it. And in this case, international is like 400 miles. 2 cool things at the Fukuaka airport: there are two observation decks, outdoors-ish, so you can watch planes take off. Which, despite my problems with flying, I enjoy doing, because it re-assures me to see planes not crashing. Plus, though I could not find a bar, at least in the international terminal, I found something better. There were convenience stores that sold beers for like a dollar. And it's totally kosher to walk around the airport drinking them. At least, I assume it was. I mean, hell, they sell them past security, and you can't bring liquid on the plane, so where the hell else are you going to drink them? Plus, on top of that, the beers are 7% alcohol, and they sell them in weird flavors like lemonade and orange, so you can knock one back in like 20 seconds or so.
Don't get me wrong, I like beer, beer that tastes like beer, and I am totally opposed to the "flavored malt beverage" thing, like your Mike's Hard Lemonades and your Smirnoff Ices, but the Japanese have managed to get around all possible issues with such drinks and their effete nature by taking 5 key steps, in my opinion:
-They really do taste like lemonade, and lemonade is good
-They put a higher alcohol content in these than regular beer
-They make it the cheapest drink available
-This is key – they put it in cans – no queer yellow or cloudy liquid in a clear bottle
-They sell them for nothing at the fucking airport
Other funny things about Japan in general include the fact that you can't smoke while walking. It's the law. It's perfectly legal to stand on the street, pretty much anywhere, and smoke, but if you walk down the same street, it's illegal. CC told me it's because it goes against the Japanese notion of the group dynamic, which makes smoking in a restaurant or bar or with others on the street perfectly okay, but that walking down the street while smoking is going too much your own way, and it upsets the group dynamic, to the point where they actually made a law against it. So far as I'm concerned, this is the equivalent of the internet being legal, and porn being legal, but internet porn being illegal. I mean, doesn't walking and smoking go together like the internet and porn? And don't kill me for having a lame punchline here, I honestly was trying to make a point rather than set up a joke.
Speaking of CC – for anybody who has read this before, you know that I don't usually use this space to, ah, what's the opposite of make fun of people? But anyway, I just want to re-affirm in public what most of you know already – that CC is awesome. She's the type of kid who would in fact give you 3 grand, no questions asked, after a desperation 4 a.m. phone call from, say, an Indonesian jail cell. Or, as she did, give you a fistful of yen after a frantic phone call from the American consulate at 4 p.m., which is the same as 4 a.m. so far as Japanese banks are concerned. And then buy you beers all night to boot. So, props to CC.
Just a couple more funny things : at the airport in Seoul, there's an ad for SK Telecom, which is a pretty big company here. But the ad says: "SK: The Ubiquitous Leader." I don't think even Microsoft would have the balls to pull off that slogan.
And finally, for Wiley, a little drunken patriotism: so on my flight home, the pilot gave his announcements in Korean, Japanese, and English, and in English, he said that our current speed was five hundred MILES per hour. Yeah, that's right, miles. So basically, he was saying, suck it Brits, Kiwis, Canucks, Aussies, South Africans, and whoever else speaks English and deals in metric. Oh beautiful, for spacious skies…
By the way, I really do kind of want to write about airports. Fukuoka was my 8th in 2 months, and 12th this calendar year, both of which I believe are personal records. If I did write about airports here, would anybody other than Wiley read it? And this questions goes to the giraffe people as well. Answer in comments, yo.
A few random notes on my brief stay in japan:
I noticed, and maybe this is a new development, that when I flew to Japan on Monday morning, (okay, Sunday night in my book, since I didn't sleep and I left for the airport at 5 a.m. after winning the Madden Superbowl) that flights can be quite hair-raising and scary when you are sober. I mean, you are flying in this enormous (and I don't know what the deal with Korean Air is, but I was in row 40 yet I was on the wing. There must have been 900 people on this flight) plane, and it's an hour flight, so pretty much the whole time its either taking off or landing, which I'm used to on a 737, but on this behemoth of a plane (an Airbus, which I don't know much about. I think an A-300) it's all the more scary. But then, I discovered, on the return flight, on the same type of plane, in perhaps worse weather, the trip was an absolute beaute, and I wasn't remotely nervous. The difference? Well, on the return flight, I was absolutely hammered. I think I may be onto something here.
Fukuoka, by the way, has a fine airport, in my opinion. The international terminal was totally empty. My flight was the only one leaving from it. And in this case, international is like 400 miles. 2 cool things at the Fukuaka airport: there are two observation decks, outdoors-ish, so you can watch planes take off. Which, despite my problems with flying, I enjoy doing, because it re-assures me to see planes not crashing. Plus, though I could not find a bar, at least in the international terminal, I found something better. There were convenience stores that sold beers for like a dollar. And it's totally kosher to walk around the airport drinking them. At least, I assume it was. I mean, hell, they sell them past security, and you can't bring liquid on the plane, so where the hell else are you going to drink them? Plus, on top of that, the beers are 7% alcohol, and they sell them in weird flavors like lemonade and orange, so you can knock one back in like 20 seconds or so.
Don't get me wrong, I like beer, beer that tastes like beer, and I am totally opposed to the "flavored malt beverage" thing, like your Mike's Hard Lemonades and your Smirnoff Ices, but the Japanese have managed to get around all possible issues with such drinks and their effete nature by taking 5 key steps, in my opinion:
-They really do taste like lemonade, and lemonade is good
-They put a higher alcohol content in these than regular beer
-They make it the cheapest drink available
-This is key – they put it in cans – no queer yellow or cloudy liquid in a clear bottle
-They sell them for nothing at the fucking airport
Other funny things about Japan in general include the fact that you can't smoke while walking. It's the law. It's perfectly legal to stand on the street, pretty much anywhere, and smoke, but if you walk down the same street, it's illegal. CC told me it's because it goes against the Japanese notion of the group dynamic, which makes smoking in a restaurant or bar or with others on the street perfectly okay, but that walking down the street while smoking is going too much your own way, and it upsets the group dynamic, to the point where they actually made a law against it. So far as I'm concerned, this is the equivalent of the internet being legal, and porn being legal, but internet porn being illegal. I mean, doesn't walking and smoking go together like the internet and porn? And don't kill me for having a lame punchline here, I honestly was trying to make a point rather than set up a joke.
Speaking of CC – for anybody who has read this before, you know that I don't usually use this space to, ah, what's the opposite of make fun of people? But anyway, I just want to re-affirm in public what most of you know already – that CC is awesome. She's the type of kid who would in fact give you 3 grand, no questions asked, after a desperation 4 a.m. phone call from, say, an Indonesian jail cell. Or, as she did, give you a fistful of yen after a frantic phone call from the American consulate at 4 p.m., which is the same as 4 a.m. so far as Japanese banks are concerned. And then buy you beers all night to boot. So, props to CC.
Just a couple more funny things : at the airport in Seoul, there's an ad for SK Telecom, which is a pretty big company here. But the ad says: "SK: The Ubiquitous Leader." I don't think even Microsoft would have the balls to pull off that slogan.
And finally, for Wiley, a little drunken patriotism: so on my flight home, the pilot gave his announcements in Korean, Japanese, and English, and in English, he said that our current speed was five hundred MILES per hour. Yeah, that's right, miles. So basically, he was saying, suck it Brits, Kiwis, Canucks, Aussies, South Africans, and whoever else speaks English and deals in metric. Oh beautiful, for spacious skies…
By the way, I really do kind of want to write about airports. Fukuoka was my 8th in 2 months, and 12th this calendar year, both of which I believe are personal records. If I did write about airports here, would anybody other than Wiley read it? And this questions goes to the giraffe people as well. Answer in comments, yo.
Horse Shit
originally posted on 10/29/06
So, I'm pretty much on to the really annoying poverty period, that I suppose is inevitable any time you don't get paid for 43 days. Really, there's no amount of money that works for starting out such a streak, when you are taking a lump sum to a new country. I could have brought 10 grand with me, and I am fairly certain I would still be broke now. 12 more days to payday now, I'm fairly certain I can tough it out, ghetto food style, and with the assistance of lots of PS2.
Knowing that I am broke, PS2 was exactly my plan last night. I was walking home at around 6 p.m., fully ready for hours and hours of Madden action, and I was almost there when I ran into two fellow teachers. Who, of course, said to me the 6 most deadly words in the English language for the budget minded person in Seoul – "We're going to Itaewon. Wanna come?" Arrrr. I try to refuse this invitation, but realize I have little choice. After all, pretty much the one cardinal rule for those who do not own a cell phone is that you always go along with friends that you randomly bump into when they are on their way to the bars.
Off we went, first eating at a tiny Moroccan restaurant. Basically a one-man operation. 4 tables, one guy serving and cooking. Pretty impressive restaurateur as well. By my count, this guy was either fluent or damn close to it in English, Korean, French, Spanish, and Arabic, judging by his conversations with the rest of the clientele. Cool place, overall. Meanwhile, I still know a cool two Korean phrases – hello and thank you. I don't even know the standard excuse me, but judging from what I've seen of Seoul subway etiquette, there's no need to learn it.
Anyway, so the horse mask thing in my picture (pic omitted - but it was of my and 4 others in horse masks). Maybe this is the reason that I am broke, but I simply could not-not buy one. Itaewon is the one place in Seoul that cares about Halloween, and lots of people went all out with the costumes. But, we clearly beat them all. 5 people running around the Itaewon streets and bars wearing identical horse masks. As I waffled on whether to buy one, I said to my buddy that if I did, I'd wear it today, and probably never again. His response was, uh, more like every other day. So the five of us will meet up every couple of months or so to horse around. I think we need a camera crew.
So, I'm pretty much on to the really annoying poverty period, that I suppose is inevitable any time you don't get paid for 43 days. Really, there's no amount of money that works for starting out such a streak, when you are taking a lump sum to a new country. I could have brought 10 grand with me, and I am fairly certain I would still be broke now. 12 more days to payday now, I'm fairly certain I can tough it out, ghetto food style, and with the assistance of lots of PS2.
Knowing that I am broke, PS2 was exactly my plan last night. I was walking home at around 6 p.m., fully ready for hours and hours of Madden action, and I was almost there when I ran into two fellow teachers. Who, of course, said to me the 6 most deadly words in the English language for the budget minded person in Seoul – "We're going to Itaewon. Wanna come?" Arrrr. I try to refuse this invitation, but realize I have little choice. After all, pretty much the one cardinal rule for those who do not own a cell phone is that you always go along with friends that you randomly bump into when they are on their way to the bars.
Off we went, first eating at a tiny Moroccan restaurant. Basically a one-man operation. 4 tables, one guy serving and cooking. Pretty impressive restaurateur as well. By my count, this guy was either fluent or damn close to it in English, Korean, French, Spanish, and Arabic, judging by his conversations with the rest of the clientele. Cool place, overall. Meanwhile, I still know a cool two Korean phrases – hello and thank you. I don't even know the standard excuse me, but judging from what I've seen of Seoul subway etiquette, there's no need to learn it.
Anyway, so the horse mask thing in my picture (pic omitted - but it was of my and 4 others in horse masks). Maybe this is the reason that I am broke, but I simply could not-not buy one. Itaewon is the one place in Seoul that cares about Halloween, and lots of people went all out with the costumes. But, we clearly beat them all. 5 people running around the Itaewon streets and bars wearing identical horse masks. As I waffled on whether to buy one, I said to my buddy that if I did, I'd wear it today, and probably never again. His response was, uh, more like every other day. So the five of us will meet up every couple of months or so to horse around. I think we need a camera crew.
Indecision Clouds my Vision
originally posted on 11/4/06
First off, I need to point out that huge strides have been made in instant coffee since I last had it, probably in my Boy Scout days. This is fortunate, as it is a necessity here, if one is to drink coffee at home. The combination of lack of space for a coffee machine in my tiny apartment, and prohibitive cost of coffee machines here (they are all like $150, I haven't seen anyplace selling the classic American shitty $10 coffee machines that I have come to depend on) makes instant the only option.
Last night I went out with 3 other teachers to a local bar, a Brit, and Aussie, and a Canadian. We had a pretty enjoyable time, and all three are very cool. Boring info there, I know. We talked about various travel things, as the three of them are all very well traveled, and I'd like to think I do all right myself, for an American at least. All three had been to Thailand and Hong Kong and Singapore and other places like that still seem exotic, even from Seoul. It has long been the common wisdom that Americans don't travel enough, and though this did not come up last night, I am sure the other three all think this. As do I, largely, far too few Americans have passports, but then again, Americans get the shortest vacation time of any industrialized people, and it's hard to see much of Europe or Asia or South America with a week off, and far easier to go to Vegas or Orlando and "see" all three.
What struck me as quite strange though, and perhaps this is an international phenomenon, is that the Canadian has never been to Toronto, the Aussie has never been to Sydney, and the Brit has spent less time in London than I have. So, I don't know, make what you will of that. I am not talking shit, because, as I said, all of these people are very cool and I am glad they are working at my school.
So anyway, everybody was going home at 2 or so, and I wasn't really into going home. I bought a bottle of soju and took to the streets with the pod, kicking it old school. The problem with soju, of course, is that you should never start drinking it after having a couple beers. It just makes you nutty. You would think I'd have learned this by now, but it just seemed like the thing to do.
I walked down a random large street near my house that I had not been down before, rocking the pod and interested to see what was around. I ended up in a random party zone, not far down the road. I had no fucking clue where I was, but it was 2:30 or 3, and this one random street was jammed with cars and cabs, and there were a ton of people on the streets and like 7 million bars around. So, I felt I'd walked the right way, basically. Another weird thing about Korea – on this little party street, there were all sorts of businesses open that you wouldn't expect to be open at 3 a.m, like clothing stores and junk stores. Conversely, there were all sorts of businesses that you would expect to be open, at least they would be in Chicago, like a Dunkin Donuts and a Burger King, that were closed. One bar, called the Stop Here, (I didn't, it looked shady) had its hours printed on the door. 6 p.m. until 11 a.m. Even I am not hard core enough to be out boozing still at, say 10:30 a.m.
I headed to a bar with seats in the windows that overlook the street, so that I could watch all the chaos of a Seoul party district from a prime vantage point. Plus, a fairly large beer was 2.50, and it came with these weird, addictive crunch noodle snack things that I do not know what are called, but they serve them in a lot of Korean bars. The waitress then brought me a tray of peanuts, and said, proudly, "nuts." Nuts indeed.
Anyway, I left the bar, still with the soju in tow, completely trashed, and I started feeling the urge to rock out, which, thankfully, I haven't done in public in some time, probably due to owning a car. Just then, the pod selected Faith No More's "Falling to Pieces," and it was no longer up to me. It was time to rock. So, it was 4 a.m, still lots of people out, I'm absolutely hammered, walking in the general home direction, in a part of the city I had never been to before, surrounded by people that I will never see again. So I wail along with Mike Patton, and even throw in a few random dance moves. I gotta say, it was fun. Fortunately, the road home was deserted of people, as it goes through a large construction project so there's no retail or residential anywhere around. I was able to sing like a madman the whole way back, until I got into my neighborhood, where I immediately stopped. Acting like a jackass in front of scores of drunken strangers or in a deserted area is one thing, but I didn't want to do so within earshot of the neighbors.
Post note, so I was walking to the grocery store today (after waking up at 3 p.m.) and I had the pod again, and maybe the third song it randomly picks out of 3500 odd songs, is of course, "Falling to Pieces." I was tempted to rock out once again, but the moment passed. I think I'm staying home tonight.
First off, I need to point out that huge strides have been made in instant coffee since I last had it, probably in my Boy Scout days. This is fortunate, as it is a necessity here, if one is to drink coffee at home. The combination of lack of space for a coffee machine in my tiny apartment, and prohibitive cost of coffee machines here (they are all like $150, I haven't seen anyplace selling the classic American shitty $10 coffee machines that I have come to depend on) makes instant the only option.
Last night I went out with 3 other teachers to a local bar, a Brit, and Aussie, and a Canadian. We had a pretty enjoyable time, and all three are very cool. Boring info there, I know. We talked about various travel things, as the three of them are all very well traveled, and I'd like to think I do all right myself, for an American at least. All three had been to Thailand and Hong Kong and Singapore and other places like that still seem exotic, even from Seoul. It has long been the common wisdom that Americans don't travel enough, and though this did not come up last night, I am sure the other three all think this. As do I, largely, far too few Americans have passports, but then again, Americans get the shortest vacation time of any industrialized people, and it's hard to see much of Europe or Asia or South America with a week off, and far easier to go to Vegas or Orlando and "see" all three.
What struck me as quite strange though, and perhaps this is an international phenomenon, is that the Canadian has never been to Toronto, the Aussie has never been to Sydney, and the Brit has spent less time in London than I have. So, I don't know, make what you will of that. I am not talking shit, because, as I said, all of these people are very cool and I am glad they are working at my school.
So anyway, everybody was going home at 2 or so, and I wasn't really into going home. I bought a bottle of soju and took to the streets with the pod, kicking it old school. The problem with soju, of course, is that you should never start drinking it after having a couple beers. It just makes you nutty. You would think I'd have learned this by now, but it just seemed like the thing to do.
I walked down a random large street near my house that I had not been down before, rocking the pod and interested to see what was around. I ended up in a random party zone, not far down the road. I had no fucking clue where I was, but it was 2:30 or 3, and this one random street was jammed with cars and cabs, and there were a ton of people on the streets and like 7 million bars around. So, I felt I'd walked the right way, basically. Another weird thing about Korea – on this little party street, there were all sorts of businesses open that you wouldn't expect to be open at 3 a.m, like clothing stores and junk stores. Conversely, there were all sorts of businesses that you would expect to be open, at least they would be in Chicago, like a Dunkin Donuts and a Burger King, that were closed. One bar, called the Stop Here, (I didn't, it looked shady) had its hours printed on the door. 6 p.m. until 11 a.m. Even I am not hard core enough to be out boozing still at, say 10:30 a.m.
I headed to a bar with seats in the windows that overlook the street, so that I could watch all the chaos of a Seoul party district from a prime vantage point. Plus, a fairly large beer was 2.50, and it came with these weird, addictive crunch noodle snack things that I do not know what are called, but they serve them in a lot of Korean bars. The waitress then brought me a tray of peanuts, and said, proudly, "nuts." Nuts indeed.
Anyway, I left the bar, still with the soju in tow, completely trashed, and I started feeling the urge to rock out, which, thankfully, I haven't done in public in some time, probably due to owning a car. Just then, the pod selected Faith No More's "Falling to Pieces," and it was no longer up to me. It was time to rock. So, it was 4 a.m, still lots of people out, I'm absolutely hammered, walking in the general home direction, in a part of the city I had never been to before, surrounded by people that I will never see again. So I wail along with Mike Patton, and even throw in a few random dance moves. I gotta say, it was fun. Fortunately, the road home was deserted of people, as it goes through a large construction project so there's no retail or residential anywhere around. I was able to sing like a madman the whole way back, until I got into my neighborhood, where I immediately stopped. Acting like a jackass in front of scores of drunken strangers or in a deserted area is one thing, but I didn't want to do so within earshot of the neighbors.
Post note, so I was walking to the grocery store today (after waking up at 3 p.m.) and I had the pod again, and maybe the third song it randomly picks out of 3500 odd songs, is of course, "Falling to Pieces." I was tempted to rock out once again, but the moment passed. I think I'm staying home tonight.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)