Friday night I had dinner with Charlie, Ben, Haji, Josh, and Michelle at our favorite restaurant. No tea kettle fights this time, just some good laughs and great food. Afterwards we took Ben for his first trip to Now Bar. Played some darts and pool, had some drinks, talked with a few "old friends" and just generally enjoyed the night. At 4 a.m. we decided it was probably time to leave and we go outside to catch a cab. Charlie had this idea that instead of using the business card with our address he would just try to tell the guy where to go. As he's walking up to the cab he says, "Let me drop my Korean on 'em." Ben and I were in hysterics as Charlie kept repeating the name over and over and the driver just kept shaking his head and muttering something. I wish I had a video of how funny the whole scene really was. Just as we were about to try another cab the guy figured out what Charlie was saying and took us home. It was a hiliarious cab ride as Charlie rode up front and was joking with the driver and just being generally hilarious. Ben and I could barely catch our breath in the backseat.
So after about 6 hours of sleep we woke up to meet up with Anna who was taking us to see some traditional Korean martial arts. It was certainly worth being a little tired to see these guys in full costumes using swords, spears, nun-chucks, the whole works. It was a really awesome show and one I plan on checking out again soon. I'll throw up some pictures I took from the show.
After the show Anna took us to try some Korean food we had yet to sample. We settled on this soup called "budae jjigae" which was created after the Korean war. (Pictures are above, Blogger is lame about reordering things) Koreans were absolutely dirt poor and had very little meat. What meat they did have was in the form of hot dogs, canned meat, and Spam (yes, Spam) from the U.S. Army bases. Well, you see, the Koreans are able to make just about anything delicious so they just threw all of this together with some noodles, vegetables, and tofu and created an amazingly delicious meal. We all ate until we were full and Anna taught me a few more Korean words. I really impressed her when I called the waitress over and ordered more water all on my own. I am really going to start dedicating some time to learning Korean because the more and more I try the easier it is getting. It helps to have a patient teacher like Anna who can really help my pronounciation.
After that we went back to the fortress entrance (where the martial arts show was) and watched some Korean traditional music and dance. Super cool costumes and incredible culture. I profusely thanked Anna for taking us because it was the first real taste of "traditional" Korea and I loved every minute of it. We caught the bus back home and all took a few hour nap before our adventure into Seoul.
So we wanted to check out the giant electronics district in Yongsan, mainly to price a PS3 for Charlie. Once we arrived we were all starving so we immediately began the search for food and settled on a restaurant that had pictures and English. I'm not sure what exactly we ate but it was similar to galbi: basically meat and vegetables cooked together on a giant plate in the middle of our table with all the basic sidedishes. It seems everytime we just randomly settle on a meal it turns out to be fantastic. After that we realized the electronics district had just closed so we began out journey to the neighborhood of Hongdae to watch Josh and Michelle's band.
Ok, so on the subway map there is no "Hongdae." I've never actually seen the word spelled out but I've heard everyone say it a thousand times so I'm confident it is either Hungdae or Hongdae. We find a "Harwangdae" on the map and think, "Well, the Koreans just slur it together or they did a shitty job on the phonetic spelling, either way, that has to be it." We take the subway a bit further and end up in Harwangdae. So before we left Josh drew us a map but we forgot it and were just going off memory. We knew we were supposed to come out of one of the subway exits, go right on a "big road", and then turn when we saw a restaurant called "Omatu Tomato." So we set off down the "big road" in one direction and it leads no where. We turn around and try the other direction; same result. Charlie has been to Hongdae before and he kept saying, "This doesn't even look like the Hongdae I remember." Well, as it turns out, we were on the completely wrong side of Seoul. Two hours of wandering aimlessly and all the while laughing about how we could possibly be in the wrong place. Luckily we had some time to kill and were able to find a Korean who spoke English to set us straight. We jump in a cab to Hongdae and then our next adventure begins.
So Charlie is the only one who had seen the map and to his credit he did a great job of remembering. We find the Omatu Tomato with no problem and we know we're supposed to take a left there. The problem is we don't know which direction we're supposed to be approaching from because the map was assuming we got off the subway instead of getting dropped off by a cab in the middle of the area, so we don't know which way "left" is. Charlie draws the map with his finger on a wall so Ben and I have an idea of what we're looking for and we just set off down one road. On the map this road dead-ends and we take a right. Much to our surprise the road actually does dead-end and we take a right. Then we're supposed to turn again at a 7-11. BAM! There's the 7-11. Ok, final step, find the bar. We don't know the name or where it is on this street. We see a sign that says "Live music, no cover" and we ask what kind of music and they tell us rock and roll. Charlie had the good sense to say "Is the drummer white with a long ponytail?" Low and behold we found the frickin' bar in about 10 minutes after we wandered the wrong area of the city for two hours.
Anna and her sister Lisa also joined up with us and it was a great time. Josh plays drums and Michelle plays the steel drum. The band played a mix of cover songs ranging from Bob Marley to Sublime and they were quite good to being playing a basement bar with no cover. Now, I'm no steel drum expert but I think Michelle is probably in the top 1% of all steel drum players in the world after seeing her last night. It was just incredible how talented they were. She made it look so effortless and her solos really stole the show.
After the show we took a cab home. We were told to neogiate a flat rate of 45,000won to get us back to Suwon from Hongdae. After a few hilarious minutes we settle on 47,000 and we were off, racing through the streets of Seoul. The driver was a young guy and we had some good laughs with him about listening to Avril Lavigne and him smoking all of Charlie's cigarettes. There was something so surreal about flying along the Han River at 2 a.m. after such a full, fun day. It is moments like that where I mentally take a step back and realize how fortunate I am to be here doing what I'm doing and how happy I am to have made this decision. I've only been here a little over 3 weeks and I've already made a lifetime of memories. Having friends like Charlie, Ben, Anna, Josh, Michelle, and Haji just adds to the experience. I just want to soak in everything this country has to offer and I feel like I'm off to a great start.
I intended to write a more serious blog about my experience so far but this is running long enough so I'll save that for another day.
Take it easy, but take it.
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