The End of a Journey (and the Beginning of Another)

So I realize I haven't updated this in months. And I believe I've already apologized for this in an earlier post so, whatever. I think I transitioned as a person while I was in Korea.
My initial blog posts were "Oh wow! Look at me! I'm on the outside looking in! This is so strange! I must document it!"
But then at some point...I just became a part of Korea.
And maybe part of it is just that...what happened to me here eventually became far too personal to write down. Nothing that happened to me after I stopped writing this seemed consequential enough to write down. I did plenty of interesting things (like how I visited the Tim Burton exhibit in Seoul and took tons of awesome illegal photos that I still haven't gotten off my ass and uploaded) but those didn't seem to be my priority for being in Korea anymore. And this blog has always been more for me than for you anyway. So I didn't write about it. I didn't have time to write about it. I became insanely busy building my life.
Packing my suitcases today, I came across trinkets and letters (as one often does) that became a sort of trail of breadcrumbs back through my memories of my time here in Korea. Some of them terrible, some of them euphoric, but all of them necessary. And while following this trail back, I slowly began to realize who I am now is not at all the same man who started this journey. And I think that's a good thing.
I have so many people to thank..people who influenced me, for better or for worse, and taught me so much about myself.
So first I suppose I should start with thanking the people, even if they may never read this:

Part 1 of 3 - The Year Book (Goodbyes I'll Never Be Brave Enough To Say):
Robin: You will always be first on this list. You can't even speak English, you asshole. You taught me how to DJ and..more than that...you pushed me to be a good DJ. You acted like an older brother to me. You pushed me out of the nest before I was ready, let me fall on my face, then pushed me out over and over again. You carried me so far and you never ever had to. You changed my life forever.

Chris: While I'm talking about mentors, I can't forget you. You've had so much patience with me and my utter lack of music production knowledge. You've helped me every step of the way (and fuck you if you think you're done teaching me yet) and never given up despite the insane learning curve. You really brought me back to music and made me realize how much I love it and want to marry it and should have never left it.

Vivian: You are my best friend in Korea...and probably one of the best friends I will ever have in the world. You taught me not all Korean girls are crazy and some even think like Western girls (but sometimes you need a "Korean girl" emotional handicap anyway ;P). I hate how you think that I will forget about you when I'm back in America. There aren't many people like you in the world, let alone in Korea.

Britta: The opposite of Vivian...you taught me not all foreigners in Korea are xenophobic, cultural isolationists. No one else likes to party with Koreans as much as you and I do and I hope you'll be around for a bit when I get back so we can watch one last drunken sunrise together.

Kyungnam: You and Hyejin are also my best friends in Korea and it's so weird that we met so randomly at Zedd's concert. Who knew we would be this close? World DJ Fest and Ultra were so much fun. I really hope some day we can DJ together on stage. Inch and Flo #1 DJ Duo. I'm really sad you're going to America when I'm going back to Korea. But it's selfish of me to make you stay for me =P I hope you go to Florida. I will make sure everyone there treats you really well and you'll have a great time.

Hyejin: You are so fucking adorable. It's king of amusing how we get along so well even though I barely speak Korean and you barely speak English. Usually that would be uncomfortable, but with you I'm always happy. I hope we still hang out a lot even after Kyungnam goes to America. You're my music festival buddy! And you till have to make my DJ logo!

Bora/Gina: You guys were my first real friends in Korea. I think, just like any first real relationship, we just made a mess of things and never really fixed it. I hope we can soon. I honestly would probably have left Korea after my first few months if it wasn't for you. You pushed me to chase my dreams and did everything you could to help me succeed. I hope some day I can replay that favor.

Naz: Just like with Bora and Gina...I'm not sure what went wrong between us or why we never bothered to fix it. We're stubborn assholes, I guess. Interestingly, I've never really seen the side of Naz that becomes the legends of foreigners across Gyeongsangnam-do, but I've seen a different side of you that many people don't typically get to see, I think. And we've been in some shit together ourselves. I hope everything goes well for you and I really have no doubt it will. You have an infectious quality about you I can only just marvel at.

Walker: I'm really stoked we're both moving to Daegu next year. I like your vibe and how you can just be yourself regardless of the company you're with. I don't think I ever told you that. Sometimes you're fucking awkward, but you're always yourself, always honest, and there's a lot the be said for that.

Bongsun: Fuck. We didn't hang out as much as I wanted to at all, but that's understandable because you are a university student and really busy. Your design work is amazing and you shouldn't worry so much about getting a job. I'm sure you will have no trouble. Be confident! I want to see you more when I come back!

DJ JunH/DJ EPIK/DJ Robby: I loved playing with you guys at Club MK and The Nin9. You are like brothers to me. I wish our lives weren't so crazy and we could have hung out more. Someday we will all DJ together again. I learn so much from each of you. Robby...keep practicing. You have a lot of talent and you will become a great DJ yourself someday if you just keep fighting. Always have confidence in yourself!

Casey: I've said this a thousand times, but fuck it I'll say it again. Fuck you. Come back to Korea. I miss you. Seriously. You're my other half. I'm going to be as gay about this as possible. It's kind of good you left, because I think I was so happy just chilling with you all the time, I don't think I would have had the drive to pursue DJing or anything if you were still here. But now that I've found myself, it's safe for you to come back, okay?

Caitlin: I think we've come to realize our personalities mix about as well as oil and water. I'm sorry for getting drunk and vomiting all over your bathroom on New Year's Eve. I don't usually throw up. It was one hell of a party. Regardless of how much stress we cause each other though, you're still an awesome person and also one of the reasons I survived Korea. If you hadn't found me, terrified and entrenched in my apartment, I would probably have bought the first ticket home after month 3.

Hyerim: My first Korean friend! You suck and moved to Australia before we could get really close, but next year in Daegu will be amazing! I hope you're as excited as I am.

All the great people I've met foreigner and native alike in Korea: Seriously wish I wasn't so anti-social/busy at times so I could have spent more time with you. There's so many great people in Changwon, each doing amazing things. I have no idea how people like Sunil can orchestrate a full theatrical production in a foreign country. Or how John, Heather and Tamas can organize these giant events and facebook groups and keep everyone in the know and really make Changwon's foreigner culture blossom. Or how James can join an intercity soccer league in Korea. Or how Conrad can race motorcycles competitively in Korea. All of you do such amazing things and were part of inspiring me to find myself, my niche, and you're all great drinking company besides!


Okay...now that that is done...for the rest of you out there...back in the states or elsewhere. Here are some things I've learned in Korea that I shouldn't have had to travel across the world to learn. So I'll present them to you here so you don't have to (even though you really should):

Part 2 of 3 - Advice From A Greenhorn Living Abroad:

1) Do what you really want to do...by any means necessary. This seems like a no-brainer...but seriously. I changed majors like 10 times in college and gave up doing many things I loved because someone along the way told me "these's no career in this" or "you'll never make money doing this". I gave up drawing, gave up writing...and worst of all..gave up my first love: music. But then i came to Korea and music found me again. And I kicked myself for having let someone talk me into giving it up in the first place. Who knows where I would be if I had never put down my violin, my drums, my guitar. Now I'm making up for lost years and I won't make that mistake twice. Fine. Maybe music wil never be my career. Maybe I'll DJ bars with 6 regular patrons for the rest of my life. Maybe no one will ever listen to my music. I don't care. It's what I want to do. Fuck you if you tell me I can't do it.

2) Learn a language. Seriously...I don't remember hardly any of the Spanish I took in high school or the Italian I took in college. But you are so much better off if you learn a language well. There are so many friends you're missing otu on making, opportunities you're missing out on taking, by refusing that skill.

3) Don't judge someone because their culture is different than your. You're more alike than you think. Yes...Korean relationships are crazy, juvenile roller-coaster rides. But just because their standards for relationships are different, doesn't mean they think differently...or even want different things ultimately. I rememver one conversation with Vivian when I explained the word "Ephemeral" came from the Ephemera fly and she told me they had that same word association in Korean...and it blew my mind in that moment. It clicked with me that languages develop differently but our mental processes are the same. Every human being reaches the same conclusions and perceives the world exactly the same. Again..this seems obvious, but sometimes the face of culture is so different than the mind.

4) Try everything. Try it. Food. Adventures. Whatever. Try it. I'm an atheist, so I believe this chance is our only chance at live. But even if you believe otherwise, you still owe it to yourself to try as mucha s you can in the lifetime. Experience everything. Why not? Try some disgusting food. What's the worst that will happen? Try some feat you never thought you could accomplish before. You might surprise yourself. This has easily become the mantra for my life. I've done things in Korea that I never would have tried in America...and I'm not really sure why location had any bearing on it.

5) Live lightly. This is just a note from a traveller's perspective...but the more things you accumulate, the more they seem to tie you down to a place. Take some time and go through everything you own. Divide it into essential and non-essential. What can you live without? What do you need? You'll find you have a lot of bullshit. Cut it out. I can carry 90% of my life in a suitcase and a bag. This feels really...freeing. Yeah...I have some collector's items at home. But all that nostalgic stuff...it's nice. But I don't need it. The people who gave me that stuff will always be in my hearts. The only reason we keep it is to honor them. Show them you love them regularly and you don't need that.

Part 3 of 3 - Advice To Those Who Wish To Follow My Footsteps (And Learn From My Mistakes):

1) Learn about the culture in advance. Wherever you go..do yourself a favor. Learn some basic phrases, some of the geography, and a bit of the culture before you go. I set myself back two months by knowing jack-shit about Korea before I came.

2) Network before you get there. Have people in place to help you get situation. There's tons of Facebook groups and websites these days that will help you. I wish I had done this.

2) Don't waste suitcase space. I seriously overpacked for Korea. I brought like three suits. Why did I think I would need three suits? I wore one of them. Once. Huge waste of space. Research where you're going...but chances are most places have the things you need. I packed tons of razors and deodorant...come to find out that it's easy to find and regularly priced in Korea. Fuck packing your favorite snacks or whatever you want but they don't have in Korea. You'll run out of it soon anyway. Accept you're in a foreign country. Eat their food. Adapt.

3) What you should pack:
a) Extension cords with multiple sockets for your electronic devices so you don't have to buy a ton of adapters.
b) A sturdy travel pack that has lots of compartments. Spend good money on it. It'll need to last you.
c) An American toothbrush.
d) pillowcases/sheets (that stuff is expensive here)
e) Some clothes (and maybe shoes) for all weather. I'm from Florida. I brought a year supply of summer clothes. Winter almost killed me.

4) What you should buy/do immediately when you get there:
a) Buy a wifi router for your house or have someone set one up for you.
b) Get a cell phone/cell phone plan. I tried going 6 months without one and my life was infinitely better after I caved.
c) Get some mode of transportation whether that is a bus pass, bicycle, subway pass, Something. Make it a priority. And get an English map if you can.
d) Cleaning supplies/household amenities: It'll put you out a couple hundred bucks initially and may seem daunting, but you want your place to feel like home. The more you do that, the less homesick and uncomfortable you'll be.
e) Get to know shop owners and people in your general vicinity. I wish I had talked it up with my landlord when I moved in. Took me ten months. He's a really nice guy. I also befriended some local restaurants and sometimes get free food.

- End of Series - 

So that's it. My life has changed a lot. I've begun DJing, producing music, learning Korean. And I really love Korea. Coming back next year, my plan is to drastically improve my Korean and begin making a name for myself as a DJ in Korea. I also want to become a better teacher and I know working at a public school will push me to do that. I have this feeling that next year is going to be a big year for me. The dominoes are set...I only need to put them in motion.

I now have my life neatly packed away in four massive suitcases. Two are staying here because I have every intention of coming back to finish what I started.

Chapter 1 is finished. Chapter 2 has yet to begin.

Hitting On Korean Girls

Man, it's been awhile since I've posted. I've done a bit of travelling. Went to Japan for a week and had a pretty good time, but that can really mostly be explained in a series of outrageous photos so I may just update this with a Flickr photo album from that trip at some point if you're curious. 

What I thought would be more amusing for you guys back home is to learn about how I've discovered Korea operates on a social level (from my personal experience). It's different for everyone and of course a lot of it has to do with how you approach people, but a lot has happened to me in the past few weeks that, for better or for worse, Korea has played a big part in.

I'm kind of weird because I don't really hang out with the foreigner crowd. Not to say I don't have Western friends that I love to death, but generally big mobs of Westerners just kind of piss me off. I loathe this "Let's hang out with English-speakers doing English-speaker type things in Korea" mentality. I just can't fit into it. It drives me absolutely mad. I know plenty of guys who speak great Korea, have Korean girlfriends, and still go to those Western events so like I said...it's just me. I'm weird. I came to Korea get uncomfortable and to see what life was like in another country...not to replicate some poor facsimile of my life back home.

So recently I've been trying to make an effort to hang out with more Koreans. A few weeks ago, I was drinking at a foreigner bar and it was just...boring. Other than the cute bartender (I'll get to that humorous anecdote in a minute), there was really nothing keeping me there. So I message a Korean girl I'm friends with because I remember her mentioning something about a good club called 247. Turns out she's already there, so I head out and walk from the "foreigner" side of downtown to the "Korean" side of downtown basically just by crossing a big road (I'm sure Foucault would have something to say about the social asymmetry of this symmetrical city planning...but anyway...).

I get to the club and guess what? No foreigners allowed. The fuck. It's already 3am and I promised my friend I'd go inside and I was already incredibly inebriated (Sidenote: Thank you random Russian girl, wherever you are, for showing me your outrageous flaming Sambuca tricks. You will never be forgotten). I dug up some superhuman Korean abilities I don't possess when I'm sober and tried explaining to this guy I already had a friend inside. He finally breaks and says "Okay, tonight you are Korean" and lets me in. Apparently, from what other foreigners have told me, is an atypical result. Which sucks, because this club was INSANE! Koreans just going hard left and right in a way I always believed asian biology would not allow.

Korean Club Life (Part 1):
In America, clubs are usually a hunting ground. As a result, it's very territorial when it comes to dancing and possessive when it comes to...let's call it "attracting a mate". Korea is none of those things. Guys were pretty much pushing their girls to dance with me, I was dancing with a bunch of random bros cheering on girls and shit. None of these people spoke more than 6 words of English or had a goddamn idea who I was. They just want to have a good time and dance and party. It can be a little weird because Koreans are generally very physically expressive of their emotions with close friends and when alcohol becomes involved that expression reaches beyond close friends and I had guys kind of putting their hand around my waist or some shit at times, but it's not a "being gay" thing like we have the tendency to freak out about in America. It's just friendliness.

After the club died down around 8am, I go out to breakfast with my Korean friend and like 9 random people I assumed to also be her friends (come to find out she had no fucking idea who those people were either). The whole time we're just eating and they're calling me best friend and trying to speak English with me and shit. My drunken Korean was still active so I could keep up with bits of the conversation, but slowly people started passing out at the table and I eventually took a cab home around 9:30 to get some sleep.

That is what I wanted out of Korea: To go hard like a Korean. That was one of the greatest times I've had in Korea.

But the next day, I go back to the foreigner bar with the cute Korean bartender and try to keep working on that again. Like this girl was not only pretty but just super fun to dance with and really awesome, so I figured "why not?" Plus her boyfriend broke up with her around the same time my girlfriend broke up with me...so it was like...kindred spirits shit. This is where things get into the "I Don't Understand Korean Girls And The Might Be Crazy" portion of the blog. This isn't solely me saying this...this is my Korean guy friends saying "Korean girls are crazy" and then me choosing not to believe them and going for it anyway..only for them to be proven right.

I Don't Understand Korean Girls And The Might Be Crazy (Part 1):

So basically I had a great weekend with this girl. Did a lot of drinking and dancing, got her number, talked a bit, but always drunk, right? Once daytime came, like a fuckin mythological creature, this girl was non-existent. Would not return my texts or any shit. I invited her to dinner twice and got turned down.

Talked to Korean friends about it again (girls and guys alike) and both sexes said "A Korean girl will [always] turn you down the first time you ask them out. It's expected that this will happen because Korean girls don't want to seem easy"....the fuck? Okay, that's utterly ridiculous...especially when the guys are aware of this as well...it's just unnecessarily complicated, but whatever.

So I keep going to he bar, keep trying at it. Some other dude comes out with one of my military buddies and starts gaming on her and I'm "you much be fucking joking me"...but she was still talking to me and I thought stuff was really good. Invited her out to dinner again the next day, not turned down again because she had to work...so I did some cute ass shit and brought her dinner at work against the advice of my Korean friends who said "Don't act like you're too into her. Talk to many girls and make her think you don't really care." Again I'm like "the fuck is this nonsense?" I hate lying and I hate bullshit games so no guys....I'm just gunna do my thing. Drop off dinner. Head to Busan. [spoiler alert: I fuckin crash and burn].

Korean Club Life (Part 2):

So Naz brings me out to Busan for some real solid club life and to get me out of my head and away from Changwon. We head out to the KSU area where the clubs are supposed to be bumping. It was pretty solid. First two bars were foreigner style bars and they were mad boring (because they were full or foreigners sitting around drinking and trying not to look too awkward) but at the second bar, I run into this outrageously cute Korean girl who was dressed extremely well with a bored "I don't give a fuck "attitude on her face blowing smoke ring soff her hookah pipe. I'm like...well shit.."challenge accepted". 

Go talk to this girl, hit it off pretty well, start talking and shit teachers me how to blow smoke rings. Buy each other a few drinks, but this place is still fucking boring. So I ask her if she likes clubbing. She said no, but she would go if her friend went. So somehow that involved me dragging her friend, a Belgian guy, an American guy, and the cute Korean girl all to the Blue Monkey. It was kind of small, but the DJ was sick...flipping tracks and blending them every 30 seconds.

Soon I realize "shit...this girl can't really dance". Like she was trying to have fun, but it's like she had no idea what to do with herself and was just pantomining what she'd seen dancing look like in American movies (you know...the girl raising her arms in the air and just flipping her hair around thing?) So I somehow go start dancing up on stage and get people pumping, when this ridiculously slutty Korean girl starts dancing on me like we're in a fuckin' rap video. She was really cute but we were dancing like mom and dad would never want to see and I'm like "oooh girl, you fuckin' crazy if you think I'm going anywhere with you" but dancing with her was fun, so I kept dancing on stage with her for a bit until I went back to go find the cute awkward Korean girl, but she was on her way out...I think she was pissed...I probably blew it. Oh well, that was only round three. I think we hit pal cha (round 8) that night. 

Everywhere we went afterwards were just straight Koreans clubbing. girls on stripper poles, guys cheering em on. Felt like the states. Raging with Koreans in Korean clubs is just a hell of a good time. Notice this is filed under Korean Clubbing and not Korean Girls Are Crazy, because they're fairly fucking Western in how they act inebriated. That shit is standard. I can handle it. It's once their cognitive processes reboot again the next day that shit goes crazy. The whole time I'm having a blast in Busan, I'm still messaging this bartender because (of course) she's drunk, so (of course) she wants to talk to me. And I thought I was getting somewhere. I thought fucking wrong.

Naz gets pretty messed up at some point, so I grab a cab back to the bus terminal. But when I told the cab driver to slow down, he thought it would be funnier to speed up instead. So Naz ended up vomiting  in the dude's cab and I had to fight with the cab driver in drunken Korean about him trying to overcharge us for that shit.

We pass out in Lotteria for an hour and then bus home to the light of morning. I drunkenly asked the bartender to the Flower Festival the next day.

I Don't Understand Korean Girls And The Might Be Crazy (Part 2):

Wake up around 4 the next day and, big fucking surprise, totally got ignored by that girl again. So I lost my cool and messaged her that getting stood up that much is fucking embarrassing so not to even bother messaging me again. But I was a little depressed after that, so I met up with Naz and his girl Gina for some coffee.

Gina is the exception to this "Korean Girls Are Crazy" subheading. She might be her own kind of crazy, but it's a super awesome kind of crazy I can definitely get behind. She is unbelievably cool. Naz is English so he hates how I'm teaching her American phrases like "fuck that shit, man". I think it's the most hilariously adorable thing ever.

We go to grab some samgyuepsal and Gina starts coaching me on how to talk to Korean girls. I'm like "Gina, what do I say?" and our conversation goes a little something like this:
G: "Just say hello!" 

Me: "Obviously! I know that part! Where do I go from there?"

G: "Just ask them 'Do you like coffee?'"

Me: "Okay, okay...then what?"

G: "They will say yes. Then you ask 'Do you want to get coffee now?'"

Me: "Wait...what? Gina...I can't just walk up to a random girl on the street and ask her if she would like to stop whatever she is doing and get coffee with me!"

G: "You can! I think she will say yes!"

I'm blown away by the utter and impossible simplicity of this tactic, but I've got nothing to lose, so we bump into two girls on the street and throw out some Korean:
"coffee juhwayo?"

And they say yes so I'm okay...next step...
"coffee han jeun hashileyo?"

And they just start nodding really eagerly and I'm like "what the fuck is happening? This is the craziest thing!"

So they speak like zero words of English, so coffee is a bit awkward with Gina translating, but one of the girls says she likes to drink so I'm like "Fuck yeah! Me too! Let's go do that shit!" ("Do that shit" is also another phrase I've taught Gina).

So we go drink makgeolli and play some drinking games and get a little rowdy when, three hours later, one of the girls tells us they both have boyfriend. And I am like "you must be fucking joking me..."

Do you see why Korean girls are crazy now? In what world can you stop a person on the street, convince them to stop whatever they are doing, get coffee with you, then drink with you for three hours....only to find out they both have boyfriends?! t's utter madness! If my girlfriend did that shit, I'd be like "....what?"

So ending on a somewhat serious note, I was a little depressed after those back to back failures and somehow ended up back at the bar where the bartender works that night. Luckily it was closed and I didn't make an ass of myself. So I started wandering home and I bumped into Coby on the streets. He invited me to go for a drink and I sort of cathartically unravelled to him. He gave me some of the best advice ever. 

I realized, even though I'm in Korea. I'm still kind of afraid of being alone, of travelling alone. I don't really know myself that well and always want to have other people with me or around me. I also have ridiculously high expectations of myself and others.

So that really got me thinking about "okay...what do I really love?" I love making people happy. I love big crowds of strangers and unusual situations, and above all else I fucking love music. Some of the clubs we rolled into in Busan were dead and I just started dancing anyway. Or at foreigner bars I'll always jump on the PC and throw down tracks to bring up the mood. Even in college I loved doing that shit all the time. So I realized I really want to start getting into the DJ scene here in Korea and bring over some more Western club music.

Luckily I have a friend who is a DJ here, and a couple DJ friends back home, who are helping me out. It's a good personal goal to work for just to do something with myself other than learning Korean. So I just take time every day and practice. It gets my mind of things. I get to bury myself in the music. It's really exciting. Gina's a really good friend and is pushing me to go all out for it too.

At the end of the day, after all the emotional ups and downs, Korea is still providing me with a ton of opportunities for personal growth that are just stifled in America. I think I'm discovering a lot about myself here and it's really strange to imagine I'm coming home in 8 months.

I wonder who I will be...

Birthday Postmortem

Just so no one thinks everything is so peachy wonderful here all the time, I'll admit that certain times are ridiculously rough. My birthday was a prime example of this. I started off the day in a phenomenal mood because my fraternity brothers Skyped me and I got a video call from my parents as well, so getting to talk to them put an immediate spring in my step.

Bored and sad at work        

I got to school and started off by teasing my students about the date. Normally   I ask them how the weather is, what today's date is, etc. But today I stopped and asked "why is September 12th special?" and they would get all flustered and inevitably baffled until I told them that it was birthday and I received a round of "happy birthdays" from all the students. Then I would ask "what do people do to celebrate their birthdays in Korea?" and without fail every class said "have a party with friends and family" and the reality of that impossibility for me slow sank deeper into my mind as the day progressed. I started getting a little choked up toward the end of the day until one of my co-teachers asked "what's wrong?" I couldn't even get out the entire phrase and ended up saying "It's my birth-" before having to stop cuz I legitimately thought I was going to cry. 

I was just thinking of all the craziness that would be going on back home for my birthday. A nice dinner with my parents and maybe a day out fishing followed by a party at the fraternity house with all my brothers and a trip to a bar with some of the ones I'm closer to. Instead I'm sitting at a desk grading papers. I think my co-teachers felt bad, because they didn't call me into my later classes and let me just chill in the office, but that was even worse because it was like 6am in America so no one was on Facebook and I was just left alone with my depressing thoughts. 

Solidly Western meal

Luckily, I do have good friends here in Korea and they helped cheer me up a lot. After work we went to Masan (my first trip to Masan!) to get some Pizza da Gennero, which is the legit Italian pizza joint here. We got some phenomenal pizza (some kinds I've never even tried before) and beer before heading over to Baskin Robbins and grabbing an ice cream cake from a wall of masterfully sculpted cakes. They put it in cool insulated styrofoam box with dry ice and then we headed to Palyong to try and find some alleged pirate ship playground. After walking all over the damn place, we found it and it was a pretty awesome pirate ship, I won't lie. We sat in the pirate ship, lit some candles and had our own little party up there in our birthday-pirate-ship-fort. I couldn't help but feel like I was in that movie "16 Candles"...which I've never seen except for that birthday cake scene but it reminded me a lot of that. I'm really lucky to have met such thoughtful and cool people.

I don't think my birthday had anything to do with it, but ever since then (it's only been like 5 days, mind you) I've just been agreeing to the most ridiculous things that I would have never done in the states. So Friday, Casey, Caitlin, Naz and I meet up with a few people in Sangnam who were trying to start up a "bike party" in SoKo (Erin has coined this term and I love it, so I will now always refer to Korea as SoKo). Apparently this is a big think they do in California? And it gets up to 4000 people in attendance. Obviously we probably won't get 4000 bikers in SoKo, but Changwon has a bike rental system calle Nubija, so it actually makes it pretty easy to obtain a bike. So this group wanted to bike 15 miles through Korea....which normally I would NEVER do...but..what the hell, right?

Those are some
pretty cool cakes.

So we meet in Sangnam, unfortunately I don't have a Nubija because I don't yet have a Korean phone (I'm learning this is more akin to having a SSID in America than your actual SSID in SoKo. They use it to verify your ID for practically everything). The leader of the event, Coby, thankfully had a bike of his own that he lent me. It was one of those collapsable bicycles that look absolutely ridiculous but ride really well. And I'm about to ride it all the way to Jinhae.

                       Peak of my birthday                       

We set off, alcohol in hand, ringing bells and screaming "Bike Party!" like complete assholes, but it was a lot of fun. Not too far into our trip, we pass a Korean man and do the usual: ring bells, chug, scream "bikeparty!". But then, right after we pass him, we stop at a Nubija rental to renew our bike passes. While I'm waiting for everyone to rescan their bikes, he catches up to us and walks up to me saying "so beautiful!" I think it's safe to assume he was drunk. He begins to reach into his pocket and Casey thinks that he is taking out a camera/phone because Koreans are always asking to take pictures with me. Instead, he takes out his wallet and pulls out a 5,000 Won bill and tries to hand it to me. I think he is trying to tell me to rent a Nubija since I'm the only one without one so I say "Ken-cha-na-yo. No, thank you. I'm fine." because I already have a bike! 

He then pulls out a peach bill and holds it up to my face. I'm thinking "What? Is my skin the same color as the bill? Does my face look like the guy on the bill?" Casey is equally as puzzled and everyone else has rode ahead. Next thing I know, the Korean man sloppily kisses his bill and smacks it onto my forehead. I bow slightly and say "kam-sa-ham-ni-da! (thank you!)" and he starts to walk away, so we start peddling away as well. Caey turns to me and says "Did that guy just stick 50 bucks on your forehead?" I pull it off and, sure enough, it's a 50,000 Won note. Only 10 minutes into the night and I already made 50 bucks. Put me in a pretty good mood.

We're about to descend into the tunnel...

We then eventually reach this tunnel...which turns out to be the most magically awesome tunnel ever. It's like a mile long and on a slight downhill slope, so the we just speed down this tunnel-hill and it feels like a rollar coaster. It probably sounds stupid in a blog, but there really is no way to adequately explain how it felt. Probably one of the most fun things I've ever done. The rest of the trip down to the Dream Bay was downhill as well, so it was smooth sailing the whole way. We get to the bay and I spend the 50 on booze and fireworks and we shot Roman candles out into the bay. We then proceeded to drink heavily into the night and were either assholes who scared away all the Koreans, or we were just there until very late. Eventually, we started biking back and it started raining ever so slightly. I obviously couldn't go the night uninjured so, at a downhill portion, I squeezed the brakes on the collapsable bike really hard because I forgot how quickly it stopped. I flew over the handlebars and into the street. Bled quite a bit. The people at GS25 were super nice and helped clean me up, but I was not up for the bars at 330am when we got back like everyone else was. I was out for the night.

Yes, I realize I'm wearing the same thing Saturday
as I did Wednesday...I don't have a lot of fall clothes =P

The next day Casey and I went to Lotte Mart to buy taco fixings for a potluck that night. The potluck ended up being really cool and I met a lot of awesome people. One guy, Sunil, got me to agree to audition for a play he was directing and another group got me to agree to go to a cultural festival the next day. See? Literally just up for anything. It's not like I have a lot to do otherwise, so in that sense SoKo is really liberating. The food was outrageously delicious too. I probably overate.

The next day I met up with Brittany, Suzie, and bunch of other new acquaintances to check out the cultural Airang (I think I spelled that correctly?) It was raining all day, which sucked, but ponchos were free and there was a ton of food to try. SoKo has taught me I am a complete sucker for good curry. I don't think I'd ever had Indian food before coming here, but damn....I don't think I've tried a curry I didn't like. That may have to be a main staple of my diet in Korea. There were also a bunch of musical performances by international pop artists from many different countries. It was cool to see people go wild with such cultural enthusiasm. I feel like my American enthusiasm is so much more lackluster than other people's, but my enthusiasm for things in general is significantly less I think.

A Philippino artist performing at the Airang

Not sure what will come next, but maybe it's better that way! I'll keep you posted!

Birthday Prelude

I won't lie...that days leading up to my birthday have been kind of foreboding. It's just me being too much inside my head, but it sucks knowing I'll be celebrating my birthday without my fraternity brothers, or my girlfriend, or my family. But, that's really being a bit too negative. After the days/hours leading up to my birthday, and those that followed shortly thereafter, I felt the necessity to blog about this moment in time.

First, I should mention that I feel particularly lucky that I've gotten accustomed to Korea so quickly. I've probably said this before, but without people like Caitlin pulling me out into the world, or people like Casey willingly building me a social network (when it really doesn't benefit either of them at all), I would still probably be sitting at home feeling sorry for myself, or just calling it quits and hopping the next flight home and really never self-actualizing the way I am now. I honestly don't even know what self-actualizing means right now...it just feels right. I'm 알딸딸 (tipsy) on makgeoli right now, but whatever. Blog when the good mood strikes, right?

I'm really lucky as shit. I work at a great school. It can be frustrating at times but other times the kids are really awesome and we just connect and it feels really cool breaking down language barriers and sharing our cultures. My directors are nice and my co-teachers are even better. I can't praise them enough for how genuinely awesome they are. They're always so nice and helpful and welcoming.

Boram's going-away dinner =[

My director loved having me take shots of soju with him.

I got to have Korean BBQ TWO days in a row!! Once for Boram's going away party and once at school...for dinner at work! It was the best week ever =]. But I really will miss Boram...she always helped me so much with my Korean and was pretty much the coolest person. Plus her mom makes the best eel I have ever had. I hope we can hang out when her mom gets better. I wen to visit her mom in the hospital and it was super awkward because none of them really spoke English. When I feel pressured to speak Korean, I just freeze up and can't remember anything. I'm sure I'll get better with practice.

My Dogye coteachers always cook the most delicious food,
but Samgyeopsal? At work? The most amazing day ever.

I've been introduced to a cool group of people that's constantly expanding the more I put myself out there.  Naz, David, and Catherine are super cool and chilling with them feels kind of natural. I hate when people have expectations for an evening and then you have to spend all night trying to fulfill those expectations. It's exhausting. These are people who go with the flow and you kind of have to in Korea.

We went to a crazy Japanese photobooth...
my students later thought I was really in prison.

Friday night, we went out and met up with Andrew, Myeongwon, and Andrew's girlfriend (who I apologize for her name escaping me at the moment)....we also ran into a bunch of really cool people who I ALSO don't remember the names of, but I'm sure I'll see them again. One guy made tacos. He had a red beard. I definitely won't forget him.

The reason I'm blanking on everyone, is because Casey and I are sufficiently awesome at beer pong and couldn't stop winning. Which you think is good, except we didn't like DOMINATE win....we just kind of...won. So we drank a LOT. This was already after a ton of beer and makgeoli. I'm pretty sure at some point I took my shirt off, stole an American girls umbrella (to be fair...she did accost me in the elevator and then claim I was trying to kiss her = crazy), Casey made me give it back, we walked home half naked in the POURING rain, I got home, passed out, woke up in a pool of my own vomit like a college freshman. At some point David and I won at pool. And then we lost at pool to Naz...or no...we lost at beerpong to Naz and lost at pool to some Korean guy who looked like a member of the Japanese Yakuza.

This kid is like 10...and much better at saxaphone
than I will ever be at anything.

That was a decent Friday night. Saturday, we took it a bit easier and went to Sangnam for the laser light show at the lake. I don't know what I was expecting, but it was actually pretty freakin cool. There was even one part where the projected scenes from the Lion King? Idk how this is free every weekend when I have to pay 80 bucks to see it at Epcot. And some little 12 year old was solo rocking a saxaphone not giving a fuck...so good for you little saxaphonist...but maybe head across the street to the record store and pick up some American jazz. Oh...and I discovered for 3 bucks a street vender will give me a giant bag of THREE different kinds of hodugwaja (walnut-shaped cakes)...literal heaven right now. We also grabbed the most delicious Indian food and hit up a plethora of other little joints for food and makgeoli and all sorts of hedonistic pleasures (wait...that sounded wrong...).

Sunday was meh, because it was pouring rain all day so I just stayed inside and played video games like a dork. Should have studied Korean, but really had no motivation. I finally got my motivation about fifteen minutes after my birthday in the Eastern Hemisphere. Casey took me out to a coffee shop to meet some cool people who invited me to their potluck this weekend, and afterwards we headed back to his place so he could check me out a bike to ride home. What ACTUALLY happened, was that we went into Family Mart and got some alcohol and proceeded to sit outside and talk about future-type boring shit that you as a general audience don't care about, but there were two Korean guys sitting next to us (presumably doing the same thing) and all I kept thinking was...at some point we're going to start talking. I don't even remember what triggered it, but soon enough we had all scooted our chairs together and were introducing ourselves to one another. Can you believe for all the Korean I've bothered to learn, I still don't know how to introduce myself or ask someone their name? It's kind of stupid.

Some board game I don't even know...
But I'm pretty sure we did more talking than playing

So there we were...1:00 am...sitting around on some plastic patio furniture. Casey and I doing our best to fumble through some broken Korean that we knew and these two men doing their best to fumble through some basic English...and we happened to reach a middle ground that was enough for us both to understand one another. They asked us about our homes and jobs, we asked them about their families, we talked about booze. We boisterously shouted for people to take pictures of us together, and they did, then they told us to shut up because we were being very loud, so we said our good nights and scurried
off.

These guys made my night

Because..you know...Gangnam Style...

But that ride home was just like... "I want to do this forever. This is the coolest thing that has ever happened to me." I love communicating with people and sharing cultures and languages. There is no feeling like this anywhere. I'm really finding a hard time coming up with a reason to go back to America for grad school to have my head buried in a book forever. Experiential learning is just... irreplaceable. It's definitely making me want to study harder.

I think Caitlin has birthday plans for me tomorrow and they some cool stuff planned this weekend. We'll see what happens, stay tuned!!!

Fitting In

Beginning my 3rd month in Korea, it's actually interesting to see how far I've come. It's honestly probably farther than I ever thought I could come on my own. I started off as a "baby back bitch" who couldn't figure out how to turn on the washing machine and was afraid to leave my house because I thought I would get lost and end up wandering the streets of Korea forever.

Tonight I went out for Korean BBQ with my director and co-teachers as a sort of "going away party" for Boram, and got to bust out a little of the Korean I had learned. Earlier today I pseudo-ordered gimbap on my own as well. If I keep going at this pace, I hope to be able to hold a minor conversation within the 4 month mark. We'll see how that goes.

At some point my director just started feeding my soju,
then after I got a little tipsy reminded me
 to keep my Korean language in "polite" form.

It honestly feels like Final Fantasy X/X-2, when you had to learn the Al Bhed language. Like...at first it's all absolute gibberish..but it's more like a phrasal cipher. I keep unlocking little bits and learning more and more. It's really cool. Certainly more fun than the 3 years of Spanish I took and didn't retain a word of.

It's really a wonderful language and culture. It's really redefined the concept of gratitude for me. Gratitude isn't something you owe to someone after they do something for you, but rather something that you pay forward. You aren't thankful for what people have done for you, you're just grateful for those people. I really miss Boram at work already, after only working with her for two months, so I can't imagine how it'll feel when I have to say goodbye to everyone in ten months, potentially. 

We had the manager help us set it up
thanks to Catherine's skilled Korean.

Same with Casey and Caitlin. They'll be gone at the end of the month, and I'm not sure what that'll mean for me. Luckily, Casey has graciously been connecting me to the rest of his social network in Korea, and there are really some solidly cool people here. This weekend we went screen golfing with a Canadian couple, David and Catherine, who really made me see Korea as a long term prospect. Just listening to Catherine talk to the proprietor in fluent Korean after only a year here was an awe-inspiring insight. There's really no way to explain how cool it is to speak a foreign language on foreign soil. It's humbling and inspiring simultaneously. Their enthusiasm for the language and culture here also drove me to study harder.

Screen golf was a lot of fun, but nothing like real golf at all. I was terrible at it. The feel is totally different, and I didn't really get the hang of it until the end of the game. They were also pretty serious about it there. I would like to open a noraebang/screen golf course, because that seems like it would be a complete blast.

Casey ended up being pretty damn good.

We were mostly dicking around...

Meeting people in Korea is also pretty strange. It's very ephemeral. It feels like we're all chilling at this eternal rest stop. Some people get off the train and join the circle as other say their farewells and board the train for God knows where. Some people have grown tired of even greeting their new company since they'll most likely be gone soon enough anyway. Everything feels very spectral...very transitory...like we're all just sort of floating between dimensions. But that's not a bad thing. It's just not...America. haha. It's more about enjoying the journey than fortifying the castle, so to speak.

I finally feel like I'm fitting in. I have Korean friends, Western friends, and sort of can fumble my way through basic Korean. A few things are still on the agenda:

1) I found a comic book (manga) store, and thought it would be a great way to learn the language because of all the pictures. However, it turns out it's a manga LIBRARY, which I really have no idea how to negotiate my way around yet, so that'll have to wait a bit.

2) I opened a bank account yesterday and will hopefully a bike pass and Korean cell phone will follow.

Doesn't look like anything special, just a bank.
The ATM is what looks super awesome. Need a picture...

Seriously, Korea is the future. They use their phones for everything from bank transactions to bike rentals to online shopping to vending machines. Unfortunately, that future sucks for foreigners. lol.

They also have ATMs that let you deposit money AND checks so...yeah...we're a bit behind the times.

It's strange. Before coming here, I honestly thought my life was extremely limited in terms of what I could do professionally...but today it suddenly dawned on me...I can practically spin a globe, stop it with my finger, and any landmass I'm touching, I could go teach there. I basically have a free ticket to explore the world. I'm not sure what's next. I love Korea, but maybe I'll go spend a year in Brazil to be close to my brother, or go to Japan to be closer to Alexis, or Peru...just because! The world is full ov possibilities!

There's like a million flavors of this stuff.

I've gotten really lazy about blogging and I should spart posting useful stuff I'm learning for newbies. I'll probably post my "MTVKorea Cribs" blog/ "Survival Kit" blog soon...and I've set a goal for myself to document every single kind of triangular gimbap they sell and rate it (there is a LOT). I'll post that some day too.

This weekend should be a pretty awesome adventure. More fitting in and expanding of the social circle. I'll let you know how it goes! Good morning America! I'm off to bed!

Alexis' Adventures in Asialand (but only Korea...was just going for alliteration)

So Alexis was finally in Korea! If you read my last post, you'd know all about our first disaster trip in Seoul, but UMF 2012 was totally worth it and now I can say I was at the first every UMF in Korea. Pretty cool. It's taken me forever to write this because I've been busting my ass finishing my TESOL certification, but now that's (mostly) done, and now you can hear about Alexis and I's adventures in Korea!

Everyone pitches in to cook dinner.

So to pick up where the last post left off, ....well....we honestly don't remember a lot of the normal week. It mostly consisted of taking Alexis out to every kind of Korean restaurant we could think of and making her try everything. One night Casey, Alexis and I went to 10F (probably one of my favorite restaurants) and we got kiwi flavored soju, which happens to be the most delicious flavor of soju ever (and...as Casey and I later found out...also the best flavor of makgeoli). We also went to a Japanese restaurant at one point which was pretty good, but Korean Japanese food honestly isn't much to write home about. We did have some sake in a box that actually wasn't half bad. The rest of the week involved me working while Alexis stayed home and pampered me by being super domestic, and my apartment looked really nice for awhile after that. It was a good thing too, because one night Casey and Caitlin came over and I tried my hand at cooking Korean food for the first time. It was pretty damn good if I say so myself, and the girls made deviled eggs too!

Alexis actually got to come to work with me twice...luckily on days where the kids weren't being terrors. All the kids ran around whispering "yeojachingu, yeojachingu"which means "girlfriend" in Korean. They were all too terrified of her to try talking to her in English though. I showed her how massive Lotte Mart was and we went grocery shopping for actual food since I wasn't living alone for the next week.

Chillin at the office and painting students with gel pens

On Thursday, my director invited Alexis and I out to dinner on Sambok, one of the three hottest days of the summer, for some traditional Sambok Samgyetang! It's boiled chicken with ginsing. It was pretty delicious, but impossible to eat with chopsticks and a spoon. I looked ridiculous. I also got to show off my Korean skills a bit.

Samgyetang! Delicious but impossible to eat...

Felt so good to get it short!

On Friday, I wake up early because I decide my hair is way too long for how hot it is outside. We go to the Franck Provost hair salon in City 7 and I proceed to get treated to the hair cut of my life. I get the most meticulous cut ever (like this lady wanted each strand PERFECT) and then had a cute assistant girl give me a legitimate scalp massage. While this massage is going on I start thinking about how much this is going to cost....$80? The massage was convincing me it was worth it. After getting thoroughly pampered, I go to pay and learn my haircut is only $20! Later, my co-teachers would tell me that's expensive in Korea.... America, sometimes you suck.

...But I still love you!!!!! And I miss your fatty, greasy food....mmmm....I digress....

Most delicious ice cream ever!
And a cute picture Alexis made <3

We grab some ice cream from Baskin Robbins on the way out of City 7 as we waited for the bus to Dogye. Alexis got Vanilla Sky (creamsoda and vanilla I think?) and Shooting Star (raspberry and poprocks) while I got Apple Mint sorbet and Blueberry Aloe ice cream. Apply Mint was a little too minty, but Blueberry Aloe was like the most delicious thing I have ever had in my life.

We went out pretty much every night after work, but we didn't go too hard because we were "saving ourselves for Seoul" (that was Casey's excuse). It was probably a good thing too because at 6 a.m. on Saturday morning we all boarded the bus to Seoul. Per the usual, I slept most of the way.

We met up with Minyoung at the bus terminal and headed to our first destination: Itaewon. We made the smart decision on the way and picked up a T-Money subway card for discounts on the subway fares. It probably saved us a lot considering how much we rode the subway that weekend.

First thing we did when we got to Itaewon? Ate Mexican food! It was damn good too. I still think there are way too many people in Itaewon, but it was inevitable since I had to take Alexis to Namsang Tower and show her the lock I left. Alexis and Casey realized I wasn't lying when we got to the base of Namsang Tower and they saw how ridiculously steep that incline of the hill leading up to the tower was. I still can't believe girls make that walk in heels.

Jump photo!...and other cool shots.

This time we put it INSIDE the heart...

We get to the tower and - would you believe it? - they took my lock off the heart statue. -_-; Apparently there is a sign that says not to put locks on it. Whatever. Alexis and I got another lock and each wrote on it this time. Then we locked it on the inside of the heart. Casey was running around trying to be super nonchalant, but was actually super suspicious. He didn't want us to see what he wrote for his girlfriend OR where he locked it. I respect his privacy. I bet it's something super cute/romantic.

We didn't waste much time, because we had too much to see and do! Caitlin and Minyoung had planned the whole trip out, so we were whisked off to our next destination: Myeongdong!

Got my Binsu bartending license yesterday...body shots!

This place was crazy. We tried shopping, but it was literally like a "where do we start?" sort of shock and awe. And there were thousands of people everywhere. It was pretty difficult just to keep track of the group leaders. We eventually decided to stop at a cafe for a rest and some bingsu (imagine a snowcone mixed with a sundae but...infinitely better. I'm pretty sure I posted about it in my trip to Taejongdae). We had no idea what the drinks were, so we just randomly ordered whatever sounded good. I ordered the "Golden Lighthouse" and it was pretty fantastic. Some sort of wine...beverage. lol. and complimentary cheesecake! Can't beat that!

After a good rest and some inappropriate photos, we marched out of Myeongdong and onto our next destination: Gyeongbokgung Palace. As Caitlin pointed out in her blog, this was mostly just Casey's "artsy photo" time and we were all his models. But it was really cool/crazy to see the magnitude of these palaces. We must have walked for ages and barely covered half of it. It was pretty surreal to see ancient buildings in the foreground and massive cityscapes with giant LCD monitors on the front of buildings in the background. It was like something out of a Samurai Jack cartoon.

I was exhausted from all that walking, so Caitlin suggested we do a little MORE walking and find a Cat Cafe. Well, as expected, Alexis absolutely flipped shit over this idea, so we couldn't say no. We saw some crazy stuff on the way over. A mini Corona parade passed by, blaring music with cute asian girls hanging out of a convertible VW. So Western. We also discovered this confectionary wonder that will blow your mind - ice cream filled waffles. Like -WHAT? So GOOD! And only a dollar?! Casey practically had to drag me away when I wanted seconds.

Ohhhh yes! Ice cream waffles and mexican food!
...and all the other cool stuff we ate along the way.

We then came to the Cat Cafe which, as the name implies, was full of dozens of cats of all sizes and varieties. My favorites were a little flat-faced one that looked like an Ewok and these two cats that, for whatever reason, had one pair of legs shorter than the other. It made them look super adorable! I called one Lil' Lowrider and the other was Scrunchinz. We were probably there for like...forever. So many cats to play with! And Alexis attracted them like a magnet. They began to slowly pile up around her for luvins.

^This cat's front legs are shorter!

After being covered head to toe in cat hair, we cleaned up and decided we were all absolutely famished...so it was off to find some Korean BBQ! We tried a bunch of new kinds including...pig skin, I think it was? Ended up being infinitely more delicious than it sounded and everyone got super full. We decided it was time to kick off the evening right and look for a bar to live it up in. We poked in and out of a few, but none really had the vibe or the crowd we were looking for. As we wandered, we stumbled past a randomly placed Korean shop with cool men's clothes and I was eagerly whisked inside and dressed up like a Korean Barbie Doll (not that I minded). I ended up buying a hat, a shirt and a sweater with some of the money from my first Korean paycheck! I'm not going to lie, I looked pretty studly.

We finally found this bar called Ho Bar (which one? I don't remember. There are like 17 throughout the city) that was pretty awesome and we ended up getting two pitchers of mixers, a bottle of Absolut and a large tra of fruit for like 70,000 KRW? Which is roughly 70  USD. Between the 5 of us, we each only spent like $14? It was a ridiculously good deal. And we all got hammered. I was already a little drunk because I had discovered Family Mart sells flasks of whiskey for $6 and we had been passing that around since early evening. I also discovered Korea has hundreds of flavors of cigarettes, so I bought a pack of Mojito flavored ones and passed the night with a few of those as well.

This is where things got a little fuzzy...

This is the point in the night where we have to find a place to stay. Luckily we had Minyoung with us or we would probably have been wandering the streets of Seoul all night. He tried checking us into a jimjilbang (hold on...I'll explain) nearby but they we're repairing the women's section or something so we had to find another place to stay. Minyoung apparently knew where he was going, so Casey, Alexis and I just kept drunkenly following them. At some point Casey decides to pour water all over me and retaliate tenfold, so we're both drunk and soaking wet, stumbling through Seoul. At some point I think I felt bad and ended up drunkenly begging Casey not to leave Korea...and it came off more like a marriage proposal.

It was beautiful...i don't care what you say.

The hot room. It was pretty gorgeous.

We stopped for some late night food and I had a minute to sober up before we got to the jimjilbang. Now, a jimjilbang is a lot like a resort spa for drunks (not only drunks...but it works out well for us). As long as they aren't full, you can come in without a reservation, pay like ten bucks and spend the night. They give you a wrist band with a key on it and some clothes for the night. You stuff your clothes (that probably smell like alcohol anyway) into a locker and get naked. No one wears like bathing suits or anything. You just get naked and go shower and whatever. The men and women are obviously separate. The bathes for each are on separate floors with the public common/sleeping floor in between.There are three or four public baths of varying temperatures in each bathing area. One is like a cold pool, one is warm, and one is ridiculously hot...but it felt really good. There are also a few saunas the relax in. It was really nice getting some time away from the girls and getting to talk about guy stuff and relax in the hot spas.

Then, whenever you're finished, you put on the clothes they've supplied you with and head to the common area and go to sleep. Apparently the bunkbeds were only for women, and Minyoung and Casey got kicked out in the middle of the night, but I was like "screw it, I don't speak Korean" and just turned over and went back to sleep. The perks of being ignorant =P There were also "hotrooms" and "coldrooms" that you can lay in if you want, but the cold room was too cold for me after the spa and the hot rooms freaked me out because I felt like I would suffocate in an oven, but plenty of people were chilling in both.

P.S. - Random stop at Condomania! Here you can see
condom pops, Anime condoms, and a Pikachu one!

The next morning we get up and go out to the common room where Casey and I grab breakfast and Caitlin treats us to massages from the massage chairs. I observe the common room and there are WAY more people here then their were last night. And I thought WE got in late. It kind of looked like a refuge camp with so many people sleeping everywhere. We showered and changed back into our own clothes and finally headed home. We got lucky and a cafe near the bus station had like 12 different types of massagers: one for feet, one for calves, one for back, etc. It was just what I needed after all that walking!

We grabbed a bus back to Changwon and slept the whole way back (at least I did). There wasn't a whole lot of time for rest, because I had to be back at work on Monday. We woke up early monday because Alexis wanted to try to get in some Korean shopping time, so we went to City 7 again to hunt down some shoes and a bag for her. Finding shoes for Alexis' huge American feet was impossible =P, but Alexis was impressed by my ability to talk to to the clerk (in the most elementary level of Korean ever, but enough to get us what we needed). We stopped for lunch at the Lotte food court and it was the best food court food I'd ever had. Then it was time for work!

At some point in the week we ended up drunk
in front of the Pullman Hotel...this was the result.
...their fault for having an army of white tigers.

We grab the bus to Sangnam, not realizing a string of bad luck seemed to follow from that point on. Alexis and I go to work on Monday and I think "hey! I have an hour off for lunch! I'll take Alexis to this huge department store next to my work!". We went shopping and Alexis bought some cool Korean clothes that the salespeople begged her to wear out of the store so they could show off their wares on an American girl =P. The store was like 6 stories and even had a restaurant and a market inside!

We eventually get back and it's like the school is burning down. Apparently, the two teachers I work for, who each give me their personal half of their schedule, got something mixed up, or I got something mixed up, and I didn't have an hour off after all. So I missed a whole class! Everyone was pretty pissed, but I still had classes to teach, so I just powered through it.

The next day I tried to make up for Sangnam campus blunder at my Dogye campus by cooking for my co-teachers and they really liked my Korean soup! My director didn't deliver my registration card to me herself, so I took that as a bad sign. Then we got chicken with Caitlin and Casey and I got off at the wrong bus stop like 3 times before just taking a taxi to the restaurant. I didn't dwell on it too much since it was Alexis' last night in Korea and we wanted to party hard!

New additions to the crew and some
good ol' fashioned American drinking games.

Party hard we did. We went to Monster Bar and ran into these two awesome guys named Andrew and Jake who have been here for 3-4 years and speak pretty awesome amounts of Korean. We drank quite a bit of makgeoli with them and then headed to IP's for some intense beer pong like true Americans. Everything after that is kind of a blur. We lost Caitlin, Jake and Andrew somewhere, but Casey kept us drinking strong. I remember hitting up a few other joints and getting supremely wasted and deciding just to go home, grab Alexis' suitcase (she left the heavy one here) and get on the bus to the Gimhae Airport. I'm actually surprised I managed all that, because it's really a blur. I just remember getting to the airport, sitting in a chair, and passing out.

I woke up about three hours later, realized Alexis was gone and I was VERY hungover. I stumbled to a bathroom, relieved my stomach of its toxic contents, then went back and passed out again. After about four rounds of this, I was aware enough to realize I had lost my bag somehow/somewhere. I groggily shuffled around the entire airport looking for it and eventually (after composing myself enough) placed a claim at the lost and found before dejectedly boarding the bus back home. I was so bummed the next day at work (I really loved that bag), until Minyoung messaged me and told me he called the airport and they had found my bag! Even all my money was still in it! Koreans are so nice!

Oh...and Alexis made it to Japan safely too =P

For wading through all that, you get bonus pictures!!

Bonus Alexis!!!

Bonus Casey!!

Bonus Caitlin and Minyoung!!!

Bonus Me!!!

And Bonus Me AND Alexis!!!

See you soon!!!!