My Appearance Animated the Party

More and more I am becoming a real person who is not afraid to do things. Wednesday, I took a taxi all by myself for the first time in Korea. I got in, I said “Ssangmun yuk jusayo” (Ssangmun station please) and off we went to Ssangmun. The taxi driver knew a bit of English and felt compelled to speak to me, he told me his daughter had studied English in Toronto and that Korean students know lots of grammar but have trouble speaking. He dropped me up exactly at Ssangmun station, which was not actually where I wanted to go exactly, I leave near the station, not at the station, but when I said further he thought I meant 100 feet. So, out of the taxi, I walked the rest of the way, it was kind of cold an I didn’t have a scarf, but I had thought to bring my mittens, my mittens which totally gross me out with their disgusting fuzzyness. I shall not be sorry to leave the mitten weather behind and I will toss these away as soon as I can. I’ll buy new mittens next fall. (On Friday night I bought new mittens that do not gross me out. They are bright red and still on the string. Most mittens here are on a string.)

Thus concluded my Wednesday night madness for this week. I meet Sarah in her part of the town to catch up on the adventures of Geum Jan Di and Goo Jun Pyo and what heartbreakers these episodes were. My eyes welled up with tears on more than one occasion as Jun Pyo broke Jan Di’s heart and didn’t even bother to hand it back to her, just ground it into the floor. Oh, it was so sad. I assume all will end well, but I don’t like where things are headed, especially with the introduction of a new female, a rich feisty one. This can’t be good. Of course, Goo Jun Pyo still loves Jan Di, but he has to protect her from his mother, the evil bitch.

After watching the heart break, Sarah, Amber (who showed up mid break-up), and I went to a nearby hof for some Kiwi Soju. Despite recognizing the deliciousness of the Chilsung Cider, fresh Kiwi, and Soju combination, I had to decline after the first round. Having had my ass kicked by soju last weekend, I almost vomited upon reacquaintance. My relationship with soju has been tumultuous from the beginning; we are on a break right now. It might be long break this time.

An evening with Amber and Sarah inevitably leads to noraebang, which was the next stop. At dragon noraebang, the room was cold, only the heat lamp and our singing to keep us warm. We paid for an hour but the man in charge tacked on an extra half hour for free. They often do if things are slow. In fact I usually expect an extra half hour I have got one so many times.

The noraebang was gold on the side with claws and talons coming out of the walls. I love Korea. After the noraebang was the taxi adventure.

Saturday we celebrated Ryan’s birthday. Carolyn, his wife, planned a rather elaborate scavenger hunt for him in which we all participated. He received a video clue from Carolyn in the afternoon telling him to go to Itaewon station. There Sally and I pretended we were part of the Twilight plot, Sally as a vampire (teeth and all: see Halloween Seoul Style) and I was her victim. When he walked of the train he saw me reading a book and then Sally attacked me and tried to suck my blood. We used long lasting lipstick to make bite marks on my neck. Unfortunately, the lipstick was actually long lasting and I was unable to get clean it off until I got a hold of some makeup remover. I had bit marks on my next for the rest of the evening. Classy.

We played around bit, talking about books we would like to sink our teeth into until he got the hint that What the Book (and English bookstore in Itaewon) held the next clue. We followed him to What the Book, where Dave and Lisa were dressed up as Scrooge and Tiny Tim, while Feo was dressed up as the ghost of Christmas Present. The next destination was a bar called Scrooges. At Scrooges, Carolyn and Sarah were dressed up as the Wonder Girls with Chris and Mike pretending to be bodyguards. The final destination was the Hard Rock Café, but our reservations weren’t until 8:30 so we all had a drink at Scrooges.

The Hard Rock Café wasn’t that bad actually. I have posted before about my hatred for American restaurants in Korea, cost, quality etc. However, the Hard Rock, not really an expection was better than most. The prices of the drinks were kind of obscene, but the food was bearable and tasty. Out of character, I ordered a cheese burger of all things, that I thoroughly enjoyed and had French fries with HEINZ KETCHUP, about which I was pumped. The ketchup in Korea tastes funny, not bad but not like at home and I don’t really like it. I was so excited about Heinz; I used extra ketchup.

After the hard rock we went to a place called the Bungalow for drinks. It was kind of rad, with private rooms with floor seating and big pillows and tasty chick drinks. I had a Singapore Sling. We headed home after the Bungalow, much to my dismay; I wanted to go dancing at Homo Hill, the only place where there are gay bars in Seoul. I suppose going home was for the best, though. I am ill, congested with a cough. Still, I would have liked to get my dance on. Next weekend looks promising though.

On Sunday morning, some sort of meter reader was walking around my apartment building banging on all the doors really really loudly and shouting at people inside to open their doors. I’m sure if I understood Korean it would have seemed considerably less intimidating, but I get so nervous when people come to my door. I open it and they realize that a waeguk who doesn’t speak any Korea is the only person around, they get nervous, I get nervous, we all start to sweat and shake. It’s no good. I was still in my pajamas, so I quickly threw on a hoodie and put my hair in a ponytail. I went to my utility room and made it a tad more accessible and hid the toilet seat in the corner. I sat at my table pretending to read as the knocking go closer and closer. I was super hot and sweating bullets because I was nervous, but I didn’t dare take off my hoodie. The neighbour to my right was hit first and then the neighbour to my left had his door pounded on, there was some discussion about numbers and then the door closed there was some paper flipping and some exclamations (asissssh) and then he went to fourth floor, skipping my apartment completely. I don’t know what to make of this miracle, if it will just mean someone coming by at a later date or if he knew that a non-Korean speaking person lived in the apartment or what. But I was so relieved, not at first, I was still nervous that he would come back, but once I realized that he was gone gone, I was very relieved.