Monday, January 5, 2009

Since Thanksgiving

I




So, it has been about a month since I have written on this thing. Sorry, I have been busy as of late. It is the holiday season and I have been on vacation from work, where I usually write this thing up.

I started off this Holiday celebration by going out to eat dog with a couple of friends before Christmas. Dog doesn't taste like any other meat that I have tried, and I have tried my fair share of different meats. The smell of dog isn't the best. Actually it smells pretty bad. The flavor of dog is nice. It is quite tasty. Thoroughly enjoyable to tell the truth. The first bit was a bit odd. I am a dog lover and have always respected the animal, that said, all meat is fair game for my belly. The dogs that are used for meat, are not pets. They are raised for their meat. There is a girl on the island who decided to save one of them and take it home. It is the stupidest dog I have ever met. They don't make good pets. So, if you get the chance to try a little dog meat, I say go for it. It tastes good, and according to Koreans, it is good for a man's stamina.

The following weekend, EPIK had a reunion for us. They flew us all to Seoul. Nothing like a free trip to Seoul. I was planning on heading up there that weekend anyway. So it saved me about $170. I flew up on a Friday. So it also gave me a day off of work. Got in and promptly started to hear speeches. That is after traveling on the subway for an hour and 45 minutes. Which is about twice as long as the flight took to get to Seoul. It wasn't that bad. The talk went on for about an hour and then it was break time. At that time we got to move around and visit with friends. I ended up hanging with some of my people from Busan and skipping the second talk session, which ended up being a bitch session anyway. Not something I needed to be involved it.

That night EPIK took us to a show called JUMP. It is a comedy, kung fu, thing. It was really funny and really enjoyable. I don't have any pictures to put up about it, just know that it was good. I followed that by going out with a couple of friends to a Mokoli bar. Mokoli is a milking rice drink. It was down this dank passageway., complete with a placard of drunk Koreans drinking mokoli. We stayed there for a while before heading off again to go onto another bar. It was a dive bar, my kind of place. Cheap drinks and a cheap atmosphere. We stayed there until closing and then tried to find a cab back to the hotel. That proved to be a bit troublesome. Cabbies in Seoul will only take people if they want to go in that direction. Our hotel wasn't in the most prime of locations and finding a cab was proving to be difficult. We finally found a van, which proved to be a blessing, as we had enough people for 2 cabs. We over paid, but between us all, it all worked out. Johnny and myself jumped into the back. I did a proper job of jumping the seat. I got my foot caught outside the van and got hung up, giving myself a nice bruise right above the knee.

The next day was the riverboat tour of Seoul. The last thing in the EPIK reunion. The tour would have been better if it were not fall. Seeing brown shores and bridges wasn't the most interesting of things. But it was a good way to unwind. They just kept telling us how many people died here and when. Sort of a depressing journey. Following that, I went with a few friends and checked out the 63 building. The tallest building in Seoul. It was tall, But not that pretty. The views from it were quite nice though. Following the tour of the building, it was off to a sauna for a nice soak and lunch.

It turned 4:30 and it was time for me to head off again and meet up with some other friends. We had plans to have dinner together and go see Evil Dead the Musical. I being myself showed up a bit late, but it wasn't so bad, as everyone was late as well. We still had plenty of time to get some grub into our bellies before heading off to the show. We went to some fusion restaurant. Here it is just an excuse not to cook the food properly. It wasn't bad. Just not the best. Then it was off to the show. The show was in Korean, but as I am a huge fan of the movies, it was easy to follow. The end of the show, was the gory bits, and I was sitting in the second row, being a big white guy, I was targeted. First i was shot in back of the head with a bloody squirt gun. And then the zombies came into the audience. I knew I was going to be targeted and boy was I ever. The pic of me is after the sprinklers turned on and washed some of the blood off. I got covered with blood, and the nice zombie told me that he loved me. We had a moment. It was touching. The show was awesome. If you see it playing anywhere near you, head out and see it. It is well worth it. Quite fantastic.

Following the show, we needed to find a place to sleep and clean up. Thus we headed to the subway. Our group was given a clear path and several odd stares along the way. Nothing like being covered in fake blood to clear a path. We headed to the area, where we would be drinking that night. We got a couple of rooms in a love motel. Love motels are cheaper hotels. They are usually quite nice and the foreigner population stay in them quite frequently, as they are cheaper than a real hotel. Koreans tend to use them for what they are called. Young couples get them to have a bit of fun, before heading back home to live with their parents. Koreans tend to live with their parents until marriage. Anyway getting a hotel wasn't my idea. When I head up that way I stay in the saunas. They are 8 dollars a night and have a sleeping area. The love motel ended up being $70, split in two.

We then headed off to the bars. We met some of Benney's friends and started to get our drink on. I didn't want to drink that much and was kind of watching my budget, as it was the end of the month and I was running out of cash. So I had 2 beers at the bar, and a shot. The shot wasnt' of my choice and I didn't ask for it. One of Benney's friends ordered a round of them. Then it was time to divy up the bill. Which they decided to split evenly. So my beers were going to coast me about $50 as they were pounding back girly shot after girly shot. That wasn't flying with me, so I told them that I was going to pay for what I drank. Oh and I had to pay for that shittly little shot that they ordered me. So I wasn't in the best mood after that. We went to a dance club afterwards. They weren't playing very good music, and I wasn't drunk enough to dance. So myself and another guy left and decided to head off to home. Thus ending my time in Seoul as I was flying out the next day. Christmas and New Years will be written in another post as my fingers are tired from typing and I want to get back to my book.