Thursday, November 22, 2012

In Da Club

I went to Seoul with a friend of mine last weekend. He had a test that day, so he wanted to go out afterward. While he was taking his test, I went to the hostel and checked us in. The hostel, Dustin's Hostel in Hongdae, was really nice. The owner was really cool and the place was clean and big. I watched "Misery" for a while (crazy movie) and after that me and this English guy I met went out for dinner. I was pushing the time that I was going to meet my friend, so we drank a barrel of beer in about 30 minutes between us. I got a little drunk but he was fine of course (He's English)

I left there and met my friend in Gangnam. From there, we went back to the hostel in Hongdae. We didn't actually go out until about midnight. But that's no problem Hongdae goes all night (some places are open until 8 AM) First we went to Ho Bar VII (The best Ho Bar) We had to wait about 20 minutes but we eventually got a table. I was having a good time, but it wasn't as crazy as before. Still had fun though. Eventually we left and my friend wanted to go to a big club. So I was like fuck it, let's go to M2, that's the biggest club in Hongdae. They play some dope music in there and they have a stage I like dancing on. We were in there until 6 AM. After that, we went back to the hostel where we had to check out at 11:30. Not so fun.

The next day, I wanted to get some fingerless gloves. It was surprisingly hard to find the kind I wanted. We went to Dongdaemon shopping area. It has a bunch of department stores. It is a little bit like Itaewon but less foreign people, less restaurants, but more shopping. I got a Che Guavera belt there, pretty nice find. After that, we got some Chinese food. I haven't had good Chinese food since I left the states (Sun Ming what up!) This food was pretty good. I guess it is the Korean version of General Tso's, because every other table ordered this. I got real shrimp fried rice, not that booty yellow rice with tiny shrimp and peas and that garbage. My friend said these were Korean people from China and they didn't even speak Korean. Here are some pictures and some videos.

                                   Mr. Brightside hoodie
                                Ho Bar VII
                                M2 when the smoke machines go off





                                      Another cool t shirt
                                   Dongdaemon

                                 Dongdaemon

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Authentic Fish Places

Ok so this is the second time I have been to the restaurants at the port. Both times I have been pretty drunk but the first time I didn't have my phone. I think that was the night I cracked my ipod screen as well. But the second time I went I was a little more sober. Basically, I had gone out with a few people and my one friend had gotten wasted so me and a mutual friend took him home. This mutual friend had a car. We tried to find some bars but had to settle to go to the same damn talking bar I go to all the time. Luckily though our mutual friend is a Korean guy, and he talked to them, and we all went out to eat at the port. Wikipedia describes the restaurants thusly:

"The harbour area of Samcheonpo contains a multitude of rustic but popular raw fish restaurants close to the waterfront."

I guess rustic is one way to put it. They're tents and they use toilet paper rolls for napkins. Whatever though because the food is dope. I took some pictures. The place we went to was called "Grandmas Place" but as far as I can tell they are all run by grandmas. So I took a few pictures, here they are for your enjoyment.


I ate the hell out of that fish. I pay enough at that damn talking bar, they owe me.
                                 Theres that soju!




                                 Actual tents

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Learning Korean

First off, one of my students gave this to me today. She meant "From Sunny"


Anyways, I need to learn Korean. My friend speaks decent Korean, which is helpful, but he lived here for a year before and had a Korean girlfriend to help him. The #1 obstacle for me is that there are no English classes here. That means I would have to take a bus to the nearest city and try to find a class there on the weekends. So far I haven't heard any concrete details of classes. Somebody mentioned the cultural center by my house but I think one of the foreigners here would have told me. Still, been meaning to check that out.

I've heard of a couple of methods. Classes at a university, and even a delivery service that sends you tests and grades them for you. I prefer the class though. I'm so damn lazy that I wouldn't do the stuff on my own. I've been here almost 2 months and haven't fully learned Hangul (the alphabet) which can be learned in an hour.

Why the sudden interest? This is the second time I've met a girl, thought I was good to go, and been left confused. This woman was pretty cool. She was so shocked to meet an American. I'm not saying this from a "haha Koreans are isolated right?" standpoint, but simply because I live in the country. In my city of 20,000 people I get stared at all the time and have random people say hi to me. That doesn't happen in Seoul or Busan. If I just knew some Korean I could seal the deal. But again I'm lazy so I'm probably just going to watch tv and work out tonight and not even look at Hangul. But I'm trying, I downloaded a bunch of apps on my phone.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Life so far

I've been here since September 14th. So far that's 51 days, a little shy of two months. So I will give my impressions so far.

Samcheonpo is a small town. If that's what you like, perfect. It's not really for me though. I'm trying to have a good time, but it's hard to meet people here. First of all, there are about 7 foreigners here that I have been introduced too. I work with one and hang out with one more on a regular basis. Beyond that, I hardly see the other people. They just don't seem to invite me for anything or ask me to do anything ever, beyond once in a while. I mean that's fine, that's their problem. I know I'm a friendly and fun person. I'll meet other people.

In college, my freshman roommate had no friends. This meant I had to work twice as hard to meet people. Meeting people in England was easy. But here it is pretty hard. The language barrier is so big. Not to mention this town has mostly older people and schoolkids. I have some Korean friends, but if they're busy or working, I'm kind of screwed for the night. I hate staying home on a Friday or Saturday night; it makes me feel shitty. Really, I like going out at least 3-4 times a week, but hell if I can get anyone else to do that with me. There just aren't really places here that you can chill and have a beer by yourself and talk to the bartender or watch a game or something.

I haven't even been here two months and I've been to most of the places in the downtown area. Their isn't much variety. Korean BBQ, chicken, HOF's (bars where you buy side dishes and drink). There is a talking bar I've been going to, and it's kind of sad that its the most fun place in Samcheonpo. I try to meet people, I really do. If I was at a bar, no problem. A bit harder in a restaurant setting. I basically have to work 3 times as hard to meet people now.

I think my plan is to meet people in Jinju now. To be honest, I don't feel like the foreigner community is very friendly here, and there just aren't enough young people here. I'm going to try to go to Jinju on the weekends and meet people. Hopefully this will improve my social life.

I really miss my friends back home, you know who you are. I wish I could fly ya'll out to Seoul and we could go crazy. But I don't know if that's possible. If you ever come into some money and decide to come out here, let me know. I'll make sure we have a blast in the unlikely event your rich uncle dies and leaves you some money haha.

Also, saw Skyfall last night. Really good movie. I would recommend it to everyone.