I Got Seoul

This weekend Dan and I headed to the capital city of SK to play tourist and visit Jake and Andy. This was the second time I met these guys, the first being a raucously drunken night spent with 17 year old military boys and skipping around Hongdae. I’d have to say, I actually enjoyed this trip more (possibly because I remember it better).

After meeting up, Jake suggested some good wholesome fun... the shooting gallery! Hell yeah. Dan and I shot glock 17’s, and I beat him by ten points. Then we moved along to the lovely Gyeongbokgung Palace. Unfortunately it was already closed. I guess it doesn’t really matter if we drink or not, we still can’t get shit done before late afternoon! Afterwards we found an adorable little bookstore where Jake bought a book for 1,000won, and then we were off to Itaewon to eat. The Paraguayan restaurant we were looking forward to eating in went out of business so we had to settle on Chinese/ Thai. The waiter was incredibly hot in that kind of hipster/ male model/ half Korean half English kinda way. Of course, we made the whole situation awkward by asking where he was from and other personal questions, but whateva. I wasn’t the one wearing a polka dotted bowtie and waiting tables in Itaewon, although that sounds like a good time! Jake managed to order what consisted of shrimp covered in mayonnaise. But he’s from England so he enjoys that sort of thing. Andy’s food was way too spicy, but he’s from Scotland so he's more used to the mild, subtle nuances of deep fried Mars bars. Afterward we tried to find a place to play pool, but everywhere was booked so Dan and I left the boys to their drinking and headed to a hotel. Jake is moving to Beijing to be some kind of REAL professor. Or just an English monkey getting paid a lot less, at least he won't have to work as much. Time will tell how that works out. We will miss his sunny face and way with words.


The next day we found a HUGE bookstore and went back to the palace. It was pretty cool, frozen moats surrounding ancient/ recently rebuilt forts and palaces, and the monotony of Korean architecture. Once you've seen one temple you've seen everything old in Korea. Then we went to an all American diner. Dan really misses diner food, so it was just what the doctor ordered. Afterward we both felt that too full, nauseous feeling and it felt just like home (okay, maybe three kinds of meat was NOT what the doctor ordered). Look at what this lack of alcohol is doing to our digestive systems!


We took the KTX back to Gwangju. Dan’s first ride on the fast train and it was great! Then we got back to our place and had the despondency that always arrives late Sunday night. My school hasn’t helped me out with anything lately so we don’t have internet or a washing machine. I guess they think I’ve been here long enough now that I should be able to take care of these things on my own. Hopefully this week we’ll get hooked up. Peace! A

PS. Dan would like to note that he may not have been a 10:00 am partier, but he's also the kind of person who drinks like he's on a bike rolling downhill without any brakes; it's just a shorter hill, so anywhere between 3 and 5 am is ideal. He can't stand to see the party end early either, but what he really cares about is having his girlfriend go home with him at the end of the night.

P.P.S. Almost forgot, we went to Seoul Tower to check out the cityscape, and took a lovely walk along Cheonggyecheon stream.

P.P.P.S. Do people use P.S. in blogs??