Well, it happened. I finally had a night out on Hooker Hill in Itaewon. In honor of Justin's friend Kyle's last night out in Seoul, we finally made it to Polly's Kettle House on the top of the hill, where I managed to throw up before I even went in.
My plans to pace myself were dashed early on when I fell for a (really obvious) trick during Drinking Scrabble and so I was already drunk when we left the house. We made a long stop at a bar where there were shots ordered and darts played.
Interesting side note: get me the right amount of drunk and I'm a darts idiot savante.
After another stop at a bar where drinks for women are free (but there are lecherous looking men all over the place) we went up the hill to Polly's. Sadly, this is where all the alcohol in my system demanded to be freed and I was just trying not to get any on my shoes. After a nice long break sitting outside, I finally made it in.
Another interesting side note: there I was, wasted and practically catatonic, sipping lightly at my "kettle," which is essentially jungle juice made with soju. All of a sudden, Toxic came on and I was up in a flash, shaking my ass on the dance floor. Such is the healing power of Britney Spears.
Got home around 6 am and spent all day Sunday in a haze. It's a good way to remember why I want to do Substance Free February.
Yet another side note: the second time at the saunas is much easier than the first. I don't know if I was so hung over that I didn't care or what, but being naked with all the Koreans almost felt liberating. Good times.
Monday 29 January 2007
Thursday 25 January 2007
My internet romance and a change in plans
I met my soulmate on the internet.
I have been wanting a pet for the longest time but working horrendous hours have proven to be huge road blocks. That has changed here in Seoul, plus the housemates were very (very) enthusiastic about having a little animal around the house.
I starting cruising the internets to see what kind of cats Seoul had to offer and I found Claude. He was a one year old kitty who's owner's allergies were getting out of control, so he needed a new home. I fell in LOVE with his picture (pretty good lookin' face, sandy blond hair...) and we arranged to meet in person. Turns out he's the most amazing, incredible, and fantastic cat...ever. I took him home and we've been in bliss ever since.
Ok, to be honest...I may be a wee bit insane over him. He's already got roughly 468 nicknames and my back is in massive amounts of pain because he hogs the bed. Seriously, though, he's awesome. Watching him "hunt" toys is hilarious. Just today he fell behind the couch twice due to over-enthusiasm. Oh, Claude.
He's also a celebrity. I've attached the pic his previous mommy (oh, yes...I call myself his mommy and he has Uncle Justin, Auntie Page, Uncle Craig, Auntie Sunah...) submitted to stuffonmycat.com.
Alright, change in plans...I had originally intended to stay in Seoul for 6 months and be back in Seattle in June or July. I've now decided that that is not enough time for me to spend here so I'm going to stay out my contract and leave Korea in December of this year. Then, I'm going to spend about 3 months roaming around New Zealand, Australia and the surrounding area and then go home. I'm really excited about it and if anyone wants to join me in NZ, I'd be thrilled. Also, this means more time to haul ass to Seoul!
Saturday 20 January 2007
Carne Station: Beer and Wine
Teaching on Saturdays is going to be the end of me.
For the month of January, I have to teach a class at 9:30 am on Saturdays. It's a conversation class. For middle schoolers. In a foreign language. On a Saturday morning...yeah, it's silent for the most part for at least the first hour. Eleven kids just staring at me as I am doing a song and dance routine, trying to get them to talk. Ugh.
After that, I have to teach my regular Saturday afternoon class. If you recall, I have freaking 24 hours of work (27 with the intensive) spread over freaking 6 days. So at the end of the day on Saturday, I've had the trauma of working 6 days and on that particular day, having to deal with sullen pre-teens who resent being sent to English class on Saturdays. The result?
A lot of drinking on Saturday nights.
This past Saturday, we headed over to Carne Station. They're tagline is "Beef and Wine." Ooh, good times. It's all you can eat AND drink. Beer, wine, hard alcohol, soju as far as the eye could see. We grilled seafood and ate smoked salmon by the plateful. My only complaint was that there was almost too much pressure to chug the alcohol down to get our money's worth. It must be said, though, that it was weird to see a whole bunch of drunk foreigners in the same place as a bunch of Korean families. Wasted Canadians and small Korean children, together at last.
PS I am trying to find out how the heck I upload pictures so I can include them in these posts. As soon as I do, it's going to be a picture smorgasboard because I have been clicking away on my cute new fuscia camera.
For the month of January, I have to teach a class at 9:30 am on Saturdays. It's a conversation class. For middle schoolers. In a foreign language. On a Saturday morning...yeah, it's silent for the most part for at least the first hour. Eleven kids just staring at me as I am doing a song and dance routine, trying to get them to talk. Ugh.
After that, I have to teach my regular Saturday afternoon class. If you recall, I have freaking 24 hours of work (27 with the intensive) spread over freaking 6 days. So at the end of the day on Saturday, I've had the trauma of working 6 days and on that particular day, having to deal with sullen pre-teens who resent being sent to English class on Saturdays. The result?
A lot of drinking on Saturday nights.
This past Saturday, we headed over to Carne Station. They're tagline is "Beef and Wine." Ooh, good times. It's all you can eat AND drink. Beer, wine, hard alcohol, soju as far as the eye could see. We grilled seafood and ate smoked salmon by the plateful. My only complaint was that there was almost too much pressure to chug the alcohol down to get our money's worth. It must be said, though, that it was weird to see a whole bunch of drunk foreigners in the same place as a bunch of Korean families. Wasted Canadians and small Korean children, together at last.
PS I am trying to find out how the heck I upload pictures so I can include them in these posts. As soon as I do, it's going to be a picture smorgasboard because I have been clicking away on my cute new fuscia camera.
Wednesday 17 January 2007
Seoul High Lights Reel
Oh my God, y'all. There's a lot I've been doing since I wrote that first email about a month ago. Here are the high lights:
-Korean Kristmas
(Warning: Most of this stolen from an email I wrote to Victoria, because I'm lazy)
I don't know what I expected Christmas to be like here, but I ended up having an almost traditional holiday. We had lights in the apartment, Justin stole a bunch of branches from Namsan hill and he decorated all our doorways. On Christmas eve, he nailed some of them together to a plank of wood and I made paper and popcorn garlands and an angel and voila! The world's most ghetto Christmas tree was born.
He and our neighbor Craig made eggnog from scratch (you do NOT want to know how many eggs went into it) and mulled wine and we had people over and got really drunk and watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas. ( P.S. I am not going to tell you how many Christmas cartoons I watched in total because you would be disgusted. I even watched Scooby Doo Christmas!) Some of my house mate Paige's friends spent the night and we opened presents in the morning and had breakfast (I made it!) and later, we had a traditional dinner ordered from the Army base. It was pretty nice.
-The Sauna
Seriously, you have lived until you've been to a Korean sauna. I went after having a few drinks, praise Allah, because I could not have done it sober. I went with Craig, his girlfriend Sunah, and Justin at about midnight. I did not know that I had to strip down and shower with a room full of naked women but boy was I glad I had had that beer before going. It was so intense that you just have to say, fuck it and be naked in a room full of naked Korean women. The rest of the sauna (where you get to wear clothes) is pretty surreal, too. Unlike American saunas, which are pretty basic, these saunas are basically a place where you can do everything in matching pajamas. There are computer rooms, restaurants, movie rooms, massage chairs, traditional sauna rooms, bars, blah blah blah. I can't wait to go back.
-New Year's
Oh, New Years. My least favorite holiday...so much pressure to have fun. This was actually pretty fun. Started off at a hotel party, went to a weird club that looked like the bastard love child of a wasp nest and the bar from the first Star Wars, grabbed and pulled some random dude, cried while eating fried something, drunk dialed Julia, and passed out in my clothes. Good times!
-The Shopping
It's amazing. I love Muji (www.muji.co.uk) and the little stands that sell cute ankle socks. As Paige says, go cute or go home. Anyone planning on visiting, come prepared to do some serious damage.
-The Drinking
Dudes and dudettes, it is way too easy to get totally wasted here. Bars are open so late and the (shitty) beer is so cheap. This past weekend, I was the drunkest I've ever been in this country and it was pretty damn drunk. I'm not going to lie, there was puke involved and non-consensual toe nail painting.
That's been my month so far...there are tons of little things but I'll write about those later. Let me know if you want to be automatically updated (or hopefully there's some way you can sign yourself up because...seriously...I'm lazy). I'll try to be good about updating and responding to emails.
-Korean Kristmas
(Warning: Most of this stolen from an email I wrote to Victoria, because I'm lazy)
I don't know what I expected Christmas to be like here, but I ended up having an almost traditional holiday. We had lights in the apartment, Justin stole a bunch of branches from Namsan hill and he decorated all our doorways. On Christmas eve, he nailed some of them together to a plank of wood and I made paper and popcorn garlands and an angel and voila! The world's most ghetto Christmas tree was born.
He and our neighbor Craig made eggnog from scratch (you do NOT want to know how many eggs went into it) and mulled wine and we had people over and got really drunk and watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas. ( P.S. I am not going to tell you how many Christmas cartoons I watched in total because you would be disgusted. I even watched Scooby Doo Christmas!) Some of my house mate Paige's friends spent the night and we opened presents in the morning and had breakfast (I made it!) and later, we had a traditional dinner ordered from the Army base. It was pretty nice.
-The Sauna
Seriously, you have lived until you've been to a Korean sauna. I went after having a few drinks, praise Allah, because I could not have done it sober. I went with Craig, his girlfriend Sunah, and Justin at about midnight. I did not know that I had to strip down and shower with a room full of naked women but boy was I glad I had had that beer before going. It was so intense that you just have to say, fuck it and be naked in a room full of naked Korean women. The rest of the sauna (where you get to wear clothes) is pretty surreal, too. Unlike American saunas, which are pretty basic, these saunas are basically a place where you can do everything in matching pajamas. There are computer rooms, restaurants, movie rooms, massage chairs, traditional sauna rooms, bars, blah blah blah. I can't wait to go back.
-New Year's
Oh, New Years. My least favorite holiday...so much pressure to have fun. This was actually pretty fun. Started off at a hotel party, went to a weird club that looked like the bastard love child of a wasp nest and the bar from the first Star Wars, grabbed and pulled some random dude, cried while eating fried something, drunk dialed Julia, and passed out in my clothes. Good times!
-The Shopping
It's amazing. I love Muji (www.muji.co.uk) and the little stands that sell cute ankle socks. As Paige says, go cute or go home. Anyone planning on visiting, come prepared to do some serious damage.
-The Drinking
Dudes and dudettes, it is way too easy to get totally wasted here. Bars are open so late and the (shitty) beer is so cheap. This past weekend, I was the drunkest I've ever been in this country and it was pretty damn drunk. I'm not going to lie, there was puke involved and non-consensual toe nail painting.
That's been my month so far...there are tons of little things but I'll write about those later. Let me know if you want to be automatically updated (or hopefully there's some way you can sign yourself up because...seriously...I'm lazy). I'll try to be good about updating and responding to emails.
Welcome to the SK
Y'all asked for it, y'all got it. I'll update very soon but in the mean time, here's the first mass email I sent out. If you haven't read it yet, enjoy!
Hello everyone,
Yesterday was my two week anniversary in Seoul and I thought I'd celebrate with a big old mass email to let you all know how it's going.
First off, I live in the lovely Hae Bang Chong district here in central Seoul. I'm situated at the bottom of a hill that has decided sidewalks are for wimps. It is a daily battle against cars, scooters, and buses and I was terrified of crossing the street alone for the first few days. We have three bars within a two block radius and right across the street there's a veggie stand and a corner store. It's always buzzing with activity and very different from my nice cozy block in Ravenna. Our apartment is pretty sweet, though. It's palatial by Seoul standards and has three bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, bathroom and we have the roof to ourselves. I'm living with Paige, a delightful Canadian, and Justin, who I met through my Seattle roommate Neil.
The school I teach at is in Dongjak, on the other side of the river that divides Seoul. I'm teaching three classes of elementary-aged kids and one of middle schoolers. The kids are, for the most part, pretty cool and very smart. I teach at a private hagwan so the kids had to pass certain tests to get in so they all speak fairly well. The only thing that sucks is that while I'm only teaching 24 hours a week, it's spread over 6 days so Sunday is my only day I'm not teaching. I'm taking the bus to work everyday, which apparently is not something foreigners do in their first few weeks, so I'm pretty proud of myself. Here, the bus does not have to be at a complete stop to open the doors so I like to see how fast the bus can be going when I jump off.
I am, however, managing to have a lot of fun during my time off. My first week here, I was in training so I had my days free after 3 pm. My housemate Justin has been playing tour guide and showing me the city. We went on a scooter ride my third day here and it was quite the experience. There aren't very many traffic rules regulating scooters so we were weaving in and out of traffic and making crazy u-turns and it was very thrilling. We've also gone to several markets (if anyone wants some fake Burberry ankle socks, let me know!), an art museum, a few bars, and a small art show where I got to meet some interesting people (including the guy who I thought might be Jewish and totally thought I was hitting on him when I asked). However, the most exciting part of Seoul has been happening right in my kitchen...I'm cooking! I can now make eggs in a bread frame, curry, and hash browns! I also made some potato latkes (described as "Jewish hash browns") for Hanukkah. Shabbat shalom!
It snowed this weekend so we made a snowman, Prosty the Korean Snowman, on the roof and got into a snow ball fight with our next-door neighbors. I also took a walk up the hill I live at the bottom of to the top of Namsam park and the Seoul Tower. It's kinda like the Seoul version of the Space Needle but it's a giant radio tower. It was cool so see all of Seoul covered in snow. It was less cool when Justin kicked the tree I was walking under so I was covered in snow.
I miss you all like the deserts miss the rains and I'm more bummed that I can say that I won't be seeing anyone before the holidays. If anyone wants a postcard, send me your address and I'll put pep in my step.
love,
nicole
Hello everyone,
Yesterday was my two week anniversary in Seoul and I thought I'd celebrate with a big old mass email to let you all know how it's going.
First off, I live in the lovely Hae Bang Chong district here in central Seoul. I'm situated at the bottom of a hill that has decided sidewalks are for wimps. It is a daily battle against cars, scooters, and buses and I was terrified of crossing the street alone for the first few days. We have three bars within a two block radius and right across the street there's a veggie stand and a corner store. It's always buzzing with activity and very different from my nice cozy block in Ravenna. Our apartment is pretty sweet, though. It's palatial by Seoul standards and has three bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, bathroom and we have the roof to ourselves. I'm living with Paige, a delightful Canadian, and Justin, who I met through my Seattle roommate Neil.
The school I teach at is in Dongjak, on the other side of the river that divides Seoul. I'm teaching three classes of elementary-aged kids and one of middle schoolers. The kids are, for the most part, pretty cool and very smart. I teach at a private hagwan so the kids had to pass certain tests to get in so they all speak fairly well. The only thing that sucks is that while I'm only teaching 24 hours a week, it's spread over 6 days so Sunday is my only day I'm not teaching. I'm taking the bus to work everyday, which apparently is not something foreigners do in their first few weeks, so I'm pretty proud of myself. Here, the bus does not have to be at a complete stop to open the doors so I like to see how fast the bus can be going when I jump off.
I am, however, managing to have a lot of fun during my time off. My first week here, I was in training so I had my days free after 3 pm. My housemate Justin has been playing tour guide and showing me the city. We went on a scooter ride my third day here and it was quite the experience. There aren't very many traffic rules regulating scooters so we were weaving in and out of traffic and making crazy u-turns and it was very thrilling. We've also gone to several markets (if anyone wants some fake Burberry ankle socks, let me know!), an art museum, a few bars, and a small art show where I got to meet some interesting people (including the guy who I thought might be Jewish and totally thought I was hitting on him when I asked). However, the most exciting part of Seoul has been happening right in my kitchen...I'm cooking! I can now make eggs in a bread frame, curry, and hash browns! I also made some potato latkes (described as "Jewish hash browns") for Hanukkah. Shabbat shalom!
It snowed this weekend so we made a snowman, Prosty the Korean Snowman, on the roof and got into a snow ball fight with our next-door neighbors. I also took a walk up the hill I live at the bottom of to the top of Namsam park and the Seoul Tower. It's kinda like the Seoul version of the Space Needle but it's a giant radio tower. It was cool so see all of Seoul covered in snow. It was less cool when Justin kicked the tree I was walking under so I was covered in snow.
I miss you all like the deserts miss the rains and I'm more bummed that I can say that I won't be seeing anyone before the holidays. If anyone wants a postcard, send me your address and I'll put pep in my step.
love,
nicole
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