Part 2 of the Continuing Saga

Ok, let's see where we are...May still...sigh...Damn it, I forgot some April stuff.

In the middle of the month, I went out for my friend's birthday and saw another friend's boyfriend pee in the middle of a busy Korean street. Nothing happened, it was amazing. Even more so when I think that a month later, I was hauled in for a camp fire.


At the end of April, I went and saw my friend Dan's kumdo tournament. It was awesome! Dan just went and attacked hardcore and the Korean dude didn't know what hit him. Sadly, his hit on the head was discounted and the Korean dude won. Dan was robbed.

Oh, sweet. According to my day planner, nothing else interesting happened in May. June, here we go! Gah, June was eventful.



The first thing I did in June was buy my ticket for India! I'm going to spend 3 glorious weeks on the beach in Goa, in the south. I fly into Mumbai on August 4th (I spend a couple days in Singapore before that) and I'm taking the train the next day. I plan on doing nothing but take pictures of churches and laying on the beach. I'm freaking terrified to be going to India on my own but I think it'll be cool. Everyone says that as long as I keep my wits about me, I'll be fine.

The weekend of June 15th, I went to Sokcho to see Steve's triathlon. That was my birthday present to him, I would travel to be a cheerleader and dude, it was the dog's bollocks! I love bus/train travel and it was rather pleasant 4 hour ride to the east coast. Steve's tri buddy Sonny was there too and he's awesome. When we got to town, I left them to do their registration stuff and I wandered around by myself (and with my new kinda fancy camera). It was weird, I was stared at so much, as foreigners aren't as common there as in Seoul. Regardless, I had a really good day. I got a seafood feast on the cheap and saw some really pretty beach stuff.

On Sunday morning, I went and hooted and hollered for Steve and Sony. They were amazing! Sony came in something like 10th overall and Steve won his age group! I think Sony was a little disappointed he didn't place but Steve was so freaking happy with how he did (he beat his personal best time by over 5 minutes!) and it was really nice to be a witness for him. I took the pictures of him on the podium and I was instructed to push and claw my way to the front and, by golly, I did.

After the race, we had a lot of time to kill before our bus back to Seoul so we went to frolic on the beach and it was glorious! The water was bracing and cold and the beach was great. I got a nice little sun burn but it was worth it. I also kicked Steve's ass at GoStop!

Happy Birthday, Diana. You better appreciate this.

Alright, I know. I suck. I am FINALLY going to update and you all have Diana Hall to thank. This is my birthday present to you, you skank.

So what I'm going to do is flip through my day planner and write about things of note since I've last updated. Let's see...how far do I have to go back...May?!?! Blerg.

The second weekend in May was a long one, so Stef-the-Housemate and I hauled our asses to Busan. This is noteworthy because Stef and I have a glorious history of not leaving a 100 meter radius during our holidays. However, Miller the Thrilla hadn't been out of Seoul her entire time here so we made an exception. It was a ton of fun, though I was a bit sick and threw up several times on our first day. Also, the weather was poo and we didn't get to spend any time on the beach.

What we did get to do, though, is explore the city itself. We went to the fish market (the biggest in Korea, thank you) and took a ton of pictures of the delicious little fishies swimming around in tanks. We went shopping in Busan's downtown area and got matching dresses from American Apparel and saw Iron Man (which knocked my socks off). Our last night there, we went to a lovely 찜질방(jjimjil bang) and had to have some locals help us call a cab back to our love motel.

Let's see...what else happened in May...oh, yeah! I was arrested! How silly of me to forget!

It started off so innocently...My friend Steve was competing in the Seoul Triathlon very early in the morning so I wanted to spend a fairly quiet Saturday night in the neighborhood so I could cheer the next day. Ha!

It was the night of the Haebangchon street/music festival and a bunch of my friends and I were hanging out at the local bars, taking drinks outside and enjoying the first really warm night of the year. Stef and her bandmates suggested going up to Namsan to a campfire spot they'd been to before and I was down. We hiked up the hill, bringing guitars and lots of beer and started a fire. Now, keep in mind the place had a stone circle, a pile of logs stacked neatly nearby, a brush to sweep the ash, and stumps arranged all around it. Looked perfectly kosher.

So there we were, a bunch of drunkies having a sing-a-long when we notice a bunch of cop cars and fire trucks at the bottom of the hill. Not having the quickest of response times, we sat there until we were surrounded by them. They started yelling at us in Korean and we quickly put out the fire and were escorted down the hill. I thought that would be the end of it but nope. They wanted us to get in the cop cars and go to the station with them. I was all for refusing but cooler heads prevailed and I got in. But! I got in with my large bottle of Cass that I absolutely refused to get rid of. That's right, I finished my damn beer in the police station (and drank some in the patrol car. Because that's how I roll).

We were forced to wait in the station for about 3 hours while they processed us. It was wicked boring and frustrating and I thought I was going to bust a cap in someone's honky ass. We got yelled at for laughing but then an older cop stole Stef's cookies and offered them to us. When we were finally let go, they told us we had to go to freaking court on June 4th.

On the court day, we were all scrubbed to within an inch of our lives. We kept repeating how sorry we were and how back home it would have been fine to start the fire, and we loved Korea, 대한민국! and all. Finally, the judge told us to get the hell out of there and we didn't even have to pay the fine. A little anti-climatic but I'm totally ok with that!

Ok, more later. Maybe we'll get up to mid-June by the next entry.

My Roommate the Rock Star

Stef's band Les Moustaches had a show a couple weeks ago. It was freakin' awesome! I've been hearing about the band forever so it was really great to finally hear them perform. Their show was at a small club in Hongdae called Free Bird and they were hours late to perform, so a lot of people had left by then. That was a bummer but there was still a pretty good crowd. Stef sounded great and the band in general were fantastic for a first gig.



Other news:
I'm going to start volunteering with Sharing House. I'm super excited about it, as I will get to stretch my history muscles and help write educational packets. The whole history of the sex slaves in WWII is pretty much summed in one sentence in both Korean and Japanese history books...not cool. The women are getting pretty up there and are dying at a more frequent pace. It's crucial that their story isn't forgotten and I'm incredibly honored that I'll get to play a role in making sure that doesn't happen.

I'm going to be helping my friend Steve out by "teaching" a conversation class for his school's English Club. It'll be my first time interacting with middle schoolers since leaving my old job, so I'm a little nervous. At the same time, I'm stoked to have interactions with kids that won't involve me being licked or bitten. A gaggle of us are also going to go on a field trip with the English Club. They're going to take us around one of the palaces here and play tour guide for us.

Quiz Legend!

Pub quiz has become a central part of my social life here in Seoul. It started in the fall and that's how my friend Steve and I became friends. First, we were rivals (much shit-talking ensued on our Facebook walls) then we formed Team Chillax (we're now the HBC Massif). Sometime last winter one of us thought, hey! I bet we can write a pretty decent quiz. We talked to the manager of the bar and we did our first quiz right before I left for the States. It was a success, we were asked back, that was even better and now we do it once every three weeks. On our off weeks, we usually come in about 3rd place.

Steve and I split the writing responsibility down the middle and then switch off who reads. Here's the thing: the reader gets free beer all night. I get really nervous and drink a little fast so usually by the third round, I'm flat out drunk.

This week, it was my turn and oh, boy! I couldn't say the word "archipelago"to save my life in the 4th round and I don't think I'm going to hear the end of that for a long, long time.

Spring!

I know I've said this before but after growing up in a temperate climate, I really appreciate spring now. Seoul is FINALLY warming up and it's glorious. The trees are blooming, grass is growing, and the birds are singing. Claude and I are currently out on the balcony, enjoying a lovely spring afternoon. I'll be off to Yeouido this weekend to check out the cherry blossoms before they fall of the trees.

Today I had one of those days when everything seems to go right. I only had kindergarten today and it was so much fun! I taught one of my favorite groups and at the end of the day, my kids and I had an impromptu dance party and twirled around until we fell down laughing. Good times!

Tomorrow is a holiday and I am very very happy about this. Hopefully the weather will hold up and I can work on the garden on the roof. Happy Election Day, for reals!

I've read that older people should do crossword puzzles in order to keep their minds sharp and fend off Alzheimer's. I've decided that when it comes for me to make sure my brain doesn't go to mush, I'm going to plan out routes using the Seoul Metro system. Seriously, I'm becoming Lord of the Buses here.

I had to go to the immigration office today to pick up my alien registration card (Side note: I feel like I'm betraying my Mexican heritage by becoming a LEGAL alien but...what can you do?) and I managed to get from Omokyo to Dangsan using nothing but my wits. For those of you who are familiar with my woeful sense of direction, you'll appreciate that this is damn near a Christmukkah miracle.

Last night, I went to kumdo for the first time in a little over a week and when I walked in, all the kids started yelling my name and welcoming me back. It was really nice and I imagine that's what some of you are doing right now as you read this (...I hope!).

Life's been busy lately. I was sick for the entirety of last week, which was not fun. I'm having spring allergies for the first time in my life and I place the blame totally with flippin' yellow dust. It's gross and I hate it. I hate the way it coats the apartment with dust, I hate the way I hack my lungs up all the time, I hate the way it ruins the city view I have in the morning on my way to work. It's plain depressing and without a doubt my least favorite thing about living in Asia. I've been popping vitamin C and taking antihistamines, which are making me super sleepy all the time, in the hopes of being 100% healthy. Perhaps it would help if I laid off the Cass on the weekends but c'mon. Let's not get crazy.

Yes, yes speaking of weekends, I really shouldn't paint a picture of Nicole as the this invalid hobbling around Seoul. I had quite the time at Steve's birthday celebration. It started at Hooter's and ended at a bar that serves drinks in a bucket (have I mentioned this place before? I have! Monkey Beach reared its ugly head again!) and at the end of the night, yours truly tried to insist that the street outside her house was a perfectly good place to go to sleep. Goooooood times!

In other news, Stef, my house mate, has a gig with her band soon. It's the first one for them and I'm super excited. They came over to the house last week for an impromptu jam/scarf dance party and they sounded great just messing around. The show is at this new-ish club in Hongdae called Free Bird so of course I'm going to be the a-hole in the back yelling "play Free Bird!!"

About the picture: This is my favorite student, Juwon, holding a picture she drew of me. I think she really captured my je ne sais quois, don't you think?