Thanksgiving Korean Style

One of the things I have not been looking forward to are the holidays. Before last week, the only one that I had missed was Halloween which was actually unexpectedly amazing and random (*read "A Night of Fright and Delight" for more details). However, thanksgiving just came and went and I was more disappointed then words can express that I would not be able to act like a fat ass and eat an unholy amount of turkey , mashed potatoes and gravely, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and so many more wondrous foods that allude me know because I have been over here for too long to remember them. On the actual day of Thanksgiving I had a fun yet small get together with Eben and Mary. Eben cooked some potato soup while Mary made grilled up some veggies. It was tasty all the same and we ended up drinking and playing ASSHOLE (where I was the asshole for nearly an hour straight) however thanksgiving foods were sorely missed.

Now the weekend after on Saturday I did not have any set plans and I was expecting to have a quiet relaxing day then, as usual, go out and have a fun evening and early morning at the bars. However, I received a call from Eben saying he was drinking at the moat (Korean for lake) and that they were going to head somewhere and grab some beers near our neighborhood where I should meet up with them. It was about 6pm at this point so I decided what the hell and by the time I meet up with them they were eating grilled octopus and drinking saki bombs at a Japanese restaurant. When I walked in I saw that Tim looked a little more trashed then I would have expected for 7pm on a Saturday but I didn't think too much about it at the time. Tim, Eben and Travis were all just about finished eating and they informed me that it was out friends Juan birthday and they were all heading over to Lauren's house for a group bday dinner that his mom had prepared, who also just got into town. However, I found out quickly that Tim was in fact shitfaced and he had fallen to using only his most rudimentary motor functions. On the walk over to her house a delivery guy on a scooter stopped after noticing Tim on the streets and after a short time and realizing the level of intoxication Tim was under left. However, to make things more interesting he ended up circling back around to us and offered to give Tim a shot of soju as his restaurant. Of course Tim agreed but Travis was able to persuade Tim that we were already an hour late for dinner and he was shitfacted and did not need any more alcohol.

By the time we arrived at dinner everyone there were a little annoyed with us. Lauren's apartment is larger than most. It has a living room/kitchen, and a separate bedroom and which is better than the standard 2 room set up. livingroom/kitchen/bedroom and bathroom set up is the standard one, which is what I have. About 8 of our friends had gathered for dinner, it was also Juan's birthday and his mom came to visit and cooked quite a nice feast for us all. We started with a salad and vegetable soup but by the time we had finished Tim was too intoxicated to remain coherent so we put him to sleep on Lauren's bed, at least we thought we did. By the time we started eating chicken Tim woke up and tried to make his way to join all of us at dinner but instead he tripped over something and smashed his head into the floor. His was unable to move from this position so I had to pick him up again and put him in Lauren's bed, this time though he did not awaken for quite awhile. Dinner was great and after Juan's mom left we started to drink and play some drinking games.

Now I could go on for awhile about the rest of the dinner/ hang out but lets just say Tim woke up again and mistook Lauren's floor for a pisser which once found out created a hilarious dispute. After this we played some asshole for an hour or two then Eben, Tim, Stessy and myself headed downtown. Downtown was fun and eventful and yaaaaa lets just leave it at that.

DVD Bong

This past weekend has been the week of the DVD bong. Before I can jump in and start telling you all about my experiences it is first important to understand the term bong.

Bong- In Korean it simply means room. This word is very common and is used to describe all sorts of places. Some of the most popular are Nori bongs (Karaoke) and DVD Bongs.

DVD Bong- Is a genius concept on an alternative to watching a movie at the theater or at your house. They are small places where they have a respectably large selection of DVD's, Korean and foreign alike. After you pick your movie you are taken to a small room which has a large bed/couch that can fit about 4 people maybe 5 if you squeeze in. There is also a projector above that creates the felling of being in a small theater. The genius of the DVD bong is the privacy of it. Most Koreans bring they girl or boyfriend to the place and have a private place to watch a movie and hook up. However, you can also bring your own alcohol and snack to the place so you can drink and either hook up with someone or kick it with your friends.

So, my first experience was last Saturday where Eben, Christina and myself went downtown to buy a few things before the night started. I bought a pair of glasses for about 100,000 won (90$) and a Peja Stokavich jersey...... Still can't fucking believe that. After this we had a few hours to kill so we decided to check out a movie at the DVD bong. We ended watching Role Models while drinking some mekju and soju while also enjoying some popcorn. We had and interesting night downtown... lets just say the glasses changed up the dynamic of the night in a very positive way.

Anyway, we ended up meting some girls from Chicago, Briana and Julie. The next day they gave us a call and we ended up making plans to go to the DVD Bong again. First, We grabbed some beers at Oregon bar (the cool music bar) then we began the night of endless films. We bought a bunch of mekju, soju and some assorted snacks (FYI dried octopus is a good snack which they actual sell at the movies theaters over here). We all decided to watch some horror movies so we started with the Descent which I had previously seen once in IV, I think with Perry. It was a good choice but retrospectively it might have been a little to good... About 20 minutes in where they introduce the villains of the film (their a cross between Gollum from LOTR and an albino I would say) it startled the girls so much that they literally jumped which sent beer flying out of Briana's cup, spilling all over herself and myself. After this movie we watched Battle Royal which if you haven't seen it is an amazing Japanese film about a deathmatch between school kids who are trapped on an Island and must kill each other (with an assortment of weapons given to students based on their strength and intelligence) to live and escape the island.After this film I thought we would call it a night considering it was around 2am but the girls wanted to continue watching some films so we stayed for another film. After this film we ran out of drinks so Eben and I left the Bong to grab some more mekju and on the way back Eben eyed a large Homer Simpson Dangle.

Dangle- something that hangs off of the end of your cellphone which are extremely popular over here. Almost every Korean has some sort of dangle which is used as most commonly phone bling or some practical purpose.

After we returned I picked out 28 Days Latter which we watched without any further spilling instance. We then packed up are stuff and left the DVD Bang making our way to the cab area. However, when we got there it was decided that we in fact were not ready to call it a night and decided to head back to a DVD Bong and watch one final movie. At this point in the night I was rather tired but I was more interested to see how long we could continue to go on before the DVD Bong would either would close or politely say Fuck off. This time we watched The Grudge but after about 20 minutes all of us, I think, ended up passing out and I remember waking up to the credits. We left and this time it was official we said our farewells to the girls and we made for the home right as the sun was rising.

In total we went to 2 different DVD Bong's and spent about 8 hours total watching movies. Quite a successful night/adventure if I do say so myself.

One more thing I forgot to tell you all that this was a Thursday night so we all had to go to work the following day which lets just say was sloooooooooooow and looooooooong, in other words a load of lethargic shit.

School Update

I'm sorry I have not updated in awhile but I have been rather lazy of late and increasingly busy.

Public school in Korea finishes classes for winter break in a few weeks which would mean I have some time off if I worked at a public school. However, I work at a Hogwon so I actually have more work because all those students who are not in public school get put in Hogwon's by their parents (There is some Korean lifestyle for ya). Mys school has been advertising aggressively, we have small posters all around Gee-san-dong (educational district) with two large banners in front of our school and on the outskirts of the district (*see picture*, which is in front of my school). Today I had to present of Demo class to my coworkers and boss on how I plan to structure and teach a T.E.P.S class (Korean created English proficiency test). It went well, but they informed me every day, now excluding Wednesday, I have to teach an extra hour and a half and Ill be adding every week with an additional hour and a half to be added once public school is out.

Shit I thought my kids were absent today but they were just a half an hour late so I have to teach for an hour and a half right now shit.....

Ok I'm back and just to remind everyone here is a list of all the different types of class I teach...

1) Children's conversation class - 2 students -Hour and a half

(Monday and Wednesday)

2) Adult conversation class- 4 students, 3 ajimas (older women) 1 college -Hour and a half

(Tuesday and Thursday)

3)Basic Sentence Structure aka. Steps 2 - 4 elementary school student - 45 minute class (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday)

4) Intermediate Sentence Structure aka Now 3 - 2 elementary school students - 45 minute class (Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday)

5) Advanced T.E.O.F.L (English proficiency test) - 1 college student - Hour and a half

(Monday and Thursday)

6) T.E.P.S. Listening - 3 middle school students and will increase soon. -Hour and a half

(Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday)

I can't complain about my hours because I don't teach as many hours as other teachers but I'm not allowed to leave work (I just watch movies and listen to music)

I'm almost done with work but I promise to write more in the next week where I will be talking about some very interesting events that have happened in the previous month, which are as follows....

-Attending a 1 year old Korean Kids bday extravaganza (think 100 Koreans where I was the only foreigner present)

-Night out with some hot Korean babes (looooooooooong night but great)

-Screen Golf Tournament

and much more... oh Yeah!

A night of Fright and Delight

Before last weekend I had no idea what Halloween would be like over here in Korea... Would most foreigners dress up? Would the bars and clubs have special events to celebrate the occasion? How would Koreans respond to costumed drunk foreigners? Do any Koreans celebrate the holiday? After this weekend all of thee question have been answered as well as several others I had not even begun to think about.

Saturday October 31st- Halloween: (Stage 1 -Richie and Jessie's House)

The day started like any other. I slept in late enjoying my day off and resting from a relatively relaxed Friday night downtown with a few of my Scottish friends. I had no idea if I was going to dress up for the occasion, especially since I had very limited choices of costumes from what I packed before I came over. However, my good buddy Eben gave me a call at a round 5pm to let me know that a bunch of people were going to meet up at Richie and Jessie's house before going out to the bars. He also informed me that everyone that was coming would be getting dressed up, which forced me to try and find something. After a quick search of all my clothes I discover I really only had 2 options: either wear my high school basketball stuff and go as a baller (which seemed a little boring to me) or take down the sun tapestry I had hanging on my wall and wear that as a robe and go as the Sun God. I think its pretty obvious what I decided... So, I left for Richie's house which is on the exact opposite side of Daegu from where I live and work at. I live at almost the farthest southeast corner of the city where they live on the north west. When we got there we started to drink right away and get ready for the night to come. We started off drinking Makali, and mekju but after I put on the transformed into the Sun God, I steeped up the game a little bit (if at least get a dunk shield going because I was only wearing some briefs and a pair of Jessie's girl boxers). A group of about 8 people ended up over at their apartment where we drank and watched/listened to Rocky Horror Picture Show which was playing on their TV in the background. When it was time to leave almost everyone wanted to take a cab and avoid the awkwardness of walking 20 minutes in their costumes down the streets before they could make it to the safety of other drunk dressed up foreigners downtown. Jessie, Eben and myself thought that we should walk it instead and have an interesting cultural experience, although we could not know how interesting and revealing it would be at the time...

Stage 2 (The Walk):

-By the time we headed out I was felling nice and buzzed and by the time we made it to the main road the eyes began to turn. Every Korean walking down the streets could not help but either give us the double and triple take or look absolutely shocked. After a few minuted Jessie had the genius idea that we should start scaring people as we passed them walking down the street. At first I was uncertain as to how entertaining this would be but after the first person guy we scarred jumped back 3 feet and screamed like a 10 year old girl I knew this was priceless. We continued walking casually and talking until we decided on a group of people where we would all yell and jump towards them. For a visual reference, Eben was a walking skeleton, Jessie was a hippie zombie and I was of course the son god so quite the interesting mix. We continued doing this for the entire walk making sure we only tried and scare one group every block so no one would see what we were up too. By the end of the journey we discovered that Koreans are jumpy as hell and it does not take much to get them to run in sheer fright, especially if your dressed up on Halloween.

Stage 3 (Downtown):

-We actually walked to the college part of town first, specifically to a foreigner bar. Eben and I relaxed their for a minute or so but one girl who I don't think I need to name was continuing to act as one of the most annoying and obnoxiousness people I have met in Korea so far so no offense to our other friends we decided to bounce and head downtown right away.

At this point my memory begins to become quite fuzzy I remember we went to several bars, however they sort of blur together and I can only clearly remember a few and bits and pieces of what we did. I am pretty sure we started at Ping Bar which was decorated quite extensively for Halloween (like most of the foreign bars which I would soon realize). It was packed with people and I don't believe we stayed there that long but I do remember they had long strands of red cloth hanging from the ceiling which of course hit me in the head as I walked around. At some point I got fed up with this constant annoyance so I ripped one long strand down and wrapped it around my neck and body as long holy scarf (at least this is how I perceived it at the time). We ended up leaving rather quickly but to make matters difficult the fabric they had hanging up in the staircase......

Cultural Sidenote: Similar to most large European cities everything in Korea is built up, especially in Korea with so many people in such a little country. So, you are almost always climbing up or down stairs whenever you are going to any store, bar or club.

......this fabric had fallen to become an obstacle getting in the way of anyone who tried getting in or out of the bar. Understandably, I was not ready for this unanticipated obstacle and I fell over and became increasingly frustrated with whomever was in charge of decoration at ping bar. I am still spiteful and I will try and not support the bar because of their complete disregard for tall people...

The next place I remember going to was Sky Bar which I had never been to previously but I would say did the best job on creating a Halloween decor. The place was almost a small club in reality, they have one big ass room with bars around the outside and a dj booth in the back. It was packed , like every bar was that night, with costumed foreigners which made the dance floor look like some image out of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Eben and I ended up running into our new friend Mary, who was dressed up as a Oregon baller (Fuck the blazers go sac Kings!) but nonetheless was having a good time and we were excited to run into her. I ended up talking to some twins who were dressed up as... I'm not really sure but somehow won the costume competition which I figured was only because they were twins. We stayed there for a little while then headed off.

Who's Bob was our next stop, which is one of the most popular foreigner bars in Daegu. (We went to some places between Sky and Who's Bob however I can't recall where...) This was the last place I remember well. I believe we got to the bar around 3am and ended up staying there till around 5am, at least I did. I got a little preoccupied with one of those twins I mentioned earlier and ended up chilling with her for awhile and when I finlay remembered to look for my friends they were no where to be seen. I began to worry at this point for several reasons...

1) I did not have my phone on me, allowing me to get in touch with them

2) I did not have any more cash on me. (Normally I would just go to an ATM however in Korea they close around 1am, I guess in order to keep Koreans from staying up all night and drinking)

and most importantly...

3) I did not have my keys on which means even if I could find money to take a taxi and get home I would not be able to open my door.

Its important to understand I had anticipated all of these things to happen, except running out of money, since I was wearing Jessie's small boxers which had two small as pockets I did not want to risk losing my keys and phone. Instead I chose to bring my wallet (which barley fit by itself) and my camera to record the night. At this point I tried not to panic but it was late I was dressed basically in only my sun tapestry and I my group of friends were no where to be seen. I could only reasons that I had 3 options at this point...

1) Put the mac game on and find some babe and go back to her place.

2)Go sleep at a Jin-Gu-Bong (which is a spa that has a dark room where you can pass out on the floor with other people).

3) Look around and hope I can either find my friends or someone who can help me get in touch with them

I unsuccessful tried option 1 and I really did not want to have to resort to option 2 I tried and find some people who could help me get in touch with some of my friends. There were only two people at the bar who I knew had the phone numbers of my friends so I went to them and hoped they could help me out. The first girl has Eben number but after several phone calls and text messages I figures either his phone was dead or he was passed out. She had no one else's number I knew so I went to the second girl. She had my friends Margo's number so I hoped she was still awake and could give me a place to crash for the night. Luckily I have good karma and she answered and told me I could pass out at her place for the night...Hallelujah!

I ended up garbing a taxi and head to her neighborhood and quickly fell asleep.

Stage 4 (The next morning):

-When I awoke I was felling quite drained, tired and I had a small headache. I realized quite

quickly that I was still in a bind because I my keys and phone were still at Richie's apartment

(which I did not know how to get to on my own) and Margo had an ultimate Frisbee match

so I had to leave as soon as I was awake. I borrowed her phone and called Eben and

prayed he would answer and thankfully he did and he told we to meet up with him at some

random intersection near Christina's apartment. Margo was able to lend me a shirt, which

belonged to her boyfriends and a pair of her soccer shorts. Visual reference- I was wearing a

small shirt and a pair of bright blue short shorts looking hung over and haggard. I then had to

find and ATM and get some cash out so I could get in a taxi and meet up with Eben. It took me

about 20 minutes to find an ATM to work because none of them would accept my Korean card.

Luckily I still had 15 dollars on my American one and I was able to get just enough cash to

take a taxi and meet up with Eben. It took me about 20 more minutes to hail a cab because for

some bullshit reasons their are no god damn cabs in C.G. When I finlay got in one I still had

one final problem to overcome. Eben told me the name of the intersection however the cabbie

could not understand me. After about 10 minuted of repeating the name and what I knew was

close to it he finally understood me. Thankfully Eben waited about an hour for me to overcome

all of these unanticipated obstacles and we were able to quickly get over to Richie and Jessie's

apartment which in our minds at this moment meant safety and an end to the craziness of

Halloween.

Quick Recap: I'm still not sure on everything that happened but it was an amazingly great and

stressful night. I think its all because I am one of the Unluckiest Lucky people in existence.

Pictures of my Apartment

Ice beers and staying up until Sunrise

For the past 5 weeks I have been felling great. Seemingly endless energy and the desire to not miss out on any fun situation that may present itself. However, on Thursday I got home form work and I began to fell a little under the weather. I did tno think much about but when I got up the next morning I felt absolutely awful.

Cultural Note: In Korea its always important to keep up your apperance and not appear weak.

Case in point even if you fell like shit unless you are can't get out of bed sick you are expected to work (in my contract it says I am allowed only small handful of sick days and if I use one I need a doctors note explaining and justifying my sickness, seems a little elementary schoolish doesn't it)

Regardless, I went to work and felt like crap all day but luckily it was a Friday which is my easy day where I only teach two 45 minute classes. I powered through the day and went home and passing out for the night almost immediately.

So, after losing a Friday night to sickness which was quite painful I awoke on Saturday morning to fell a little. My throat still hurt like hell but I wasn't cold and I didn't fell weak so that was an important noticeable improvement. I went to the pharmacy looking for some sort of painkilling spray for my throat but all they had were lifesaver looking drops which did little to help my situation. I began to fell better as the day went on and decided to go out downtown as long as I drank quite moderately not going overboard.

Here is how it went:

We started off by going to a sports bar which is mostly a Korean spot. We left rather quickly to a place called the Ice Bar which is exactly as it sounds. Its a pretty spacious and nice bar with quite comfortably seating (like most of Korea actually). For 3,500 won you get a large glass made out of ice which is placed in a small plastic casing so you have a handle on it. The fun thing about this place is not only will your beer always stay perfectly frosty when you finish your beer whats the only logical thing to go with it, I'll give you a hint they don't reuse them. The bartender gives you a glove and lets you throw your beer at a target area on the wall where if you hit it dead on it lights up the outside frame and similarly to the old game show called Press your Luck (Whammy!) and it goes around the frame eventually stooping on some prize (which is mostly more beer, although you can also win some sausages). However, I missed badly on my first attempt but my friend Chris was successful hitting the target but landed on the only Whammy! section which means no prize. The second round through I actually broke my ice glass by testing its strength to a hand squeeze, obviously not a smart decision seeing as its made of ice.

After we headed to another place called Who's Bob which is probably the bar I have been to most so far. Normally the place has alot of people but for some reason this Saturday its was absolutely packed with no room to even grab a table or a spot at the bar. However, I was not drinking that much so I decided to turn my attention to scoping out the situation of the bar. I noticed one of the most attractive foreigner girls I have seen so far, cute girl with dark hair and a great body. I decided I needed to make a move, especially after the previous weekends D.D. experience. I procrastinated on it for an hour or so until she approached me saying simply, "lets take a shot". I was in no mood to drink that much, even though at this point I was felling great and let alone buy her a drink but she was not expecting me to which was nice. I grabbed the bartender I knew (who hooked me up with a free shot the previous weekend) and we both took a shot of jagger than preceded to the dance floor. We danced for awhile although I think she was a little intimidated of my well documented and known dancing skills and we ended up taking another shot however right after finishing them her dude friend approached me and told me she has a boyfriend and that she was a massive cock-tease. Now I was not happy to hear this so I just bounced out and started hanging out with my friends again and we left the place soon after.

We went to one more bar, although I was done drinking at this point felling buzzed but not wanting to test my bodies limit after just being sick. We meet up with our friends Mitch and Margo who just got back from a weeding who themselves felt quite tipsy. Whille at Go Go Vinyl I meet up with this guy Andrew who I met the previous week at Who's Bob. Hes a cool guy and introduced me to one of the funniest guys I have met in Daegu named Stewart. Stewart is a hilarious Scotsman who at one point was fed up with my buddy Eben using the word money as an adjective descrbing things and started giving him shit for whille we were walking on the streets, telling all the Koreans how 'money' Eben was. The night after that was not that eventful but we did not get home until right before sunrise at around 6am. I woke up the next morning felling surprising perfect and with no sore throat. So, I guess fate was telling me that the cure to a sore throat is moderate drinking I suppose...

Chuseok

In Korea Chuseok is the biggest holiday of the year, think of Christmas combined with Thanksgiving. It's a three day celebration so I was excited to have a few days off to relax. Unfortunately, this Chuseok was on Friday, Saturday and Sunday which means I only got one additional day off of work. My brother headed down from Suwon to visit me in Daegu so we could have are own thanksgiving celebration.

Thursday:

-I was planing on relaxing at the house and not go out drinking on Thursday night however it was one of my friends birthdays, Lauren, so Eben and I headed downtown from Soo-Sung-gu. It was a fun eventful night just playing foosball and drinking at the bar Who's Bob, especially watching the antics of few amazing entertain people. Lets just call these people Thunder Thighs and Jesus. I drank a few beers and started talking to some random foreigner from the States. I continued to drink and hang out with my friends until we decided it was time for a change of scenery leaving for a pretty cool bar whos name escapes me right now. Anyway it was not crowded there but the bartender would put on any song you wanted and was rather friendly and hooked me up with a free shot of jagger. The girl from the other bar who I meet came along with use and lets just call her D.D. So, I am felling rather buzzed at this point and decided I need to put on the A-Game and hit on this girl. She is felling it so we bounce on our buddies and we head to some random but amazing Korean (not foreigner) club that I had not been to before being lead there by a group of random korean babes. We dance there for awhile and then we head back to D.D.'s place which just so happened to be a 5-10 minute walk from Rodeo street (downtown). I spare everyone the details but lets just say I wake up with a massive hangover at 12pm and begin to regret my drunk decision for several reasons the first being blue balls and the second I found her rather annoying which latter uncovering she is a sorority girl so I'm not that surprised. Luckily she does not have a phone so I just bounce and realize my brother is supposed to be getting in to Daegu any minute now...

Friday:

My brother and I meet up outside of Donga department store which is the largest 'road-sign' near my apartment. David and I just relax all day walking around the city and I took him to my favorite sam-gip-sal restaurant (korean BBQ). When night comes around all my friends decide to go to the university area but david and I are already downtown so we just do the solo mission. We start off at this all korean sports bar and then he tells me he wants to go to a club so I take him to the largest one in Daegu called Club Frog. It was ridiculously packed with foreigners, mainly military guys who that night were pissing me off to no avail. Who ends up walking into the club right when were on our way out but the girl from last night D.D. I really did not want to run into at this point so we exchanged pleasantries and we quickly left. After some soju David and I went back to the club to get Davids jacket before we headed back to my apartment. After an eventful trip back to my apartment to say the least we passed out for the night.

Saturday:

I woke up felling refreshed for Chuseok day after an interesting past two night. David and I spend the day relaxing watching Korean Trot (horrible Korean Karaoke) which is extremely popular on Chuseok and walking around town. That night we decide to have a group dinner at my buddy Eben house where we cooked good pasta and burritos (thank god I brought tortillas from the states). Chris, Eben my brother and myself all decided to then go downtown and I honestly don't have a good memory for the proceedings that occurred there. I do remember waking up and my apartment was a mess with a disturbing smell. I said a happy and sad goodbye to my brother and I cleaned up my place and just relaxed after a long yet amazing 2 day weekend. For everyones information my house is back in order after a couple hours of cleaning and that smell is gone thank god.