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.
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