I guess I haven't written in a while so I can do a quick catch up. Last weekend I went to a rock festival in Daejeon. It hadn't been my original plan, but was still tres awesome. I had intended to go to a jazz festival on Zara Island. I woke up early saturday morning and trekked across the city to the Dong Seoul bus terminal- only to find out that the buses were sold out until 530 PM. I knew that there was a smaller bus station not too far, so I headed over there. Directions on the website said to go to "Jamsil Station, Exit 9, and take bus 7000." Sounds easy enough, right? Well I get to Jamsil Station and there was NO exit 9. After trying every other exit, I realized that there was also no bus 7000 either. I was frustrated and exhausted after spending all day looking for a bus that didn't exist, so I headed home to make a new game plan. I never, ever thought I would say this- but I (just a little tiny bit) missed Penn Station and all it's English speaking glory.
I made some phone calls and decided to go to this rock festival in Daejeon instead. A girl that I went to college with lives in Daejeon. She sang a capella with my roomate, so I actually knew her quite well, in a stalker "i've-been-to-every-one-of-your-concerts" kind of way. What are the chances that someone else from your 3,000 person college lives in the same little country in East Asia, right? I met up with her and her friends and had an amaaaazing time. I wish i hung out with this girl for all of college! We listened to shitty rock and drank shitty Korean beer for hours, until the concert got shut down. It was supposed to go until 6 AM but something happened and they had to end it early. So, we went to Noribang! (Noribang=kharaoke room). I've actually been avoiding noribang since I've been here. You know.... the whole tone deaf thing. People have been shocked when I've told them I've made it over a month without going to noribang.. you know how asians are about their kharaoke. But as it turns out, it is SO much fun. They have the most ridiculous songs. After kharaoke, Megan and her friends were exhausted and ready for bed, so I met up with my friend Liza. Since neither Liza nor I live in Daejeon, we had crafted this master plan of staying up all night and taking the first train home in the morning. We hadn't factored in the fact that the concert would end about 6 hours early, so we spent the rest of the night sitting on the steps outside a 7-11, drinking beer, eating fried dumplings, and talking about life and love and everything in between (a drunk guy was passed out in between us, which sort of ruined the moment, but whatever). I finally made it onto the 6 AM train, in my sequined covered shirt surrounded by men and women in suits.
This week trickled by. Minutes felt like hours and the weather is starting to get colder. But, my kids did have a few good lines. The project we were doing started out with them naming things they want to change about themselves- it was a pretty depressing project that I wish would be eliminated from the curriculum. These kids are 8 years old! They shouldn't already want to be skinnier and richer. Anyway, they then had to pretend that they met a wizard who changed the thing about them that they wanted to change the most... and write him a thank you note. Here are two of my favorites:
Dear Wizard,
Thank you so much for making my dog a robot because robot makes food.
It does my homework. I go to school in the robot. It’s very fast.
Love,
Kevin
Dear Wizard,
Thank you so much for making me god because I want to make my world
and make my people and make many slaves.
Love,
Jin
Clever, right?
So finally Friday rolled around. I hadn't had a great week, so being the amazing friends they are, MJ and Johanna jumped on a bus after work to head to Seoul (they live out by the DMZ). We got ready and headed out to Hongdae. We met up with a bunch of friends and danced the night away. At around 4 am we decided to stuff someone's backpack with beers and snacks and head to a "luxury noribang" place. The outside legit looked like a palace. The inside was beautiful... there was a clear plexiglass floor and underneath there was a dollhouse world. It sounds weird now that I'm describing it, but I promise it was cool. The Koreans we were with (that we met on the street and spent the whole night hanging out with, obviously [???]) totally sang Korean Pop. They danced like K-Pop stars too. It was spectacular.
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| Here's Aaron and I singing a duet. He was Eminem and I was Dr. Dre. And yes, that's our friend Steve sleeping in the background. |
After noribang, I obviously invited all 8 people I was with to come sleep at my little studio apartment- I really am such a sucker when it comes to inviting people to stay with me- remember the Danish guy? I didnt even know him and I invited him to stay at my house for a night on his way to NYC. He stayed for a WEEK. I couldn't get him to leave. I wouldn't have even minded if he wasn't such a dousche bag about everything. He never even thanked my mom! Anyway, we all woke up on Saturday- everyone except MJ and Johanna groggily stumbled out and made their way home. The 3 of us spent the rest of the day snuggled up watching Summer Heights High, giggling about the night before and complaining about our hangovers.
Sunday, I did a 10K race here in Seoul! There were thousands of people, and everyone was wearing neon yellow shirts. It looked awesome, and the route was really cool.... it was along the river at sunset. Really gorgeous. I actually didn't even know I could finish at 10K but MJ and I ran it together.. we did it in an hour flat! I'm really proud of us.
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| Cool, eh? |
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| Some of my friends before the race! |
As for this week, halloween is coming up! We aren't allowed to really celebrate in school (apparently parents would complain.. how sad is that?) but we're going to do a little something at the end of the day on friday. Then I'll be heading to Sokcho to hike, go to the beach, and celebrate halloween with my friends!
Ta-ta for now!
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