Today is White Day in Korea, but for me it is sleep day! White Day is a Korean holiday very similar to Valentine’s Day in the U.S. but here it is celebrated differently. Valentine’s Day is for the woman to buy present for their man, and White Day is for the man to buy gifts for their woman. Not that this is relevant to me. I spent the entire day sleeping and watching TV online. I haven’t talked to Tia or Katie all day, which is a bit weird, but it’s probably because we are all so exhausted from yet another late night out in Seoul. We stayed in on Friday because we had big plans to go to a huge, luxurious spa all day Saturday, but ended up going shopping in Suwon instead. We really want to do more cultural activities, like visiting an old folk village that isn’t too far away, but the weather has been so crappy that we’ve decided to postpone the outdoor cultural trips until its warmer outside. Shopping in Suwon was great though; I bought some new jewelry, a dress, sweaters, and two new outrageous pairs of heels. I absolutely love shoe shopping in Korea because they have my size in everything (not the case for Katie and Tia) and the style is wild. I can find things here that I would never find, or have the chance to wear, in the US!
Last night was our friend Dave’s birthday, so we went up to Itaewom, in Seoul, to meet up with him and all of his friends to celebrate. Everyone met up at a huge Irish pub, which turned out to be an absolute blast! And we didn't have to pay for a drink all night ☺ A few guys were being nice and bought a round for Katie, Tia and I to welcome us to Korea, even though we’ve been here for a month now, but I wasn’t complaining! Dave had his entire hockey team with him. Most of them were from New Finland and had thick Canadian accents, which was pretty interesting to listen to. Early in the evening I saw a Korea girl dancing on a table with a crowd of creepy guys surrounding her, I took a few pictures because it is so rare that you see one of the Koreans getting all wild like that. They played a lot of great music, so there was a good amount of dancing going on at the pub. There were some girls that came up to us and start dancing on us to get us to dance, and a group of guys were in a line with their arms around each other’s necks doing some sort of line dance. I was telling Katie that I was experiencing some culture shock because I was surrounded by white people and hearing English everywhere, it was almost overwhelming. I'm not used to being somewhere and having the ability to talking to whomever I wanted, I didn't know what to do with myself- I was almost uncomfortable. I'm so curious to see how I will feel when I come back home. I doubt I will have a hard time though, because I will expect it, I definitely never expect to walk into a room full of Americans or Canadians when I am in Korea.
After a few hours of conversing, dancing and laughing at the Irish pub, Dave wanted to head to Hongdae to do to a club. We had to split up into a few cabs to get there and unfortunately I picked the wrong cab to get into. The cab driver must have hated us because after about 15 minutes of driving towards “Hongdae”, he pulled over, told us we were in Hongdae and to get out. The streets weren’t full of lights and people wondering around, so clearly we weren’t in Hongdae, but we didn't feel like trying to argue so we just paid him, got out and waited to find another cab. It was pretty ridiculous, but I guess that's just part of the experience.
We finally made it to the bar that Dave and his friends were at, but it wasn't anything I expected. I thought I was going to walk into a big club full of Koreans, bright lights, and loud music, but it was more like the downstairs of a Frat house- DChi’s more specifically. To my surprise, this bar turned out to be a great time!! We danced all night!! The best part of the night was at around 4:30am when I was just standing next to a few people talking when Andy came running up and screaming “HEEEEEEY!” I jumped into him to give him hug and grabbed Katie and Tia to show them who had arrived. It was incredibly random and exciting! Out of all of the places in Seoul he could be, we shows up at the same place we were!! He was out with his friends from Canada, two were visiting and two are teaching English in Seoul. We danced and hung out with them until the bouncers kicked us out when they were closing. We walked outside and it was light out- always a nice little surprise. We weren’t ready to go home yet, so Tia bought some rice wine and we continued to hangout in the big ally. Finally we decided to get into a cab and head to Gagnam to catch the bus to Dongtan, so we said our goodbyes to Andy and his friends drove away. We had a relaxed morning getting some American-style breakfast at a huge Paris Baguette (absolutely delicious and paid for by some random military man being nice) and sleeping on the bus ride home.
Andy’s night didn't turn out so smooth… him and his boys ended up getting into a fight in the street, Andy tried to break it up and got punched in the face by a middle-aged woman, then they all got picked up my the police and taken to the station. HAHAHA Somehow they got it all figured out and let go, but wild story to say the least. I mean, Andy will always remember his first time in jail was in Korea and his friends have a nice memory to take back with them after their visit. I almost wish I stuck around longer to see them get arrested.
Hmmm so this weekend was pretty successful, I guess. Another good time and some more great stories. Oh, and I was able to Skype with Ariel and Ashley today! I am pretty excited about that right now, too. Its hard being far away from my best friends, but getting to see and talk to Ashley and Ariel always makes me feel much better and puts me a great mood. I'm so glad I live in an age that has things like Skype to keep me connected!!
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