So these past couple of weeks have been a strange one. By now I've been in Korea about a month plus a few days and overall its been a roller coaster. About three weeks in I got really homesick. I hadn't talked to my parents in a while (my computer can't read any microphone so I have no way to talk to them) and my cousins were posting about how much fun they were having in LA. Now my cousins and I aren't just related, I'm like best friends with them. I get along really well with all of them (and I have a lot of cousins) and when I'm with them no matter what I'm doing I have so much fun, whether it's playing poker, going for unplanned midnight runs (that I thought was going to just be a nice walk/hike) then hitting up the 24 hour taco stand, or just chilling on the front porch. That being said it was really hard to go from being totally surrounded by so much love and family to having no one. Now that doesn't mean I don't have friends or people I care about here (because I do and they're amazing...hence why i had such a good weekend) but family is family. I also had a bad couple of days at school some of which is so ridiculous I have to write about it... but thats another post. On to this weekend.
So it is my friend Thildi's (who is one of my best friends here. I literally do everything with this girl) birthday on Monday and because she's so cool we decided to make a weekend of it. On Friday I meet up with Thildi, Trent, Lisa, and Jane to go get Shabu Shabu. We went to this really amazing restuarant called...haha i don't know, but the food was good and plentiful...it was really pretty and I don't know just really good (we had duck). Afterwards it was also Thildi's friend Hodge's birthday so we headed over to a bar called Rythm and Booze to watch him play. He's a really good musician! Some of us decided to play pool. None of us were very good but I did sink the 8 ball in...right before I scratched lol sorry Jane!
When we got back to our table Samir and Jake (more of my really awesome friends) had joined us with their friend Taegun. Haha now i have a slight crush on Taegun, he's very cute, speaks English really well and we have similar interest but alas he has a girlfriend...Oh well i hope I can meet up with him just to hang out because we really are very similar. Around 12:30 or 1 we all left R&B to go to the Muscle bar, which is called that because they serve muscles...not because there are muscle-y people there, which may be what I had thought ^^ .
We ordered some food and Soju cocktails and I got a lesson on Korean drinking culture. Now its sad to say but I hang out with mostly foreigners in my personal time. I get along really well with my co-teachers and I think of them as friends but I don't hang out with them outside of work at least not a lot. But last week I did a three day orientation where I meet the coolest person, named Jane. She is so nice and I'm really glad we're friends. She was born in America, grew up in Korea until she was 14 and then moved to New Zealand until she got married to a Korean she had meet there and moved back to Korea (fairly recently too). So shes very westernized but yet understands Korean culture.
So that night we had two Korean-Koreans with us, Jane and Taegun. Haha I only mention this because they were both able to explain some aspects of Korean culture I had never heard about or never applied to my daily life. Taegun is my age (3 months older) so in Korea he is the only Korean person I know that I can call Chinguk (which means friend) because we were born in the same year. That means we can use informal language with each other because we're technically equal. After talking with him for about an hour he asked my if he could call me Holly-ya which i guess is a term of friendship or endearment or signifies closeness...haha I'm not sure but i'll take it as a compliment since i think its a good thing. Also in Korea no one pours their own drinks, you have to wait for others to pour it for you. Which means you have to be very vigilant about whether your friends cups are empty or not. It was actually quite fun. If my cup was empty but no one noticed I would offer to pour them drinks and then they (they being taegun) would immediately take the pitcher from me and pour me some...haha! Also it was really interesting to see the interaction being Jane and Taegun. Shes a couple of years older then him so he automatically treats her with respect. Now I'm not sure if thats how it actually was because I don't speak Korean but his body language and what i heard when they were speaking English seems to suggest thats what was going on. Luckily Jane grew up in New Zealand so I don't at all feel awkward around her and can just treat her as a friend and not someone who is above me. If I know someone is older than me in Korea (korean-koreans) I sometimes feel uncomfortable because I know you're suppose to treat older people differently but I don't really understand how I should act with them and I'm afraid of some how insulting them. Luckily my co-teachers are all really understanding/accepting of the differences in our cultures and its never really been a problem. After that we basically all went home (around 230 am).
Saturday I got up around 8 am because I've been sick this past week and drinking late into the night and trying to talk in a loud bar (which really just lead to screaming) did not help my throat and ear problem. So i, feeling like crap and only having slept a couple of hours, ventured off to find an Nose, ears and Throat doctor. Because that was what Ally (my co-teacher) told me I needed to find. It wasn't very hard, clinics are EVERYwhere here. I went in showed them the paper Ally had written for me (it had my symptoms) they took me in looked at my throat, nose and ears (funny how that works ^^) told me I had an infection and sent me to the pharmacy with a prescription (there was a lot of bad English, misunderstandings and phone calls to my co-teacher to help translate but it all worked out). I went to the pharmacy next door picked up the load of medicine (in total both the doctor visit and medicine worked out to be around 6 or 7 dollars. ridic), went home took it, felt better immediate and took a two hour nap on my couch (I was planning on dancing that night and needed to prepare). When I woke up I showered and walked to Daiso (the discount store, that sells really high quality goods) which I love, its my favorite store in Korea (at least for household goods)...on a side note i love LOVE shopping in Korea its soo cheap (clothing, household items, cosmetics ect) and really high quality.
Afters I got ready to meet Raquel, Jen, Heather, Samir, and Jake at the bus stop to take to Hongdae. For those of you not in the know. Hongdae is basically party central in Seoul. Its home to Hongik University and its were everyone goes to drink/dance/socialize. Using the train it takes an hr and half to get there, using the Bus (this was my first time) it only took 30 mins (shorter than it takes to get to my school). Haha good to know. When we got to Hongdae we meet up with Thildi, Lisa, Jane, Trent and Thildi's other friends Andy and Brian and then we all headed to the Italian restuarant. I split a pizza and a pasta dish with Samir and they were both really good but doesn't top the tiny Italian resturant I ate at last weekend when I was once again in Hongdae...haha. Afterwards a couple of people peaced out and then the rest of us headed over to this hole in the wall called Vinyl. It serves mixed drinks/cocktails in a bag (like a large ziplockish type bag) for really cheap like 4,000 won cheap (about $3.50). It's too small to sit inside but we chilled out side with our drinks and watched Thildi try to complete her list.
So for Thildi's birthday I got her a present but because I'm so awesome and I know she would go for it, I (with the help of samir) wrote a list of 25 things she had to do before she could get her present from me.
Here is what is said in full:
It's ur 25th Birthday and I hope it goes well,
I got you a present but I'm not going to tell.
Here is a list of 25 things you have to do,
If you want your present...so happy birthday to you!
(haha not the most poetic thing I ever wrote but whatever)
1. Get 25 people to sing happy Birthday to you.
2. Find 2 girls to do the charlie's angel pose w/ you.
3. Get 2 guys to kiss you on the cheek
4. Have someone buy you a shot.
5. Mistake someone for a celeb and get their autograph.
6. Find someone to propose marriage to you.
7. Trade shoes with a random guy for 1 minute.
8. Tell someone you love them (Stranger)
9. Walk up to someone and pretend you know them.
10. Get 5 people to do the Kara butt dance.
11. Propose marriage to someone else.
12. Get a stranger to guess you age on the first try.
13. Get 5 people to make a fishy face for you.
14. Hug 10 random strangers.
15. Walk into a convenience store and ask where the condoms are.
16. Borrow someones hoodie and pretend you can fly
17. Walk into the boys bathroom in a busy bar
18. Kiss 5 boys on the cheek
19. Give your number to a bartender/waiter
20. Sing I'm a little teapot in the middle of the street
21. Borrow someone's cell phone
22. Get someone to pick you up and carry you one block.
23. Find someone else whose birthday is the same day.
24. Find 25 people to give you a 1,000 won and buy yourself a drink/present
25. Give holly a hug because she's so amazing...haha and Samir.
I admit some of the stuff we wrote is slightly ridiculous but it's really hard to think of 25 random things to make your friends do and Thildi went at the list like a champ. Needless to say hilariousness ensued. So Koreans are fairly conservative and any type of pda with someone is Taboo. It was really interesting to see the dynamic between her asking a westerner to kiss her on the cheek (super easy) and her asking a Korean guy (most refused until we really pushed them). My favorite of the night was probably her mistaking someone as a celebrity. She choose a guy who had his hair dyed like G-dragon (bleach blond). And he really thought she really thought he was G-dragon HAHAHA. We finally had Jane (our one Korean speaker) explain to him what was going on. You should have seen the look on his face when he realized she spoke korean. Priceless. Really, really priceless. :)
During the craziness of the list (which happened all night long) we headed over to a place that sold margaritas and then to a bar called the cave...which really looked like a cave. It was really cool, they played techno/trance and had a strobe lights and colored lights and things. Haha Andy bought a bottle of Tequlia and we all did shots (disgusting stuff by the way. Not a fan) and danced for an hour or two...or three. After that we headed out to another club. On the way Lisa got a call from her best friend (korean guy who's dating her sister) so I went with her to go get him and his 3 friends and bring them to where we were going. One guy was really, really, really plastered. And the other 3 were fine. All of them spoke almost perfect English (They went to like an international boarding high school or something). We got to the club (Ska 2) which played great music (though it was like only one cd on replay haha) and basically danced the night away. Thildi and Raquel left at 330ish because they wore heels and couldn't take the pain (bad judgement on their part since last time we went to Hongdae we all had the same problem) but the rest of us stayed at the club until morning (5:30 which is when the buses/subways start to run again). So korean clubs are interesting in that a)most korean can't dance. Like seriously seeing people with rythm is a rare thing and b) koreans girls are really shy about dancing with guys so even though there are other girls there, because they don't dance, the ratio between guys and girls is skewed in favor of the girls. Meaning if your a girl you can basically have your pick of any guy in the place. Like seriously you can find any type of guy there. So around 6 am Samir, Jake, Heather and Jennifer went home/elsewhere and Lisa and I got KFC with her guy friends. They paid for the food which was nice. I had a shrimp burger which i LOVE haha but not important. After that I caught the bus home (I fell asleep and woke up right before my stop) and finally fell asleep in my apartment around 7:30 am.
I set my alarm for 1 pm but because I was so tired I forgot to turn it on and got up and 2:08 pm instead. About twenty minutes later I got a text from Raquel to go shopping but in my own eloquent words, I told her "Girl, I may be awake but that doesn't mean i'm alive" Haha. after that I got a text from a girl named Katie who I meet at the Gepik orientation, asking if I wanted to do something and I told her I would be up for dinner in a couple of hours. I texted with Raquel for a bit (who ended up not going shopping) and we decided to get manicures before meeting katie for dinner. I sent out the word on facebook for anyone who wanted to join and went off to Flora's (the nail salon). I really liked the lady who did my nails and they only charge us 7,000 won, instead of 15,000 for being first time customers. We stopped at a cosmetic store so I could by some facewash since I left my two brand new bottles in the states and walked home by way of the park. Raquel had never been there before but I think I mentioned it in one of my earlier post. Most people call it central park and its this really big park near my house. During spring and summer they close off all the roads surrounding it making it pedestrian only and family's come there to enjoy the nice weather. You can rent, bikes, scooters, little kid cars and basically anything else. Its really peaceful and a nice stroll. At 6:30 we meet up with the rest of the people (Thildi, Lisa, Katie, and Taegun) and went and got Pho. I did the whole I'm thirsty, let me pour you a drink so you will pour me a drink dance again and enjoyed it just as much haha.
After dinner me, Lisa and Taegun wanted to get coffee so we headed over to my favorite coffee place "Coffee Belle." You can sit on the heated floor or on couches and each area is sectioned off so its fairly private. Plus you get free cake...like seriously, free cake. haha love! Anyways we hung out and chatted. Taegun is such a trip. He's my first Korean-Korean friend not associated with my school. I've only known him less than a week but we're already really good friends. He actually reminds me a lot of my friend Giorgio who is literally one of my most favorite people in the world. We were best friends while I lived in Germany, our personalities just clicked immediately. I couldn't not have fun when I was with him. (If you're reading this Giorgio, Congratulations!!! I'm sorry I couldn't come but I hope it was amazing and I will see you again!). So I've mentioned this earlier but Confucian ideology is an inherent part of Korean society which means Korea is VERY hierarchical. Elders are treated with such a degree of respect and all your interactions with others are based on where you stand in comparison to them. So while I was never raised with these cultural standards, because I live in Korea and because it's so entrenched in Korean society, I'm am very conscious of how I (should) interact with others (based mostly on age). Therefore its really nice to hang out with a Korean who's the same age because really those are the only people who you can be completely comfortable with. I don't have to worry about making stupid mistakes when I speak Korean with him because I can use the really REALLY informal language. It's really fun because he teaches me all the stuff you say only say to people you are close with...which is basically him and Lisa lol, she's the only other person of my friends who can speak Korean (now don't get crazy thoughts and think I speak korean because I can't, but I can read and write and I can understand very simple things associated with everyday life plus I know random phrases and words that I can just throw in to my conversations with Koreans just for fun.)
Anyways Lisa also has a language partner named Frodo, yes you read that right, the man is named Frodo hahaha, who came to meet us around midnight or so (we just sat around talking and playing games before he came). Haha hilariousness ensued. Frodo would teach Lisa something then i would yell it at Taegun in what would normally be a really disrespectful way (but it's ok since I'm only joking and because we're the same age) and he would say something back in the same tone of voice. Example Me: Yah, Mi-rae! Him: What?! Me:come here! him:Waeyo (why)?!. Haha oh yeah so apparently Taeguns real name is Mi-rae but he legally changed it when he was 18 (with his parents approval) because Mi-rae is a girls name. And Holly (Hah-Li) is apparently a boys name (there's a famous man in Korea with my name) so I took his old name as my new Korean name (which means future...haha I just like the way it sounds). I've been asked before if I have a Korean name and now i do ^^. Other things that happened that night was a arm wrestling contest (in which i beat Lisa, and frodo and taegun tied each other), a thumb wrestling contest (in which lisa beat me), hilarious drawing contest (in which I came out looking like a really ugly man with giant lips, and lisa became an old lady) and learning really inappropriate words. It started out with me and lisa making frodo and taegun say words that koreans always mispronounce rice(lice), sheet(shit), beach(well you get the picture) and then it went off from there when lisa pulled out the name George which korean boys always like to pick as their English name because it sounds like a really inappriopriate word in korean, which i then made them teach me and proceeded to repeat semi-loudly because it freaked the guys out (like seriously they tried to rip the paper from my hand so I couldn't repeat it, told me never to say that to any guy, and sshhed me every time i even started to say the first syllable.) We all peaced out around 1:20ish time (cause seriously what in the world were we doing up that late? we all had to get up around 6:30-7 the next day).
Future plans that came of sunday: Bungee jumping in Bundang. Taichi in central park (Taegun is like a Taichi master...or really good at taichi I'm not sure but he's going to a tournament for Kungfu and Taichi this weekend), Baseball games, drinking night with Lisa, Frodo and Taegun. Seriously he's my new best friend! Love it :)
haha edit: So that same night I wrote down a list of shows/movies he has to watch for us to continue being friends (we have the same taste in music/tv/movies like seriously the same favorite singers and tv shows). The list basically consisted of Glee (this isn't at all popular in korea. I don't think it's broadcasted here yet) and Enchanted (among other cartoons). I just got a text from him saying that he download episode 1-14 of Glee but doesn't have time and will watch it next week, but that hes planning on watching Enchanted tonight. Haha omg I told him he has to watch at least the first 30 minutes...I hope he doesn't hate me. I'm not sure a guy can truly appreciate the amazingness that is Enchanted but I guess we will see ^^.
Edit edit: he just told me he really likes the movie, then told me I need to watch Kung Fu Panda...Haha seen it buddy...
The next day (monday) seemed like it would be really nice out (since Sunday was beautiful). So I went to work in a light sweater and dress but it rained the whole day. So ran everywhere trying to avoid getting soaked but it didn't work and i got drenched (repeatedly). That night I again ventured out because me and a couple of girls (Thildi, Lisa, Raquel, Jennifer, heather and Kelly) have an ongoing (haha yesterday was the first day) dance night every monday, wherein we try to master Korean pop songs in order to win money at Prison bar the next time we go. I walked the entire way to Jennifers house in the rain because I didn't know how far it was and wasn't sure how to take a bus to her apartment (it's a 15 minute walk) and once again got soaked. For some reason this and the earlier walk in the rain didn't bother me and all and I quite enjoyed it...strange. Anyways we learned the first 15 seconds of the song, which took an hour...haha fail and then we left to go get food since it was Thildi's actual birthday. We ate Dak Galbi again and Jinah was nice enough to pay for everyone. And then we went and got coffee (again), where Jane paid for everyone (I didn't get anything because I was so full from dinner) and just sat until midnight or so.
This was such a long post and it was written over 4 days because I kept having to leave and do stuff and then add what I did to the post so things happened that may have changed my opinion or viewpoint later on in the post but I decided to keep it the way I originally wrote it, at the time I wrote it since it was my first impressions of what had happened/or of the people I met.
