I hope everyone back home had a great Fourth of July weekend!!! I totally missed eating brats, being with friends, and watching the fireworks!!! Nothing much happened here. I think Canada Day was bigger than Independence Day! haha
This weekend was interesting, to say the least. It seems like my weekends have been getting more and more random. It was my friend, Yoomi's, birthday on Friday. We decided to celebrate a little early on Thursday. So we decided to go to a new bar that just opened up on the main strip in Hwajeong (which the foreign teachers have nicknamed Rodeo Drive...haha). It looked pretty classy on the outside, and being classy girls, we decided to give it a go. Well, we walk in and it is pretty darn classy...and we are the only people in there. The bartenders are all very good-looking ladies but it seemed like they weren't exactly expecting us. I guess if we're the first customers of the night...right? Well, after a couple drinks, we realize that there's a men's room...but no women's room. Hmmmmmmmm... Although we didn't straight-forwardly ask, we figured that we were in a "man's bar". Fabulous. Oh well, the bartenders were really nice and we were determined to have a great time, so we stuck around. Later on, people started arriving to the bar. Or should I say men started coming into the bar... A bunch of them new the manager of the bar and were hanging out with her at the other end of the bar. Well, us girls were having a blast and a half at the other end and the manager actually told us to be quiet! However, when midnight struck, we (being me, Yoomi, and two of the coolest bartenders ever) decided to take a drink and sing Happy Birthday...each in a different language. So, I sang in French, Yoomi sang in Japanese, one bartender (Bobae) sang in Italian, and the other bartender sang in Chinese. Oh what international fun!
On Saturday, I took our newest addition to YBM ECC: Hwajeong, Priscilla, to see some of the sights of Seoul. Well, being a veteran of only one month, I wasn't too sure of where to take her. I figured everyone, especially westerners, need to experience Itaewan at least once in their lives. That and she needed to buy a cell phone. You can really buy a cellphone anywhere, but Itaewan offers more of a selection of English, used, pay-as-you-go cell phones. I took her to the same place that I got my phone and the guy recognized me. I felt pretty darn special b/c we got semi-VIP service...aka we got served before other people. YES!
After getting her all set up with the phone, we decided to eat lunch at Gecco's (the same place good ol' Bobby and Tyler work. Unfortunately, they were not there). Well, we sit down and decide to order a round of beers while waiting for our food. And that's when this Korean guy wearing a green shirt that said "Free Hugs for Everyone" comes over and asks for a free hug. Weird, but whatever. Can't deny a free hug, right? After he left us, he kept waving over at us while playing pool. We thought it was really funny and tried to keep ignoring him. Well, we get our food and just as we're about to start eating, this other guy sits down at our table. Priscilla and I look at each other and are like, WTF? And he just starts talking to us about random things. I can tell he's really drunk. He seemed harmless enough, so we were just like, whatever, you can keep talking and we'll just keep eating. I find out he attended Arizona University and played golf for Arizona. He knows some Swedish golf players at the UofM and blah blah blah. The bar manager knew that he didn't come in with us and actually came over and told him to leave us alone b/c we were eating. Hell yeah bar manager! So leaves and we finish our meal in peace. Once the waitress takes away our plates, the Korean guy in the green shirt comes back and sits down with us. Ummm, okay? And once the Arizona guy saw that he came over and sat with us. Apparently, they knew each other kind of. The Korean guy had invited the Arizona guy into Gecco's after seeing him wandering outside earlier that day. So Priscilla and I just sat there while these two guys talked, which turned into an argument. And then the Arizona guy passed out...?!?! The bar manager came over again and was like, "You can't sleep here! Go home and go to sleep!" That didn't seem to work. After the bar manager woke him up three times, Arizona guy came back to life and got angry with us for not waking him up...which then sparked another argument:
AZ man: What the hell. Was I sleeping?
Priscilla: Yeah.
Me: Yeah, you were out for like five minutes.
KR man: Go home, you need to sleep.
AZ man: Why didn't you wake me? How can you let that guy come over here and wake me up?
KR man: Go home!
AZ man: What the hell. Whatever. Hey, do you know where I live? Hey, YOU, do you know where I live? Whatever. Hey, stop doing that. (KR man was throwing coasters at his head)
ME: Okay, looks like you guys have some business to take care of. We're gonna go to the bar and you guys can just stay here at the table.
And we get up and leave them. They stayed and continue to argue. And then a couple mins later, Korea man came over and started to apologize (a little too late there buddy) while the AZ man was getting kicked out of the bar.
Well, shortly after we left. We were meeting friends out for drinks in Sinchon but needed to get back to Hwajeong to change and freshen up. They weren't kidding when they said it gets hot and humid over here. And apparently it's not at it's worse yet!!! YIKES!
As we were strolling back to the subway station, we randomly went into a store that had nice purses and found eel skin wallets and purses! I was pretty excited! Eel skin is pretty unique and the wallets were fairly cheap too. I bought a wallet for my dad and it was approximately $19...nice! Plus, we got a "teacher's discount"...very nice!!
Okay, switching gears here...
My CNN 3 class with all the older students has been getting trickier and trickier. They're getting pretty sassy and have attitudes about work. They are just so lazy! I know they can do it but they decided to complain about it for 10 mins and then do the work for 5. I shouldn't really complain too much though b/c that's exactly what I did back in the day...haha. Oh karma... But I think they actually like me. They say I'm funny...I'm just not sure if I'm funny in a good way or a bad way. haha! Oh and one girl last night asked me if I had surgery on my eyes. I was like, what? Apparently, she thought the creases in my eyes were from plastic surgery! I said no and then she asked me if I used tape...?? Not sure how that works but no. She just kept staring at me...and then I just told her to finish her work. Guess I never really thought about my creases in my eyes.
Oh and I think I've figured out the secret as to how Koreans stay so skinny even though they eat a lot and often...
1) They eat rice and kimchi everyday for breakfast. and lunch. and dinner.
2) To transfer from one subway line to another can be like, 3 freakin' miles...up and down stairs... I know my calves have gotten a pretty good work out.
3) The humidity is ridiculous. It's like walking around a sauna in a rubber suit... So I'm convinced they sweat their pounds off! Can't wait til August when it gets REALLY bad. I'll probably lose 50 lbs just walking from my apartment to work...which is right next door.
