Up all Night, Sleep all Day.

My first weekend in Korea.

On Friday night, just like on Wednesday night, I decided to hit up Tombstone; the foreigner bar. I got there at about 10pm, I think. I sat down at the bar, ordered a draft for 2,700 won, and started talking to the same people that were there on Wednesday. Everyone is super friends, and remembered by name; just like on Cheers. Seriously. It's my new home. I even slept there for a little while!

The same guy that I'd met on my way to Tombstone on Wednesday night was there, and so were a lot of other people. I won't go into too much detail about everyone that I talked to and drank with, but just about everyone that I met was a lot of fun. Even the crazy people who've been in Korea for waaay too long. It was a great night of woman, wine and song. Specifically, a ton of fun people, a lot of cheap beer and yours truly taking on both the duties of MP3 DJ and bartender by 4am. Actually, it was just a "help yourself" type deal. By that time there weren't so many people there. There were only half about half a dozen of us and I'd already had a small nap on one of the chairs. We played a bit of pool and I proved to Jo, the girl from Ireland, just how much of a pro I am a foosball. She beat me by a score of 10-1 in the first game... In fact, I think it was 9-0 at before I finally scored. The table was lopsided. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Jo's also in Hapkido, which I think is similar to the Aikido that I was taking in Canada. She wants me to join with her, and I probably will. I think it'll be fun! We kept dancing and trying to beat each other up with our fighting skills until about 9am, when I decided that I wanted to go to bed. Jo was talking to me about going to Busan on Saturday, but I was to tired, etc., to really know what she was talking about, so I just went home. No trip to Busan for me on Saturday!

Saturday night was more of the same, except with more foreign foreigners...if that makes sence! I got to the bar at about 10pm agian, but it was dead. I just sat at the bar and BSed with the bartenders, who are my new friends. At least, they are as far as I'm concerned! By midnight, it started picking up. A few guys came in and I was curious where they were all from, so I started talking to them over vodka, beer and pool. It turns out that two of them were university students. Ryse, is a teacher from New Zealand, while Gul is a student from Pakistan and Golden(?) is a student from Mongolia. Later on, four Russan ship-workers, Ryse's girl-friend, Diana(just friend), from Korea and another Canadian teacher joined up in our little group. Everyone speaks decent English. English really is the international language! I'm pretty lucky to have it as my first language.

Later on, Gul, Golden, Diana and myself spit off and got into a pretty interesting religious, and then world history, conversation. We had a pretty good mix of cultures and religions going on. Puk is from Pakistan and is a Muslim, speaking a half a dozen languages. Korean was not one of them. Golden is from Mongolia and lived in Turkey for a couple of years and I think he was Buddist, speaking an equal impressive amount of languages. Korean was not one of them. Diana is Korean of course, and is an athiest, speaking at least Konglish and Korean. I don't know if she speaks anything else. Konglish is chopply Asian English. I am Canadian, am Christian, and speak English. I have a vague knowledge of a few other languages. Korean is not one of them. Other than Spanish, I wouldn't stand a chance ordering more than a plate of french fries in any of those languages.

Apparently, according to Diana, I have good map-drawing abilities and know a lot about the populations of different cities. I rule.

After learning all about Mongolian and Turkish history, Puk and I decided that it was time for us to get some fried chicken. We tried three difference resturants until we found one that had fried chicken at whatever time it was in the morning. Even when you order fried chicken in Korea, you get a lot of food. They serves us salad and chucks of garlic before the chicken. After we'd finished it, they gave us more salad. Score! When the chicken arrived, it was awesome. That was actually my first resturant experience in Korea, and I definetely liked it.

After our fried chicken, we headed home. Since Gul lives in the university dorms, he took me on a quick walking tour of it. It's probably the cleanest part of Korea that I've seen so far. Puk took off to his dorm, and I walked home... the entire three blocks. It's nice living by the university and in a country with bars that stay open until it's light out.