Ho Barn 5

Ok so yesterday was such a long day I'm going to kill you readers with so much to read but here goes!

Had to go to school early at 9 am to go to immigration to get my ARC (alien registration card). I like being an alien to tell you the truth. It was weird going to all the whitey bars... but that is later in the story. Anyhow. It was very fast because we had an appointment. On the way there I saw this big group of old people with big sun hats on and yellow sashes like beauty queens that said who knows what. On the way back I saw this, what I thought was a wall, lined with all sorts of different old and colorful doors and as we drove by my jaw dropped as I looked up and up and up and realized the WHOLE building which was at least 7 stories high was completely covered in doors! I have NO IDEA where it was or how to find it again because the trip to the immigration office was a far one and I couldn't locate a street sign (a lot of streets don't have names here I think?? I dunno) In any case I want to track it down and take pcitures!

Edit: Just found this photo but still no indication of where it is!

Photo of the doors.

Also there was this motorcycle with what looked kinda like boxing gloves you put your hands in to get to the handles. That was weird. And a cop car with a banner light sign on the top. That's a smart idea though who knows what it was saying.

Anyhow fast forward to 12 hours later when I'm finally finishing up at school. One of the other coteachers that works the later shift too helped me get to the birthday dinner thank goodness, I had no idea where it was. Anyway so a huge group of us all went out for Shaboo Shaboo (my rough romanization) which is this Japanese thing. It kind of reminded me of fondue where you cook your own food only its a big soup pot with yummy broth. And you have all sorts of things that you have to throw in in order. First the veggies (all kinds of leafy greens and the thin and tall mushrooms) and then these fish cake things that looked like candy, all colorful and with designs on them in bright green and pink. You eat those for a while and then the meat, thinly sliced beef. Every just eats right out of the pot but also serves into little personal bowls too. When you are totally done eating that you add the noodles. At this point I was already pretty full! Then!!! The waitress comes and takes most of the stuff out and puts in this rice with other stuff and adds egg until it thinkens up and makes a kind of porridge. Most of the food was really good but by the time the porrige came I was really full and it smelled like dog food so I only tried a bit. On top of all that there was a side salad of slivers of cabbage covered with honey mustard sauce, kimchi of course, and a liquidy bowl with some other pickled kimchi-like stuff. My table was much smaller since most people squished ont he other one to be with the birthday girl. I talked to 2 of my Korean coteachers a bit and they thought it was very cute that I had taught myself Hangul before coming to Korean. They acted impressed but also giggled a lot. We talked about movies a bit and they gave me on suggestion (but my rental place didn't have it) "Classic". My part of the bill split evenly was about 8,000 won which freaked me out a bit because it was the most money I've spent on one thing so far until I pulled out my little conversion chart and realized it was only about 6 bucks! All that food! Amazing! Oh yea and it was sit on the floor with no shoes style!

Ok so then we hopped in a taxi (those of us that weren't falling asleep in our dinner) and went down to Hongdae which is like the super kind of hip hangout where a lot of expats like to go. We passed a place called "Boobi Boobi" which I thought was pretty funny until I saw the place we were going into was called "Ho Barn 4". Apparently there are just so many people the bars just repeat themselves several times downt he street. It was crazy just walking around because the streets are so flooded with people it kind of felt like when you go to an open air market only there were still cars driving so everyone would part as the cars and scooters crawled by. At Ho Barn I had one tiny drink and had oredered another but the waiter left without giving it to me, and another girl, and without giving one guy his change! But he got it.

So we just left and went to this other club called "500". That place was weird! Going in it felt like when you are waiting in line for Splash Mountain because of the walls. We had to take our shoes off and the whole place was made to look like a very tall cave and there were little caves alcoves along the side where you could sit on mats in a circle and drink and smoke hookah and eat this free popcorn that was kind of like kettle corn only bigger and rounder puffs. There were a few Korean guys wandering around looking odd with long dreads and one had a Bob Marley t-shirt. Hard to believe there are no drugs in Korean when you see a place like that with such hippie people! I ordered a Pina Colada and accidently got passed and took a sip of someones mudslide unknowingly. She wasn't even in our group but didn't seem to bothered. She just changed straws and the bar girl refilled her drink to the top. That was impressive. Americans are so squeemish about that kind of think but in Korea there is so much sharing anyway it doesn't really matter. There was weird tribal music playing and images being projected on the wall but no one was dancing save one Korean guy that was really drunk and one pretty funny expat that was friends with the people in my group who was king of jiggling to the music. I could have stayed and hung out there for a long time. The no shoes thing was so great! I wiggled my toes as I drank my pina colada and talked about Korean cultural differences. But the party people got bored and were falling asleep so on to the next bar!

Ok I don't remember the name of the next bar but there was all sorts of American rock music playing and lots of whiteys with Korean girlfriends. One such couple handed me a shot of Yaeger and my friends all insisted "take it take it! Don't worry there are no drugs in Korea!" so I did and gave them a cheers. He was cute and chatted me up but I knew something was up because he was with his girlfriend and along comes super ugly friend who didn't even TAKE a shot with us to try and hit on me. Eww. Pretty rude and kind of insulting (and I told him so at the end of the night. My exact words being "Next time pick someone in your friend's league. But thanks for the shot" which of course I woefully regret now, I am brutally honest with no filter when drunk). Annyway... I didn't let him buy my next drink though I could tell he was trying to. I don't like that I think its rude though some girls make it a sport getting free drinks. No thanks. So I bought my own White Russian and that was it for the night (for concerned parents reading this. I know my limits). So we danced and I talked to a few of my co-teacher's friends I had met at the first club and had a great time. The some Paper Planes came on at some point during the night and that was super exciting since I'm on a delayed kick with that song when most people are already sick of it! lol. Oh also like 4 of the friends of my coteachers I met were gay guys so that made me feel a little more at ease about the whole bi thing. I talked about it with a couple people and they weren't phased at all.

Left the club at about 4, was in bed by about 5.

In conclusion:
The clubs are so fun! The bathrooms are disgusting though and you pretty much have to bring your own toilet paper and sanitizer everywhere (no soap!). And drunk people in Korean are so much more funny and laid back. None of this macho bull crap you see downtown in the states on a friday night. Just a lot of stumbling and arms around eachother and the like. Oh yea and I didn't see a soul get carded! Wonderful. What cop would have time to raid clubs for underage drinkers in a city like this anyhow? I wonder the same about traffic. Could there be traffic cops here? What would they even do? They would just have to cause more traffic and more violators to pull someone over!


Today I do not think I'm doing anything. I was awaken, much to my dismay, by the realtor banging on my door at 12:30 so I had to quickly throw on some clothes and let her in to show the place. I'm doing the mellow yellow rule to save water so that was a little embarassing because the guy looking flushed the toilet! So I went for a walk after waking up a bit more and bought more pastries (that pastry shop is dangerously close and delicious!) rented another movie where the guy ( a different one then the night guy) put me in the system for my 3rd freaking time because he couldn't find me, and then bought another roll of Kim-bap to eat later. Oh and a chocolate covered green tea ice cream bar that was expensive by Korean standards but looked so good I couldn't resist. And soy sauce because the kimbap really needs it!

I swear I'll start eating healthier eventually. One guy said last night I'm in my honeymoon phase with Korea! That kind of burst my bubble a bit but whatever. If I am so be it! I am loving it and nothing bad can come from starting my life here off with a good attitude. Of course the days will fall off but that's life huh?

Off to eat and watch that Korean movie. They didn't have the 2 that were highly recommended to me on DVD (still lots of tapes here!) so I have no idea what I rented. The video guy helped me pick a comedy.