Monday, July 6, 2009

1. Ahoy Matey!

23^C
The sun is shining and a cool breeze is blowing through Sangdong..
Well it’s certainly been a while hasn’t it.. It’s July already! I guess I’ve just been enjoying life too much to write a lot on this. The last weekend that I left you (12/13/14 June) I went to Hongdae, Seoul with the boys from Yeongwol. Much of that was a blur so that’s what got me into the not writing blog entries habit. We basically grouped up and got a backpacker hostel dorm room and then we went and explored the area. Hongik University and about three others are located in very close vicinity to the pubs and clubs we went to. There was a lot of drinking and we ended both nights with some sweet hookah smoke in cushiony basement style venues. All in all it was a fantastic weekend! The Hostel:

We also found an Aussie Bar in Itaewon called Tony's. A quaint little place that sells anything from TimTams to Lamb Chops. Left to right: Mark, Mason, Kurt, Blake.



19/20/21 June <- I don’t quite remember what happened this weekend. I think we spent the weekend in Wonju, but we were supposed to go camping. It started raining and then that was the end of that idea.

The weekend of 26/27/28 June I went to Seoul again to do some shopping. The only place in Kroea that holds anything my size is Itaewon; and that’s only because of the large US military base nearby. So we spent Saturday in Itaewon and we met up with Rach and Steve and had a beer with them. Then we found a really laid back reggae/jazz/Rasta bar, which also happened to be in a basement. It played great soothing music and most things fit the theme of the place. It was called Nana I think (on a side street opposite MacDonalds) and they had some pretty cheap drinks too. It was the kind of place that you pass by.. not until you really look down the stairs and go into the bar itself, do you realize how great the place really is.

Last weekend 3/4/5 July was Kurt’s last weekend here; he leaves for Australia tomorrow. So we’ve been having quite a few farewells for him lately. So on Friday night we had a big bash in one of the bars here, before going to sing our hearts out at the Norebang. After this we went to Steve’s place to have a few last beers and some good conversation while playing a combination of ‘Ring of Fire’ and ‘Never ever have I ever’. On Saturday morning I left for Wonju where I met up with Cassie and we explored the better side of Wonju for a while. It was the 4th of July so she wanted to do something.. we ended up having Vietnamese food that totally ROCKED, and some Vietnamese beer called Saigon that tasted like it was made from coconuts! The plan was to go out and have a night on the town, but we were both so tired that we decided to have a quite one instead (well, I was more hung-over than anything else). Sunday morning we went to E-Mart in Wonju.. this is the location of the closest Macca’s to me. I had my McChicken Meal and then was back off to Yeongwol for Kurts final Sunday Arvo Sesh (Sunday afternoon drinking session for all you yanks). I got to Yeongwol at 315pm and we decided to have a few beers in the sun by 330pm. One of the great things about Korea is the legality of drink alcohol in public, so we went to the nearest Family Mart and got a few beers and roasted in the hot sun for a while.

I can tell that Summer has arrived again due to the afternoon rains. It’s not as bad as it was when I first got here, but it’s getting there. Nearly every afternoon it starts to rain, making everything muggy and wet just before the sun goes down. Luckily for us, it didn’t rain on Sunday. So we moved on to a fried chicken and beer place that also has outdoor seating and we downed a couple more over there. After this we got the tinkling for some Soju so we headed to Sokori; a bar that sells flavoured soju in teapots. Mason and Marky wanted to walk so we let them while Kurt and I caught a cab (yeah we’re lazy, we know it). As you know, I’ve discovered a Chinese soju with an alcohol rating of 56%, so I quickly made friends with the barman and in my broken Konglish I asked him to add my bottle of Evil to his syrup in a teapot, keep it a secret, bring it out on the second round, and we’ll pay the same price as a regular soju teapot. We got a couple of normal ones to start off with and by the time the second round came around the boys only slightly noticed it. “Wow, seems like he put more Soju in this batch, aye”, said the Canadian. I think I’ve taken soju pushing to a whole new level here, and when the boys learnt of my deceit they applauded my ingenuity and there were hi-fives all around.


Random Korean T-shirt. See, over here they don't know what the words mean, but they print them according to how good they look on the T-shirt. As I was getting off a train I spotted this one and asked if I could take a pic..


The good ole Family Mart-uh. That guy in the red is Kent and his wife next to him is Gigi from China.. Kent is in his fifth year in Yeongwol..

Here are a couple of videos I took during the surprisingly short month of June.
I live in the buildings you can see in the pic (not the one with the flags). The sound you hear in the background is the river..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEWcmuhtaxA

And I have the pleasure of playing around with these little munchkins every Thursday Morning, they're my Kindy class..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOlMzgM6bPQ