and so begins a long entry...don't feel the need to read it all, but brownie points for those who do ^__^
DAY 2: SAT APR 11/09
REUNION
Nick and I had the most hilarious conversation on the phone when he got off the bus in Seoul. He arrived around 1am and couldn't find the subway station. So I heard him talking to people in Korean and when he finally did find it, it was closed :( He decided to take a taxi and I met him at Anguk stn. It was so awesome to see him again. This is yet another instance where Korea brings people together. I hardly see Nick in Toronto, if at all, and now we can hang out all weekend! SCORE! Last time Jos and I came to Korea, we hung out with our cousin Janelle more frequently than back home too.
So we walked back to the guest house and drank some HITE beer, then headed out to meet his friend Matt in Hongdae. We stumbled across some crazy graffiti throughout the night. Of course, no one knew where Club Saab was - which was our destination. So we spent a lot of time walking around and finally we found it. Matt hooked us up, so we didn't have to pay cover. Shweet!
OH TEQUILA...
All I can say is that there weren't a whole lot of girls there hahaa. Nick bought us some drinks and he caught up with Matt. They introduced me to their other friends, Aaron and some other guys. I guess I can say that I danced the night away?! I was having a great time and everyone was dancing. I was never able to escape the dance floor as I kept being pulled back on...probably because there weren't too many other girls haha. Then came the tequila shots...dot dot dot. Let's just say that when I woke up this morning I was greeted by sunshine and a wicked headache. Sadly, I could not find the aleve/advil that I thought I brought with me. Anyway, back to it...at some point we moved to a bar and Nick played darts while I talked with some other people. We also took pics of the graffiti inside. I believe we were out past 5am haha - the sun was coming up. Nick told me that several guys approached him checking to see if I was his girlfriend and he assured them we were just friends. Haha good times, good times.
THE RISE OF THE DAWN & INSADONG
The next morning, I woke about 10:30amish and woke Nick up around 11 something or other. I went to the store to buy to cans of the Dawn, which is like a hangover drink. I also ordered delivery of black noodles and dumplings for us, as it was around lunch time. I asked about the English tours for Chandeokgung Palace, as Nick has never been there and we planned to go a little later. We decided to go to Insadong first. The weather is beautiful! We were walking in the right direction but then we took some detours ahhaa...we ended up asking different people for directions and they all gave us totally opposite directions ahhaa
We finally arrived and we shopped around. Nick bought a paintbrush and postcards. I tried to stop myself from spending all my money... good thing I divide my money into daily budgets! We took some fun pictures while we were there (with funky shades and cut out magazine ads where you put your face in) and wrote on the walls like everyone else did. I was able to go back to Nani Show, which is a jewellery store and the woman running it remembered me. Sunny says hi, Jos. She gave me good discounts and a few freebie buttons yea yea. Because I'm not sure what my schedule is like, I didn't make any concrete plans with her. If we don't hang out this time, it will be next time for sure. She was quite smitten with Nickster and would not believe me that he is just my friend. kekeke...what the heck ppl, we're just friends! She was totally teasing us and asked him to teach her English.
NICK THE CELEBRITY/WANGJA
Nick is like a celebrity/wangja (prince) for the Korean girls ahaha... So many of them take pictures of him. He's supertall and stands out, so girls are always turning their heads. There was this one hilarious moment when a group of school girls asked him to take a picture and he was getting ready to take it for them and they were like no, we want to take it with you. He's like "alright" and he lifted his arms and they seriously mobbed him. They had their arms around him and were posing. I couldn't stop laughing and one of the girls dragged me into the pic too. It never occured to me to use my camera too, so after we had walked away, I walked back and asked them if I could take another one. One girl thought I meant just her and Nick and she was ecstatic and then she realized group pic...I think she was a tad disappointed..lol. They were so happy to take another photo with him.
When we left that shopping centre, we witnessed a live dance performance for dancecal (like a dance/musical?) Wickedawesome b-boys! After that, we ran into Nick's friend SHR. We walked with her and her two friends. They are extremely nice and easy to talk to. While we standing there talking some little girls came by and asked Nick for his autograph! As he was signing people walking by kept looking at him like they were trying to figure out which celebrity he was! AHAHAHAHA... the rest of us were also asked for autographs, but Nick's signing caught the most attention.
ITAEWON
We went with SHR and her friends to Itaewon, because one of them left something at a restaurant and because Nick wanted to buy shoes. We made plans to see SHR later on and I will also meet up with her on Thursday. They went back and Nick and I went shopping for his shoes. We tried Athlete's Foot - their equivalent to Athlete's World and they didn't have his size. I suggested we ask them to check at one of their other stores, but he said it was fine. We left the store and within 10 steps, we see the Reebok store and they happened to have the size he wanted. SCORE! So Nick has new shoes and he bought a new shirt too. We ran into a couple that Nick knows and we chatted on our way to Anguk.
SURROUNDED BY POLICE
We went back to the guest house to drop some stuff and I made a few phone calls. I'll be seeing my friend Robin Thursday night and he will be bringing his friend Gus, who I met last time with Jos. Nickster and I headed to Myeongdong for food and a bit of shopping. As soon as we arrived we saw a crazy amount of police everywhere. They looked ready for a riot! Nick noticed that some of them looked even younger than us. There was some form of demonstration going on and people were sitting with signs and then began to sing a song in Korean. They really inconvenienced everyone because there was no room to walk and we were all squished into a walking moshpit. Luckily we got out of it without too much trouble.
We decided to do seafood korean bbq. Nick had a great idea that we should both eat something we haven't had before. I ate some new things...anemone I think and some other things I'm not sure of...as well as shrimps, mussels, etc etc. The food was alright, not the best..but then the seafood pancake came...oh my gosh...so goood! We had soju and makkoli as well...we quickly fell under the spell...again...haha. Nick schooled me in some Korean and also taught me two drinking games which we played. I won, but we both drank. I'll teach you guys when I come back ahah. Good times.
The Korean woman who owns the restaurant was talking to me in Korean. She asked me where I was from and then told me that I look Korean and that I'm beautiful. I laughed and waved my hand saying no, but thanked her and she smiled. We walked around for a bit, but the store I wanted to go to was already closed so I'll have to go back. I decided not to go out tonight as I'm still not feeling all that ready to party again. I told Nick to go on without me and I wandered around for a bit before going back to Beewon guest house. I crashed...so tired...I woke up around 2amish..watched a bit of TV and then tried to phone home, but the card didn't work...so I'll have to try again another day. I came downstairs to write the travel journal, but I'm gonna go back to sleep.
Good night. Pls forgive misspellings and bad grammar...I'm still drowsy...
-Sam
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment