Learning every step.

Hello all you random followers! There wasn't an update last weekend because I felt that there was nothing to really update about. However, upon further inspection, it seems as though there is only only thing to comment about: Halloween. The reason for this is two-fold: 1) I didn't do anything on Saturday and Sunday and 2) I was (and am) in dire need of funds.

I had originally planned on doing nothing at all for Halloween seeing as I only had $70 to last me 10 days. However, I managed to get a pay advance from my school which netted me an extra $100 to piss away. So, with my newly received funds in my pocket, I finished up work, we went out for dinner, and then split into separate parties in order to get "prepared". Now, because I hadn't originally planned to meander around on this particular day, I had no costume in order to robe myself in. So, I merely changed my sweater and ventured out.

The party consisted of Rosa, Kelly, Michelle, Chris (semi-new teacher who has a different teaching schedule than us), myself, and a new teacher: Janice. Janice is from BC (although where exactly still confuses me), and she has fit snuggle into our group of social misfits and psychonauts. So we all ventured out to Hungdae in order to meet up with our friend Tracey who was supposedly waiting for us. Long story short, Tracy was at a bar in Itaewon, even though she told us she was at the same bar in Hungdae (the Rocky Mountain Tavern). So we went to GoGo's again (which was packed) and then to Club FF downstairs (which smelled gross).

One thing about Korean Halloween is that the nationals don't really celebrate it, but the ex-pats love it. So I was expecting to see a lot of wicked costumes walking around Hungdae...but instead saw a bunch of stupid idiots with the lamest costumes known to man. A LOT of baseball players and nothing really memorable. I was sorely disappointed and really pissed at myself for not compiling everything needed for a Rorschach costume. all in all it was a pretty lame Halloween.

So me and my trusty teaching crew plucked along for another week and the following weekend looked like it was going to be more of the same: poverty induced boredom.

Friday was just that: everyone went out for food, but I decided to play it safe, stay in, and watch the Naruto Shippuden episodes that I had downloaded. I forgot how much I loved that show and it's still really growing on me. For all of you that are scoffing: shut up and watch it. It's really cool for anime and not really as kiddie as you may originally anticipate. But! Alas, I digress. There was another reason that I wanted to stay in and do nothing: Hangul lessons.

I had been meaning to go along with Kelly to Korean lessons ever since the first weekend that i arrived in Korea, but I always stayed out too late on Friday and slept through the lessons on Saturday. Now, it's not as if the lessons were at 11 or 1 or something but instead, they start at 3:00 on Saturday. I am a pathetic human who needs to prioritize.

Anyways, I managed to wake up at a semi-respectable time on Saturday, got ready and then went out to Hangul lessons. They are all the way near the Women's College (which is about a 40 minute subway ride) and they are free, with the exception of a 1000 won donation. I had to start in the basic first level seeing as I only have a VERY base knowledge of the Korean alphabet (thanks to Andrew!) and have even managed to somehow forget a lot of what he tried to teach me. So I was separated from my crew, went into my class and started my lessons.

The teacher was named Jun and his English wasn't the best, but he was really nice and tried to make some jokes (even though he refrained a lot saying how he wishes there were women in his class because guys don't laugh at his jokes). The first class was only focused on learning about the vowels and a few of the consonants in Hangul, so I only learned about 17 letters, but that's fine. In the Korean alphabet, there are only 10 vowels and 14 consonants, with some of them being able to double up. It's really confusing when you first look at it, but really easy to grasp the concept of. The other cool thing is that there isn't really any accent to the Korean language, so all the phrases are just said flat. It's pretty easy to grasp and I'm just wondering how hard of a time I'll have once I move up to level 1 which is about saying phrases.

After Korean lessons I met up with everyone again and met two of the guys who were in level 1 with Kelly and Janice: Doug and Chris. Doug is from Austin, Texas and is really spastic at times and really random. Kinda seems like he's on coke or something, but a really cool guy overall. Chris is his buddy who is travelling around taking a break from life. I forget where Chris is from, but he was really chilled out and had a great sense of humour. After we left Korean lessons, I was going to head home and have another quiet night, but everyone managed to convince me to come out and enjoy the Saturday night.

There was a party being thrown for foreigners for this site called theyeogio.com (yeogio meas "stop here" and you use it when you want to talk to a waiter, waitress, get a cab drive to stop, etc) so we missioned all the way over to Apgujeong subway station in order to find it. Apgujeong is kind of a shopping area and place where a lot of bars are located; basically a really cool place to hang out no matter what time of day you visit it.

We had a hell of a time locating the venue and by the time we reached it, we were all starving. We found this chicken joint with a name that escapes me right now and headed in for some grub. What no one told us though was they half of their menu was just for decoration and we could only order plates of chicken. after some hilarious arguments by Doug and the waiter we ordered a bunch of beer and three plates of chicken: one was chicken fingers breaded in rice crispies, one were these awesomely spicy wings and the last was this chicken that looked like it had been hacked with a machete and boiled. The first one was really, really tasty and came with some dipping sauces which were a great comfort to Janice and me who love our sauces. The second one ruined everyone except for Michelle and I who can handle obscene amounts of heat. The third one looked gross but tasted pretty good, even though Doug complained that it looked like human. After our dinner debacle, we wandered over to the party where the real fun began.

On the Facebook invite we were informed that there would be a 5000 won cover and there would be drinks and snacks until midnight when we could go our separate ways and drink some more. It turns out that all you had to do was sign a piece of paper with some basic information on it (name, e-mail, address, phone number, and the ilk) and you were given four free beer tickets. So we wandered in, grabbed some beer and snacks and settled in for a fun night.

The other cool thing about this party is that it was an open mic night too, so a bunch of musicians were signed up and played (including Doug who did a lot of drunken covers where he forgot the words and I cringed in embarrassment). One of the guys was a wicked guitarist from Wales who had amazing technique and didn't sing at all: really melodic and frantic songs. I ended up talking to him and his friends a lot and hopefully we'll be able to meet up for some jamming soon (once my dreadnought's fixed...fuck). Apart from the cool music and rad people I met, they also had a caricature artist and fortune tellers on site! So I managed to get my fortune read twice (I need to work on my career paths more and gather more information before I try anything...crazy lunatics) and a hilarious caricature of myself holding a spear and dressed like a baby (which I think I left at the party). Overall, the party was wicked and I met some really awesome people.

...Then Michelle found me and told me we were going to a Jazz bar; this is where is starts to get kinda fucked. It turns out she has met this Second Lieutenant in the American army who was going to a jazz bar with his friends and wanted her to tag along. So we left the party and headed out. Here's the short form of what happened:

- The jazz bar turned out to be a house club/wine bar where movie stars go.
- We ended up ordering over 300 000 won worth of wine (two bottles).
- His friends turned out to be other officers and a Lieutenant Colonel (I was informed that this was the third highest position in the army).
- There was also this cool German woman named Verlena who had a sweet accent.
- I learned A LOT about the army, including the acronyms.
- Dan (Second Lieutenant) ended up buying me a $65 Dominican cigar because there were some at the party and I mentioned to Michelle that I liked cigars.

After we left the bar, Michelle and I bid goodnight to the officers and I had to wrap my head around what the hell just happened.

Today I woke up late and am bumming around at home doing nothing. The majority of my friends all went out to Seoul National Park and are going to the horse races where there is a special foreigner section where the minimum bet is 100 won. Some days I just wish I woke up on time.