weekend update

deer-lou.

friday night: taekwondo class consisted of aerobic style tkd. i literally thought i was going to die. we had to do these fast kicks 30 times. everytime the sabomnim looked at me he would say "no dancing. one foot. one foot." thats what i thought i was doing but apparently it wasn't. deep down inside i probably wanted to dance. after our dancing we had to run back and forth in the dojang. first it was there and back. then it was twice. and then three times. next came the same thing but this time the sabomnim blow a whistle. the first time we heard the whistle we ran. the next time we had to stop. we did this 3 different times too. as if all that running wasn't enought our next challenge was to move sideways back and forth. we did this 5 times, then 7, and then 10. i'm sure the other four boys that were in class that night thought i wasn't going to last. little did they know that i was determines. there was no way i was going to let the little chubby boy at last me. the contest was on. luckily for me the chubby kid didn't last. the sabomnim ended up pulling him back and forth. after all that i was completely exhausted. i envisioned my friday night with a beer in hand but by the time i got home all i wanted to go was sleep and thats what i did.

saturday: got up early around 8am to be exact. i wanted to make sure i had enough time to prepare for MAGIC STRAIGHT. i got to HAIRPICASSO a little before 10am. the manager who spoke english wasn't there. instead i had a very hip "designer" greet me. she couldn't really speak english. this was definitely going to be an adventure. she looked at me and said "magic straight". i nodded. then she rambled off in korean. i just stood there smiling. she gave me a robe to put on and then pointed to the hair washing station. the time had come. after my hair was washed she directed me over to her station. once i was seated she asked if i'd like a "cola". i said ney [yes]. with that she went to the register got out some money and then left the shop. i didn't realize she had to go to the corner store for it. oops. when she came back the process started. and let me tell you it was a process. by this time another worker came in and she helped my "designer" goop up my hair. with the solution covering my head she proceeded to wrap my hair in rollers. if only you could have seen that. it was definitely a site. after that i got a plastic cap placed on my head and she rolled over the revolving dryer. i felt like i was in a sci-fi salon with this moving dryer. as i sat there bookless and bored the aroma of the solution which smelled like rotten eggs was making me nauseous. all i kept thinking was please don't get sick. i'm really sure how long i sat there under the revolving dryer. it felt like ages. when she returned to me she adjusted some rollers and did something else and then i was back under the dryer. i almost wanted to give up. a few more years passed and she washed out round one. back in the chair they applied a different solution which looked like paste. more rollers were put in my hair and back under the dryer again. after that round they washed it out, blew dried my hair and then put a flat iron to it. then came more paste and a long piece of plastic attached to a roller was put in my hair. more drying time too. at this point i was getting restless and completely bored. i looked over at the clock and it was almost 1pm. i had been here 3 hours and it was still going on. finally it was back to getting the paste washed out. they blow dried my hair again, busted out the flat iron, and put yet another solution on it. someone should have warned me that it would take so long. another washing and blow dry and finally i was done. woo. can you say cousin it. the "designer" looked at me and said all done. i was like…"umm i think it needs to get cut". its way too long. i pointed to a picture of how i wanted it styled and she said "no". ok, i thought. then she went over to the phone and called the manager. i had to speak with the manager about what i wanted done. the phone was pased around between me, the manager, and the designer for several minutes until it was decided what was going to be done. the manager told me that the designer had a style in mind and if i didn't like it i could come back on sunday to go with the shorter style. i agreed figuring how bad could it be. basically what i wanted was going to be done but just in a longer style. when she was all finished she had brushed my hair back. i told her i wanted it to come forward. so she changed it and cut the front a little more. the final cut from the front was actually good. it was layered and kind of staggered about. the back i wasn't so sure of. reason being…i had a MULLET. yes, i wanted a korean mullet style but i didn't realize how long it was. i figured i'd give a try so i went up to pay. of course this too was not an easy task. the amount ended up being more than the manager originally told me. i didn't have enough with me to pay the full amount.so it was back on the phone to converse with the manager. we went back and forth about the conversation we had a few days ago. i wasn't really mad i was just trying to figure out the price jump. the conversation ended with them taking what i had and she apologized for the miscommunication. i thanked her and told her not to worry. next time i know. she asked me to stop in on sunday and i told her i would. now it was time to go out with my korean mullet. when i got home i stood in front of the mirror just staring. was that really me. every five minutes i kept going to the mirror. thank god it was fixed. i couldn't really decide if i like it or not. i figured it would be best to wait a few days before i made any drastic decisions. besides i had to start getting ready to go out. my friend heather was having a birthday gathering out in hongdae. i was suppose to meet them at 7pm at a club and it was already 5:30pm. i still had to eat, dress, and mess with my hair.

i was more than halfway into my trip to hongdae when i realized that the directions were at home. at least i read them a few times and knew what station and exit to take. once there however, i wasn't sure where to go. i called ryan to see if he was going. luckily enough he was and he was only one stop away. i waited for him at the exit and together we went in search of the family mart which was our landmark.
we found the club "rolling bar" at least i think that was the name. there was some korean singer performing and on the poster it said 22,000 won. neither ryan or i wanted to pay especially since it was almost over. ryan called the number that cp gave up. it was some guy who was a friend of cp and working the event. he came out and told us to walk in since there was no one around collecting money anymore. score! after hearing two minutes of this performer i was thinking "if i had to pay for this i would have shot myself." listening to a korean rock singer belt out cover tunes is not my thing. it was definitely entertaining but the twenty minutes i was there was definitely enough. if you could have only seen the people. at one point a group of them had a mosh pit going. yes, a mosh pit. not really something i expected to see. but the crowd definitely seemed to enjoy. i don't know if these people would know good music if it came up and slapped them in the face. granted the korean songs he sang weren't bad but radiohead's "creep" and then greenday followed by a melody of five songs. oh boy. finally the twenty minutes of hell was over. i was so ready to drink some beer. seeing that we were a large group it took us awhile to find a bar where we could all sit. standing is not permitted in alot of bars. we ended up at tin pan which was kind of cool. they had a lot of old rock albums on the wall. in front of me was a poster of mr. big. remember them. i barely do. we stayed for a few rounds and then went to a different bar where the korean portion of the group were at. it was actually another cave bar. not as cool as the one in jungangdong. there we had more pitchers, some food, and soju cocktails. after a few hours there a large portion of the group took off for home. thats what we should have done but instead we ended up in a noraebong drinking more beer. there were about 15 of us there. i did meet this cool girl ida. she's teaching in a small town where she is one of two foreigners. we left the noraebang around 4 jumped in a cab where ryan and chris sang the whole way home. i got to bed around 5am just as dawn was approaching. this is weekend of 3 of late nights. i gotta stop.

sunday: i managed to get out of bed around noon. i quickly showered and went to hairpicasso. i decided last night that i needed the back to get trimmed. my mullet was too long. while i was out last night both heather and ryan said it looked good. that made me happy cuz i felt strange the whole night. kind of like it was me but not really me. especially when i would look into the mirror. anyway but to the salon. the manager, michelle, was there. i told her that i wanted the back trimmed up a little. while i was in the chair she asked if i had some time today. she wanted to shampoo and style my hair. i told her sure. we had a nice little chat. she agained apologized and i again thanked her for giving me a discount. she was talking about my hair and stuff but i really couldn't figure out what she was trying to say. it went something like this: "hair flat face not match". i think she meant i needed to put some product in it. hello. i realize that. i really don't want to wear my hair flat. there was also the "weak hair something something". i just sat and nodded. as she style my hair i'm sitting there thinking "oh, no you're not." she was totally poofing out my hair. when she asked if i liked it i lied and said yes. all i wanted to do was go home and sleep. i thanked her again and ended up buying some really expensive shampoo. it makes my hair soft plus after having all those treatments i figured i should wash it with something good. the rest of my day was spent watching breakfast club. plus a whole and i mean whole lot of nothing.

be well…

highlights from the weekend:
amy [this korean girl i met on saturday night] telling me i looked like brad pitt
michelle telling me i had beautiful eyes
hearing koreans sing sweet child of mine in noraebong

p.s.
a picture of me with magic straight is below. enjoy!