24 [or more like 23:40]

deery-lou.
a question for you to ponder. if you've been out all night, by the time 5:30 am rolls around do you consider it super late or super early? and is it too much to be eating tuna-chikay [tuna fish soup]? on friday night [yes, can you believe i went out on a friday] i met up with jenny in seoul. she had a 1:30 pm flight on saturday so we figured we'd have one last blowout before her departure for mother england. here's a timeline of how my very long friday went [please note that i've been sick all week and have slept very little]:

8:30 am — showered and dressed

9:00 am — went with jk to fill out paperwork for a form of all my departures while in korea. i need this for my taekwondo black belt test

10:45 am – left to catch bus 55 for tkd class

11:20 am - 12:20 pm — spent most of class practicing kicking. YES! almost a full hour of kicking, kicking, kicking. i did manage to get in 2 minutes of poomsae practice. after class jk stopped by with my form. i then turned in all my paper work and money to my master. it looks like i'm really going. eeeeek!

12:30 pm — jk took me to lunch at lotteria. i got the new paprika burger, whatever that meant. we took the food back to school and ate there. the burger was actually quite tastey.

1:15 pm - 6:25 pm — these hours were spent in class. most of the classes had a speech test. after the test i played games with the children. [which translates to ethan teacher too tired to teach]

6:30 pm - 7:15 pm — i actually had a break from teaching. i surfed the net. hehe

7:15 pm - 7:55 pm — my last class of the day. it seemed to last forever

7:57 pm — i rushed out of school to catch the bus home. i needed to meet jenny by 10 pm in hongdae which meant i needed to be on the subway by 9 pm. got home at 8:10 pm. quickly checked my emails which was a good thing since jenny said she was running late. the new time to meet, 10:30 pm. i spent way too much time fussing with my hair. i was having a bad hair night. it at that stage where its too thick and heavy for wax to straighten it and not long enough to start curly. i'm so tempted to shave it all off once again. i think i had so much product in it that it was becoming a creature of its own.

8:45 pm — figured if i didn't leave my apartment now i'd end up messing with my hair some more. knowing that enough is enough i headed out for the subway. it was freezing outside. i think the temp was -15 c. burrrr! [could jenny have picked a colder night to out]

9:00 pm — i arrived at the station. shortly thereafter my train arrived. good thing i didn't have to wait too long.

9: 05 pm - 10:05 pm — my train karma was with my tonight. at the first transfer the train inbound was already there. yeah!!! i didn't even check if it was the right one. i just jumped on. there was no way i was going to wait in the cold. my second transfer was inside so i didn't really worry much about having to wait. although i was surprised that i was going to be super early. sometimes it takes an hour and forty minutes to get out there. not tonight though.

10:05 pm — i arrived at hongik station with plenty of time to wait. and that i did. wait. wait. wait. i did venture out to the freezing cold to get a hot coffee in a can. thank gawd for that. the man at the store even remarked about how cold it was.

10:45 pm — miss jenny finally showed up. of course she was standing near exit 6 when we had agreed on exit 2. i gave her a bit of a hard time.

10:45 pm - 11:05 pm — venturing out into the cold, we set out for our first stop on the evening: maryjane's. i got a little lost. sometimes things look so different depending on the hour you are there. it took us a bit longer than expected to get there. i seriously was beginning to lose all feelings in my toes. not fun.

11:05 pm - 2 something am — these hours were spent drinking two pitchers of long island ice teas and 2 shots of tequila each. we did a little bit of dancing, too. at one point we got busted while talking about someone at the bar. hehe so bad. mj's has got to be my favorite place. two of the workers there kept bustin a move all night long.

2 something am — we decided to move on. back out into the cold we went although we only got as far as across the street. there was a electronic club that jenny wanted to check out. she asked the guy if she could come in for only 10 minutes. she told him that she always wanted to come in and that she's leaving on saturday for good. the doorman ended up calling the manager. jenny told her the same story and after agreeing to buy a drink each she let us in. there were a total of 5 people in the place. we bought the drink special. i have no idea what it was. all i remember is that it was super tall, super strong, and super pricey. we did some dancing then jenny wanted to move on. since we weren't finished our drinks we decided to smuggle them out. [hi, are we in high school or something]. it was now 3 something am.

3 something am — as we were exited the bar we spotted a korean punk rock boy. he had a pink mohawk. jenny ran up to him and his friend and started chatting away. next thing i know we were following them into the f&f club. we got in for free since jenny said we were with them. the music was most awesome. all 80's. the good new wave stuff. it felt like i was back at e.a. [electric avenue, a club i went to in high school]. there were a few koreans but it was mostly filled with foreigners. we spent the next wee hours dancing and dancing and dancing. i did request a song "how soon is now" but it never played. the dj did play "this charming man" though. perhaps he didn't have the other. our dance cards full we opted to cruise. it was now 4 something am.

4 something am - 5:30 am — miss jenny had the munchies. she wanted to go into the plastic tent restaurant to eat. granted at this time i had no concept of time. i sat there and looked around the crowded restaurant and thought how cool it was to see two mom type women out and about eating and drinking soju. then it dawn on me the time. i looked around again and couldn't believe all the people out eating and drinking still. after several failed attempts of jenny trying to order food. they didn't have what she wanted. she settled for tuna chikay. which is basically canned tuna fish in a spicy soup with dumplings, rice cakes, and kimchi. not a big fan of the tuna fish but there i was at 5 o'clock in the morning eating TUNA FISH!!! the transformation is complete. i am now officailly korean. we finished our meal then made our way back out into the cold.

5:30 am — too cold to walk to the subway station we hopped into a cab. where the cab dropped us off didn't quite look like the station entrance. instead it look like a side entrance and the door was still bolted. we walked out and went into a nearby hotel. we told the person there that it was so cold outside and if we could sit in the lobby. they said yes.

5:50 am — we left the hotel, went back down the non-subway station entrance only to find it still closed. we headed back out to the street and hailed a cab. this driver actually took us to the subway station. jenny decided that she was going to take the cab all the way home. she asked him to wait as she went down to get her stuff out of the locker. it took a bit to figure out how to get the stuff out. apparently not only do you have to pay to put you stuff in it but you have to pay again to unlock it. go figure. then we said our good byes. i headed to the train and jenny to the cab.

6:00 am - 7:oo am — it was another 3 trains to get home. i slept most of the way. the heated seats felt soooo good. i'm always surprised that i end up waking up one stop before my actual stop. i'm waiting for the day that i completely sleep through my stop.

7:20 am — i made it back to my apartment. i felt like a walking zombie. i was never so happy to see my bed. i slept until 1 pm. my entire day was spent in bed watching tv. i forgot how good china beach was. i watched 4 episodes. there's nothing better than marathon tv. i am a tv junky...

be well…