jethan's mini adventure...

deery-lou.
friday night we had a company dinner. we went to this fairly new restaurant in our building. their specialty: chicken. the chicken was served whole. it kind of looked as if it had been split open then topped with rice gravy that had jujubes, a potato, and ginseng root in it all roasted together. they also served up a huge pot of sticky rice gravy soup. two words: unbelievably delicious. the chicken was like butter. although i did have to add tons of salt to the srs to give it some flavor. jk had brought some alcohol from china. not sure where it got it from. i guess its china's version of soju. i had a very small amount. which turned out to be a good thing cuz it tasted like i was sucking down rubber alcohol. freakin nasty. the worst part was that i couldn't rid myself of the awful after taste. me thinks i can still taste it now. blaahh! dinner ended quite abruptly and the next thing i knew we were at the faux-german bar that has barrel booths you can sit at. there more beer and soju were order as well as two sidedishes of fruit. fruit seems to be the ultimate drinking snack. nothing like muching on some bananas and chasing it down with a gulp of beer. yummy. the ks were drinking machines. downing one drink after another. most likely due to the fact that the world cup game between korea and switzerland was going to be on at 4am. i was hoping they didn't plan on all of us staying up to watch us. some of us need lots of pretty sleep. with the drinking comes the problems. it never fails that once two of my co-teachers get wasted they start up with the flirting and crap. one keeps calling me "honey" while the other says how much she thinks of me. its fine for a few minutes but as it continues throughout the night it starts to make me feel uncomfortable. kind of like if i'm even remotelly nice back to them they'll think i'm interested. i'm not sure how many times i've already told them i'm not interested. obviously they're not catching on. i haven't actuallly played the g-card, but come on they've got to know. unless they are just kidding around but its so hard to tell. needless to say i decided to leave around 1am before things got too out of control. that was staying out much later than i had anticipated especially since i had an appointment at 9:30am on saturday.

after my early-ass saturday morning appointment i went back home and vegged out until 5:30pm. i was so tired. i went to bed at 2am and then was woken up at 4 something by cheering red-devil fans. [footnote: korea lost 2:0]. don't they know its 4 am. after my much needed rest and laziness i set off for seoul to meet up with jen and astrid. we spent the evening at mr. october's [i think thats the name], a hof bar, in the insadong area. on the menu: beer, fries, and chicken. life couldn't get much better. come to think of it, it was my third night in a row to have chicken and beer. on thursday i met up with young after taekwondo for spicy fried chicken and ice cold beers. anyway but to jen and astrid. it was great to just chill with the two of them. we've been talking about hanging out forever now and it finally happened. usually when i see them its in a big group so you don't get enough one on one time. those girls are rad so it was good to have some qt with them. we left around 11pm. i was hoping to catch the last train back to ansan. the first train to come was one for sanbon. i decided to jump on it just incase there wasn't a train to ansan. at least that way if it was the last, i would be somewhat closer to home. what a smart move on my part. when we got to sanbon i was told by the attendant that there were no more trains for the night. i figured the best thing to do would be take a cab. of course i've never taken a cab before by myself and my korean is god awful. it was a good thing i had my trusty map with me. now i could just point to the station and have them take me there. as i was coming the stairs a man starting talking to me. it sounded like he was saying ansan. i pulled out my map and pointed to handaeop station. he said mahnwon [$10] and motioned me to the cab. the next thing i knew i was in a cab with 3 koreans heading off for what i hoped to be handaeop station. as the cab speed down the highway i kept an eye out for road signs that said ansan. i wanted to make sure i was heading in the right direction. it funny cuz i thought i would have been more concerned about what was going on but i really wasn't. perhaps all the beer had kept me calm. once we dropped the girl off at songnoksu, the stop right before mine, i knew all was ok. as we were approaching handaeop the man next to me decided to chat me up in korean. i had to tell him "i don't know" and they all laughed. when the driver pulled over and said handaeop i looked around and nothing looked familiar. then i realized on was on the other side of the station. i paid then made my way home happily knowing i successful got myself there.

this morning i went into homemart, our corner store, to get some coffee in a plastic cup with a straw. i also wanted an onion but didn't want to buy a bunch so i asked him if i could buy one. he smiled and yes. then he said service, service. which meant he gave me the onion for free. how nice. before i left he told me my hair was beautiful. i laughed especially since i had literally just got out of bed and told him that my hair was all crazy. i tried to explain bedhead but i think it was lost on him. it feels like its going to be a hot one today. not sure what i'm going to do…

hello again. its midnight on sunday night. wanted to fill you in on how i spent my day. after a lazy start to my sunday i finally ventured out of the house around 5pm. decided to head into jungangdong to get some things and shop a bit. i hadn't been there in awhile. young and ben met me there. i did manage to find a watch store that sells the watch i want. didn't have a chance to try it on because they were closed. ahhh! at least now i know i don't have to trek all over seoul to find it. its right here in my backyard. oh the joy. all right bedtime.

be well...

countdown to sf: 1 month, 2 days