It is October 2nd and I've officially been working here for a month!!!! It fgeels like ages and ages longer and also like no time has gone by at all to be honest. Although I'm still commited to getting out there and seeing all that this awsome city has to offer I've been taking it kinda slow the past week. LOL! Not! Last Friday I went out on the town for my friend Andrews' 25th birthday. We went to this part of town in the north west of the city that is absolutely beautiful! It's called Gwanghwamun. It has a newly re-discovered and highly renovated river that runs through the centre of the city. We found the fancy version of Seouls attempt at a French cafe (Paris Baguette) called Paris Croissant LOLLLLLL!!!! The food and ambiance was super fancy and delicious and the wine was great! The good thing about drinking wine with Koreans is that they don't like it very much, so andrew and I pretty much finished off the entire bottle!!! We all then strolled along the river before trecking home.
Later that week we met up once again to go to a wine tasting party! It was at an English Hagwon near the Gangnam area of Seoul (much closer to me YAY!). The point of this party was to mingle in English ONLY and to learn how to taste and drink wine properly with the help of a somalier. They all failed miserably!!!!!! First of all, they were serving WAYYYYYYYYYY too much to each person for a tasting and secondly everyone there seemed to be more interested in trying to get drunk on wine rather than actually tasting the wine itself which was not only slightly rediculous but also hillarious to watch people chugging down these fine wines then headding back to the table for more. ....Unfortunately me cell phone camera wont let me download the shots!
Feeling slightly happy we decfided to continue the party and promptly went out to another bar for chicken and SOJU type daqueries (YUM!). Andrew and i attempted to teach the rest of the party how to play some choice North American drinking games (everyone just does shots there so its quite easy) We also tried some Korean drinking games, but i find that they are slightly less hilarious.
Feeling really happy, we decided to keep the party going and go SINGING!!!!!! I had my first official NORAE BANG (Karaoke) experience in Seoul!!!! It was hilarious! We went to this really posh club with private rooms filled with a large screen TV and sound system and scads of pillows, mics, and percussion instruments, not to mention mirrored walls! Woo hooo!!!!! I've decided that I can't sing to save my life and I always pick bad songs, but it was still a blast.
I will definitely go again at some point, maybe with fewer Koreans though because they kicked my assssss!
I will definitely go again at some point, maybe with fewer Koreans though because they kicked my assssss!
Saturday I continued my adventures by hitting up the Seoul Drum Festival with some of the other English teachers. Honestly it was outrageous!!!!! It was soooo good! We saw 4 different traditional Korean drumming acts as well as a Brazilian act that was slightly out of place but still very amusing. brazillians sure know how to shake it!!!!!! SEXXXXY! It was all very nicely orchestrated with hundreds of lawn chairs all perfectly lined up into rows and sections...... no blankets or dancing pits need apply. My years of visiting the Tam Tams on Mount Royal left me extremely torn about how I should behave at such an event. My body said to start dancing around on the grass like a maniac, but my appreciation for not disturbing the peace kept me in my seat for most of the performance. Finally near the end of the evening, my friend Grace and I faced down to the front of the stage where all the kids were hanging out so we could be front row and centre for the final act. It was amazing!!!!!!!! Traditional Korean court music which was not only really difficult music, but like friggin' gymnastics as well!!!!!!! At the end of the performance all of the acts came out onto the stage and invited all of the audience up ont to stage as well!!!! HA!!!!!!!!!!! All of the sudden there were 100 people dancing like maniacs (including yours truely) on the stage along with all of the performers! It was soooooo funny and by the end of the event we had met up with a large number of SMOE teachers that we hadn't seen since orientation but who had all found their way to the stage for the dance party! Classic! We all headed over a coupple of stops to KONKUK University for some wings and beer. It was really nice to hang out with all of these foreigners and realise that "Oh, yeah! There are a LOT of people here to meet and party with!" Sometimes I forget as I spend most of my time with Koreans. http://drumfestival.org/
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