OK! This one is another "catch-up" blog of sorts. In any case it's probably better to have fewer longer blog posts than multiple super short ones; I can't really promise that I'd have something worth reading every day so this way each post is worthy of anyone reading it!
The last blog post ended on a Friday afternoon -- a final post before the weekend. The mission of the evening was to check out Seoul's purportedly epic nightlife -- and it was the right day to do it too. On thelast Friday of every month a series of clubs in Hongdae have a special event called "club-night" where, for one cover fee, you can enter a truly extensive number of clubs.
Six EAPSI'ers met up at the Hongik University subway station at 9:30pm; we had some latecommers (Charlie's sad story for the day was that he had lost his wallet on the subway... He had been busy making phone calls cancelling credit cards...) but promptly got started walking towards Hongdae. We walked around for a while looking for the clubs; and eventually found them less than an hour later. We got our wristbands and went inside to be greeted by strobe lights; lasers; and a pounding bass line... However the crowd at 10pm is still not that large. After a complimentary drink (comes with the wristband) we danced for a bit and then moved to an actual bar.
The bar was super chill -- the six of us split some bar food (nachos) as part of a Tequila set (which some of us were conviced was thoroughly watered down). The Korean tradition for shots is to lift the class for cheers (which is ponounced "gaam-be") and someone screams "one shot!" at this point your task is to take the shot and drain it completely. To prove that you've actually finished your drink you need to hold it over your head upside down and see if there are any drips!
The club scene was pretty intense -- they're super crowded which makes them kind of crazy. Also, as someone pointed out to me later, in Korea there is a difference between a "club" and a "nightclub" -- people go to the former to just hang out and dance, and they to to the latter for a little romance. Anyways, we roamed around Hongdae checking out several clubs (I think something like 8) and a couple bars and had a blast! Here's a video from one of our favorite stops -- this one has a special appearance from Aurora, Charlie, Soshana, Kalon and Sue! I would however suggest you turn down your speakers before pressing play...
When we exited the club to head back home (this was our last stop) there was something incredibly rare; at least from those of us from Delaware... We caught the final stage of the sunrise! It was a pretty amazing scene being part of the massive crows of twenty-somethings flowing towards and into the metro station. You didn't even know where you were going at this point because the "crowd" had the same destination. There was also an entire crew that had already begun to erase the remenants of the massive party that had just occured.
The subway ride was fairly calm; Aurora, Kalon and I were all going back to SNU and we quietly watched as the subway clientelle changed from young partiers to much older early risers. It was an interesting combination of people that probably doesnt occur at many other times of day -- strikingly bi-modal.
We got back (after leaving Auora at her stop) to the dorm around 6am when Kalon promptly passed out. I stayed up for about half an hour checking e-mails and taking care of some things. My roommate was still awake when I showed up! For some reason he couldn't sleep that night -- but it made it really practical for me... I slept until 1:30pm, when I woke up and got ready to go to a "Traditional Korean Performance."
The performance was pretty cool -- No cameras allowed of course, but here is a photo from the Gugak National Theter's tourism website:
We got to witness some traditional Korean music; a potetry session and some strange buddhist dance among other things. Most of them were a lot slower than I expected them to be, but enjoyable nonetheless. It was however funny to see those of us that had spent the night clubbing trying to stay awake for the performance!
Afterwards Kalon and I went to go meet his sister Chryseis (who teaches english in Korea) and her boyfriend doo-hei for Pizza. It was pretty good and we got to hang out for a while before heading back for more sleep. Sunday we met up with Chryseis again for "American Breakfast" at a diner. At first it was really good but...
It was actually terrible and morifying. American food (it was genuine for sure, truly authentic...) is just super heavy in your stomach. It's like my body was fighting a war to digest it. My body did win eventually... But Kalon was not so lucky. After "breakfast" (in quotations because we started around 2pm) we tried to go shopping for a bit, albeit unsucessfuly. It was either because of the predicted Typhoon (which missed us) or because it was Sunday afternoon -- but most of the shops were closed. In any case we got to take a nice stroll around Dondaemun and look at a bunch of closed shops. We walked into a couple outfitters and my jaw dropped when I saw a 1,000,000\ price tag on a rain jacket...
They really like hiking here -- especially in comfort. So by supply and demand, hiking gear is super expensive. I am currently very thankful that my last sucessful purchase in the U.S. was a pair of boots!
On the way back we decided to stop by a movie theater. We called up a couple of the other SNU EAPSI'ers and ended up meeting up with Jeff. We had some time to kill before the movie so we went bought some ice cream and chilled for a while. A this time I made a mobile mini-blog post of Kalon holding up a Korean movie poster for X-Men:
Re-posted so that the micro-post can be delted! Having more time to kill we strolled into the arcade that is adjacent to the movie theater. The prices are actually not rediculous! Apparently here you can play video games in an arcade for a good while and still pay less than you would in America for a latte!
This is a video from inside the arcade -- I thought it was pretty cool. The game is based on a Manga called "Initial D" (which is actually pretty good but updates too slowly... I havent read it in over a year.) What is unique is that on the console; the shifter is on the left! It took me a few games to get used to most of the car being on the left (you cant actually see the car on the screen, so if you drive like its an american car you ram it into the wall constantly on the left side... Not good for winning a race...)
The movie was pretty good (X-Men First Class) except that I couldnt understand most of the German or ANY of the Russian; so some of the dialog was just missing... Luckily I could understand the French dialog and Kalon could understand the Spanish dialog!
After the movie, the Subways were closed so we decided to just walk back. We walked from the SNU Subway station (which is not actually on campus) to Naksungdae where we left Jeff (he has an appartment there for the summer) and then we walked towards the SNU rear gate (which is closer to the dorms than the front gate by SNU station). On the way we stopped by a Korean BBQ place and had some Bulgogi -- which was phenomenal; esspecially after the previous meal (American Diner Breakfast)...
I turned in around 1am after getting some computer work done and talking to some people back home (skype etc.) Monday was a typical work day until dinner. For dinner we got delivery fried chicken and went to buy some pig legs (front legs). First of all; pigs legs are really good. I didn't take any pictures unfortunatley! While we were out shopping for food; 태헹 (rom: Taehyung) decided that there should be one bottle of 막걸리 (Mak kal li). I respnded that I only ever do challenges if someone is gonna match me! After that I just figured that it was over and the topic wouldn't come up again...
However I got my name on a bottle at dinner; and subsequnetly put his on another one. After 45 minutes had passed (the food was really good) Kalon got a bottle with his name on it. Shortly thereafter Kalon started trying to convince people to go to 노리방 (noribang). 45 minutes after that we were at a bar downtown chilling with some Beers waiting for 태헹's girlfriend to show up and then actually made it to 노리방 (noribang) to sing our lungs out -- of course Wonjin showed up (he can't resist Noribang) and we had an amazing time. I actually got a pretty sick video of Wonjin and Kalon singing "Don't Speak" by "No Doubt" but I already told them I wouldn't post it, so you guys are outta luck!
Tuesday (today) I got a lot of work done, and am now writing a blog. I got a working solution in COMSOL and made a hot pressed fiberglass part that [looks] like it's properly infused!
I also got a cool bit of history about the SNU campus -- the Korean universities used to all be in the same part of the city; but after some time there was a government mandate that moved them all appart (due to some kind of protest) and SNU ended up being located on a former golf course! That actually explains the really large elevation gradients around here (we're in the thick of some mountains) and some of the amazing scenery (which I promise I will take more photos of...)
Anyways, hopefully tonight I will actually manage to get the Picasa web album updated! Leave some comments! I need motivation to take more pictures!
Can you post a link for you picasa web album?
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