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Saved: February 12th 2022
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So I have three students I teach at OCI, their nicknames are Choi, Ung and Root. We have a good time and they are all a bit older than me...mid to late 20's American age. Root and Choi live in Seoul so I convinced them that the four of us should plan a trip to go there. The proceeding are the adventures that transgressed on said trip:
I took a cab directly from school after my class ended at 8. It was raining so I was sure to bring an umbrella. The cab driver took some crazy route to the bus station that ended up costing more...I was a little pissed. Nonetheless I was on the 8:30 and on my way to Seoul.
When I boarded the bus I sat down and put in my iPod, a couple minutes later a Mr. Uhm got on the bus. He is the HR employee at OCI in charge of the English classes. I thought nothing of it, we had a nice chat. The bus ride took extra long because of the rain plus it being Friday night. The normally 2.5 hour ride took nearly four because of all the traffic.
When I got to the bus station I met with Ung and Root. We looked for a cab in the pouring rain and finally got one amongst dozens of others trying to get the hell out of there. We were headed to a "night club" in Gangnam which means north of the river. The Han river to be exact. The cab ride took an eternity in itself and we ended up at the club about 45 minutes later. The ride wasn't cheap but Ung said he would pay, awesome!
The club we went to was what is referred to as a "booking club" in English. Basically the men pay for some expensive VIP room and sit there drinking whiskey and eating fruit. Meanwhile the dance club on the floor above is bumping. The waiters work tirelessly to scout out adequate women from there and bring, or sometimes drag them to the VIP rooms. There they can chat and enjoy our overpriced libations for free. I got a lot of astonished looks, mostly tinted with panic from the girls. They didn't want to speak English as much as I can't speak Korean. It wasn't a nightmare but I will say
I feel bad for the other three lads, without me they might have been more successful. I did have a couple lengthy conversations and more than a couple sips of Johnny Walker. Nothing came of it though, the four of us all ended our stay in the room empty handed so to speak. It was an interesting cultural experience...I'm not sure it would fly in the US. I was grateful that I didn't need to pay for it besides an initial palm-greasing to the waiter of $50 because I got the impression it was quite costly.
After the club we went to an adjacent Chinese restaurant where Choi wolfed down Jajamyeong (Chinese spaghetti noodles with a black bean-like sauce) like I've never seen before. I was too sick to eat much.
I stayed in a motel on Friday night which was $30 and had a big lcd Samsung as well as a desktop computer in the room. Didn't have to pay for that either. I was these guys' teacher AND I'm younger than them. In Korea that's a double whammy as far as free rides go. The next morning I woke up and met with Ung and Choi.
Root was going to see other friends for the rest of the weekend. We visited Korea University's campus which is Choi's alma madre. I ate some delicious kamjetang (rib soup for those that don't remember) for lunch. Afterwards we scoped out the campus and some of the campus museum. It was very clean and reminded me of my not so distant collegiate life. All the buildings were in the same style as the gate you can see in the picture.
At around 5 we drove Choi's car to the rich part of Seoul, Gangnam. There we met Choi's mother, his girlfriend and his sister. This was the big meeting between the girlfriend and the mom so Ung and I sat at another table. The restaurant was a kind of international bistro with many selections. I got some spicy wok noodles and Ung got some chicken, we split both. Again, I didn't pay...sweet!
After the dinner we dropped off Ung to meet a friend and Choi, his girlfriend and I went to drink at a Japanese bar. We picked up Choi's college friend who preferred to be called Jake on the way. His English was pretty good and he
said he could maybe even hook me up with a job in Korea if I were looking for one. The Japanese place was beautifully decorated and we had some posh side dishes to go with our soju.
After "stage 1" we'll call it we moved on to "stage 2" which was back to Korea University's drinking street. Apparently there was something similar to homecoming going on. There was the rival school, Yonsei wearing blue in the streets with Korea U wearing red. They weren't confrontational, quite the opposite actually. I don't think that's too common at American universities. Many students were gathering in circles and singing school songs and doing school dances...?
We found a good place to have some more soju. There we ate a side dish which captivated my heart. It was chicken, and cabbage, and red sauce and lots of cheese. AND ddok (Korean rice cake) -stuffed with cheese-. It was something I'd never experienced before and I'm sad it took so long to discover. Stage 2 complete.
Choi drove his girlfriend home and Jake went on to "stage 3". We grabbed some beers in an upstairs pub and tried to lure a table
of Korean girls to our table to no avail. Afterwards we went back out onto the street and did a little people watching while drinking more beer. I joined in with one of the dancing/singing circles due to the excessive peer pressure from Jake.
Choi came back an hour and a half or so later and we moved to "stage 4". At this point I wasn't at 100% but I was certainly doing better than the fellow in the picture. We ate some seafood including flaming shrimp and called it a night. When we left the stage 4 locale it was pouring rain again...as it was most of the weekend. It took 45 minutes to find a motel for me to sleep at that wasn't booked up or complete garbage.
Read Seoul Calibur OCI: Tourist Edition to continue the journey!
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