Seoul Korea

---

So I finally made it to Seoul on Thursday June 14th. Had a roomate, Ian, in the hotel that CDI put us up in for the week of training. He has a friend Matt who has been here for 2 years, so he obligingly became our guide for our first weekend. We went out and had a couple crazy ones, as you do, on Friday and Saturday.

I was suprised to find that people in Seoul just don't go to bed. It doesn't matter if its the weekend. The culture here seems to be that you go out any night of the week. Now, its not quite like going out in the west. People meet after work and have dinner and drinks. Now it still gets messy, but its not going to the pub and getting off your face with a mate of yours. Getting together with friends or coworkers, sitting down for food and drink, and having a nice evening, that eventually turns into a late one.
The street I live on is up all night everynight. I live on the far end so Im away from all the crazy-ness, but all I have to do is walk a minute out my door and the bars and restaurants start stacking up. The amount of people out in the streets any given evening is astonishing. Granted I do live right next to Konkuk University, so its mainly students; it still seems people love getting together every night for drinks.
And the business men love the sauce as well. Everynight there are drunken business men stumbling home or to a cab at 3am in the morning. How they get up for work the next day is a mystery. More power to em. Workin for the man but still stick it out and blowing their kids college fund on Soju, Cass, and live Octopus.

So I had a couple nutty ones then buckled down for the week of training. Medical exams, grammer tests, and mock teachers training all passed and behind me, my next move was to my very own apartment. It is so nice having my own place for the first time since July of 2006.
*Unfortunatly, Ian my roomate during training, didn't finish the course. He was booted after he went out on Tuesday til 6am and we had training at 9am, which he invariably didn't make it too. RIP Ian.

So here I am on July 5th in my second week of work. Loving the school and all my coworkers, and the kids have been great so far. Im the "other" at my school. Im the only "white" westerner there. They stared, gawked, giggled, and gasped everytime I would come to work my first week. I still get the random little girls running up and asking me my name, shoesize, and SAT scores before running off giggling to tell her friends. The boys would never do that cuz they are too cool. But they all want to know where the western guy is from.

So work is great. My apartment, although small, is just fine, and the atmosphere is amazing. Im lovin it here and can't wait to learn the language and really sink my teeth into the culture. Cheers!

---

Comments

[Jess]

something to look forward to....
I guess this is a glimpse of where I'll be in 10 months. Yeah, the whole shower/sink/toilet combo I've experienced before in Hong Kong, so that's no biggie. The soju, I have also experienced, right here in that chunk of Seoul that's smack dab in the middle of Los Angeles. But, the Seoul-ful Jared, I have yet to see, so I guess that also awaits me.

[Waderlusting]

missing live octopus & soju
I see you've adjusted well into the soju culture of Korea... now the next thing is kimcheeeeee.