Birthday Weekend Continued

Ok, so I woke up Saturday feeling a little hungover but I decided to get out of my apt and go to Itaewon, the main foreigners district in Seoul. According to my friends, this is where you go when you want a little taste of America and while I wasnt looking to escape Korea just yet, it definitely lived up to its name. As soon as I stepped out of the subway, I saw a lot of non-Koreans, including black people! Now you all know Im not a racist, but after spending the majority of my life in Atlanta and Charleston, African Americans are just something I got used to seeing and had been without since I got here (save the occasional random one). Anyway, along with black people, there were tons of white people and tons of english being spoken. I was greated in every store I walked into with english which was really nice after 3 weeks of cultural immersion. Stores I saw included Nike and Reebok, Columbia Sports, The North Face, Quiznos, Starbucks, McDonalds, KFC, Subway and the most patriotic of all: American Diner. The other stores, however, were mostly Korean and Im pretty certain are the souce of all knock off goods that reach the states. Im serious, along ever street, down every alley, and on every corner were stores or booths selling all types of designer goods. I didnt end up buying anything but had lunch at Subway, which combined with hearing english for a couple of hours made a pretty good afternoon.

When I got back to my neighborhood, I decided to meet up with some fellow teachers at a bar nearby called Party Bar. This bar is hillarious, not only is it a dive by American standards, their decorations do not translate into Party at all. We walked in and I had to stop for a second to look around at the walls: the primary theme seemed to be western with pictures of cowboys and indians all over, but they also had old license plates, outdated penants from old teams and an electronic dart board, which was the most modern thing about it. Decorations aside, we ended up having a great time playing darts and listening to American music. I met one of my friend's Korean friends names Bamf (I dont know why) who had studied in Canada so his english was pretty good. He was also a pretty competitive dart player and won us a few rounds from his victories. This is a friend of Bamf's and his shirt may have been the highlight of the night, it says "Peace up, A-Town down" (for Atlanta) and was given to him by this Korean artist, Crown J, who sings a song called "Too Much A". Check it out:


When 1 oclock rolled around, the two teachers I was with said they were tired and were going home to bed, I told them that was cool and I was just going to finish my drink and then do the same. However, when they left, I ended up going to a Karaeoke bar with Bamf and his friends and butchering some songs by the Beatles, which was alright because Bamf was the only one that could understand the words and I dont think he knew the Beatles. All in all a fun night, a little more low key than Friday but fun nonetheless.

I moved apartments Sunday and school Monday so my next post may be about those transitions, hopefully complete with pictures.