Weekend
Oregon Trail bar
Originally uploaded by Laughter317. So I did some more exploring this weekend. Friday was Mike's birthday so a big group of people went out to dinner and then into Seoul for some drinking and dancing. Eight of us had dinner at a Korean barbecue place near the apartments which was so good. Korean barbecue is interesting because you cook it yourself. The table has a hole in the middle and after you sit down they bring in a pot of coals, put it in the middle and put a grill on top. Then they bring you a plate of raw beef which you cook and eat straight off the grill. It was fun.
After dinner, Mike, Michael, Lindsay, Shane (former teacher) and I took the bus into Seoul. The express bus is really nice because it only makes about 10 stops in both Incheon and Seoul and then it takes the 120 freeway between them so it only takes about an hour. We got off in Sincheon (a region of Seoul) between 9:30 and 10 then walked to this hole in the wall bar that Mike likes where about 5 more people met up with us. We stayed at that bar about 2 hours before taking another bus (regular bus this time) to a major bar area in Hongdae near Hongik University. We went to two different bars there, a regular bar and a dance club.
Bars in Korea are interesting. The signs outside advertise beer, soju and whiskey but whiskey refers to pretty much any type of hard alcohol. Vodka, rum and tequila are all whiskey. The other weird thing is that you can order "whiskey" by the bottle but its not cheap (about 100,000 won or $100 per bottle). The dance club had a 10,000 won cover ($10) but that included 1 free drink so in reality the cover was only about $4. Around 3am (bars stay open until 6am), Mike, Lindsay and I took a cab to Itaewon to meet up with the part of the group who was already there. They left us in Hongdae so we could finish drinks. We left Itaewon at 4am and took a cab back to Incheon. I got to bed around 5am which is way too late for me.
Yesterday (after I woke up) I ventured down to Grand Mart (Korean department store) because I had a major hankering for McDonald's french fries and McDonalds is in Grand Mart. Its only about 6 blocks but my feet were killing me since I had blisters from walking in wedges the night before. I took it pretty easy the rest of the day.
Canal
Originally uploaded by Laughter317. Today I decided to walk down to where Mike said there was a canal. Its about 4 blocks east of the apartments. The canal is really shallow but the path is nice and there are a lot of trees and flowers separating it from the main road so you don't have to look at the cars going by. On the east side of the canal, there's a bunch of greenhouses and it looked like someone was selling produce from a tent over there so I may have to go check it out again. Selling produce from roadside stands is really popular here though. There are 3 stands right by Wal-Mart so a produce stand really isn't that unusual. The weird thing I saw today was that in two places along the path there was a group of exercise machines, like the kind you'd expect to see at a gym, just sitting outside. It just seemed really odd to me.
It was really hot out so I didn't stay out very long (about an hour) cause I didn't want to get really sweaty. I'll probably go back and walk again sometime when I'm dressed for working out. Other than my little walk today was actually a pretty lazy day. Its really too hot to spend much time outside and there's really not much I can do that's productive in my hotel room. Hopefully I'll be able to move into my apartment soon so I can feel like there's something to do with my time (unpacking and such).