Of Soju and Foreigners
July 20th, 2006.
Previously...
Keary gave me the tour around here, and I sort of figured out how the culture worked. I even met a few of his friends, most notably Tony, and another motley band of expatriates...who have spurned the U.S. for a life overseas. My view of everything is that it's a different world out here. I like different, though. The only thing I've had issues with were the jet lag, though there are signs that I might be used to it. Could I thrive out here? Perhaps. That was the million dollar question. That, and was Olga really serious about trying to hook me up with her best friend?
Seoul's got its own flavor, like apples to Orlando's oranges. The people act differently, the TV's different, the traffic's different. It was coming up to a decision point for me, whether to hop over somewhere else, go home, or remain here for a little while longer. It was all up in the air, and that was fine with me. I loved the unknown.
And now...
I got up relatively early, around 6 in the morning, local time. The rains of the monsoon season subsided, and the weather girl on CNN said that it would be dry. Mostly. The plan was to head to the City Hall district to see the sights. Keary, who always seemed to wake up later than I did, and I suited up, hopped on the metro, and were off. The metro here sort of operated like the one in Washington, DC. And it was remarkably cheap to get around anywhere you wanted to go in Seoul, which is why it was almost always busy and heavily utilized. The most expensive ticket around 95 cents (US).
As far as I could tell on my running around town, there appeared as if there wasn't a real "downtown" here. It reminded me most of being in New York, with neighborhoods and central hubs where everyone in that area congregated to for commerce, entertainment, and socialization. Most honestly, living in Iteawon was like being in a ghetto of the internationals. It was mainly there when I'd see foreigners. Any other part of the city, like near City Hall, it was mostly (and do I mean mostly) South Koreans milling around. It didn't affect me, as I'd been a minority in my own country as long as I can remember.
The city hall district was chock full of all kinds of scenery, banks, and as Keary happily pointed out the US Embassy, which was easy to spot with all manner of flags flying out front. We made our way through a lot of museums, and the shopping area...which we were to meet up with h one of his friends, a Korean-American named Phil, who was hanging out with 2 young Korean ladies. We hung out at the 3 story Coffee Bean (easily dwarfing any Starbucks that I ever saw), and wandered around some of the shops before parting company with them and heading back to Keary's flat in Iteawon.
It finally started to drizzle, so Keary and I planned not to run around as much as we had usually been. Club hopping was the nighttime national sport. Everyone ran around, save for the Nigerians, who had a few places they claimed as their own. The Russians and the other Europeans usually congregated at the Spy Bar, where they spun great house music. Keary didn't dig house too much, so we rarely went there. I dug it though, and even like the fact that there models there as well. We ended up at the King Club, where some US soldiers hung out (before their absurd curfew of 1a.m. kicked in, reinforced by contigents of MP's trolling the clubs--tangent: the US Army has guys brave enough to put their collective lives in the name of national defense, but the brass don't trust the same soldiers to properly conduct themselves on a simple night on the town).
The King Club's music selection was most similar to that of Antigua's hip hop Friday nights. Keary knew the bartender, David, so we bought a bottle of Bailey's and emptied the entire bottle in multiple insane rounds of shots in a row. In retrospect, it really wasn't my idea. 2 girls, one a bartender, and the other a server, joined us. With the whole large bottle finished, we ran to a tiny restaurant (which was nothing more than a hole in the wall) and vegged out on traditional Korean cuisine. By then, we were all full and rightfully smashed, so we all went our separate ways, catching cabs in the torrential rains. Oh yeah, I got soaked, but I think that bartender sort of liked me. Not my type, though, even if I was flattered. What a wild night.
July 21st, 2006. Recovery day...but it wasn't as bad as it seemed. Next up was another metro trip to a commerce district, near the Hundai Shopping Center (I know, I know, it's not what it seemed, though). It was a really upscale district, which you could tell just by the cars that drove by. The shopping center itself was a 6 tier building, with all kinds of outlet stores by an impressive array of brandnames. Armani, Gucci, Coach, Ralph Lauren...you get the point. Playground for the wealthy. There was a floor just with food vendors, and a floor with nothing but restaurants, ranging from Italian to Chinese. It was probably the shopping center to end all shopping centers.
Later on in the evening, after a lot of walking and touring about, we met up with some American school teachers, a group of really young people--Paris, Jen, Amanda, and Maggie. Keary and I took them out to the Kings Club, where we shared a few kettles of soju (and cherry punch and then grape punch), which could sneak up on even the most experienced drinker. It was the girls' first night out, and I guess we gave them the short tour. They were teaching English to South Korean teenagers, the sort of craft I was hoping to get into. I spent most of the time picking Amanda's brain on the way to the UN Club, another place where the internationals gathered. There, we danced into the night and had a fantastic time. The night came to an end, and off we were, back to the flat.
As for answers on possibilities, they were swirling in my mind. Of course, it all came down to one big one...the subject of change that I'd been talking about for all of this time. Could I live out here, pick up everything and move on to somewhere else again? Big question.
Next: It's a small world, as I meet up with old friends, and I get closer to more answers. Plus, more pictures and more locales.