November has been a little crazy. I have been super busy at school and have been keeping busy on the weekends. Last blog was Halloween so a whole month has gone by. Let's see, I have transfered money to my Canadian bank account which took extra long because I am with PC Financial and they didn't realize it had to go through CIBC. I also lost a lot in the exchange :( . I went on a huge shopping trip and spent 135 dollars at E-Mart getting groceries and stuff for my apt, and then proceeded to bust a bottle of red wine on my sidewalk in front of my house when one of my boxes broke :( E-Mart is like No Frills back home, you have to use boxes, but at E-Mart they are not made for you, they are broken down. They have tape and scissors for you to make them back into boxes but I guess I failed at making one of mine strong enough. LAME.
On the 5th of November, it was Guy Fawkes Day in the UK so our Scottish friend Fiona planned an evening of dinner and fireworks. After dinner we decided to buy fireworks and head down by the river to have a bonfire and set off fireworks. It was tons of fun, however Cassandra decided to drink Soju and cider (Korean 18% booze and Sprite) as my drink of choice for the evening. I drank 2 bottles solo to be exact and let's just say, my drunken alter ego's, alter ego came out to play and she is not a tame lady. Yes that is right, my drunken alter ego is Sandy but Sandy's alter ego came out...ya, not cool at all. DeeDee is a maniac and not liked by my friends back home. I will not get into detail but I had my first hangover in Korea the next morning. OH MAN, it was horrible! Luckily my Yeoju friends laughed off my antics but I do not want to see DeeDee ever again! I have since then sworn off Soju: I will NEVER buy it again, that is for sure, and I will only drink it at my teacher's dinners ( you kinda have to or it's rude). That stuff is the devil.
The Sunday after that, after I fully recovered from Friday, Melanie and I had plans to go shopping. A friend of mine here, Jackie, had an English friend in town and was headed to Japan but wanted to come shopping on her way to the airport. So the 3 of us went to Dongdaemun which is a bunch of huge shopping centres in one area. There are several floors in each building, like a department store, but the vendors all have little shops they sell clothes out of. It was truly amazing! Everything was pretty cheap, it was great. After a while however, each vendor's booth started to look the same. I bought 2 sweaters, a skirt and a pea coat for under $100...AWESOME, huh!?
One of many shopping buildings
my new coat...basically like a blazer :(
gotta get me a winter coat soon!
nice knit cardigan
oversized cardigans are all the rage here
$5 skirt, yes please!
The next Saturday we had to say goodbye to a lovely gal named Casey. She is from America and upon finishing her contract is now gallivanting in South East Asia. Lucky biatch if you ask me! My Yeoju peeps like the idea of the scavenger hunt I had in Yeoju so they planned one for us to do during the day and then we were going to do dinner and drinks at night. We all met at One Time at 2pm and had a power hour, which is a shot of beer every minute. It was pretty fun, yet sloppy. Casey had an ipod playlist which played a song for a minute then changed so that made it super fun. Once we were all nice and toasty (why we still drink outside in the cold is beyond me!) we got into teams and went out to complete our list of 75 tasks...Craziness!
I was on a team of all boys, obviously, and we did pretty good. We had lots of laughs and completed tons of tasks. We even got matching outfits (sweaters) at a thrift shop which was one of the items on the list. We thought we did pretty good but other teams did WAY better. One team did 72 or 73 out of 75 which is amazing! We never did declare a winner but Casey's team had some really funny pictures so I vote them the winners.
Seth wore the ramen cup on his head the whole game
25 pts
Human pyramid on Walking Street,
Matching outfits, and
a sign with your team name - big money!
Help an older person lift something or help
them push their cart
We went for dinner around 7pm then we were so tipsy we headed to the Norebang. Karaoke is usually done late night when you are nice and liquored up so it was pretty hilarious that we were there so early. Definitely not a first however, ha. We ended up there for 3 HOURS! haha Good times had by all but I didn't even get to say a proper goodbye to Casey :( I will see her again, I am sure of it...she is awesome so I will make sure that happens.
our lovely guest of honour, Casey...
Isn't she charming!?
What else have I been up to...Oh, there is a market here every 5th of the month meaning the 5th, 10th, 15th etc, you get the drill. There are vendors selling produce, nuts, herbs, clothes, fish, everything you can think of all along the Walking Street. It is great! There is this pastry/deep fried goodness thingy called "hodduck" or something like that and it is absolutely delicious. It is a dough with peanut butter and brown sugar in the middle then shaped like a pancake and deep fried. They are crazy good, especially when freshly made. SO greasy though and I am sure really fattening...whatever!
Last weekend I went to Icheon which is a city 30 mins from Yeoju with some of my peeps. We went there to go for dinner at a beef restaurant. We met up with some of the Icheon peeps and had the most delicious beef I have ever had. It was Korean bbq style so you had the little side dishes then raw meet to cook on the grill. DELISH! We then went out for beers then some of the Yeoju peeps took a cab home. It only costs about $30 so split 3 ways is cheap to get to sleep in your own bed vs staying at someone's place or paying a bunch of money for a love motel or jimjilbang. When we got back to the Yeoj, some of us went for a beer, then I took another cab to my house. Expensive little mission but whatever, I can't stay cooped up on the farm all the time, I will go crazy!
The next day, some Yeoju peeps met up bright and early to head to Seoul for a home brewing festival of sorts. It was a bar/brewery where they invited home brewers to come and share their homemade beers. It was 30 dollars to get in but we had all you can drink beer for 5 hours...there was a lager, a stout and a dark beer I believe, or a pilsner, I am not sure, but 3 kinds of beer for 5 hours seemed like an amazing deal! Before we went there we went for Mexican food at a restaurant called Taco Rico. It was awesome to eat some tasty Mexican. So the beer thing was great, we eventually got some food to share and we played drinking games. Worth every penny!
Jackie enjoying a Margarita
Flautas
devoured nachos
crazy looking building
The bar was called Oktoberfest :)
Rob, Nick and Joshua
Liam, Jackie and I
some big piece of pork they served up
After 4 hours of beer, we got there an hour late, some of us decided to go for "Korea's best burgers" at a restaurant in Itaewon called Smokey's. We waited in a line up for about 45mins to an hour since the place is so small and extremely popular. It was definitely delicious but I wish I were a wee bit more sober so I could fully enjoy the pretty pricey delicousness...it was about $15 with beer and chili fries. Let's just say it was an expensive evening. It didn't end there...we lost one man but gained 2 others...so 5 of us went to a bar called Woodstock around the corner from the burger joint. There was a live band so it was awesome. I am happy that I am seeing a lot of live music here, I love it!
chili cheese fries
The Smokey burger: bacon, bbq sauce,
cheese and jalapenos
We eventually left that bar to head to Hongdae, the most amazing place in Seoul and where I end up every trip there. We went to a bar/club called FF bar and had an awesome time. There was a live band and then when they were done there was a dj and dancing. I am not sure how long we danced for but it felt like forever! We all couldn't hear well the next day and our ears were ringing so it must have been a good night!
The morning after...
Nick forgot his debit card, but obviously closed :(
That has been my November so far, except for an orientation that I just completed which I will explain in another post...this one is long enough.
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