Shuddering Even Now

Ahhhh, Seoul. A fun place to visit, but I could NEVER live there. So on Saturday morning I woke up at five thirty so I could catch the train out of Naju, arriving at Yongsan Station around ten to meet up with Laurel. My mission for the weekend was to buy lots of fun touristy items to give to people back home. So first we went to Dongdaemun, then Insadong, then Namdaemun, then finally Hongdae. Yeesh. It was so freaking hot as well; every chance we got we'd stop in a shop that had some sweet sweet air-con! We went out for some dinner at a restaurant called "Carne Station", which was interesting. For whatever reason there was about forty foreigners all having a get-together there and I had my first reverse culture shock moment! There were just so many of them, they were all drunk and loud and acting obnoxious. The girls were all dressed so very skanky. I've just become so accustomed to small town Korea that I was unaccountably annoyed after seeing all those foreigners. Don't get me wrong, it was nice seeing some diversity, but these people were OBNOXIOUS. The restaurant had an open bar, which would could probably account for them terrorizing the staff.

From there we went in search of a bar called "Tin Pan" (maybe?) that is supposed to be really good. All was well when we were just having a seat people watching. When we decided to get on the over-crowded dance floor, things went a little down hill. This guy came up to me and started flirting, which was a little uncomfortable (he was like thirty-five and more than a little creepy). It started off normally; where are you from? Are you a teacher? etc. etc. Then he decides that it's a good idea to divulge to me that he had slept with a couple of Korean girls but he didn't find them to his liking so he'd "gone back to white girls" all the while stroking my back and holding my hand as I tried to back away.

EWEWWWWWWWWWWW!!! YEEEEECCCCHHHHH!! Why?? Why?? Why would he think that I would want to know??? *shuddering even now* A fellow teacher had a theory about foreign guys in Korea, and I'm starting to believe it's true:

The Characteristics of Foreign Men who move to Korea:
1. Moved here with their girlfriend.
2. Moved to Korea so they could find themselves a Korean girlfriend/wife.
3. Moved to Korea to be bizarre creeps in another country.
(Note: this is a generalization! I know some guys who are none of these things, but for the most part it holds true)

The man I met was a former number two, moving on to a number three. Shortly after our conversation I motioned to Laurel that I was frightened and she informed myself and random creepy guy that we were meeting some friends and had to go. Boys reading this, never try to woo a girl by informing her that she's your race of choice. You may think it, but NEVER say it.

Okay, enough bitching about men! Here are some pictures that summed up this visit to Seoul nicely:

Me, (sporting a burn from shopping all day) in front of the "Luxury Ho Bar". This was one of several "Ho Bars" in the area, and apparently they're just regular bars with unfortunate names.

While walking through Insadong Laurel was just walking along looking at tourist items as an old homeless man walked by slapping her on the arm and laughing. I think he was crazy... and drunk... We were thinking that this might make a good t-shirt slogan so I wrote it down on a napkin and took a picture to preserve the memory. I'm fully aware of how weird I am. (Ruler is Laurel. Her name can be really hard to pronounce due to all the r's and l's, so that is usually what her students end up calling her.)