The Weekend

Did I mention that I plan to save someone's life while I'm here? It's going to happen. So I try to always be prepared to catch somebody or defend somebody. Mostly just the catching, though. Friday played free pool at Seinfeld's, of course. We can't help ourselves. There were some people there from Peru, so I practiced my Spanish all night. There was a girl there so drunk she just kind of sat there wide-eyed and blinking (I think she had had the eyelid surgery her eyes were so wide) and saying nothing and smiling a little. It was the most adorable thing I've ever seen. She would be on the stool and then just start leaning until she almost fell to the floor. And she stood up and was facing me and blink blink and then just fell forward and I caught her. I'm so mad I didn't get her on video.



Then Saturday we went to Insadong where Jessica heard there was a traditional market. Not really sure what was traditional about the area, but we liked it. Big book store at Jonggak Stn named Bundi and Luni's with an English section that I didn't even look through more than our aisle but got 7 books. A Korean tea book for Jessica Sister, a cookbook for Chris and Wall-E the book for Belleigh. Plus, for me, The Man of Her Dream erotica, The Silent Language, Lethal Passage and a short Alice in Wonderland (that I'll give Lily when I get back). Since I've been here I've only read Tropic of Cancer and The Sun Also Rises (Jessica's), which both happened to be about and by (and semi-autobiographical) ex-pats (I thought that was a funny coincidence, in addition to the fact that ex-teacher Adam said he coincidentally read the same while he was here). I'm going to have to buy TSAR now since it's one of my new favorites. And, coincidence #4 is that as I was reading it I noticed a lot of similarities with American Psycho and, upon looking it up, discovered it was inspiration for Brett Easton Ellis. Anyway, in between those two I read Venus in Furs (Jessica's), which I could do without but at least it was quick, and some of Joyce Carol Oates' The Female Species (once again, Jessica's). I only brought two books, TofC and The Lover in case I go to Vietnam (for dramatic purposes).


Back to Insadong. Better shopping than Myeong Dong where the Forever 21 is. That area's more for clothes I guess. So, we walked around for 8hours and shopped. And it wasn't too hard to find either, and that's always a plus. I bought an Adidas backpack for 60000w, which is expensive to me. But I love it and it is so worth it. I got some stuff for my walls, shot glasses with naked people on them (5 for 3000w), we got matching pinky rings and we took a picture wearing Hanbak. Jessica said I look like Korean mafia because I'm straight faced, but I think I look like I'm awaiting an arranged marriage.

On the way out we saw some dancers and I video taped them. It was kind of like a live advertisement for one of their shows. I'm a sucker for choreographed dancing just as much as I'm a sucker for free pool. When they stopped we went to Dunkin Donuts (which Jessica is a sucker for), and she was in heaven. This DD was two floors and decorated like a posh coffee shop. We weren't really sure what else to do around there, so we went to Yongsan, which is supposed to be known for electronics, I guess because there was a big store right outside of the sub.stn. Didn't get the stuff I needed there either since it was closed. So we checked out the stores around it and found an Emart with no electronics section but we bought some body spray, which is a necessity since we sweat so much walking to work (thanks to the handheld fan Jessica bought me I've got something to help cool me off. A life saver if you will, or light saber. But actually it's a cute little story because when I went to the movies the other weekend Jessica went shopping and I asked her to buy me something, as a joke, and she bought me the fan). I was a little bummed because Sunday we were to go with Sun Jung and family to the Han River to raft and I was realizing I didn't have anything to wear. No shorts that weren't at my knees, that is. I took a picture of a boy on the subway wearing a shirt that read, "Hadouken!" cause I'm a big dork. But you know what? It's all good because they love it and they have no problem with it and they're used to pictures everyone does it. So then an awesome thing happened and I showed Jessica this vendor outside of my apartment that I had seen selling shirts she might want for work and I found the perfect shorts for Sunday and they were only 5000w. I was as excited as I had been about my back pack.

Sunday we woke up and rushed to get ready to meet Sun Jung across the street. We rode with them and the same three kids (including their son) to the Han River. After Jessica and I ate, because we had missed breakfast and were starving, they rented bicycles and we all biked for about 45 minutes by the river. Her son was the most adorable thing. He had training wheels (he's 7y/o but I don't know if that's his Korean or American age) and he was pedaling as fast as he could and if one of us started to come up behind him he would look back and then start pedaling faster.

After we biked they layed out a picnic matte in the grass and got us iced coffee and me and Jess played catch with the kids. Sun Jung always pay for everything. It drives me crazy. I mean everything. She picked us up, she paid for our lunch, she paid for our bikes, the coffee, the raft and then lunch after, and then they drove us all the way to my apartment. But anyway, after we picnicked, we sat in on the orientation to raft on the river (I say sat in because we couldn't understand what the guy was saying) and then we went out by the dock and our group and another big group had to do practices like jumping jacks and how to hold the paddles. Then we raced the other team (which was mostly a bunch of kids) to the other embankment. I think we did really well with a few exceptions. Well, you know, there were three kids with us and it's not like we're some professional rowing team.