Korea can be weird sometimes. 
Today Ken and I met up and headed into Seomyeon, the downtown core of Busan. Imagine Las Vegas without all the gambling. Now get back on track and think about Seomyeon. We didn't really have a plan when going here, which is pretty much par for us. I wanted to hit a bookstore to pick up a dictionary as I've been meaning to get one for ages here and have been getting by with the small one in the back of my phrase book. There is a pretty good book store in the area with a small foreigner section, which coincidentally had a few books by Dale Carnegie there which was a coincidence since Ken and I had been talking about his books on the subway ride up. Its those kind of trippy things that make you wonder if you’re on ‘The Truman Show’ sometime. I also took a look at the Korean learning books there but couldn’t make up my mind, none of them looked all that much better than the free stuff online. Nick has started taking Korean lessons and I’m on the fence about whether or not to join him. I’ve been making progress but I’m also a quarter done my stay here and will probably not be that proficient by the time I leave at this rate. I think I may just have to decide if that’s a big deal to me or not.
Anyway after the bookstore we embarked on another epic quest for food. During which Ken got sidetracked by one of the giant soju bottles that roams the street. He made such good friend with this large plushy denizen that we were invited to play a game that was basically a cross between wheel of fortune, darts, and alcoholism. Ken won a ball point pen. I won a mini bottle of soju. I felt bad for Ken and let him keep the bottle. He was happy then.
We passed by the typical pork grill houses and fried chicken places, a few sushi places and a bunch of soup places. But everything had the meal focus being fatty meat or empty carbs. And after Ken’s food poisoning earlier this month we weren’t going near the street vendors. So we ended up in a pizza hut. The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t after all. Well honestly the thin crust pizza we got there was less detrimental to us than the alternatives and at least we knew we would enjoy it. I will have to start just carrying around food with me though, as I am really starting to realize that 90% of the options out here just don’t jive with the way I want to eat.
Then we decided to find a place to grab a drink, Ken asked a kindly pig for directions, incurring only the jealousy of Minnie Mouse. We ended up at a western bar. Now this is usually just a term for a place foreigners hang out, but it turned out this was an actual wild west themed bar, complete with some tables made up to look like covered wagons. So we shared a few pints, and for a little while it was just like being back at home. Sitting over beers we both adamantly claim we hardly ever drink complaining about stuff we insist that we would never complain about.
It just kind of reinforced in us that this experience is whatever we make of it, and so far I think we’re both doing alright. Or at least Ken was until this cowboy decided to hold him for ransom. Maybe one day I’ll be able to pony up the release money.
We had ran into another foreigner at the bookstore, a nice guy from Georgia named Michael that reinforced that i was not doing the typical ESL teacher experience. He had traveled the country a bit more but admitted to just drinking most of the time with other westerners. And although that is what I've been doing with Ken lately I do realize that how I spend my time on average is way different than most other ESL teachers here. And even with Ken and I having a few drinks you have to keep in mind that we always finish up by 11pm so we can get home before the subway closes. Maybe we're just getting a little older but I'd rather get in early, sleep well and enjoy some sunshine hours than stay out till 5am (when the bars close) and spend all Sunday with a hangover. And the only reason I can of course know that for a fact is the number of times I've done that exact thing in my past. I'm not claiming that fear of the unknown isn't hampering my activities somewhat, but a lot of it is just not wanting to waste my time either. Anyway as usual; me tired go sleep now.
4 comments:
Have no fear Kevin, you're really not getting older until you make the leap to being in bed by 10:00 pm on a weekend. Also, when you begin to justify not going out by saying, "for the price of two drinks out, I could buy a whole 6 pack and stay at home!" Then sir, you may be well on the road to oldness.
Also, good show for not letting my brother get molested by giant plush bottles - he probably would otherwise.
Kevin, update your blog. I have clicked on it about 15 times since I last saw you, so please reset your hit counter.
By the way, my older bald brother was correct is assuming that I would've allowed the giant plush bottles to molest me.
yeah well my counter only registers unique hits, so click away it won't run the tally up. And I don't blog on sundays as I usually do j*ckshit those days.
Hello,
I'm planning on teaching ESL in South Korea as well. I've been reading your blog since the first post, and I've found it to be incredibly insightful and useful, especially in what actually goes on in the schools. It's also nice to read about what your thoughts were about things at the time. And lastly, I believe I am a lot like you; I don't like to go out and drink all the time, and I am very concerned about eating healthily. It looks like you were doing ok thus far...so this gives me hope : )
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