A Night Out in Soul

After a week of hardly speaking any English to anyone at all, you could imagine my excitement to be meeting up with Nikola and Natalie for a night out in the University District of Seoul. Natalie and Nik are some fellow Texans that had flown over on the plane with me from Chicago, they both graduated from U.T. but they're still great people. We had arranged to meet in front of the Outback Steakhouse by where we'll be working at 9:30, but I was a bit early so I bought a slice of pizza and just walked around a bit. Then, out of nowhere, I hear someone calling me over. I look behind me and two Korean guys in their lower 20s were waving towards them. They were on their smoke break chatting outside of the Daewoo dealership they worked at. I couldn't imagine why they would want to talk to me besides the fact that I'm obviously not from that area. One asked me in very broken English if I played soccer. Apparently, the one talking to me had already told his compatriot that he had seen a tall ginger playing soccer at the local field. He had been eating his lunch when he watch me play and now he was complementing me on how I looked out there. Flattered, I told him I couldn't be that great since my knee was shot and my ankle blown. He didn't really comprehend what I was saying so I just thanked him then returned to the rendezvous. Natalie and Nik were crossing the street when I had just gotten back to the front of the Outback Steakhouse and we all agreed we should get some food before we went out. See, in Korea the bars never really close so, unlike in America, we were in no rush to get out and start drinking. At the restaurant we ordered Soju. Soju is the local alcohol that the natives drink here. It's a sort of Rice liquor a lot like Saki, it has a alcohol content of 19.5% so you take shots of it. We went through a bottle pretty fast, enjoyed the delicious Korean BBQ chicken and then it was to the subway to head out.

You know your heading in the right direction when on the subway you see Expats (people not from Korea) up and down the train. It's quite a relief when you see people you KNOW can understand you. So once we were on the streets I was down to talk to anyone. Of course, this meant I made mistakes. Like the French couple that didn't understand me, I got mad at them when they didn't respond to me. I digress. Now you want to talk about getting hyped up, I saw the area we were going to be partying at and it BLEW MY MIND! It had to be three times the size of 6th Street and just as busy, we had no idea where to start. No problem, leave it up to me. I was in the mood to meet people so I just started asking people where to go. Two nice girls recommended Club Zen because of the cheap drinks and numerous Expats. So away we went. Pretty soon, due to the sheer size of the area, we were lost. Not being afraid to ask for directions I walk up to a fellow name Ryan Stratford, from Toronto, Canada, who was actually heading to the same place to meet up with friends. Together, we all headed to what we would soon discover was not only a great place but had excellently low prices; prices that would rival Mexico's, and without the consumer-beating bouncers! In fact, everywhere we went I was typically the biggest guy in the room which, as you all know, isn't saying much. For my first round I ordered a shot of Jack Daniels and a bottle of Thai beer called Tiger. The total was 6400 won which is ~$5, and the best part is there is NO TIPPING! We spent some time at Club Zen, met a half dozen people, decided to act like we were in Texas and went bar hopping. After asking some other Expats where we should go, we started our way towards FF Bar which I can only assume means Foreigner Fun Bar. And boy was it fun. We got in and the first song to greet us was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Presidents Of the United States of America. You can imagine how Asians reacted to this song. It was immediately followed by "99 Red Balloons," a remix I've never heard. The night continued with great music from The Offspring- "Self Esteem", Nirvana, RadioHead, Rage Against the Machine- "Sleep Now in the Fire", Muse and much more. I absolutely loved that place. I was sad to leave but it was 4 in the morning. Nik, Natalie and I decided to split a cab and enjoyed a pleasant drive back, well Natalie didn't she passed out. After I was dropped off, I walked the three blocks back to my place with a grin on my face that didn't escape me even after a full nights rest. Because in Korea, everyday is beautiful. When I checked my wallet to see how much I had spent that evening the grand total came out to just under $30, thats for a meal, all the drinks till four in the morning, and the cab ride. Got to love it.