It all started at 9:30 a.m. on a Saturday (Why is it that I'm always up earlier on the weekends than during the work week...?). Tiffany and I rode to Busan with my amazing friend Teddy. Great car ride full of jokes and K-Pop! I can finally tell my students I know a K-Pop group now! (Update: Sang and danced with said students to said K-Pop song!)
We get to our destination and meet up with Mary. It was my first time meeting her and it was friends at first sight! After some much needed food consumption it was time to find a place to crash and get onto alcohol consumption. Our hotel room was awesome! This photo explains it all!
Next was beach time. I've never had a bad time drinking at Haeundae Beach.
Beautiful.
My signature Budweiser on the beach photo!
A girl's gotta' represent where she's from!
I would expect this from Koreans but why are these
foreigners letting the rats of the air touch their bodies?
The entire time I was fearful of getting pooped on...
Then it was back to the hotel for some bath time and getting ready. We made it out for a carb-free dinner of grilled chicken and radish. Bad idea. We had to go back to the hotel to change shoes (and at some point it was decided that we would all puke too...) and the girls were OUT. Sad face.
While waiting to hear back a friend who would be out in the area later, I dozed off with the girls. At one point, Tiffany woke up. Within five minutes she managed to break a coffee mug, another glass and a full bottle of red wine. Oops. I'm just glad the hotels in Korea don't require a credit card on file. We had a nice laugh about it as I got in around 4 a.m.
Early the next morning we were all up early, desperately needing some food. We decided that carbs were a necessity this time around.
Afterwards it was off to the temple. It's hands down my favorite place in Korea. It's called Yong-gung-sa and it's a cheap taxi ride from Haeundae Beach.
Walk like an Egyptian?
Can you find me??
Then we were off to the Busan Musem of Modern Art. There was a bizarre exhibition there with so called "art." The others took the time to read about it but I didn't have the patience. I guess having visited world class art museums in Europe and even in my home town, I had too high expectations.
There was just enough time to take an afternoon siesta (included a bath, of course, in our wonderfully big red bathtub!) before getting ready to go out again. This time we made it past dinner, midnight and early hours of the morning! Somehow our dinner again once again consisted of only meat and radish. No carbs... But it was okay this time because we finally learned how to pace ourselves!
Then we were off to Fuzzy Navel, a popular foreigner hang out spot with "Mexican" eats and over-priced drinks. We were, however, lucky to meet some nice fellas to court us around for the rest of the night! I could tell at first sight that they were military. We exchanged stares across the bar throughout our time at Fuzzy Navel and as they were leaving they finally had the courage to wave to us. That gave us the confidence to flag them over. On the way to the next destination they informed us that they were all teachers. Lie. Ironically, the worst liar of the group was the point man for information. I already knew he was lying about everything from his name to his job. I decided to have a little fun with it. I told Tiffany that they were all lying through their teeth, but let's not call them out just yet. I asked detail oriented questions about them being teachers - to the bad liar no less. "Bob" knew his cover was blown so he had to have a quick pow wow with his buddy to get his story straight. During a game of pool Tiffany called him out. That's when I pointed out all of the flaws in his story and helped him come up with a better one.
The thing is, some American military members have given all of them a bad name in Korea. They are often refused services at restaurants, bars and hotels. So I suppose I can understand where they were coming from, but he should have given up when he knew he blew it.
Tiffany and Mary are fairly new to Korea so it was my pleasure to introduce them to noraebang, one of my absolute favorite Korean past times! Usually I go with equally strong singers and everyone takes turn singing and backing up, etc. Not this time. I carried everyone (or so I thought!) We sang everything from classic rock to K-Pop and NSync! It was definitely one of my most memorable noraebang experiences!
Next we were off to the casino. Unfortunately it was another disappointment. I'm not much of a gambler, not to mention I had $20 left to my name... I lost $10 in five minutes so I was finished pretty quickly. The guys played roulette and one of them actually won big! He announced he would be taking everyone out for dinner! Well, everything was closed so that turned into breakfast after everyone caught some shut-eye. Thanks to the holiday, everything was still closed at 10:30 when we were ready to eat. So we ate Quiznos. No complaints there! Then they also took us out for an early afternoon hangover drink.
Finally it was time to take our exhausted bodies back to Pohang. What is an outing in Korea without a run in with an angry Korean ajashi?!?! On the subway an old man didn't like us speaking English and yelled at the kid next to him to tell us in English to be quiet. Everyone ignored the man, as he reeked of soju and cigarettes. He finally moved to the next car.
We still had one more glorious day of vacation left! To take advantage, we decided to go home and rally a little later for yet another night of drinking! Bonus: The awesome bar in town was giving away a free keg! Score! One more epic night with the girls and tons of friends I hadn't seen in a while was a great way to top off the already fabulous weekend!
Now it's time for the often dreaded, but welcomed work week. Finally I can get some rest! I love Korea. I love my life! Wednesdays should always be the new Monday! Cheers, everyone!
K-Pop <3
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