Gangnam Style

I survived my first week of teaching. In fact, I would go so far as to say I destroyed my first week of teaching. They threw a lot of curveballs at me. First off, I am not teaching the levels I was trained to teach. The good thing is that all the classes are basically the same, just some more difficult than others. In the hours before each class I sat in my classroom frantically prepping for class getting more and more nervous but once class started and I got into my groove I really enjoyed myself. I think I’m actually going to like this job. I got to teach a master’s level class on Friday called issue debate. I didn’t know I was going to be teaching it until 10 minutes before I had to start, so I literally had no time to prepare. The class had four boys in it all of them fluent in English. It was really relaxing, we talked about domestic surveillance for a while until they ran out of things to say, and then we talked about whatever I could think of. I asked them their opinions on North Korea, Reunification, Japan (that was interesting, they really don’t like the Japanese) and all sorts of things.

My job is great. The kids are adorable. Some of them are annoying but the adorable ones make up for it. Oh, and they are terrified of me since I am new, white, blond, and a woman, so I’m using that to my advantage while I still can.

Moving on to the more interesting topic… Seoul’s nightlife.

Holy. Fucking. Shit. Balls.

This city is insane. Let’s just stick to Saturday, shall we?

I went for a hike with 2 people from work. They are really nice and have taken me under their wing pretty thoroughly (without their help I would NEVER have survived this week). And they are very fun. So hiking; apparently Koreans love to get to the top of the mountain, drink a bottle of rice wine, then walk back down. We neglected to get the rice wine, so we had to wait to start drinking until we got back to their place. So we started drinking at 2pm, which according to my friends was “really late” for a Saturday. Love it.

Drank all day, went out to eat multiple times. Including this dish called 부대찌개

Pronounced Bu-Dae Jiggae, translated “army base soup”. It’s a thick stew. During the Korean War the US army base threw out a lot of food, including macaroni noodles, bits of hot dogs, spam, and beans. The Koreans put all these leftovers into a stew and called it Army Base Stew. It was delicious! All the food here is delicious, I have yet to try something I don’t like. But I’m still looking.

So we hang out at one girl’s apartment. I met a whole slew of people all of whom were nice. We watched the Olympics (the only event I saw was rhythmic gymnastics, of this entire Olympics. I have now decided I must learn how to ribbon dance).

Around 11ish we decide to go out. The original movement was towards Itaewon (the international district) but we ended up staying in Gangnam instead.

Got to Gangnam, thought we were going to go straight to a club but none of us were drunk enough for that. So we bought some bottles of Soju and stood around drinking them on the street. No funny looks, this is standard behavior for Korea.

Decided no club yet, went to a bar called Woodstock that just plays classic rock songs, you can request anything. I don’t think there was a single Korean in the bar, entirely ex-pats. I met an English guy who has been in Korea for 6 years and doesn’t know any Korean. Each year, he said, he signs on for “one more year”. And this year is his 6^th. I think I’m going to be here for a long time.

The bar was fun. They played Bohemian Rhapsody. Epic sing-alongs were had.

Then we left the bar and I very enthusiastically requested we go to the club. At this point I am still with a group of 7 or so people. It is 3:30am.

I walk into the club with only one other person. I immediately order a Long Island. I would like to repeat at this point in our story it is 3:30am.

In the club the FIRST song I hear is Gangnam Style. Yes. The club is all electronic music.

All the Koreans stand in lines facing the stage. I stood up on the balcony watching them all. It looks like an American club only different. A Korean boy starts talking to me. He ends up taking me home. Riding in the cab with me, walking me to my door and saying goodnight. I get home a little before 6am. The sun is coming up.

It was so wonderful to have a guy take me home with no strings attached. He was just being nice. In some ways Korea today is a bit like 1950’s America in terms of gender relations. In terms of technology and some other things they are way ahead of us. But gender relations are still pretty retro. Luckily I’m not a Korean woman, I’m a terrifying blonde foreigner so I can get away with not being all passive and demure. But it was still really refreshing to have a guy be genuinely nice without expectations of getting something in return.

Sunday involved a massive hangover and lots of Ramen.

I absolutely love it here. I do get homesick for certain things from the US, especially Los Angeles, I miss her so much, but I know she isn’t going anywhere, and in a year I’ll have that same level of attachment to Seoul.

Tata for now my loves.