Last night there was this big club event in Sinchon for international students. It was unlimited drinks from 9 to midnight for 15,000KRW. That comes to about $13.75. But it was at a club, and clubs suck. My strong suit is talking not looks, so meeting people in clubs doesn't work for me because of deafening bass. Also, when there are Scandinavian dudes who look like they are descended from Thor, a large American dude doesn't stand much of a chance. But, idiot that I am, I decide it's a good idea to go for unlimited cheap drinks. Mistakes were made.
Ok, Sinchon is a LONG trip by subway. About a half hour and a transfer. In Korea this train ride is dirt cheap, but that's not a factor to me. I gotta get there somehow. The first sign things were falling apart was the time we left. Which was 9:30. Nah. I'm not about fashionable lateness. Arriving at 9:30 would have been fine with me, but leaving then? No point. Everyone else is gonna be there before us and it's cold as hell outside. I'm not fixing to stand in a line on the ice planet Hoth. But that's when we left. We finally get to the subway and my friend Shawn and I look at each other and have the same thought: this is gonna suck hard. We let the rest of the group go ahead of us while we talk things over. We eventually decide to go because the drinks were so cheap. So we get on the subway with some other people Shawn knew.
They were the only reason the train ride was bearable. They were from Sweden and Finland, so they talked about their free university education and governmental stipend. Then we told them about how expensive GW was. It was a good time and made me super sad about my cost of education. And their lack of open container laws and 16 year old drinking age. But it's ok, I have to pay for healthcare.
We got off the train at Sinchon and I really liked the neighborhood. The buildings were a lot taller, there was some delicious looking Korean street food, and the streets were wider and much busier. It for sure warrants another visit some weekend. But by now it was 11 AT NIGHT. And I was pissed. We finally get to the club and guess what? There was a line! Strike 1. Then, while angrily waiting in line, a ton of people come out of the club screaming "It ain't worth it!" Strike 2. Then two girls come out screaming "There's no alcohol." . I was LIVID. Not only did I hike out here for some event I didn't even want to go to, but now that event was a wash? If I was Bruce Banner I would have been rocking purple cutoffs right then.
By then it was 11:15 at night, I was a long distance from my form and this night was shaping up to be a complete waste of time and money. Shawn and I walk around the neighborhood looking for some bar to go to to at least to something to stay warm. We wander around for a while and eventually wind up in this little place that called itself a Beer Garden on the second floor of one of those restaurant towers I mentioned before. We sit down and look at the menu. There are these huge tubes of beer. We combine our heads and see that it's a 3 liter beer... for 6500KRW each.
It turns out we also had to order food, so we got a Korean classic; mozzarella sticks and fries. We also got a bottle of soju to try. The beers come to the table and then the waiter hits a button on the side and the table starts shaking. Then he put our beers into these cupholders in the table that say 4C on them. IT WAS REFRIGERATED. America has some catching up to do. Soju was interesting, it is smoother to sip than to take shots of. However, when mixed with Korean beer it does not change the taste much, which makes your actual intake kind of deceiving. We learned this after we ordered our second round of 3 liters.
Then some really drunk Korean people walked in. Korean women are logical and illogical at the same time. They wear heels a lot, but never take them off like American women do. Probably because they don't want to get foot AIDS from walking around in the street barefoot. This makes sense. What does not make sense is when they come walking into a building looking like a racehorse that's gonna be on the business end of a glue factory in a few minutes. These two women were rolling ankles left and right and stumbling whenever they actually had a good footfall. Luckily this conundrum of fashion and functionality doesn't impact me. Koreans love New Balance shoes. Aside from the whole being enormous part, my feet fit right in here in Korea.
I need to get less frustrated at little mistakes here in Korea. I'm a total outsider, we make mistakes. Hell, even Koreans make mistakes. I just need to calm down and know that no matter what happens, adventure is out there.
It turns out we also had to order food, so we got a Korean classic; mozzarella sticks and fries. We also got a bottle of soju to try. The beers come to the table and then the waiter hits a button on the side and the table starts shaking. Then he put our beers into these cupholders in the table that say 4C on them. IT WAS REFRIGERATED. America has some catching up to do. Soju was interesting, it is smoother to sip than to take shots of. However, when mixed with Korean beer it does not change the taste much, which makes your actual intake kind of deceiving. We learned this after we ordered our second round of 3 liters.
Then some really drunk Korean people walked in. Korean women are logical and illogical at the same time. They wear heels a lot, but never take them off like American women do. Probably because they don't want to get foot AIDS from walking around in the street barefoot. This makes sense. What does not make sense is when they come walking into a building looking like a racehorse that's gonna be on the business end of a glue factory in a few minutes. These two women were rolling ankles left and right and stumbling whenever they actually had a good footfall. Luckily this conundrum of fashion and functionality doesn't impact me. Koreans love New Balance shoes. Aside from the whole being enormous part, my feet fit right in here in Korea.
I need to get less frustrated at little mistakes here in Korea. I'm a total outsider, we make mistakes. Hell, even Koreans make mistakes. I just need to calm down and know that no matter what happens, adventure is out there.
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