Thursday, I received the results of my physical, taken last week at the Sanbon Hospital. Pleased to tell everyone I passed this (drug screening, std test, blood pressure, vision, hearing check, etc.), so Friday afternoon I went by train to Suwon (5 stops away) to the immigration office to formally apply for the immigration card. It was a lengthy process (imagine the DMV times really bad), and I napped while waiting almost two hours for my number to be called. When it was finally my turn, the immigration officer made a joke about my last name and asked if I was secretly a pirate from the Caribbean. Good one, like I haven't heard that before.. Once I receive the immigration card, I can open a Korean bank account and purchase a cell phone. Yeah! Many of my students want to exchange numbers so we can chill out and do the cool things Koreans do. I am not entirely sure about this, but I also think I can receive calls from the US via Skype at little or no cost to you, so I will post my new number.
Friday night after class, I had dinner with James and a mutual student of ours. His English name is John, and he speaks the most fluent English of any Korean I have met. He is an English professor at a university in Incheon, and, apparently, he studied in England for three years and lived in Vancouver. He is a nice guy, and the three of us munched on fried chicken and french fries at a pirate themed bar/restaurant. The chicken was pretty damn good, and made me miss Western food. This was the first meal I have eaten without chopsticks.
After dinner, I went to Jack's Bar and encountered my new friend Marcus (see KOREA Week I Review), along with two of his co-workers Alvin and Tiann. Alvin and Tiann are both South African, and all are cool dudes. We played darts for a couple hours, then headed to another pirate bar (it's popular here in Korea) filled with foreigners. There must have been thirty of them, and Friday night at the pirate bar is the place to be. Beer is incredibly cheap here, as is Soju. The four of us shared a pitcher of grape flavored Soju, which tasted just like grape Kool-Aid. Also, the beer is served in ice mugs (plastic mugs with a removable ice insert that is molded to fit the mug). It's kinda cool, especially when you are finished with the beer, you remove the ice mold and hurl it at a target on the wall. If you hit the target, you win a prize. I missed the first time, but won a free beer on my second attempt. Go to YouTube and type "pirate bar Sanbon" if you want to see videos of this.
Saturday I slept until 3pm and didn't do much, mostly because I didn't get home until around 4am. Sunday I traveled to Seoul for the first time and met a group of Westerners. The train ride to Seoul was a pain free 45 minutes and cost only 1,500 Won. The group is for Hashing, which is entirely new to me, but basically they gather weekly to run a 4-6 mile course and socialize afterwards. Check it out. It was cool and I will probably do it again this week. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_House_Harriers) The run was slightly difficult and mostly uphill, but it was good to see Seoul and hang with a different crowd. They are a mix of teachers, nurses, military personnel, and business people living in/near Seoul. A couple people were from Ohio and one dude was from Chicago. Afterwards, we went to a bar in Itaewon (the American neighborhood of Seoul) for Quiz Night, and I returned home to Sanbon around 11pm Sunday night.
That's my story. Hope all is well in the Western world.
Friday night after class, I had dinner with James and a mutual student of ours. His English name is John, and he speaks the most fluent English of any Korean I have met. He is an English professor at a university in Incheon, and, apparently, he studied in England for three years and lived in Vancouver. He is a nice guy, and the three of us munched on fried chicken and french fries at a pirate themed bar/restaurant. The chicken was pretty damn good, and made me miss Western food. This was the first meal I have eaten without chopsticks.
After dinner, I went to Jack's Bar and encountered my new friend Marcus (see KOREA Week I Review), along with two of his co-workers Alvin and Tiann. Alvin and Tiann are both South African, and all are cool dudes. We played darts for a couple hours, then headed to another pirate bar (it's popular here in Korea) filled with foreigners. There must have been thirty of them, and Friday night at the pirate bar is the place to be. Beer is incredibly cheap here, as is Soju. The four of us shared a pitcher of grape flavored Soju, which tasted just like grape Kool-Aid. Also, the beer is served in ice mugs (plastic mugs with a removable ice insert that is molded to fit the mug). It's kinda cool, especially when you are finished with the beer, you remove the ice mold and hurl it at a target on the wall. If you hit the target, you win a prize. I missed the first time, but won a free beer on my second attempt. Go to YouTube and type "pirate bar Sanbon" if you want to see videos of this.
Saturday I slept until 3pm and didn't do much, mostly because I didn't get home until around 4am. Sunday I traveled to Seoul for the first time and met a group of Westerners. The train ride to Seoul was a pain free 45 minutes and cost only 1,500 Won. The group is for Hashing, which is entirely new to me, but basically they gather weekly to run a 4-6 mile course and socialize afterwards. Check it out. It was cool and I will probably do it again this week. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_House_Harriers) The run was slightly difficult and mostly uphill, but it was good to see Seoul and hang with a different crowd. They are a mix of teachers, nurses, military personnel, and business people living in/near Seoul. A couple people were from Ohio and one dude was from Chicago. Afterwards, we went to a bar in Itaewon (the American neighborhood of Seoul) for Quiz Night, and I returned home to Sanbon around 11pm Sunday night.
That's my story. Hope all is well in the Western world.
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