First Fun Weekend

November 22, 2010
Status: Content and Jolly

Hello readers! I finally had a decent weekend! On Saturday, I went to the hospital cause my throat was killing me and I felt like I was getting sick. The doctor told me I had tonsillitis then gave me a prescription for 12 little bags with 6 pills in each bag. He told me to come back in 4 days for a follow up. I was iffy about all the pills but they actually seem to be working because my throat is fine now. Wooohoooo! Anyways, after I came back from the hospital I went to get my hair done. I took a chance and I love it. It's a light brown that fades into a darker shade of brown. It looks nice. I wish my camera wasn't dead so I could take a picture of it.

I decided to meet up some friends I met through my recruiter in Seoul. They told me to just head up to their place which is about 2 hours and a 1/2 away by subway!!!! I didn't know that till I finally got there. Lol. I took a bus from my town (hangnam- hwaseong) to the closest subway station to me- Suwon Subway Station- and that took 45minutes. It was one long night. The subway system is fairly easy to figure out but I didn't know where to buy my ticket or how to go through the little gate thing. The subway train was packed too! I was standing up for a good hour before I found a seat. 45 from my friends place it got empty so I had a lot of room. I actually made it to his place in one piece! When I got there we all headed to Hongdae, the clubbing district, in Seoul. I've never seen so many college students and foreigners out and about. It's something you'd have to experience once in your life. We hung out at bar B2 all night because one of the guys I was with was the promoter. I met a lot of nice foreigners there and even some cute twins!

We didn't get out of there till 4am. I know, I'm just too old to be staying out like that. We went out for fried chicken which was expensive as usual cause American food is expensive over here. 2 plates of chicken and 4 bottles of sprite costed us $39.00. That's just outrageous because you could probably get the same amount in the states for $25 MAX. We got back to his place at 6am and we walked around looking for a hotel for me. It was freeeeezing cold and we were all tired but we couldn't find a vacant room. They were all booked... he doesn't even live in an exciting city so I don't know how all the hotels were booked. It was frustrating so I took a bus home at 6:20am. It took me an hour and 45 minutes to get home and then another 20 ride to the subway station and THEN another 30minutes to get to MY town. I didn't get home till noon. (I stopped for food at the Suwon subway station). I took a shower and knocked out.

Today was another normal day at work. I ordered a converter/adapter online so I can charge all my electronics with american plugs. Hopefully, it will come in soon. I also went to a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner. I saw it on Saturday when I walked to the hospital so I decided to try it today. The owner is Korean. The pho was okay but the goi cuon was NOT authentic. I KNOW the owner made the goi cuon because there was sweet pickled veggies in it and fake crab meat. There were no noodles, pork, or peanut sauce to accompany it. She totally screwed up one of my favorite dishes by turning it into a korean wanna be viet dish! Anyways, I asked her if the chef spoke Vietnamese and she said no. I was really curious who spoke Vietnamese there because all the writing in the restaurant is in clear Vietnamese with the actually accents and everything. I kept trying to speak Vietnamese to the guy but he wouldn't really respond. He asked me for my email at the end and was shocked that I am a Nguyen. Seriously? I've been speaking fluent Vietnamese to you the whole time and I kept saying "I'm Vietnamese. My parents are Vietnamese!" He told me that he thought I was some weird foreigner trying to speak Vietnamese cause I had Viet friends or something. What the heck? I left there laughing cause it was just a funny situation. Anyways, that's all for today. Thanks for reading!

P.S. Oh yeeeeeeah, I forgot to tell you that on the way to the clubbing district I saw an old man in his 70s trying to pull another old man in his late 70s up by his backpack straps. I was so shocked because the old man was unconscious. Everyone was just casually walking by. My response "Oh my god! What's happened?! Is he okay?! Should we call the police?!?!?!?!" and my friends all started laughing. I didn't know what was going on. They said "He's just drunk and passed out. Girl, you're going to see A LOT of that here so get used to it." They were right because at the end of the night, I saw soooo many people passed out in restaurants, on the streets, and every where else. That's crazy how it's okay to drink and pass out in public like that. I kind of understand people in their 20s-30s but 70 yr old men?! No way is that ever going to be normal for me.

P.S.S. As we were walking down the street to buy chicken we saw a couple yelling at each other across the street. The guy punched her in the face and knocked her to the ground. She got up and slapped him in the face and they just kept exchanging fists. That was so wild to witness. I asked my friends if we should stop them and they said "You've never seen that happen before? You'll see it a lot over here because it's not unusual for a guy to slap or hit a girl in public." That's just insane. How is physical abuse of women allowed like that? That's another thing that I will NEVER be able to get used to.