Today was a free day... And the day after would be a free day, too... And the six of us had planned on trying to 'get out on our own' and grab some drinks and noraebang. We tried planning for Sat, but that didn't work... Then Sunday night, and that didn't work... And Monday didn't work... So, it all came down to Thurs. And Thurs it was... Of course, there was a whole day to do stuff beforehand.
Soooo... Another last night 'bout of chatting, and Rebecca asked me if I wanted to go grab breakfast with her and David... So, she came by and picked us up, and we went to a Coffee Bean nearby.
Didn't really end up getting food-food, but drinks... Rebecca treated us. Somehow. It's hard to sneak-a-pay when you can't speak the language... :P But, even still, she wouldn't take our money. :S Blahgdahweklj. Oh well... I will get her later... :)
I got a vanilla-thingy... I wasn't really in the mood for coffee... It was pretty tasty. :) My host mom says she likes Coffee Bean way more than Starbucks...
Yeahhhhhhhhh... It was pretty awkward. I cannot really talk when David is around... He talks so much! And Rebecca can be pretty talkative, too... I'd interject like, one thing here and there, and then I'd get talked over. :P So, I ended up being quiet Snake most of the time... Still, she asked me to go w/her, that can't be bad, right?
Well, David had to hang out with his host family, and Rebecca had to go off to work... And now I got time to hang out with my host family, too. CK actually TOOK OFF of work to go on a city tour with us. Ju Eun was in school, but the rest of us went out. They have these coach buses that sorta also function like normal buses, but they go through all the tourist-y places in Seoul and have little informational thingers you can listen to as you approach each stop. If you want to get off and look around, you can just grab the next tour bus and show your ticket. It's pretty nifty...
So, off we went...
Passing by Seoul Station... Looks pretty small from the outside. :S
This building holds the largest bathhouse in Seoul...
Namsan Tower... I tried so hard to get a good picture of it, but one of the bus stops ended up being... Namsan Tower. :P Ah well.
This area was all Korean War memorials...
...And this area was Itaewon. If ya don't know... Itaewon is like, America-town. :P
...Where you can get clothes in 'sizes just right'... Meaning, you can see how much larger the clothes are from the window! I snickered...
Beer Garden?
The of the very few Taco Bells in Seoul.
Seoul has a bit of traffic. :P
We only had time to stop at two stops... By now, I've seen plenty of museums and traditional stuff. I wanted to see modern Korea! Big city stuff! Downtowns! So, I picked Myungdong for the first stop...
Food vendors!
Seemed to be restaurants and stuff that way...
But, clothes and stuff this way... Myungdong is the 'fashion capital of Seoul,' according to the tour-guide thingy, anyways. It said all the latest styles came out of Myungdong.
These are noodle-makers... They make a show out of it, like the ice cream guys.
I got a little more 'bold' about my street photography... Especially as you'll see later. :P
Red Mango!
These little wafer things are made entirely out of sugar... And they are tastttty...
While we were waiting for the next tour bus, we got some snacks... I got a Mountain Dew. It tastes different... More different than the Coke I had. It's less sweet. Jong-Hyun got some little cracker things.
One of the tour stops was known for being 'pet street' and also a 'motorcycle gallery.' I didn't see any pet shops, though. But, I saw lots of bikes! Big bikes, small bikes, and lots of scooters.
Good to know I can get good gear here... I haven't seen an Alpinestars store in the US.
Not sure this building is significant, but I thought it was pretty cool architecture.
The second stop... Namsan tower.... This was a shot of Seoul from the lookout point... There were some awesome shots on the way up, ruined by trees. :P
All-electric bus... Eco-friendly? Jong-hyun was pretty excited about this. :P
Namsan Tower... Feel pretty stupid for trying so hard to get a 'decent' picture of it before. :P
Couples trees... You and your honey write a little love-note-promise thing, and then lock it to one of these lock-trees.
I should've taken a picture of it, but my host-mom was reading some of the notes and snickering... Haha...
We didn't have time to actually go up the tower... But, the view off of the top of this mountain was pretty awesome.
Like I said... If there's space, Koreans will build restaurants. :P And Cold Stone?
Best burger? Seems like a 'high' claim (har har)... But, I never got a burger while in Korea, so I can't judge.
Walking down the really steep road thingy to get back to the bus... :) I <3 my host family...
We got off at Dongdaemun to take the subway back home...
Looks familiar? That's where I got my suit, but I had only seen the other side of the building before...
Soooooo... Here's where the rest of the night went down. Earlier, I had asked Rebecca if she wanted to go out with the six of us and go noraebang... She was a bit hesitant b/c she doesn't like noraebang (and if you know me, I don't either... :P ), but b/c Silvia was going, she decided to go. However, everyone was meeting at 6pm, and she didn't get off until 6pm. So... I volunteered myself to go down late so I could go with her. She didn't decline... :) Youngchai kinda helped set things up, too... She had Rebecca just meet us at the subway stop close to our apt. So, when we got to our stop, Rebecca was there waiting, and my host family went home and I turned around and got back on the subway with Rebecca.
Finally, some 'alone time' with her! We chatted and chatted... The subway ride was about an hour long. :) I still couldn't tell if she was into me or not... She didn't seem to be impressed with anything! :P Still... She didn't seem to mind being around me, so maybe progress? And she didn't decline my little move to be late with her...
Well, we got off at Gangnam... One of the other downtown areas I wanted to see. The others were already at a place, eating, so we were just gonna meet them there.
Now, this is one of the things that I heard a lot about, but didn't really see much of, or notice much... But, the plastic surgery thing is as real as the media makes it seem. Rebecca was telling me that every building on this street had a plastic surgery office/business/shop/whatever you want to call it!
I know it was rush hour, but this place was bussssssssy...
:D
Food vendors... Smelled so good...
Chicken & Beer is apparently really well-liked by Koreans... Maybe like Chipotle for Americans?
The one w/the yellow sign is where everyone was....
Hello!
Raia's host mom came w/her to eat... And she ended up getting the bill! The food was... umm... I forget the name, but it was like, noodles and chicken. Quite tasty! Even though we were late, there was still some left, and I ate a bowl or two. Rebecca was fasting, though. :P Raia's host mom took off... And then Kevin ended up joining us.
We finished up dinner and then... We went off to a sticker-booth place. Aren't they cute? :P
Fitting?
LOL...
MeriKim w/Kevin's glasses... Haha... I hadn't mentioned this, but Kevin lived in Australia for a while, and so his English has a pretty obvious Australian accent... And MeriKim, upon learning this, couldn't stop faking an Aussie accent and ending everything in, '...mate'... Haha...
We got our little stickers printed... Then it was off to grab some drinks! We decided not to drink at noraebang b/c it'd be too expensive there. We still had some of us who hadn't tried soju, yet...
...And here, we found the difference between Korean bars and American ones... You can't just 'get anything' like you do at an American one, and you have to make an order w/the waiter to get drinks. Plus, it seems like you're expected to spend a minimum amount, too. At least here at this bar, anyways.
I bought Shi-bong, Nick and I a round of soju... I got a Chamisul, Chum-Churum and a bek seju. Apparently, old ppl drink Chum-Churum. :P And apparently, only old ppl say 'gampai' when cheers-ing... You just say 'jang' instead.
Kinda blurry b/c of the n00bs w/the camera in the dim conditions (the pictures are actually a little brighter than the bar really was), and I guess I forgot to tell 'em to put their elbows on the table to hold the camera. Soju probably didn't help much. :P
Well, I thought three bottles between the three of us would be sufficient to just 'feel nice'... But, the other half of the table ordered some other stuff and whatever, including a fruit-soju-thing. They were taking a while to finish, so Nick ended up ordering two more bottles of Chamisul. ...And here's where I got stupid... One bottle was pretty much where I wanted to stop b/c I didn't wanna get tipsy, or drunk or anything b/c I was around Rebecca, who wasn't drinking. But... Since I wasn't really feeling much buzz, I figured I may as well drink what was in front of me... I did, and while I still had my stuff together, my thought processes were definitely slower and I was slurring my speech a little... So, now I felt like an idiot in front of Rebecca. Good job, dummy.
The arm around the shoulder was from Shi-bong's abetting... Haha... But, she didn't seem to mind. :) Since she wasn't drinking, I bought her a Coke. But... Since she was fasting, she couldn't have that either. :P Was doing a water-only fast. :S Good job, me! -__-
So... I was definitely 'tipsy'... I was a little more talkative when I was feeling 'nice' and having fun, but at the 'tipsy' point, I felt pretty stupid, so I got a little quieter. Mostly b/c I was having a hard time talking to Rebecca and didn't want to look like an arse in front of her, but I think I might've been past that point already. :(
Anyways... When we all finished, we walked out to find a noraebang... Found one, and it was a lot fancier than the ones I've been to in the States...
The setup was the same, pretty much, but they had fancy light things, and the sound system was pretty good and tuned better (vocals weren't as painful to listen to... :P ). It was pretty much impossible to take a clear picture in here...
I wasn't paying toooo much attention, but the two on the left joined us at the bar. I think they were friends of Stuber's? They were on the other side of the table, so I didn't get to talk to them... And I wasn't really talking at noraebang. :P
If I didn't feel so stupid, this might've been pretty fun... It looked like everyone else was having a really good time, though.
After not very long, I decided I should try an get sober faster, so I went outside for some fresh air and to go look for somewhere to get a Gatorade. I was also pretty afraid everyone was going to jump me and make me sing a song, like everyone does back home. -___- So, out I went... I found a 7-11 not too far away and chugged a bottle of Gatorade.
While I was out... I was really happy to be alone w/my camera in a busy area of Seoul at night, so I took some street photos.
Still trying to get that 'one, awesome picture'... I was just shooting left and right though, and a lot came out kinda blurry. A tripod would've been good... Oh well.
But... I either ended up walking around too long, or everyone decided to wrap up at noraebang way too early... :P I was walking back, and Kevin and Shi-bong hurried towards me. Everyone was done, and wondering where the heck I was. They walked me back to the group, and that made me feel even dumber than I had already felt. :P At least by now, I was sobering up pretty quick. I thought they would have been singing quite a bit longer, but I guess not... Kevin was really generous and ended up getting the whole bill!
So, we walked back out to the main street, then split up into North-side and South-side... MeriKim, David, Silvia, Rebecca and I wandered around a little, trying to wave down a cab.
In the meantime, I was happy to take some more pictures...
Seoul is so awesome at night...
Anyways... We finally got a cab, and all five of us piled in. Silvia got off somewhere close to a subway stop, and then the rest of us were off. I got super-quiet b/c David was talking like he usually does, and then I was still pretty afraid of seeming drunk in front of Rebecca. :P
The cab ended up getting lost trying to get us all back... It managed to get David home, but he got lost trying to get to MeriKim's. So, he ended up just dropping us all off at Rebecca's. So, she just drove us home... Dropping off MeriKim... And then taking me back.
It was pretty quiet in the car... I was all sober, but pretty tired. And I reallllllly had to pee. Nevertheless... When we got to my apartment, there was that put-the-car-in-park-conversation. We chatted a little, and she asked why I went off, and subsequently, why I felt stupid the whole night. I had to keep the conversation short b/c of the aforementioned problem (doh), but I explained to her that I felt embarrassed b/c I had drank more than I intended while she hadn't had a single drink. She asked why I felt embarrassed, and I then I just told her, 'I really like you'... To my surprise, I got an, 'oh really?' :S I thought I was being pretty obvious this whole time... But, she seemed genuinely surprised to hear me say that. I didn't get anything in return, but didn't really expect to, either. She just looked out in front of the car, with a kind of blank expression on her face. She was thinking... And she looked quite beautiful... So, I told her that. Well... Now I at least know she's not totally turned off by me. She at least is interested in me... But, whether it'll be enough to keep this up, I don't know. I've only got two days left. She at least told me that of everybody, she would miss me the most... She'd miss me b/c she spent the most time with me. Almost the rationale that I wanted to hear. Still, my intentions were out there...
It was time to go (har har), and we made plans for lunch the next day. Youngchai had actually asked her to take me out for breakfast the next day when we met up at the subway station because 'she didn't want to cook' (suuuuuure). But, we decided breakfast was too early, so we were gonna shoot for lunch.
I went inside and got ready for bed... Then chatted some more with Rebecca until late... Progress, progress...
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