Well. Normally, Monday means dragging through the morning, being tired from a gig the night before, annoyance at noisy coworkers and the beginning of staring at a monitor all week... Today... It meant free day in Seoul!
I was up late the night before, chatting it up w/friends. I made arrangements to hang out with Andre, my friend from back home in the US... And I also asked Rebecca if she wanted to hang out w/MeriKim and I. (Yes... This is the post most of you have probably been waiting for by now. :P )
Met up w/'Dre in Hongdae... MeriKim and took the subway allll by ourselves. :P The small things... Haha... We walked around a tiny bit and he recommended this place, though he never actually ate there before.
Kalbi-chim, soju and cider... This actually might have been my favorite meal in Korea. The kalbi-chim was spicy, like Szechuan-spicy... And it was coated in peppers. Sooooo good...
This was MK's first time trying soju. She didn't seem like a fan... Haha...
It was kind of weird being led around by Andre... All the service people would come up to MeriKim or I and speak Korean, and then Andre would have to intervene and speak Korean back to them. Was an odd sight. :P
'Dre was telling me about where he bought his guitar... He said there's like, this utopia of guitar shops... I was at attention, of course. :) He said it was in Insadong... I was like, 'realllly?' So, we ended up going back there. MK wanted to buy some shoes that she saw at a shop there last time and didn't buy... So, off we went.
There was a pastry shop in the subway. The cupcakes were so cute!
In about a split second, I saw a Baby Taylor.
...Yep. This was the first Taylor I've seen here.
We made it to the first shop... It was like, three floors in tiny rooms. This was their acoustic room... Nothing much too interesting. Almost all the guitars were Korean brands like 'Crafter' and many others I never heard of. No high-end stuff... :(
'Dre talking w/the guy who ran the shop.
Crafter is pretty popular, it seems.
Back outside... Guitar galleries all over!
Unfortunately, many of them seem to carry the same stuff.
There are a lot of Ibanezes, too... Ibanez and Epiphone are like, the big two. There were Fenders around, though. Surprisingly, not many Schecters... They're a USA brand, but made in Korea. Thought maybe they'd sell them here, too. Saw some LTDs, though. Also... Shredder guitars seem to be 'in' here. Lots of Floyd Rose equipped guitars with jumbo frets. Interesting. [Those are hard to find in the US nowadays.]
We were wandering around this warehouse-building-thing, trying to find Andre's guitar-utopia. Got lost. :P ...And we almost got yelled at for taking this picture. :P
...But, we found it. The Lost City of Guitars......
I was looking for high-end, boutique Korean stuff. No such luck... But, I did spy a Matchless!
This display had the most expensive guitars in the area... Two special JS models, and two Suhrs!
The Suhrs weres refurbs, though. :S But, still... They were $5-6K. This was a Suhr Standard.
Suhr Classic. No, I didn't get to play either... I also didn't get to plug any electrics in and crank it, like I was hoping. I haven't heard a distorted guitar in two weeks! Argh. I was hoping to vent a little. But, Korean guitar shops are really different than American ones... For one, they're all REALLY QUIET. Like, serious-buyers-only kind of thing or something. Then, they're all kinda small... I didn't wanna seem like the big-dumb-rude-American, so I didn't plug in anything. :( Ah well. I don't think they'd have let me play those Suhrs anyways, which were really the only guitars I was interested in here.
Anyways...
We went back out to the main-shop-street in Insadong, and MeriKim did her shopping. Meanwhile, 'Dre and I were talking about stuff, which, like all guy conversations, eventually ended up about girls... It got to how Rebecca, of course, and how she was going to take us out tonight. Well, by the end of the conversation, it seemed like I was taking her out on a date. Oh boy... Haha... Of course, MeriKim finished and walked out at right at that time, and jumped in on the poking...
We said our byes to Andre, and MeriKim and I were on our way back to the subway. She was finding ways to figure out how to conveniently not be able to make it out tonight... Oh gosh. All this talk, and I was getting pretty nervous. I was thinking, this is either going to be awkward... or really awkward. :P It was turning into a date, although I had just asked Rebecca to hang out as friends... You know, in a group. The makings of a ninja date, right here. [You can Urban Dictionary 'ninja date.'] Still, I'll only be here for less than a week... If things go bad, I'll have a funny story to laugh about later. But... If things go well... Well, I still have a week left... And then... Well, I don't want to think about that quite yet. :P
MeriKim and I got to the station right across from my apt, and we were greeted by Ju Eun and Jong Hyun, who were waiting for us. They went by themselves to get us! Korea's really safe.
Well, Rebecca had called my host family mom earlier and explained how we were going to hang out... But, when I explained to her earlier that we were hanging out, I guess some things got lost in translation b/c she thought Rebecca was hanging out with us for lunch. Long story short, we ended up eating the dinner she prepared for us, and Rebecca was on her way... So, MeriKim was stuck going along with us. Not a bad thing... She would make things less awkward.
Rebecca picked us up and we were on our way to... somewhere. Haha... I forget where we were originally going to go... But she got lost and we ended up heading for Itaewon. But, that didn't work out, either... So we ended up going to Daehakro, a university-college-street-shop-hang-out place. It was pretty nice... And I'd soon find out it was VERY nice.
She had her English station on the radio... 102.7. Funny, that's the frequency of my favorite station back home. They had some talk show on... And the first thing I heard was 'impressions you want a girl to have of you' and the whole program was about first dates and getting girls. Ummmmmmmmmmmm... :P She pretended not to notice, but I looked back at MeriKim, who was smirking. Eventually, Rebecca asked me if I had an .mp3 player or something... I didn't, so she just turned off the radio. Then turned it back on, looked for some other station, and ended back on 102.7. ~~Awkward~~ Oooh boy. :P
We found a place to park, and she asked if we wanted to do anything, and I was saying how I wanted to find a CD shop...
...But, the shop she thought sold CDs actually ended up being a high-end headphone store. Umm... Wow.
* gasp *
If you don't know... I am an audiophile. These things are... amazing. The black and brown cans in this pic cost ~$1300. And I bet they'd be worth every penny... (err... won)...
Beyerdynamics! Ahh... I wanted the DT880 or DT990 so bad before... I never got to hold a set before! They also had the new T1.... OMG...
We walked around a bit after... It was lightly sprinkling. Rebecca made me hold her umbrella for her... :) MeriKim, my awesome noona, actually went and bought another umbrella.... LOL...
Theater! This was the first time I really got to walk around Korea at night, so I was having fun taking some night photos...
Kinda impromptu pic...
...And... you can guess whose idea this was... :) Haha... Ninja has accomplice, eh? :P
Definitely a university hang out... All young people, everywhere...
We just happened to pass by a hair cuttery for guys... Definitely a trendy area, so time to get that hair cut!!
Note scissor-holster thing...
My hair was definitely getting gross. I kinda wished I got it cut before giving my testimony, but oh well.
Wash...
Dry...
Wax...
Neh? Neh? I wasn't thrilled w/how it got waxed (kinda wanted more style), but the cut was good and I could definitely do what I wanted with my hair now. All for $11! Awesome...
Ok... So, the first place Rebecca wanted to show us was the above cafe. She was explaining how it was designed by a German designer... And it most definitely was an art cafe. This is where she hangs out! She grabs a drink of something and reads art books... They sell and switch out the art on the walls periodically. Classy, classy place. Umm... Yeah, I was kind of in disbelief. I am an idiot for not taking pictures inside. Wow...
Walking around, you could see other interesting shops/cafes... All very artsy, and kind of themed. This one had a like, stationary-theme going on.
But... Where we'd be spending the rest of our time out is what got me...
Enough said?
...Yeah... I couldn't really believe I was in a live jazz club in Seoul. With a hot girl (ok, ok, well, MeriKim makes two)... The band playing was a three piece. They looked like students... And they definitely were formally trained. They were AMAZING. All three of them were like, bleeding chops... They were pretty sick, especially for their age. Kinda funny how they just wore sweats and tees.
I've had a dream to own a jazz club for the longest time... It'd be musically-focused. No kiddie-nonsense... People would be paying attention to the music, drinking classy drinks and enjoying talent. No dancing or whatever... It would be about the music. Well... This club was exactly that.
Oh, and everyone there was a couple. :P
Did I mention she hangs out here?
Overflow seating... Apparently, it gets pretty full on the weekends. I could imagine!
The bassist was pretty sick. I don't know how he followed the pianist so well. Not just during pieces, but during improv parts, he was always in the right place. Complicated bass runs throughout...
The drummer was crack... And also, really a drummer. Haha... When they took a 10 minute break, the pianist and bassist walk back drinking water... And this guy's got a pint in his hand... Haha... But, he was good... changing beats and styles and stuff during his solos.
...And the frontman... He was... definitely a jazz music major or something. You just can't be that good without being formally trained. So very technical... But also just plain talented. Talk about mastery of an instrument...
...Yeaaaaaaaaah... Hahaha... Even by now, I still wasn't sure what this was. A ninja date? Just a hang-out? Maybe something... a little more? Whatever... I got a picture. :)
Well... It was getting late, and time to go home. Our host families were up, waiting for us... Rebecca drove us back. She dropped MeriKim off first... Well, that's a good sign. :) But... No real conversation on the way back to my apt. Just a quick thank you and good bye...
And, well... I was on Cloud 9. Felt like a dream that I wasn't supposed to be in or something... Like, did that really just happen? How could she have taken me to all the right places? Like, too good to be true. So good, I was pretty confused after. I was even more confused by her signals... I wasn't getting anything! MeriKim didn't get anything, either. :S She told me that all she could tell was that 'she wasn't not interested'... Well, that's good. But, I couldn't tell anything... Did she have fun? Was it awkward? Does she think I'm a creeper, now? Am I just stuck in the friend zone? I dunno. I am confused. And... I think I'm starting to like this girl... But, I'm not getting to see much of her. I didn't really get to learn too much about her, except that she likes really awesome things. And... Well, I'm leaving in a week... :( But... interest - piqued. Control self, or leave with a broken heart? What am I gonna do with myself? :P Stupid, stupid... She probably has me in the friend zone... Get over it... She just wanted to show us a good time in Seoul. Nothing more?
Ah, well. Tomorrow was DMZ-day... I would see her again then... Try to get some response one way or the other. Bad... I leave in a week... Good... I leave in a week. Gonna suck either way. :\ Snake, what did you get yourself into? :P Bad, bad, bad...
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