D-Day In Korea

One of my best friends from university has visited me in every country where I have taught: China, Chile...and now Korea!

At the very beginning of April, my friend Mikey, came to visit me. We have been friends ever since our freshman year when we were next door neighbors in our dorm. Hard to believe it's been 9 years since then!

Mikey has spent the last year or so working in London with a big boy job. Before arriving in Korea, he had visited our mutual friends Kevin and Vicky in Thailand.

Mikey arrived at Incheon Airport (Seoul's International airport, a 45 minute train ride outside of the city) early on a Friday morning. Our plan was to spend the entire weekend in Seoul, and then come to Daejeon for Monday-Wednesday, because I still had to teach those days.

After arriving to our hostel, we laid down to rest for a while, but then started making some moves. Our first stop was to a tour of one of Seoul's most well-known tourist destinations, Changdeok Palace. I've written about it in these pages when I went there back in October or November with Daniel and Kate. It was incredibly beautiful at the time because of all of the fall colors, but everything was still somewhat unblossomed when I took Mikey. Still, it was nice.

After that we grabbed some lunch and headed to the N'Seoul Tower. It was my first time visiting the N'Seoul Tower. It provides visitors with the most spectacular and tallest view of Seoul. Since it was rather smoggy/foggy out, we decided against buying tickets for the elevator up the Seoul tower, and elected to just walk up the hill where it sits, and have a few beers at the restaurant/cafe.

On Friday night I took Mikey to some of my favorite bars in the Hongdae area of Seoul, including the amazing Magpie, which serves probably my favorite homebrewed beer in Korea. Magpie is generally my standard fix for quality microbrewed beer in Seoul. While I'm not too impressed by their Hefeweizen (too watery and not enough body), their IPA is delish. It always looks like their food is great, too, but I've never ordered any...

On Saturday we woke up kinda late and hungover. Additionally, the weather was a bit shitty, so we decided it would be a perfect idea to head over to the National War Museum. While the main attraction for most Americans is presumably the Korean War part of the museum, the museum actually has exhibitions covering ancient battles, before Korea was a proper country. I also went here a few months ago, but I know Mikey particularly wanted to see it.

After an hour or so at the National War Museum, we met up with my friends Dana and Rachel, who had come to Seoul earlier on Saturday to visit the Tim Burton art exhibition. It was the last weekend it was showing, so they tried to catch it late Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, there was a long wait, and they were told that it would be in their best interest if they waited until the next day. In any case, we met up with Dana and Rachel for Korean BBQ for dinner. Afterwards, we went out for some drinks, hitting a different microbrewery than the one we went to last night as well as an Irish Pub, among other places.

On Sunday, our main goal was to attend the Tim Burton art exhibition. We got tickets, and they told us that we would have to wait for our number, which would be 2-3 hours (you can probably get a picture for how popular this exhibition was). So we walked around the Dongdaemun Market area and grabbed some lunch in a tent. We ate grilled chicken, sundae (Korea's version of blood sausage), and something else, but now I can't remember...I think samgyeopsal (pork belly)? I also told Mikey he had to try makgeolli (a milky, rice liquor, which I looooove).

After lunch at the market, we made our way back to the art exhibition. As soon as we walked in, we saw that our numbers were being called on the LED sign. Yeesssss, perfect timing!

The Tim Burton exhibition was really cool. For those who don't know who Tim Burton is, he has written and directed several movies such as 'Edward Scissorhands' and 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'. He has a style unlike anyone else. His art (movies, drawings, etc.) is dark, while at the same time somewhat cartoonish. The exhibition included some of his first notes and drawings as a kid and teenager, which I thought were particularly interesting. I'm very glad we had a chance to go to that, but there was just sooo many damn people there, it was hard to actually get a good look at anything.

I took Mikey to my classes on that Monday.  The girls went crazy over him.  He constantly had girls come up and talk to him, and kind of just follow him around.  It was really hilarious.  One of my girl students said, "Teacher, leave.  We want Mikey to be our new teacher." 

On Monday night we went out to eat with Daniel, Kate, and Liz.  Afterwards we went to a fun bar named Any Beer.  Any Beer is a sit-down bar, and you can play games at your table via a touch screen.  You can also play games against other tables, and strangely enough, SPY on other tables.  We were accosted by two young Korean men at some point.  They were clearly very drunk and insisted we take shots with them.  We obliged them for a while, but then I think they finally got the picture through our body lanuage that we weren't interested.  Actually, I think Liz probably made it very obvious to them after a while...haha. 

After we left Any Beer, we took Mikey to one of our favorite places in Korea...noraebox!  We just had to take Mikey to noraebox: the karaoke room that is the size of a bathroom stall.  

That Tuesday and Wednesday was pretty uneventful for the most part.  On one of those nights, one of my co-teachers, Mr. Choi, took us to a premium buffet.  They have tons of sushi, as well as many other dishes (Korean, American, etc.), all you can drink beer (and pretty much any other beverage you want), etc. 

Before Mr. Choi picked us up at my apartment, I told Mikey, "I'd like for us to treat Mr. Choi tonight, because he's treated me so much in the past, and treated me so well."

Mikey was all for it, but I warned him, "Mikey, in this country, the older people almost always treat the younger people...so what I'm saying is there might be a physical struggle for us to pay the bill."

Mikey said, "Alright. Well, here's the plan: when the bill comes to our table, I'll grab it immediately."

Of course, this conversation is all paraphrased, but this is pretty much what was said.

So, as expected we had a great meal.  As we were eating dessert, the waiter came and dropped the check off at our table and Mikey immediately lunged for it.  Mr. Choi, eyes wide, practically lunged across the table to grab the bill.  Mr. Choi was holding on tight and Mikey finally let go.  However, Mikey was quick enough that he had actually taken the bill from the leather case it was brought in before Mr. Choi had lunged at him. 

I told Mr. Choi, "We just want to treat you, because you have treated me so much in the last 8 months."

Then I asked, "Are you mad?"

Mr. Choi, suddenly languishing in defeat, sighed and said, "Not mad, just disappointed.  It's not the Korean way!"

After Mr. Choi dropped us off at my apartment, Mikey gave Mr. Choi a big hug.  Hugs are simply just not done in this country (except between family and significant others), so I held my breath for a second.  I could tell Mr. Choi was a little surprised at first, but he embraced Mikey after a second, and smiled. 

Afterwards, Mikey said, "Do you think it was bad of me to hug him?" 

I laughed and said, "I'm sure it's fine."

Mr. Choi told me later he thought Mikey was "a really good guy", so I guess the hug didn't ruin everything!