On Wednesday night, I met up with one of my Korean friends for dinner and to celebrate the end of her semester and beginning of summer break. We ended up at our neighborhood chicken hof which is normally rather busy. We wanted to sit outside since it was a beautiful night. However when we arrived, there was only one table left inside. We sat down and there was a huge projector playing the Iran v. South Korea soccer game that was taking place in Seoul. The score was 1-0 in favor of Iran towards the end of the game. (Sorry my knowledge of soccer is rather limited).
South Korea ended up scoring a goal in the final minutes to tie the game. The restaurant exploded. It was a pretty amazing site to see everyone in a place cheering for the same team since this doesn't seem to happen back home too much.
Another one of our friends met up with us but we had finished eating and he was hungry. We decided to try out the "New Zealand House" which is just around the corner from my apartment. They served some delicious ribs that hadn't been "Koreanized" (translation: has something funky added to it) and soju (the Korean traditional liquor) in a CO2 powered bottle. They also had some international beers which doesn't happen too often in my neighborhood. I'll definitely go back.
On Thursday, I met another group of Korean friends in the Kunkuk University area. The areas around universities here are always really trendy and there's lots to do. We went to Ho Bar II and played darts. I have no idea why it's called Ho Bar but it's an interesting name nonetheless.
The night ended at a noraebong or "singing room." Each group gets your own room to sing to your hearts content. The room comes with all of the essential equipment like a TV, microphones, tambourines, and maracas. They had quite a few English songs. We had a blast!
One of the guys I was with speaks about as much English as I do Korean. I always seem to have a great time when I am with him though. We communicate through hand motions and our extensive 20 word vocabularies in both languages. I told his "Canchunayo" which means "it's okay" and I blew his mind. He told me my Korean has improved by 100% (this was translated through our mutual friend who speaks both languages) since I last met him. This isn't too much of an accomplishment since I could like two words last time a hung out with him.
All and all, it was a pretty awesome couple of days. I love Korea!
No comments:
Post a Comment