Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Kenny Rogers is a Wise Man

I made plans this last weekend to go out and kick it with a couple other native teachers from work and two of the Korean teachers. We’d settled on going out Saturday night for some drinks followed by (you guessed it!) norae bang. We started off heading back to the Cave Bar for more scientifically measured beer. It was even better the second time! I even ended up doing a little soju bomb in honor of the fans back home.





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Technically, if you mix soju and beer (mekju) it’s called somek, but I contend that if you drop it into a glass it’s still a bomb. The best part of the Cave Bar was that it ended up being 20% off! There was a random company holiday and tables were allowed to draw a random bonus to their night, and I ended up pulling the second best one! There was a 30% off one, too, but I’m not complaining.
We ended up kickin’ it with the Canadian couple from my work over at their sweet pad just down the road. It was fun to just hang out with people and be able to shoot the shit outside of work. An hour or so later we made our way en masse to a sweet norae bang that ended up being 2,000 won a person (~$1.60).
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[SIDENOTE]
In Japan, karaoke is charged by the person by the hour, so a group of 10 people would still have to pay around 700 yen (~$7.55) each for an hour of all-you-can-drink awesomeness. Here, they charge by the room, so a place that costs 20,000 won an hour will only cost each person 2,000 won. Oh, and there’s no alcohol. You can buy beer at some places, but it’s overpriced and nothing in comparison to the nomihoudai I had grown accustomed to.
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After singing for over an hour, I had done my best to convince people we should go and check out the local nightclub. Imagine my surprise when we get there and they refuse our entrance because there are too many white people. Needless to say, I was super pissed. It was the first time I’d been denied entry anywhere, plus what the fuck?! A couple of the other teachers were much less surprised than I and assured me it happens in a lot of places outside of the greater Seoul area. I was so tempted to go up and punch the doorman right in the face. On the plus side, it helped fuel my interest in Korean language so I can at least handle the situation next time with some tact and make sure I know the right cuss words to utter under my breath.
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All in all, it was a good night. We decided to go bowling instead of the shitty local club, and I had a great time. I’ve been listening to Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler” a lot recently, and I think his words apply here:

You got to know when to hold’em,
Know when to fold’em,
Know when to walk away and,
Know when to run.

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