My first weekend in Korea has gone by EXTREMELY quickly, which is nice. A weekend of firsts, which was also nice.
I started my Saturday off with a trip to downtown Gwangju with two of the teachers, Melanie and Sophie. Mel kept talking about DVD bangs, which I'd never heard of. They're movie theaters, but you walk in, and on the shelf in front of you there are TONS of movies. You pick one, take it to the counter, pay $10, and then you get your individual little movie theater with couches and stuff. The movies here are all in English with Korean subtitles, which is awesome. Anyhow, we rent "Step Up", get some pizza at Pizza Hut (yes, Pizza Hut. Korean food makes my butt hurt.... baby steps) and settle in on this huge ass couch. After about 5 minutes it occurs to me... "people have sex in here don't they?" They sure do. But good movie. :)
After the movie we walked around a bit and I caught a glimpse of the Korean fashions. Korean fashions will be completely covered in another blog at a future date, because it's too much to go into right now.... We then caught a cab to Home Plus, which is like Meijer, only everyone is Korean, you can't understand any labels, and there is an employee standing there waiting to serve you every 15 feet. Oh yea, and when you go there, you pay 50 cents a plastic bag, for all the shit you bought that you can't understand.
After our adventures Sophie and Mel were pooped, and I ended up meeting up with Liz. Now Liz Huey reminds me to a T of Sarah Schmidt, so Sarah, I've found my equal here. Randomness and insanity ensued one Liz came over. Liz is addicted to dark chocolate, is from Vancouver, says "eh" a lot, and has a distinct dislike for Koreans.
Let me backtrack here.... Yes I've only been here 4 days, I cannot tell you how many times some completely random person has yelled HI at me. It happens all day, every day, countless time. So you turn around and say "hi" back, and the kids collapse into fits of giggles. These are mostly high school kids, so that should explain that.
So back to my story. Liz comes over, and we decide to WALK to Home Plus. It's about a 45 minute walk from our apartment. And it's about 10 at night. This trip was exciting, because at Home Plus I find tuna, apple juice, and eggs. Finding food that is considered "normal" to us is like a game here. Today I found Skittles in a 7-11. Yes, they have that here. On the way home from Home Plus the drunk Koreans are starting to come out in force, and Liz's response to the Korean HI is to either ignore it, say "you're stupid", or flip the bird. The bird was my favorite, because the teenagers aren't expecting it and stand there like assholes staring at you. My personal favorite the past few days has become random responses. HI, I say "cow balls". Hi, I say gorilla juice. And today I got the best one. I get HI and I turn around and say WHAT'S UP, only to see the kids turn and look up and the sky.
So today, Sunday, Jasmin learned about Barber shops. There are a lot of barber shops around here, with the spinning barber shop poles outside. I didn't think anything of it until today. Some places have ONE pole outside, first floor. This indicates an actual barber shop. Then there are other places, with TWO poles, usually above the first floor. This def does not indicate a barber shop, it means it's a brothel. So say you don't know this and go in for what? A haircut and a blow job? Yea, I didn't know that before today, and while walking today I see them EVERYWHERE. So yes, if you're in Korea and you need a haircut, be sure to go into the regular barber shop and not Haircuts and Whores...
On a not so cool note.... animals are not very well liked here in Korea. There are stray cats outside my apartment, and I know some of the teachers feed them. Last night I heard kittens outside so they have them SOMEWHERE, but we can't find them. On the way home today from walking I passed by this bif hedge and on the other side you can hear dogs barking so I say "Oh look Liz, dogs!" and she said "You don't want to know what's over there". There is a dog restaurant about a 5 minute walk away from my apartment. She said not to go down the side street, they keep them caged right outside and tied up and people eat them.
And so goes the first weekend in Korea
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