Blog catch-up | November to December

It’s been awhile, but better late than never, so here is a bit of catch-up on the blog from stuff that happened way back in November and December. On Remembrance Day in North America the Koreans celebrated Peppero Day. In Korea, instead of remember the war dead like at home, they celebrate Lotte (a big corporate) chocolate covered cookie sticks. They are really popular over her and on Peppero day, they are everywhere: given to all the kids, the tiny boxes are tied together in huge heart shapes, etc. It was the first time I realized the not all western countries celebrate like Canada. I just always assumed that the US and other countries had services on the 11th and wore poppies leading up to the day. Not the case, we had to explain to the Americans why we were making little red flowers. I guess it’s only us and the Brits, a nice classy thing we do for the vets that I guess maybe we take for granted.

The Friday night after Remembrance Day we went drinking at the Caribbean rum place on Rodeo drive by our place. One of the best things there was the hilariously translated menu: spicy rum cock anyone? We headed across the street to a norebang or karaoke room. We snuck beers and soju in inside the girls’ big purses. But I guess we don’t have to do that anymore since we have frequented the place so much since then they don’t care. It was hilarious inside. The rooms are all along a hall. They have leather benches, microphones with germ protectors and echo effect, a big screen playing nature scenes or other people singing and dancing while you sing, disco lights, and a karaoke book in Korean and some English. It was just like karaoke at a pub but here you put your number choice in through an oversized remote control. We sang Under the sea, Abracadabra, No Doubt, and all the regular screaming sing-along rock songs that made it feel like Split Crow. Jon and I decided it would be a good idea to break into other people’s rooms and found it quite hilarious to interrupt couples singing out the Korean love ballads. We had some really spicy tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes) after and drank some more in Jon’s room while he passed out.

Lisa and I headed into Seoul that Sunday for the Seoul Lantern Festival. There were lanterns from all over the world. They were kicking off the Come to Korea “year” 2010-2012. A lot of them were used from Buddha’s birthday back in the spring, but we missed that. They were all up Cheonggye stream through the city centre. We met up with Haley and a Korean teacher Michelle from her school in Myongdong. It was freezing cold so we only quickly walked up the main street checking out the department store Christmas lights. The stream was packed as it was the last night for the lanterns. There was lots of picture taking. We walked through all the lanterns, the lantern tunnel, all the world landmarks (Rio, Egypt, Angkor Wat, etc.), the Korean soldiers, temples and Seoul landmarks, animals, and even space ships. After we went to the Jongo neighbourhood for some kimchi shigae (soup with kimchi and tuna) and a different rice wine.

The following weekend we went to the Hongdae neighbourhood to meet a friend from high school for dinner. It was really random, but a lot of fun. Jen Lesser and her boyfriend, who actually went to SMU, live pretty close to all the bars and madness in Hongdae but we found a really good chicken stirfry restaurant to eat at and did a bit of catching up.

For Amanda’s birthday we went to the almost opposite side of Seoul from where we live to try out the bungee jumping. It was a ridiculously long way on the subway, and we even saw the other end of our line (3) and went a little further. We played a scavenger hunt game with photos on the subway. Lisa and I won finding the best floral pattern pants on an old Korean woman (there were lots to choose from). The bungee jumping was in this park, and when we got there we spent lots of time stressing over the jump, watching other people go and scream, checking out the sculptures in the park, all while waiting for other people. When everyone was finally there, we realized the bungee jumping was now closed. So we came all the way for nothing: FAIL. Some people drove back, and we took the subway to Sinchon near Hongdae for some garlic fingers and Mooseheads at Beer O’clock. We were annoyed to be on the subway again, but ended up getting there before the drivers.

It was getting colder, but still not a lot of snow. What a better idea than running the KM marathon along the river in a huge wide open park? It was a freezing cold day after an amazing long bus ride to get to Jamsil. The Team Dirt tent was huge and there were a lot of foreigners running on our team. The tent was at risk of blowing away with the high winds, but there were enough winter coats abandoned by the runners that it should have been okay. The race path was really nice and you got to see a lot along the Han River path as we ran. I only did 10km, but it was enough. You really weren’t that cold while you were running which was good, but I was freezing afterwards. We all went to an after party at Red Rock Brewery in Gangnam after. It was a really cool Canadian microbrewery that had a lot of beers from home, like Grasshopper.

On another night we had a bunch of the teachers from SLP over to our place for poutine night. My parents sent a lot of gravy packets so we thought it would be a good idea to share. It was BYO-fries since our toaster oven is really little, but it turned out really good. I think we introduced a lot of Americans to their new favourite food for after the bars, and made the Canadians a little homesick.