Weekend number one

Sorry for the delay in posting! This past week has been crazy busy with training, getting to know people, and moving in to my apartment (finally).

My first weekend in Seoul involved a lot of alcohol, a lot of laughter, and a lot of chicken.  Chicken is kind of a wonderful drinking food. All kinds.  Fried, baked, spicy, mild, everything. Chicken and soju, chicken and beer, chicken and whatever.

Not that I'm complaining.  I like chicken.

Friday night a bunch of the teachers and a few friends went out to an outdoor restaurant that had some absolutely wonderful rotisserie-cooked chicken.  It was juicy and delicious, the atmosphere was fantastic, and I will definitely be going back there.  It's probably going to be one of the places I take my family when they come to visit.  It's a really long (uphill) walk from where my apartment will be, but it's also hard to get lost since there are no turns.  I literally just go to the closest intersection, turn right, and walk straight for a while and the place will be on the left.  Dead simple.

About half the group left when we reached the apartments because they wanted to sleep.  The rest of us headed out to Yeonsinnae (which is the hip and happening part of my neighborhood) and went to our favorite bar.  Yes, I have been here for a week and already have a favorite bar.  It's a cozy little place where the bartenders are super friendly and know a fair number of the teachers by name.  Plus they make wonderful drinks and speak enough English that even the people with no Korean ability can have a conversation with them.  We left and hit up a noraebang (karaoke room) for a little bit, then went back to the bar where I promptly started falling asleep at the table because it was 3am and I'd gotten up at 4:30 to go to immigration.

Saturday I met with my OSU conversation partner and a friend of his who I met briefly in Ohio.  We got 냉면 for lunch (cold noodles) and then walked around Seoul.  They wanted to show me all the fun parts of the city, but they were surprised at how many places I'd already been.  I told them I was up for going back to any of them because it had been a whole year, but they wanted to take me somewhere I hadn't been before.  We started by walking around Hongdae and some of the surrounding area, then took the subway to Samcheong-dong, which has a lot of boutique shops and cool buildings.  I know I should have been speaking Korean, but I'm still very nervous about my speaking ability.  I've gotten minimal practice since arriving because the vast majority of my day is English-only, so I really didn't feel comfortable talking in Korean.  We did come to an agreement, though - I would talk in English, while they would talk in Korean.  It worked out really well and I was very happy to realize that I understood most of what they were saying.

Saturday evening involved dinner and shopping in Gangnam and clubbing in Itaewon.  Itaewon kinda weirds me out a bit because it's like stepping into a foreign country. Well, a different foreign country.  There are more foreigners than Koreans in Itaewon, and even though I use English all day at school and with my friends, it was really weird to be surrounded by English (and various other non-Korean languages) on all sides.

I really should be taking more pictures, but I usually get caught up in the midst of all the fun and completely forget.  I'll try to do better~