Saturday, March 14, 2009

Rundown of Last Week

Ok, lets have a quick rundown of the weeks event:
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday:
School, Taekwondo and Study Korean. That's it, really. I can't believe it either. Most of you know that I hate school and I hate studying but these days thats all I do. I even get excited when I hear about new schools... Well we will see how long it lasts...Let's talk about Yellow Dust or Asian Dust. Right now we have this going on and it is wrecking my throat...Asian Dust (also yellow dust, yellow sand, yellow wind, or China dust storms) is a seasonal meteorological phenomenon which affects much of East Asia sporadically during the springtime months. The dust originates in the deserts of Mongolia and northern China and Kazakhstan where high-speed surface winds and intense dust storms kick up dense clouds of fine, dry soil particles. These clouds are then carried eastward by prevailing winds and pass over China, North and South Korea, and Japan, as well as parts of the Russian Far East. Areas affected by the dust experience decreased visibility and the dust is known to cause a variety of health problems, not limited to sore throat and asthma in otherwise healthy people. Often, people are advised to avoid or minimize outdoor activities, depending on severity of storms. For those already with asthma or respiratory infections, it can be fatal. The dust has been shown to increase the daily mortality rate in one affected region by 1.7%. Anyway is it pretty bad and I sound crazy sick even though I'm not...
Friday:
Drinking Makeolli and eating Kimchi. I figure one of the best ways to become fluent in a language is to also eat the food and drink the booze. Its a whole body experience...
Saturday:
Today is the Korean holiday "White Day". It is the opposite of Valentines Days. On Valentines Day in Korea it is a day that girls give their boyfriends chocolate. White Day the bays should buy girls everything. Its pretty good...if your dating someone... But if you are a single foreigner in Korea this weekend is all about the preparty for St.Patty's Day. Now I thought I would also insert here a little trivia for those who don't know what St.Patricks Day is all about (I met an Irish girl in a bar bathroom and she thought it was imperative that I know the truth!). There was this guy and he was like a missionary (or something) then he was taken (I forgot by who) to Whales and then somehow he came back (again, no idea) then he went around to people homes and such spreading the "Spirit o' the Irish" everywhere and when he died he was dubbed like the "Patron Saint of Ireland" or something like that. There is absolutely nothing in this story about snakes, she made perfectly clear that this was true.
Anyway so a bunch of us went to (I'm actually still not sure where we were) to drink beer and party all day long. It was so weird. All the foreigners that I've met in Korea were all in one place wearing green and drinking beer.

Also they were giving out free Guinness all day. I don't really like beer that much, but I actually really hate Guinness. I couldn't drink it.

After this party we went to Itaewon. First, Itaewon is a place in Korean that is filled with foreigners. Everything you have in another country is cram packed into this part of Seoul. There are no Koreans or Korean food, everyone speaks English,and tipping is included in your bill...We first had dinner at Outback Steakhouse and I gotta say, I just was not all that interested in it. I really wanted my Korean food. Then we went to an Irish bar called Wolfhounds. I met guy number 1 from last week here. I warned him that the place would be filled with crazy drunken foreigners and he was like, thats ok, but it wasn't. He wasn't prepared. When Koreans get drunk they drink a lot and really get wasted, but it is a much more graceful drunkeness than foreigners. For instance, Koreans will sing a lot when they get drunk, foreigners dance on tables. Koreans then pretty much just fall asleep at the table they are at and foreigners take of their clothes. Anyway he wasn't ready for it and I thought it was hilarious. He doesn't want to go to the St. Patty's after party next weekend...Yeah that is pretty much it.

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