Insert Seoul/Soul Pun Here

There’s been a bit of a gap between the last entry and this one so there is a fair amount to say, hopefully a good bit of which I will cover. This entry comes to you from the Dunkin Donuts in Itaewon, Seoul’s international district. I just spent the afternoon getting my hair done by a very nice Cameroonian woman named Princess Thelma. I was rock the Fredrick Douglass look (afro with side part) between when I washed it on Wednesday and today. I’m really enjoying this Dunkin Donuts because it has cream puffs, unlike the stupid DDs in Daegu. And I really, really like cream puffs. Also, my Muslim readers will be interested to know that I am sitting beside the first Korean hijabi I’ve ever seen. She’s with her South Asian-looking husband and their ridiculously adorable toddler. A couple of girls said something to her in Korean and she answered saying “Muslim.” It would be funny if they were asking if she was a nun with a kid.

So on Friday after work I hurried off to Dongdaegu yuk (station) to catch the KTX train to Seoul. I slept most of the just shy of two hours that it takes to get there. It was evening so I didn’t get to see much of the countryside. I took the subway to darling Rasheeda’s house. Rasheeda has a tiny, hyperactive dog who likes to lick socks. After some chatting we headed off to Itaewon to meet up with some her friends. First we went to this little Turkish spot and I had an almost shwarma (right meat, but the other elements weren’t quite right). We ended up talking to this dude who turned out to be from Scarborough. Then we went to a bar that I can’t remember the name of. This really cool girl named Geo (don’t know if I’m spelling that right) was goodbye partying. She was crazy amounts of fun. Then we went to the Reggae bar for a bit before calling it a night. With us was this awesome dude named Lesean (also don’t know if I’m spelling g that right) who, if I remember correctly, is the head animator for The Boondocks, which, like tons of other cartoons including The Simpsons and Family Guy, is drawn in Korea.

Saturday, post-hair doing, I got the chance to check out What the Book, the famous English Bookstore in Itaewon. I didn’t buy anything because I should read what I brought with me first. There was a minor crisis because R forgot her bank card at the Reggae Bar the night before but we went there and waiting until the employees arrived to work and she got it back. The bartenders were two Philipinas and a Thai woman. They were very nice.

Then we headed to R’s place and I took a delightful nap. Then Joy, a very cool woman from the UK, came and we got ready to head out to the Basement Jaxx show. We left late and got lost but we eventually made it to Eden Club, in the basement of the Ritz Carlton in a posh neighbourhood. Like so many Korean clubs (in fact, Korean places in general), it has death stairs. How completely loaded Korean women in stilettos don’t constantly die going and out of clubs, I can’t possibly understand. The club was very big and very packed with lots of young, goodlooking folks. Twas great. Now, Basement Jaxx are actually DJs/Producers so it was unsurprisingly a DJ set not a performance. I haven’t heard real DJing in a very long time. Before Basement Jaxx came on, there was a local DJ and then a performance by a Korean act that I’ve never heard of. There were two singers and two backup dancers, all wearing similar black and leopard print suits and sunglasses. We were right at the front so we got to experience there little dances close up which was fun. After some more of the local DJ, Basement Jaxxx came on and tore up the place. Koreans always face the DJ at clubs, even at normal, non-celebrity-DJ-having clubs. I danced hard and got some great crowd watching in too. There were a lot of hot guys at this show, which was very pleasing. There were also some annoying, sloppily dancing white folks, which was much less pleasing. A black guy from LA came up to us to say hi and tell us he was glad to see other black people. A Korean-Canadian dude from BC also came to say hi to me at one point. People do this a lot in Korea – bond over shared foreignness. K&J went to another club before it was over but I stayed tilt eh end. While I was dancing by myself, I was doing so in front of this big, reflective, black, rectangular pillar. And I was reminded that Korea is, without a doubt, the most looks obsessed country I’ve ever seen. Canada and the US, as bad as they are, have nothing on Korea. So many people stopped to check themselves out using the pillar that I lost count. It was ridiculous. I already knew Koreans loved mirrors as much as they love kimchi but...a reflective pillar in a dark club? And not just quick glances, these were long drawn out studies. For real, Korea? Basement Jaxx wrapped up, closing with a horns rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody (I still remember all of the lyrics, I discovered). Then I went off to meet R&J though I got lost on the way. But I had a nice refreshing night time walk. Walking at night in Korea isn’t generally a big deal. When I finally arrived I found them having a snack in a little food tent. Food tents are all over the place but especially in club / bar areas. Some very drunk Korean-American dudes tried to talk to us. When we left, we walked to the subway and took the first train of the morning, at 5:30 am. That’s right, we took the subway home at 5:30 am after a night out. And let me tell you, the subway was very busy indeed. It was nuts seeing that many people of all ages waiting for the train at that hour. But it makes sense in that it isn’t weird to sleep just anywhere in Korea so presumably some of these people had been sleeping before that time. In fact, at Eden I saw a guy asleep in a booth and no one look at him twice. Considering the fact that that’s illegal at home, it was rather funny to see. On the train, K&J fell asleep on my shoulders while I talked to these two dudes who had carried their super drunk female friend on to the train a couple of stops after we got on. Their friend promptly fell asleep on Rasheeda’s shoulder. One was a South Asian dude from San Francisco in Korea on business and the other was a Korean dude who works for Lotte, one of the companies that owns insane amounts of stuff in Korea.

Sunday, I got up at noon and left Rasheeda’s to go to the train station. I did a little wandering in the area before buying my ticket and heading home. So here I am on the train. I’ve just been informed that I’m going through central Gimcheon by some specially mown grass.

So that was my weekend in Seoul. I had planned to include last weekend in this entry but this is already super long so I’ll just write another entry later in the week and resign myself to being totally disordered. The point is, I had a glorious time in Seoul. And now, heading home to cook for the week and have some quiet time before starting the new week, I am sure I shall be making many a trip to Seoul this year, especially now that spring has sprung. Bizarrely, the arrival of spring always makes me think of this crazy Medieval song that Professor Powell sang to us on the first day of my first university English class. the song is about the arrival of spring and how frisky it makes everyone. It includes a line about bucks farting.

I feel like this weekend has really solidified my love for Korea. It’s such a crazy, chaotic, sometimes utterly nonsensical place and I can’t help but respond to that. And there’s something really interesting about living somewhere as an expat. I think it suits me.
Love,
AAA

P.S. Couldn’t leave you without the usual musical suggestion. This song is Paradise by Eddie, a little R&B number that I quite like. Bam!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1fpGh4qG2g

P.P.S. The countryside is really interesting, by the way. Very hilly, with lots of small fields and tin roofed houses.