My Chuseok Weekend

Chuseok, aka, Korean Thanksgiving, was this past weekend. Most schools have just short of a week off; however, since I work at a private, for-profit school, I was only given Friday off. Hey, a three weekend within the first month I am here, cannot complain!

After work on Thursday, I participated in an average night out in Ilsan, which includes dinner with friends of Korean BBQ, a stop at the Frog and Toad (a bar that attempts at being an Irish Pub, but plays mostly American pop music) for some beer and card games, then heading out to other bars in the area where all are enjoying Korean beer, tequila, soju, and dancing. The night finally concludes itself when we are either danced out or eating dinner number two; you guessed it, Korean BBQ again! For whatever reason, nights here always end the earliest about 5 am….establishments do not close in Korea and time flies!

Saturday I went to an amusement park called Everland, pronounced, Everlanddd, think Great America, a zoo, and Disney Land combined. We started by going on one of the most intense roller coasters I have been on in my life, needless to say I made myself go on it, but was excited when it was over. We spent a large amount of time in the Zootopia area, where I went on a safari ride and saw a liger (they really do exist….and it looks exactly like you think it would, a lion with some half ass stripes), took many of pics at the animal cages, and saw two animal shows, one of which has a monkey riding a pig – hehe. The remaining time was spent in Holland Land – that’s right! Holland land is filled with ‘Dutch’ things to eat and drink, like French fries, roasted chicken, and beer….well at least they have the beer right.

The pic included is of Everlanddd.

Well Saturday night I hurried home to go out with others to Hongdae, which is the main area to go out in Seoul and is surrounded by the three main universities. Hongdae is filled with expats, GIs and Koreans. My first time there we befriended, a Swedish girl that one of my guy friends still mentions from time to time, a Dutch guy, who me and this guy Patrick, a co-worker, got into a debate with about socialism (because clearly, at 3 am with a few drinks, politics seems like the only reasonable thing to discuss…haha), and a Korean who is more then interested in one of my friends. Needless to say, you are bound to meet a diverse crowd and enjoy a late night of dancing, drinking and some good laughs.

Sunday I experienced my first Korean movie theater! About a little more then half of the movies shown here are American, but come out a lot late. Inglorious Bastards has yet to come out and my fellow expats were mighty impressed when I had said that I didn’t just see it, I saw it twice! How is that possible they first exclaimed! Hehe. Most things are less expensive to do in Korea then in the states; movies are the one exception to this rule. It is still about ten dollars for a ticket; however they have assigned seating, turn off all of the lights, and serve ice cream – yippee! And you don’t even notice the Korean subtitles at the bottom!

That’s it for now folks. Next weekend I am heading to Busan, the most Southern city of South Korea, for an internal film festival. Pusan Film Festival is the largest in Asia. I am going with a least of group of six, but two more might join us. Looking forward to the festival and seeing another part of South Korea.