Post for last weekend, 3 Korea pics.

Damn!! Been a minute since last update. I think once I get a camera I will be back in the mood.
So last weekend on Friday I hung out around my area SangDoDong. I did some design work after getting home from work, and as it got later, Mike's words started to ring louder and louder in my ears; 'call me if you wanna grab some beers'. So I did and we did kind of a SangDo bar hop WITH a twist. See, the idea here is that they cater to foreigners alot, maybe too much (for them). IE foreigners can get away with too much. So, we decided to test out that theory. There is a rule here whereby in non-bottle bars (ie bars where you can buy pints) you have to buy some sort of snack/food. It doesn't matter if you just want to drink, if you want to SIT in one of these establishments (the vast majority of bars are this way), you have to get food. Food can be as cheap as 3-4$, or, if you want some smoked chicken (tastes like ham!) it can go up to 13-14 even higher. Our test consisted of us playing down the line, at various bars, that we would only order pints (actually o-beks ie 500 cc's tap beer). If hassled we would push as hard as possible without getting ugly.
Bar after bar, and every other table had food on it. We got away with all three bars NO FOOD!
The next night, Saturday, I made plans with Joon to meet up downtown and walk around the whole area. Turns out, he made plans with some other people, and we ended up meeting across town at KonDaeIpGu (Kon U. neighborhood). Cool thing: I took the bus instead of the train. I got a wicked tour of south-central Seoul, and all for a buck! Took a fuckin hour and a half though. I met a girl at the Ttukseom station. She had visited TO for half a year. I may give her lessons. We may do some sort of language exchange too.
Met up with Joon, and met some cool people. We ate at a VIPS(!) and had the buffet (I had been thinking about spaghetti all day). Then, we headed to Walker Hill which is a foreigner-only casino. Turns out that of all the casinos here, only one is open to Koreans. I think it's even out of town (maybe like Rama?). Well, since we were with Koreans, we didn't go to the casino, but we walked around a bit outside. It's on a mountain - first time smelling nature since getting here.
Then we headed to the north bank of the Han River. Maaad people meet up there. There are families eating, youth hanging out, couples strolling, groups of drunks drinking. Good relaxed vibe. They have a few boat restaurants (think Captain John's with neon, lots of neon) that sell coffees for $10. We stayed by the water a lil minute and then headed on to the next spot.
Joon and I left off and met up with Flood and a couple of friends that I know from when they lived in TO. One of them has a new boyfriend named, I'm not making this up, Ginsu! (like the knives for the younger readers) We had pleny a bottle of Soju and Soju-like drinks. They taught me wicked drinking games I'll bring back!
I'm attaching some pics. One is from the last bar, and one is from the night I went to Seoul City Hall to watch the Korea-Togo match (look at the people behind us - about 800,000). You may notice the peace sign alot. They throw it up, but I don't think they know it means peace here. They tell me it means victory when I ask them.
Gone,
BA
ps Oh shit! I forgot last Sat was Canada Day. I'll put my and Flood's pic. Check the shirts. We all did a toast and sang as far as we could into the anthem.