What have I done to myself?
I don't even know where to start. This is my second time writing this post because I was hungover and closed out all my work without saving it last time. Oops, what a great move by me. Since my last post I've been all over the city and classes are in full swing. Let's start with the classes. So some of the courses at Korea University are suppose to be taught in English for exchange students. Well, even when they are marked as "english" sometimes they aren't. Two of my classes I had to be able to read Korean. Uhhhh not happening. I can read like a dozen words and I'm pretty sure not many of them would be in an academic periodical.
The best class story that I have so far is along the same lines as the Korean reading ones. However, in this one I was sitting in the lecture hall, the professor was lecturing fully in Korean, and I thought he was just explaining something. Well he wasn't, he was teaching in Korean. Low and behold, forty-five minutes later I have absolutely no clue what the hell is going on. That sense of cluelessness must have shown clearly on my face because the professor stopped what he was doing, proceeded to turn to me, and ask "do you understand Korean?" "Uhh a little," is what I managed to murmur back. Well that just made the whole class bust a gut. I dropped that class like it was hot. Bye bye.
Besides that, not too many interesting stories have come out of class. Look on the flip side and I've been going a little goofy with the hopping around and the night life. Seoul night life is lit and it is real. The bars don't close and everyone just stays out until the subway opens back up at 5:30am. So it's pretty normal to drink for twelve hours. Pace. Yo. Self. It's not a sprint, it's a marathon. I still like to hit a couple of sprinting sections during that marathon, it's only natural.
Those nights usually lead to some grand stories. Soju is cheap and it is everywhere. Like $1.50 for a bottle. Those cheap bottles lead to good times. They have caused me to fall asleep on the subway a couple times on the way back home. After that I learned my lesson and made myself stand when I road the subway after that. If I fall asleep standing up I'll just fall over and wake myself up. It's a full proof plan!
In the time I've been in Seoul, I've run into more people I knew here than I did in Seattle. Wild stuff. Each has been a great time. One turned into a drinking marathon that lasted from 1pm in the afternoon until 7am the next day. Shout out to my Uncle Leo and buddy Colin. I've also had another night where I've run into some old Korean guys and we just sat and drank soju while sharing pictures. I had no clue what they were saying. It was still a great time. That night lead me to a market at like 4:30am where I got breakfast and what looked like the garment district. It was about three city blocks that were just covered feet high with bags of fabrics and clothing. Absolutely incredible site. People were loading these bags into carts, on scooters, and in vans. I have no clue how they could even tell what was what but they were making things happen.
The food here is a mix between killer and interesting. I've seen some fried squid patties, had some mini-crab crackers, and devoured some squid tentacles. I would recommend all of it, I'm a big food tourist. I'd probably try just about anything to be honest. I'm going to try to include some more pictures of the weirder stuff I've run into next time.
Anyway, thanks for checking out this blog post! I'm going to try and update every Friday, so check back when you get a chance!