Continued from the previous birthday post.
I had made dinner plans with a friend of mine, who I met here during orientation, on my actual birthday. She lives rather far out, practically on a mountain/barely in seoul/basically in north Korea, and it takes a lot for her to always be coming downtown where foreigners always hang out on the weekends, so I told her I would go up to visit her. I didn't tell her it was my birthday though. I just wanted to spend time with people on my birthday, honestly. I didn't need a cake, or a party, or anything like that, mostly because I feel really lucky everyday.
It turned out to be a little dinner party at her apartment. She lives in a big building that incidentally has a few other EPIK teachers, who I also met during orientation, and a few others who live on nearby stations came through too. I had to travel almost an hour to get to her apartment, but I was greeted with happy, familiar faces, and it felt very warm.
This is just an aside, but I really enjoy meeting up with other EPIK teachers. Intentionally or not, I belong to this community in Seoul. Call us foreigners, call us expats, call us adventures, call us a clique, but I can not begin to explain how comforting it is to know that whatever difficulties I experience here in Seoul, there are others who are sharing in my same experience. I am not going through this whole ordeal absolutely and utterly alone. During the first week of classes, when I was freaking out over what I was doing, my lesson plans, my awkward introductions to my classes and the other teachers, I remember thinking that everyone else was going through the same thing. And that if they could do it, and get through this thing that was giving me such anxiety, then I could as well. That's the kind of reassurance that I love about our EPIK group.
I also enjoy meeting up with them because it's a chance to not only catch up and exchange stories, but it also provides much needed respite. During the week we are all so busy with our own classes and activities, but the weekends are just for us. And it's nice to be able to speak with other people and not have to, for the lack of a better term, "dumb down" my english. For as much as I have to talk in front of a classroom every single day, I sometimes feel as if I save all my words for the weekends. Then I just verbally vomit on everyone.
But back to what I was saying.
Our host, Cherish, made us a homemade dinner, by herself, in her tiny kitchen. We ate and laughed and drank and sat around on her heated floor and had a merry old time. The food was great, the people were lovely, the atmosphere was wonderful, and I even got a proper birthday cake--not that I didn't love my choco-pie cake :)
Can you guess what I wished for? ^___^
The celebration continued last night. Turns out that a few of us were celebrating our birthdays this week, so we did a joint celebration. Although the plans weren't exactly my cup of tea, I prefer more low key birthday celebrations, I went along with it for the general spirit of the event.
Things kicked off with dinner at TGIFridays. Normally, I wouldn't ever eat there because I don't particularly like the food served (everything seems fried/ oily/ covered with Jack Daniels sauce), and like, why would I spend money on that when the food stand outside is both cheaper and yummier (and probably healthier for you). But whatever, they had 2 for 1 drink specials so that made up for it lol.
It was also the last friday of the month. In Hongdae, where we were at, you can get these wristbands on the last friday that will get you in clubs without having to may a cover charge for each. NB1, NB2, and Harlem (all owned by YG) are all right next to each other. So all night we club hopped from one to another.
I don't think I've talked about this yet, but I'm not entirely fond of the club culture here in Korea. They let in waaay too many people for what they can accommodate, which leaves the people packed in like sardines, with no space to move much less dance. This means people are always pushing each other out of the way, tempers flare, and basically instead of dancing its just this one big push fest.
Even I got into a spat with other foreigners. But not even just other foreigners...but other Big Bang fans. GD & TOP's "Knock Out" came on and basically this group of foreigners pushed their way into the middle of the dance floor, right next to me, so they could dance to GD & TOP. They attempted to push me out of the way so they could "dance" to GD & TOP. Oh. hell. no.
There is, of course, your standard creeper guys who try to dance with you... and I'm not decided about this yet, but it just seems like they are waay more aggressive here than in the states. Won't take no for an answer. Will follow you, uninvited. Will grab onto you and won't let go. The reason why I'm hesitant to say that guys are more aggressive with girls here is because they may just be more aggressive with foreign girls. Whether I like it or not, the reputation of foreign girls is that they are easy. I'm always conscious of this, so in a club environment I never try to give too much attention to guys. Because they will latch onto that attention, see if for something that its not, and it opens a whole pandoras box that I, quite frankly, don't want to have to deal with.
Ah, another digression.
It's not uncommon to stay out until 5am...and clubs will stay open that long. The reason for this is that the subway lines close at midnight. Cab fares from one end of the city to another are practically murder, and unless you have a place to stay (either a friend's apartment or a jimjilbang (찜질방), public sauna), the cheapest option is to just stay out. It's also not uncommon to head to a cafe and pass out while waiting for the subway lines to open up.
Which is how I spent the last two fridays. Thank you Caffe Bene for being 24 hours & for having many tables with which to sleep!
A very sincere thank you to the people who made my birthday, my very first in korea, truly special. My heart swells when I think of all the people I've met here and whom I call friends. I remain eternally grateful.
im happy to hear that you had a fantastic birthday!! (:
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