Cocktail on the Run

If you are in Kangnam and are in need of a cocktail on-the-go, or perhaps you're running low on vinyl zip bags, then you might be interested in a cocktail from Bomber's. Bomber's is like what we call a taco truck (or manapua truck) back home, except they sell cocktails.

As I mentioned before, there are no restrictions on drinking in public in Korea. You'd think that with the easy access to alcohol, you'd see a lot more public drunkenness in Seoul -- Oh, wait...

I'm not certain if they have a regular schedule, but you can probably find the Bomber's truck on the weekends, parked near Kyobo Tower. Cocktails start at 3000 won.

Insadong: Well-Being Soju and Batting Practice

이모부: 걱정하지마세요. 학교를 촣아해요. Just sometimes, 학생들이 귀찮아요.

I hate having such a hateful post at the top of my blog, so here are some pics from a recent late night trek to Insadong.

Insadong is well known for its trendy offering of traditional Korean culture. Full of galleries, antique shops, handicrafts, and traditional tea shops, Insadong offers traditional culture with a modern aesthetic. Unfortunately, we got there too late to appreciate any of that.

This is apparently the only Starbucks cafe in Korea with its name written in Hangul. The rest of the cafes feature the name in English.














We stopped in at a little Korean pub and tried some Daepo. It's vaguely similar to white wine, or as Bo unnie explained to me, it's like well-being soju and filled with flowers and ginko biloba... or something like that.














We also ordered a plate of seafood and green onion Korean pancake. I found a piece of plastic in the pancake, so the owner gave us a kimchi pancake.














I was kind of hoping for something a little more different, but who am I to complain about free food?




























After eating all those pancakes, we made a quick stop at the batting cages. 500 won (approx. 50 cents) for each round.

Sadly, all that Wii Baseball has done nothing to improve my pathetic batting skills.














Cyndi is the queen of batting. You can tell from her proper stance that she means business.














I think that Bo would make a better outfielder. Or, she'd be really good at dodge ball.














Even though Heng is so gangster, she held the bat very delicately. I think someone's being a little 내숭...

Welcome to my hood.

We decided to 엽기 it up in Bundang. After a yummy, homemade meal of spaghetti at June 언니's house, Cyndi and I met up with HY언니 at Samsung Plaza. We began the night at Su noraebang, a franchise of "luxury" karaoke rooms. At 18,000 - 25,000 won/hr, Su is a little pricier than your average karaoke room, but still cheaper than the karaoke places back home. Based on the very feminine decor, Su appears to have been designed with female customers in mind. I didn't get a chance to check out all of the rooms, but each room is supposed to be themed, including a bathroom style room (?) and large windowed rooms that face out onto the street so that any passerby can watch you sing. Su has several locations throughout Seoul (including Hongdae).

This sign reads, "Harmony of fantastic for customer"
This statement is too philosophical for me to comprehend.














You can feel the "luxury" as soon as you walk into the place. Instead of dim lighting and unattractively upholstered furniture with suspect levels of cleanliness, you are greeted by elegant decor, chandeliers, and an inviting ambiance.















Floral walkways lead you to further luxury.





































Don't forget to pick out some free ice cream before you settle in your room.














I'm not sure what the theme of our room was, but I'm thinking it was something like a "six year old girl's bedroom." The seating area is recessed so that...














... there is room for a stage! The room also comes with tambourines, maracas, and a plastic mallet -- everything you could possibly need to unleash your inner 가수.














There are also ottomans to better perform those emotional, heart-wrenching ballads.














Even the bathrooms are luxurious. Here's Cyndi refreshing her vocal chords with some complementary gargle.














This sign reads, "We prepare sanitary napkin for woman. Ask us, whenever you need."
Woman grateful. Thank you. I will.




























Su was very nice, but we didn't get any "service"; free additional singing time. Most places give you at least 30 additional minutes if there isn't a high demand for rooms.

After, Su, we walked through Samsung Plaza, where I bumped into some chic Bundang ajummas, contemplating the latest trends in fur. We all became quick friends.














Then, HY took us to a tiny 오뎅 (oden/ fishcake) bar on the other side of Samsung Plaza. On our way to the bar, we found this man passed out in front of the mini mart. Mature folks like Korean pop singer, Lee Hyori would probably show some concern for this man's safety, however, 엽기 girls like me simply see this as another photo opportunity. The photo is a little blurry, because we all couldn't stop giggling.


































Anyway, back to the tiny oden bar. When I say "tiny", I mean tiny. This place could hold ten people at most.















There were also sorts of oden: chili pepper oden, cheese oden, curry oden, spicy oden -- the list goes on.














Of course, I had to try the cheese oden. I couldn't really taste the cheese, but I thought it was tasty nonetheless. The oden broth was also quite flavorful.














You can't hang at an oden bar without a little soju. Packs of soju often come with this free metal bottle cooler, but you should note that this cooler is specially defined to fit the unique shape of Chamisul, and no other brand.














Our oden snack came courtesy of our new friends, Busan 갈매기 (seagull) ajusshis. These gentleman all hail from Busan. The man on the far left is HY's colleague. The man in the middle works for NongShim and offered to hook us up with some free ramyun after he mentioned how much we love NongShim products. The man on the right works for Samsung, but did not offer to hook us with any Samsung products :) He did, however, pay for our oden.














We concluded the evening with some fried glinko beans. I learned that glinko is an acquired taste. It's fried and seasoned with salt, and yet, I'm not a fan. Go figure.














After the oden bar, we swung back around the mini mart to take photos, I mean, check on our drunken friend. Fortunately, he seemed to have roused from his state of semi-consciousness, but perhaps he would have been better off sleeping.














We made many new friends that evening, but I suspect that most of them didn't remember us the next morning. These incidents are what lead HY to refer to Cyndi and I as " 엽기 (yupgi) American girls." I was lead to believe that this word meant silly and offbeat, but I just looked up the term in the dictionary and it seems to mean something like "bizarrely curious." I prefer my definition of "silly and offbeat", but I'm not going to lie, I am definitely bizarre and curious.

Turtle Technology

Cyndi and I were in Kangnam this weekend, when we were almost run over by this mini soju brigade. Chamisul Fresh is supposed to be lighter on the alcohol content and free of sugar additives (Wait! There's sugar in soju?) and is marketed towards female booze hounds, thus the feminization of these soju bottles.















This soju bottle made Cyndi take a photo with her. Check out the bottle's s-line.















After mingling with the soju bottles, Cyndi and I had samgyupsul at 황금 돼지 (Golden Pig).














The samgyupsal was nothing to write home about, but I was excited about the turtle design of their grill. The grooves on the turtle's shell help to drain some of the grease from all that pork belly.














The angled shell causes the grease to fall downwards towards the turtle's tail, and drip into the little pan. Turtle technology -- how clever.

The Metro I

One of the draws to living in a large metropolitan like Seoul (or the greater Seoul area) is the convenient public transportation system. Though not as clean as the Hong Kong Metro, but nowhere near as dirty as the NYC subways, the Korean Metro system is an easy way to get around Bundang and Seoul.

My school is about a twenty five minute subway ride away. If I manage to get a seat, I usually spend that time reading a book or reviewing my lesson plan. If I'm left standing, I usually pass the time listening to my iPod. (Speaking of music, check out my music box to the left). Though I enjoy this time to think, read, and sleep, I've realized that I'm totally missing out on a wonderful Korean gadget -- the handheld TV! The Korean version is way cooler than those heavy little portable boxes from the '90s. A tad larger than my iPod nano, these sleek Korean handhelds pick up satellite feeds of popular sitcoms, variety shows, news, and sports programming, all while the train speeds along the underground railway, however many meters below the surface. If you're willing to drop some extra won (actually, more like, a lot of won), you can also get the device built into your mobile phone. The screen also rotates accordingly if you hold it vertically or horizontally. I've glanced at a number of these screens, and the image quality appears to be HD quality.

If I knew that the U.S. was capable of handling such technology, I might actually pick up one of these babies for myself. However, knowing the U.S. and all of its hangups over resource allocation and proprietary issues, it's unlikely for you all to be enjoying your own handheld TVs in the near future. So for now, you'll just have to enjoy your archaic little video iPod. Muahahahahaha.










































Speaking of subways... despite the personal space issues, most subway riders keep to themselves and cause little ruckus. With that said, in little over a month, I've already observed my fair share of drama on the subway trains. For example, there was the time that this ajusshi (old man in his fifties) confronted a young girl in her early twenties, screaming at her for sitting in the seats designated for the elderly, disabled, and pregnant women. The train was pretty empty, so I don't see why the man took such issue with the girl (perhaps soju was fueling his ire). To my great amusement, the girl was not threatened by the man's rage, and simply yelled right back at him. I couldn't understand what they were saying, but at one point the old dude pushed the girl's shoulder. Oh snap! This girl wasn't having it. She pushed him right back! Unfortunately, the drama came to an abrupt halt when the train pulled into the last stop, and the two fiery parties went their separate ways. I guess Confucian values can only go so far. I'm sure that Destiny's Child would agree that all independent women have the right to stick up for themselves if they've been wronged.

The fight was both exciting and frightening. I suppose this why so many folks enjoy UFC matches. I only wish I caught the fight on camera.

I did, however, catch a photo of a presumably homeless, man on the train. He didn't have any shoes, but he did have a fresh bottle of soju. I wanted to catch his tirade on camera, but I was afraid that he'd go all Russell Crowe on me if he caught me recording him. So, all I got was this blurry photo. Unfortunately, in his drunken stupor, the shoeless man started roaring at the elderly gentleman sitting across from him. I'm not sure what Shoeless was saying, but the elderly gentleman timidly nodded his head every once and awhile. The elderly man seemed like he wanted to move seats, but was afraid of seeming rude, or perhaps, afraid of inflaming the drunk further.

Should I have stuck up for the old man, and have told the drunk to shut it? Perhaps I should have, but I wonder if Shoeless would have understood the phrase, "Stick a cork in it, you a-hole"?




I have a few other subway stories to share, but I'll save them for another post. Instead, I'll end with a photo of some hip hop dancing soju bottles. I'm assuming that they were dancing as part of a promotional activity, and were not sporting the latest trends in Korean fashion. I was greeted by these break dancing bottles on my way from the subway station. It made me smile.