4th chapter.... Korea

I probably shouldn’t be writing this when I am still feeling the effects of the weekend but what the hell, so if there are any mistakes or grammatical errors…. tough shit!

 I think I have finally become fully settled into Korea now.. so much so that when I eventually go back home I reckon it is going to be difficult not to bow to everyone I meet!  I can finally get to places without having to get my Korean Co-workers write the destination in Korean and English! Oh and more importantly I can now pick up sweetcorn with my chopsticks! If I accomplish nothing else when I am here then at least I can say I could do that!

 

I had my birthday over here and decided to go out and have some alcohol to celebrate.. (no point breaking tradition now!) A group of us went for dinner then headed onto the local Irish bar (which is owned by Koreans, has Korean beer, and has mostly Korean customers but it does have a guinness tap and an Irish flag in it so it has to be Irish eh?) After having 1 or 2 or 10 shots I decided that it was time to dance… Irish dance… for those who know me well enough to actually go out with me on occasion you will know that my Irish dancing consists of kicking my legs and failing to keep my back straight!  But hey.. the Koreans knew no different so as they clapped and cheered I kept jumping and kicking (oh and this pub is small so I was dancing in between the tables)  As decoration in the bar they have green guinness hats that are fairly hideous but the more shots I consumed the nicer they became so yes, I did end up with a stupid hat on my head! Then to top it all off I decided that the whole pub should be treated to my…. er…. singing ability so up to the stage I went, got the microphone turned on and sung my drunken heart out!

Have not been back to that pub since!…

 One of the things I was told whenever I got here was that after some time there were certain things that would start to bug me about the Korean people but I didn’t think it was true because they are so friendly, but god, how wrong was I!

First of all the staring thing is really beginning to piss me off. If it was a glance then fair enough, but grown men and women actually stopping in the street to stare is a bit much!  Or worse, when I am walking across the road and the people in their cars either have their eyes attached to the windows or hanging out of them to get a good look.. but although that gets a bit irritating thats not what makes me bite my tongue until I draw blood.. Its the adults that stop in the street to look and even when I look back at them they just keep staring.. no smile, no wave, not even a fecking bow, just the brown eyes looking at me as if I am satan here to murder their children. I’ve got to the point now that when they do it I stop as well and just stand there and stare back until they give up.  I was actually crossing the road the other day when I was bombarded with three old korean women trying to shove a packet of wipes into my hands while they were blessing themselves profusely! 

 Mad!

Another really irritating and disgusting trait that I have come to hate is the spitting… this isn’t even just your normal little spit that men do when playing football, this is head thrown back whilst hocking every part of phlegm and mucus that they can acquire and off loading it at your feet! And no, its not old men, its everyone including the kids, young ladies and old women!

Oh and I am having a lot of fun with a korean stalker I have some what acquired at the moment.. It started off so innocently… I was in the pub.. he came over to say hello.. I didn’t realise he was nuts…  said hello back..  and have been tortured by him every night I’m in the local pubs since!!   It is slightly my fault though.. he asked for my number and I didn’t know what to say.. I didn’t want to give him it but didn’t want to be rude either so instead of being smart and giving him the wrong number I gave him mine!   So when I had a message and two missed calls from him an hour later I knew this was not good! Over the next week I had more messages and calls but I just ignored them all and that was all good until the next time I was in the pub. You would think he would have taken the hint by now, but no, he comes over and asks if we could go to dinner.. eh no.. so then he tells me that he has being trying to call me the past few days and did I receive the calls! I just pretended to be shocked and told him the phone must be broke and brushed him off!  I thought that would have worked too but then the fecker goes and asks one of the boys what time do I usually go that pub and is there any other pubs I go to!! AAAAAHHHH

 And yes mother and aunt.. I know what you would have done by now but I am not as violent or as easily provoked as you so I decided to carry on ignoring the situation… hmmm.. well that didn’t work out either because the next bloody night I was in the area he appeared out of nowhere again!

Our latest conversation went as follows

” Hello Jenna.. Nice to see you again, How are you?”

“Good”

“Are you having a good night?”

“Yes”

“Have you been here long?”

“Yes”

“I don’t think I have your proper phone number..”

“Oh.. really.”

“So,  can you check your number and I will take it again??..”

“No.”

“Oh.. thats fine, I understand.”

 

You really would think he did at this stage and so did I until his next question..

 

“Would you like to go out for a drink sometime?”

“I am drinking just now”

“Yes.. but me and you?”

“No”  (I get up to leave at this point).

“Oh are you leaving? Can I escort you to your taxi?.”

“Noooooooo”

I felt a bit lighter thinking he has to take the hint now, but it seems I was wrong, I wasn’t in the next pub 5 minutes until he walked in and came over to our crowd again!!    Fun times……

 I went to a festival this weekend and the craic I had was unbelievable.. it’s definitely safe to say I had a great time..

It all started off innocently enough.. we got a few drinks and sat on the grass talking, laughing and enjoying the music and once we consumed some more shots and vodka we went for a walk,  for some reason myself and a mate decided to have some fun with the nice Korean vendors by telling a them a pile of pish! I, erm, kind of, um, told them that I worked for ITV and CH.4 and that we had been asked to do a segment on Korean festivals and that they were going to be on TV (had a camcorder with us)  if they gave us free stuff. (I know, I know it wasn’t very nice but it made me smile so it can’t be that bad right??)  Unbelievably enough it worked! I got a very nice hoodie and some cocktails! Although when we tried to be a little more adventurous by trying to get back stage it didn’t work out very well, the bouncers and security were having none of it! We were very quickly asked to leave that area!  The Calvin Klein stand was having none of it either! Oh well, It was fun at the time! 

On leaving the festival just after 5am we had to try and find a taxi because there was no sign of the shuttle bus so myself and another couple of idiots decided to take a short cut! We walked through an area of grass and found our first obstacle.. a massive ditch, so at 5.30am, on a sunday morning, in the middle of South Korea, on the 10/10/10, you could find me jumping over a bloody ditch, then climbing up a small height full of fecking nettles, nearly falling over one of those barriers on a dual carriageway and flagging down a taxi!  It was quite successful though as we got the taxi to go to Mc’Donalds which is always a result!   Oh the memories!

I’m heading to another festival this weekend so hopefully it will be as much fun as the last!

Oh well that will do for now I think!!

Ps..   You know the reason I came to Korea for?? Yeah, the teaching kids part?? thats going grand too

Take care xxx