greetings from Korea....
Swayze
14,705 Posts
I've had a hell of a time getting on the internet out here. No time. Shits crazy. I'm having fun though. I've taken a ton of pictures. I'll try to put them up on flickr, but I might have to wait until i get some since I can't ever seem to get a good wireless connection to leech off of out here. I'm in an internet cafe right now. They call them pc-bang out here (pc-room). Went a section of the DMZ in the middle of the peninsula by a little town called cheorwon where HJ's family lives. They own 2 cows. I felt like I should talk to them since I am a bull. I ate my first american food finally yesterday after over a week of nothing but kimchi and shit (even for breakfast). I don't mind though. I actually dropped a few pound.Its funny going to a resturant or shop or whatever and speaking korean, and then instead of saying "thank you" in english i'll say shit like "keep it real!" or "stay fly!" or "may the force be with you!" and they just smile and say your welcome. its so goddam funny. last night I said "QUEEF!" and almost pissed myself.I'm in seoul now. seoul is always fun.anyways... I'll post up some pictures if I get a chance. We fly back home on friday.Keep it real.
Comments
and Cosmo is probably the only one that will think this is funny...
I'll be meeting up with THE ALMIGHTY BUM-SUCK later.... wooot!
hilarious.
The only time she got some shit for not being able to speak good korean i just happened to not be around.....
I sorta got hit by a car on the way to the PC-bang this morning. I was standing on the sidewalk waiting at a crosswalk, hands on my hips, and all of a sudden i feel something hard go BAM on my elbow. I turn around like 'what the fuck??' and it was a minivan. on the sidewalk. the driver looked at my face in shock, rolled down his window and said in english "I'm SORRY!" It was kinda funny.
Yesterday me and HJ went to HongDae, which is the college district. We had a blast. Took a picture in front of a bar called COCKS, and then in front of a bar called HO BAR. My guide book said there were record stores there, but they really only sold new records. I did take a picture of me holding a PUTS record though. Thes... how was the backpacking trip?
Today our aunty in supposed to drive around Seoul to go shopping. Then later me and HJ are going to head down to AnJongRi to visit Camp Humphries and my old stomping ground.
We met up with BumSuck last night in Itaewon. We ate at a real nice resturant and then we went up Hooker Hill. goddam... I never realized what a shit hole Itaewon was. It was fun back in the day when I was a GI, but now it just seems like a korean Tijuana. I mean, I knew it was trashy, but now that I'm older and married I was just like damn, I used to love this shit? Bellcity.... Polly's Kettle is still there. Don't know if you ever went there but they had the best soju bowls ever. Speaking of Soju... I don't know if a day has gone by yet that I haven't had some soju.
So... this is the ILLEST shit ever. the other day i bought a t-shirt in the subway because it had some korean written on it and looked cool. yesterday i put the t-shirt on and realized it said "Dokdo is OUR land". Dokdo is a little shit island between korea and japan, and both countries say it belongs to them. It drives Koreans nuts. Koreans have never been fond of japan, for good reasons i guess, and so this dokdo thing gets them all riled up, and now 'dokdo is our land' is like a rallying cry, like 'fight the power' or whatever.
so i put on my t-shirt and wonder what people would think of a white dude with a t-shirt that says 'dokdo is our land'. EVERYBODY would look at my shirt, look at my face, look back down and my shirt and then get the most confused look ever. me and HJ started counting the people that were staring but we lost count. it was pretty much everybody. one girl at a shop in hongdae looked at my shirt, looked at my face, smiled really big and threw her fist up in the air malcom x style and was like "YEAH!" It was awesome. We went to our aunt's house, where there are people there old enough to have been through the korean war, and i though 'oh shit.. they aren't going to think this is funny'. Our aunt read my shirt and fell on the floor laughing. HJ's mom read it and said something like "what the hell is wrong with you?"
Korea is a cool place. People are a lot nicer to me now that i'm not a GI.
we're staying in a yogwan, which is like a love motel. they are everywhere here. its totally bizarre, but its the best way to stay in the city for cheap. our tv comes with 2 softcore porn channels. awesome.
well, i guess i should head back to the room and get ready for the day. i'm sure my relatives will be hung over as fuck. they drank soju ALL day yesterday. Started at lunch and were still going strong after the sun went down. they were FUCKED up.
said about Itaewon! I never really took the time to take in Itaewon (was way too busy buying throwback jerseys for $20).
I used to get it in at Hongdae. It was off limits to soldiers but I didn't give a what. The trick was to go there with someone from Korea (KATUSA) and
not a bunch of drunken soldiers.
Ahhhh...the memories.
I really need to get on a hop flight to the R.O.K sometime in the future.
c'mon now koreans dont get fucked up on soju! we love that shit even if it tastes like rubbing alcohol. as for dokdo, yeah that shit is OUR land! even if it only has a bunch of weather towers, whatever.
hope youre enjoying the ROK (we running this rap shit?)
-rich
Sounds like a blast.
Dizzy, I just finished reading this book called "Tears of My Soul" written by one Kim Hyun Hee.
She was one of two North Korean agents responsible for blowing up a South Korean airliner in '87, killing 115 people.
She had initially been sentenced to death, then given a complete pardon by the government of South Korea, which claimed she was just as much a victim of North Korea as those on the plane.
The book was written a while ago and it ends saying she now lives in Seoul and that all the proceeds of her book go to the victim's families.
Just curious if you knew anything about this and if you had any insight as to whatever became of her?
Is she still in Seoul? Can she show her face in public without people trying to rip her apart?
Paul, I remember hearing about that book, but I haven't read it. It sounds really interesting. I would also recomend The Aquariums Of PyongYang. Really good read.
Its good to be back in SD. Its a nice cool night. I'll post pictures when I get some time.....