Ramblin Round: An Adventure or Two: Can you English? Me too!

This weekend we took it easy. Friday David and Duck came over and we cooked in - a new trick we've been using more often now that it's colder. It was so cold out and we were all feeling so cozy in our tiny apartment that we decided it was finally time to pull out one of our treasures from home. We brought very few treats because most things spoil and/or are very heavy. But amongst the chosen few there was whiskey. Sweet sweet vanilla oak belly warming Kentucky bourbon, complements of one David Flood. That's right David, we saved that little beauty and brought it along. And thank goodness because it was a unanimous opinion that whiskey has never tasted so good. There's just enough left for Christmas Eve.

Unfortunately, we decided we should check on the Kyungsung area, see what was going on. So we headed out to our favorite pajeon and makulli bar where an extremely drunk ole Korean fella started offering us drinks and eventually came and sat with us. Poor fool ruined the night. He didn't speak any English, but was convinced that he did, but because he couldn't understand us he assumed that we were Russian and weren't speaking English at all. He kept asking "Can you English?" and when we said yes he'd say most emphatically "Me too!", but this was an incorrect statement. He kept getting angry at us for not speaking English or Korean and while I generally agree that one should at least try one's best at the native language if one chooses to live abroad, he did come sit with an obvious group of foreigners. In another context a situation like this would tug my guilt cord for not being more studious and fluent in Korean, but in this case I was angry right back at him. It would be another story if we'd crashed his party, but come on old man! Don't ruin our night with your Debbie Downer attitude! We hung around far too long, but called it a night early to escape his wandering bad vibe tentacles. We split with David and Duck and headed home.

You sir most certainly cannot English.

Saturday was fun day though. We woke up lazily and relaxed before venturing out to see the UN Peace Park Cemetery. This is right beside our apartment, but it closes at 5 PM so we hadn't been inside yet.

It's beautiful, but pretty tragic. Not exactly full of warm memories and happy thoughts.

After the cemetery we went to Haeundae. There we met David, Duck, Shannon, and Ryan. On our way to the wharf we stopped by the Haeundae market to see what strange things we could see. This time around they were selling bees complete with combs. However, these were not honey bees. They looked like yellow jackets, and I don't know why anyone would want to buy them. Then we had to make a lightning quick convenient store stop for grown up drinks in order to catch the next boat out. We took a 2 hour tourist ferry around the Oryukdo Islets, one of the more common images associated with Busan. We were the only foreigners on board, and therefore, the only people not feeding our snacks to the seagulls. All the Koreans were loving the seagully attention. People were holding snacks out for the birds to take out of their hands and screaming with delight or terror, I couldn't tell which. In this manner we acquired an entourage of flying friends that blocked most pictures of the shoreline. It was a windy, icy, feather filled good time, and the islets were beautiful.

After the cruise it was dinner in Haeundae and then back to Kyungsung were we first had drinks at the 7-11, then one bar and finally we checked out my new favorite bar. Bob Dylan Bar is filled with old vinyl and you can select the record you want to hear while you sip the cheapest glass of red wine in town. It's got a great rundown in a cozy sort of way atmosphere and the strangest assortment of music I've ever seen. Right next to Nico live in Tokyo there's Puddle of Mud, and I found Blond on Blond sandwiched between a Korean record and some obscure country album. It's going to take some delving, but I think there might be some more gems in there.

Then it was back to the pajeon and makulli joint. The night before had been a bust there, but Saturday night there was a group of older (40-50) Koreans there who were celebrating a birthday. They kept inviting a couple of us up to their table to drink and talk and they were great fun. They all knew each other through yoga. One woman was a yoga master, 2 were teachers, the rest were students. Of the students, one man taught Korean and Chinese tea ceremonies and has invited us to his tea house this Friday when another of the friends- the saxophone player - will be playing live jazz. There were also a professor and physical therapist amongst them. They were so jolly and kept sharing their makulli and spilling it all over my lap. They were aggressively friendly with me. The yoga master woman kept grabbing me around the neck to take pictures with me, but she had me in a choke hold most of the time. When we finally went home Ryan, Shannon, David and Duck all crashed in a sweet, sweet slumber party of friends.