Only Tuesday?

I feel like I've been here forever...and it's only Tuesday. I got here Thursday night, but it's been so busy. So where did I leave off? After the whole "making out on the dancefloor" Saturday, I slept in until about 4pm Sunday (I still am pretty low on energy; I want to sleep like 20 hours but that'll ruin most of my week). We woke up and went to this local Korean place for quick food; I had some dumpling soup (ok, but I didn't like that they had egg in it), some chicken with mayonnaise (they love to put this on everything...yet they are so skinny), purple rice, and miso-esque soup. Maybe it's the American in me, but I really could only eat the chicken and rice...I just don't have the palate for the Korean stuff. We then went to the Buddha festival in another part of the city (it was his birthday). We got there and it was pretty awesome; they have a huge parade down one of the main streets in the city and everyone and their mother seems to be involved in it, from kids to adults. I saw a bunch of non-Koreans in there, and my friend and I desperately tried to jump in at the end of the parade...alas, there were a lot of cops around, and I wasn't looking to spend the rest of my money on bail money. It was quite a sight; at the end of the night there was a big concert. Imagine what appears to be the entire city dancing and doing conga lines in the street...amazing. That money I ended up saving, however, would be used to buy these awesome beer goggles; literally they're beer-shaped frames with a yellow tint. My friend tried to talk them down from the $8 asking price (they were probably worth $4, even with their awesomeness factor added in), but they didn't budge. I walked out and walked quickly back, since I didn't know where else I could find them, besides maybe eBay. I went to a few other stores and bought some t-shirts (one for me and my brother; both equally cool with Korean writing on them, I hope) and then we headed over to a gingibong (sp?), which is Korean for "spa." This one, however, is not dirty; it's like a big fitness club, with saunas, steam rooms, even places to sleep. They have saunas that are like almost 90 degrees Celsius, which is still pretty hot in Fahrenheit. They even have some pools you can swim in. The place is open 24 hours. It was something they totally couldn't have in the states, my friend and I thought. Too many bums and vagrants would sleep in there, since it never closes. After that, I was still hungry, since I hadn't eaten much, and we went to a Burger King, where I wolfed down a Whopper meal and fries. It was by far the best meal of the night and week. While I've tried everything so far, this was just like home, and well worth the wait.

Monday I woke up exceptionally early for some reason, since I had trouble sleeping. I woke up my friend and he begrudgingly woke up and we left by about 11am, a far cry from the 4pm of the day before. We went to a really good Japanese noodle place, where I had my second best meal of the week (besides BK). They even had an Italian restaurant in there, which I found funny. They sold a lot of "sparghetti." From there, it was off to the Korean Folk Village, which is basically just a huge historical park with a lot of old-time Korean things. My friend and I enjoyed playing with the cheap toys (toy pullstring mouse, which my friend bought, and large inflatable weapons) there more than the park probably. But the scenery was great and the weather was terrific, so it was the best time to do it. We even watched a really low-grade 3D movie there, with a projector operated by a man wearing lipstick. Only in Korea, I guess. We also wanted to go on the kiddie amusement park rides, but many of them were shut down, and I doubt they would have wanted two 24-year olds breaking their equipment. They also don't like you playing with their toys outside, which my friend can attest to, as he was yelled at at least 3 times for it. We stayed there for basically the whole day, and were going to go to the 9-hole Par 3 golf course next door, at my suggestion, but it looked closed and it was a very steep walk up a long hill, so we passed. That's another thing about this place: there's stairs and uphill climbs everywhere! Subway: 15 stairs. Restaurants: 10 stairs. Hills. No wonder they're in shape; they have to traverse up so many plateaus to get anywhere.

I'll continue with the rest of the night, which was rather quiet, later. Since we're all off and everyone else has work, there's not much going on. I'm eating live squid Thursday, and meeting up with some girls (my friend put that plan into motion). Saturday will be a soccer game, and a visit to the casino. But for now, I'm just focusing on Tuesday night. Cheers.