[Part 2] 041. 11 September 2010 Saturday

I think the best part of 고연전 is the after-"party" when Anam Street totally came alive and it was such an interesting and cool experience! Maybe if there's this one thing that I'll always remember about my exchange here in Korea, it is drinking.
In the span of 5 hours this morning/afternoon, I went to Anam Health Club near McDonalds to sign up for a 3 months package for 90,000KRW, Chanel in Lotte Hotel, Myeongdong to send my Chanel earrings for repair (one of the crystals fell out), H&M (only to find out that the opening has been postponed, yet again, to 16 September), Kyobo Book Store in Gwanghwamun to buy stationery and other items, Miasamgeori to exchange my Chanel eyeshadow for another piece (mine couldn't be opened easily), an optician shop in Anam where I bought my contact lens and a pair of 6 months grey coloured contact lens for 48,000KRW. When I got back to my room, Jeannie had just woken up! haha.

Another Gmarket purchase

the colour of the blouse greatly differed from the item url's :( 

At nearly 5pm, I met up with my orientation group which had gone for 고연전. While KU tied with Yonsei for baseball and lost for basketball, ice hockey and rugby, we won the soccer game, which was the final game so it felt as though KU won. Basically, what happened in many eateries along Anam Street after the games was that the KU alumni paid for our food and drinks and we hopped from one place to another. The first place we ate and drank in was Chin Chin 친친 near my place where the alumni appeared in full force and even gave short speeches. We ate and drank 맥주 mekju beer and I made use of what I learned from Dongsoo: I made 고진감래（苦尽甘来) for my friends. I realised that I can escape from drinking by making drinks for others :) Thank you Dongsoo! haha.

Alex!

Mattia and Dokyung

KU Alumni table

We didn't stay at 친친 for long so as to give others a chance to eat and drink for free there so we formed a human train and went in search of other eateries. We had to cheer to get "invited" into the eateries but at the 2nd eatery we went to, one of the alumi present gave us money while the owner gave us 2 jugs of beer.

trying their luck outside the eatery

We managed to find another eatery where we ate 꼬치, chicken, radish and drank soju 소주 and 오뎅탕 fishcake soup. I sat at the same table as Thomas, Yoonjung, Jisu, Junghyun and Youngwoong (whom I got to know much better). I met him on the 1st day of orientation but said like less than 5 words to him then; but tonight, I talked to him and found him to be a really nice and funny guy. Nice meeting you, 오빠! The 꼬치 was a little bitter and too tough but the chicken and fishcake soup were nice! Now I know which eateries around my place have good food :)

Youngwoong, Junghyun and I

So cute!

with Thomas and his friend (both are from France)

Alex

Soju

꼬치

It rained the whole night so our umbrellas were like our best friends. We even danced in the rain with our umbrellas near the stage area where different bands performed.

Sungchun with Eric

Later on, we went to Armba for some fruit cocktail and I love the peach cocktail there. Somehow, we spent the night waiting for people and we soon found ourselves outside GS25 waiting for our group leader, Jaeho. In the meantime, I talked to my friends and got to know another guy, Matthieu, who's from France and originally wanted to go to NUS for exchange. However, he said that it's really difficult to get selected to go to NUS for exchange because one has to be the top 30 students so that's why he's now in Korea. I didn't know that it's so difficult to be selected to go to NUS for exchange!

Mattia and I (he's from Italy)

Alex and I

Subsequently, we went to another eatery where we had pancake  파전 and drank 막거리 makkori, a rice-based wine. I drank 1.5 cups which made my face redder than ever.

Euijoon, a KUBA Buddy in my group

Emi, my pretty Japanese friend who speaks really good English!

Emi and I (you can see KU Alumni seated behind us)

Alex socializing with others.

We hung out in the streets for awhile while deciding where else to go to for drinks and got to watch a traditional drums performance.

Emi and Min-sung Sean

Scott (from Australia) and Euijoon

i should have checked the focus area. what a wasted shot! 

Eventually, we went back to Armba again but I left halfway with DoKyung for drinks at Starbucks to escape from drinking more alcohol. That reminds me, I still owe him 4,800KRW for the drink. Oops! And when I went to the toilet, I got a rude shock when I saw this freaking red-faced girl looking back at me in the mirror. OMG. In DoKyung's words, I looked like a carrot -.- I knew I was red but I didn't know that I was that red. Is there any way I can ever control the colour of my face?

By the time we returned to Armaba, our group had just got out and we went to a noraebang where alcohol drinks are served. I sang 별, From the bottom of my broken heart, some parts of Bad girl good girl and 사랑빛 before leaving the place with Emi and her friend, Chris.

 I'm not sure how I ended up going with them because I didn't know Chris at all...but I thought the night was still early and I didn't want to go back so soon. On hindsight, I shouldn't have done that and I regretted it when we arrived at the place because the whole setting was so weird and I wondered if I had just dug my own grave. But then again, at least I accompanied Emi, if not she would have been there all alone and if I were her, I would never want to be there alone with 4 guys (she only knew Chris)! But it turned out that Chris' 3 friends are really nice and things didn't turn out as badly as I had expected it to be, when I had my first impressions. I actually enjoyed myself there, though I really don't like whisky. Basically, Chris is a Korean who studies in the States and here on a 1 year exchange. He's in the same Business English class or something as Emi and had invited her to join him and 3 of his friends in Jam Karaoke in Hongdae, which is higher class than the one we were in, in Anam. Somehow, I ended up going with her and he whisked us to Hongdae in his car. He drove through the bad traffic while the 2 of us were so tired that we slept. We met his friends who are studying in the States and back in Korea for holiday/army (not too sure) and one of his friends' gf, who's a law student in Ewha Women's University, later joined us. The guys were nice enough to ask us for permission before they smoke in the room but later, Chris went out with Bong to smoke and never returned. Apparently, he had some family emergency or sorts so he left. So the remaining 6 of us ate, played drinking games, drank and sang some songs. I lost for a number game and had to drink :( Steve or Juyong, who's was studying in Wisconsin before he came back to serve the army, sat beside me and he's a nice guy (I think I've run out of adjectives to describe people and I'm really tired because it's now 2.42am but I'm still trying to clear my backlog of entries and I still want to watch 김탹구 so please pardon my horrible writing). I think his gf is one lucky girl! So anyway, we mainly talked about our different cultures (including drinking cultures) and at about 3am, Emi and I left but it was still raining when we went out. Bong actually brought us out, helped us to get taxis and what surprised me was that after I had taken the cab back to Anam, I received a text message from him with the details of the taxi I was in, just for security purpose, in his words. I was pleasantly surprised and this is what I deem as gentlemanly as well! So indeed, it was a long night and I only slept somewhere between 5-6am. So much for having planned to wake up early on Sunday to spend the whole day studying because I can foresee things won't go as planned :(