I Goh Tek Showah Now

Last week absolutely FLEW by.  I couldn't believe it when it was already Friday...it had just been Monday, hadn't it?  Amazing!  I bolted out the school door at 5:55pm and walked home alone.  I can cross "Listen to Notorious B.I.G. while walking through major Asian city" off my bucket list.

Just kidding.  I don't have a bucket list.  If I did, it'd be real short, like, "Do what floats your boat."

As soon as I dropped my laptop off at my apartment, I headed right back out the door to Nowon.  I needed a new toy...even though I've gotten my Korean cell phone, it's really not cuttin' the mustard.  As someone who eagerly anticipated and immediately pounced on the first regular non-Blackberry cell phone with a full sized keyboard (remember the "V"?), and has been a smartphone-aholic for the past 2 years, my cute little white brand new but old school cell just isn't doing it for me.  Call me spoiled, call me a brat, but, I needed an iPod touch.  I LOVE it.  I'll love it even more when I finally get my wireless router figured out.  Or rather, when I get one of my Korean coworkers to call the customer service number for me and ask why there's no PIN number when it says there should be.

I Skyped someone from the subway station today.  SO cool.  The new Touches have a camera now, so the person I'm talking to can see me, too.  It's fabulous.  I can also use an app to text people back home now, AND receive replies.  I also now hold the subway map of Seoul in the palm of my hands.  I will get lots of use out of this thing.

Back home, new toy and a new tub of strawberries in hand, I was quite content.  I went to bed early, thinking to myself how I'm probably spending more money per month on strawberries than I will on my new cell phone.  Cell phone bills here are CHEAP.  The base rate for my phone is under $12/month, plus the cost of calls and texts, which are like 2 cents per text (within Korea) and 2 cents per minute.  I'll rarely use it, but it's still a necessity.  As are delicious Korean strawberries!

On Saturday I checked my Facebook page first thing, as I often do, and found a message from Kim wondering if I wanted to go explore a new area with her, south of the river.  Like, duh!  Of course I do!

We went to Apgujeong, which is a slightly ritzier place to shop.  First stop was a restaurant called "Mad for Garlic" that featured garlic in literally every dish from appetizers, salads, entrees, all the way to the desserts.  Garlic ice cream was on the menu!  We didn't order dessert, but our food was amazing!

My pizza...lots of yummy raw leaves!

Next we walked around and looked at the shops.  They were different than all the others I'd seen in other parts of town.  No street vendors were here, nor were there people standing outside of face wash stores on microphones.  It was much quieter over there in that sense.  I did, however, hear more honking than usual.  Kim and I decided we would get our nails done.  We went to this really cute place with Barbies everywhere.  I chose rainbow glitter and they asked me if I wanted "full" or "gradual."  Not understanding, I said "gradual" because it sounded different.  I would be happy with anything they'd do anyways.  "Gradual" turned out to mean fading from the top of the nail to the bottom.  After meticulously cutting every minuscule particle of cuticle from my nails, she painstakingly painted each nail using a tiny sponge dipped in the glitter polish.  Here are the delightful results!

While I was out I got a Facebook message from Kylie (which I read using my iPod...hehehe yay!) wondering if I'd like to go out to Itaewon to have dinner and meet a couple of her friends for some drinks.  I knew I needed to get out so I decided to go, even though it probably meant we'd be in another smoky club until after 2am!  First we went to a Bulgarian restaurant for dinner, and it was delicious!  I had vegetarian moussaka.  It was baked like lasagna but without tomato sauce and had a sort of yogurt sauce on top.  Delicious!  Next we met Kylie's friend at some fancy looking club with colorful lit-up floors.  We sat down at a low table with squishy bench-seating.  Then we found out that it's 50,000 Won just to sit in there!  (that's just under $50)  That's a lot to pay when you're not even going to be drinking...a lot to pay even if you ARE drinking!  So, we left.  Next stop--The Loft.  You get in for 5000 Won and ladies drink for free all night, all you want.  

Needless to say, people get pretty crazy in there.  "All the guys in here are either too young or too old," commented one of my friends.  I hadn't even thought to look at the guys--I was too busy wondering if any of the songs they were playing were not too dirty to play for my kindergarteners in Music class.  "I could teach my kids to dance to this," I thought during "Cupid Shuffle."  And anyways, I've met a lot of guys in wild clubs before...but not too many worth remembering.

Since we were at Itaewon, there were a lot of foreigners at this club.  A large Australian man came over to where I was standing to talk to me.  "I'd rather slam my you-know-what in the door than dance to this song," he exclaimed in his down-under accent.  I laughed.  It is funny how a little alcohol and about a thousand decibels will make perfectly straight men shake their booties on the tables to "YMCA."  

A little later, a shortish African man approached me.  "Yoo wannah noh someteen?" he asked me.  Uh-oh, here we go.  What new and original line was this guy going to feed me?  "Yoo hahv a very byoodiful smile."  He had a really huge mouth with teeth that gleamed in the low lighting.  I smiled, thanked him for the compliment and asked him where he was from.  "Nigeereuh!" he exclamed.  

"Yoo wannah noh someteen?" he asked again.  "I don' noh why you don' like me."  

Wait...I don't remember saying that!  Oh--it's a feeble, nonsensical attempt to trick me.  I'm sure in his mind, I was about to rave on and on about how much I did, in fact, like him.  "I don't know you!" I told him.  We were both talking at the top of our lungs, directly into each others' ears, trying to bypass the insanely loud music.

"I wannah GET ta noh yoo," he explained further.  "Can I come ova ta yoh place tonight?  I jus' wannah get ta noh yoo."  

"No, you can't come over," I fed back to him.  I love Africans.  They really get right to the point.  They are also usually a blast to hang around...but I didn't feel like "gettin' ta noh" this guy in the same way he did with me.

About this time one of my friends was feeling pretty drowsy and we knew the party was over for us...although the end was nowhere in sight for most of the club-goers.  We made our way back down to the streets to find a taxi.  

Back at home, I suddenly became aware of the ash tray perfume that was my hair and clothes.  "I goh tek showah now," I thought to myself.