That was pretty neat. It was funny though that it was in a restaurant of private rooms, and we didn't know how to communicate to the hostesses at the door who we were there to see. haha.
When Mrs Woo finally came down (after I called EunKyeong and was having her relay the situation to the hostess for us) and brought us up to our own room, down the hall from the rest of the party (Us being Ryan, Brooke and I). We ate another meal nearly identical to what I had had for lunch, without the black tofu. After dinner, which was an endless parade of dishes that were constantly replaced after choruses of "OH GOD! I could not eat another bite to save my life!".
Anyways, after that we decided to head downtown and went to a DVD room and watched a Korean movie called "The Art of Fighting". It was entertaining, but quite short of great. The previews (which I had seen last year) really set it up to be more of a comedy, but at best, it was a "dramedy". It was the story of this kid who gets transferred to a technical high school from an academic school, and the school is full of delinquents and gang members, and when they find out he is the son of a police inspector, they take out all their anger on him. Anyways, he meets this random old guy who teaches him how to fight, and he kicks some ass, but it's not as triumphant as it might have been.
Today I got up, and got ready to meet the Provence gang for lunch. I walked, of course, and wound up being the first there, because I was on time. That's just how it works here.
Anyways, Ee MeCha tried to explain the quote on the board to me, but we garbled it so badly... I think it's to the effect of "I don't know why she's so worried..." SeungJong showed up next, and he and Ee MeCha had some pretty serious talking going on about his recent heartache, and I just looked at the art and movie posters.
On the way to the restaurant, unfortunately there were some jokes made that did not translate well... and it made the lunch a little awkward. And shifted my mood slightly for just a little bit, but we all recovered pretty quickly. There's just something about innuendo-based jokes and timing that does not allow for translation. And no, it wasn't me. I know you were thinking it, but it wasn't me this time!
Anyways, lunch was good, it was a vegetarian restaurant that served fake meat, which was better than expected. It was actually the same fake meat that Sedexxho used to serve in the cafeterias in Canada. I got to meet JeongHyeon's girlfriend, who was really nice. She just got back from Australia.
After lunch, Ee MeCha asked me if I would come with them to DamYang to go to the lake and play some guitar. I said, "sure!" because, hey, free roadtrip.
We listened to a Radiohead mix CD on the way there that was mostly from "The Bends", and I was having wicked high school flashbacks, driving through fields with Radiohead on the stereo and lots of commotion in the back seat and guitars in the trunk and an air of expectation...
When we got there, we got the guitars out, and headed out on this really narrow boardwalk. Some guy stopped us and told us that guitars were not allowed, but it was quite obvious that no-one I was with was taking him seriously when SeungJong basically told the guy off and Ee MeCha lied and said that we had no intention of playing them.
So we walked on this boardwalk for about half an hour,and I saw a student, who was pretty shocked to see me with a group of Koreans carrying a couple of guitars. Anyways, we finally got to the place where Ee MeCha wanted to hang out and for us to play... and it was not nearly as isolated as I had imagined. It was the observation platform at the end of the boardwalk, where everyone came to look out on the lake and have snacks.
I had two options, pussy out or giv'er.
I decided to giv'er.
I played for about an hour with SeungJong, even though I felt that it was probably one of the most bizarre situations I have ever been a part of in my life. Here I was, in Korea, on a nature boardwalk, playing guitar to a growing crowd of Koreans in their day-hiking gear, being given bananas by passing hikers and receiving pretty big rounds of applause at the conclusion of every song.
I started laughing in the middle of one song, because it was so bizarre. Then a group of foreigners showed up, and I started to feel really self-conscious for some reason. I am really starting to wonder about the way that seeing other western people makes me feel now...
Anyways, after our little jam session was over, we headed off, I gave an awkward hello to the other foreigners, and we hopped in the car and headed back to Provence.
Ther rest of the night consisted of seeing "300" (great movie), then dinner at TGI Fridays (Jack Daniel's Marinated Ribs and Beer) and then I shopped for some new glasses and black shoes, since my black shoes actually cracked right across the bottom last week (all shoes from Canada have now become unwearable). Then home along the river, and writing in the blog.
Goot times!
Here's me and EeMeCha outside the cafe.
Here's ME!
1 comment:
DUDE!! I saw 300 this weekend too!
and, I also bought a new pair of black shoes because my old ones, from Canada, cracked across the bottom...
that's just eerie. I did not, however, have any random jam sessions out in nature, althugh I'm jealous that you did. And I understand your awkward feeling around other foreigners too :P
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