Day of Departure

So it has been almost 10 days since our departure. There will be some reflections and also things Ive done since. Here we go. Me, Gelli, and Amy had similar take off times. Hannah and Pat were 친구 par excellence, and so saw us off to Incheon (I owe Pat 만원 for the bus). Amy's flight was later than me and Gelli. So we went through the security gates first. Bye Seoul! See you 친가린구스 later!


So me and Gelli's gates were side by side. How fitting. It allowed us to have one last hurrah for public drinking. We drank Cass Light. "Dont worry guys, we still drink like we're in Shinchon." "and and... we have a blueberry muffin for anju."

Proof. In a word: the muff

When I arrived in Narita, I was frantically looking for some hangul to read. If i can read it it means it did actually happen. I was actually in Seoul, learning me some Korean.


Tears were shed and I nodded several times. Mouthing to myself, "엘리베이터"

So yup. We left Seoul!

The Kin of Amy

So Amy's sister Shannon is here. As well as Joe, Hannah's friend...

We took them to the Chongechyon. First we ate at Chai (a bibimbap joint. it has good cheese veggie bibimbap). Then at the stream we lost sight of Hannah, Amy, Shannon. Joe, Gelli, James, me went to get booze. On the way back it started to rain, sleet, thunder. We tired looking for them but with no avail.

First Sighting: Amy and Kin of Amy: Shannon


The Conch at Night


Water at Night


The Delahanty's and Gelli and Hannah


Under the Bridge at Night


Its all Soju under the Bridge


The Sleet at Night


In a Word: Downtrodden at Night
Thats Joe, and Gelli, we all know Gelli

Two Ajushis Fighting at Night and Making our Day by totally making Friends afterwards at Night

Recent Development at Painters

Seth gets his own item on the menu...

So Seth apparently had a conversation with the proprietor of our favorite Donkasu 집 (house). The gist is that now there is a something you can order by the name of Seth's Hawaiian.

In a word: Exemplary


Gist:
Seth: In America we put pineapple and gochu (jalepenos) on pizza
Proprietor: -Silent Skepticism- Really...?
-Later on-
Proprietor: Seth I tried your suggestion of Gochu + Pinapple in donkasu. Its poised to enter the pantheon. Because Seth made it, it shall have Seth in its name.

SETH'S HAWAIIAN DONKASU

Stuff of Legends.

Post Script:
I am Legend comes out on December 14th. Very excited.

The Cool Kids

Meandering in Shinchon or These are my Friend : D ...

Pat, Jason, James, Amy, Gelli, Felix, Hannah


This is the band Transubstantiation is Hematophagy
Felix - Vampire Bat
James - Leeches
Gelli - Vocals
Pat - Assassin Bug
Jason - Nematode


Sophistication


Sophistication of sorts

Time Travel: <<

The first time at Chongechong...

By City Hall and the Gyeongbokgung Palace, theres this little stream. In the past 20 yrs or so (?) they built up the banks of the stream. It looks very nice, even better at night supposedly. Me and Gelli found it accidentally when we were looking for a showing of some North Korean film.

By the starting point of the Chonggechong, theres a giant conch

The starting point of the built up stream


Looking back at the starting point from bank


Theres steps intermittently to provide passage


After awhile theres trees on either side


Another view of the starting point

Rundown of Places we Like

Episode 3: Over-vealotry

So tonight we will run down three places we like to go. First, Mushroom Restaurant. Its a veggie friendly Shabu Shabu joint. Second, The Painter and Cook, a very good donkasu (tonkatsu) place. Then, the-so-called "Lodge." An underground cafe that serves beer, nice couches, and coffee. Finally, a proper introduction of our favorite 다방. Enjoy..

At Mushroom Restaurant

Gelli, Hannah

At Painter and Cook
Seth from Minnesota, more to come
Hannah, we all know Hannah

At "the Lodge"
Katharina von Austria

The 다방

At the 다방: "Welcome"
Amy, James, Gelli

The Counter

A rendition of Van Gogh with the Owner of the Cafe in Bear Costume

These a glimpses of places we like here.

Time Travel: >>

So we fast forward like a month... 11-18-07

Today we went to our favorite 다방 (cafe). There we drank copious amounts of coffee. The man who works there gives tons of service (freebies). So as you will see later we were strung out on coffee. James and Pat worked on shit on their computers. Me and Gelli drew stuff. After that we headed to our favorite ラーメン (ramen, 라면 아니고...). We witnessed a real 식선수 (Food Player aka eating champion). I asked the かわいいお姉さん who was working there（기옆은누나?) what the deal was. The deal is, you eat a toilet bowl sized ramen serving under 20mins, you eat for free. However, if you can't you have to pay 2만원 ($20, ２０円）After, witnessing a true hero, we witnessed true brutality in the form of Park Chan-Wook's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. The pictures are telling of the draining ordeal. Enjoy...

다방James and Gelli (Angelica), as status quo we are together on this episode

Gelli and Pat. Pat is our chingoo from the BC. You will hear from him more often. Yes that is Guernica. in the background


Heres the bill for the fight between the Windshield Viper vs Gelika Plasmatic.


... In a word: strung-out

Ramen: 三丁目

Eating! Drinking! Fighting!

... In a word: hero.

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance

In a word: Down trodden...

Post Scriptum:
Our friend from back home (Seattle) has a new band Grave Maker. Check them out.

Places we Like

This is the Downstairs Lounge...

International Cooperation

This is our dear chingoos Amy from Kentucky and Roberto from Monterey. No not California, Mexico. Habitual characteristics 1: Amy punches/pumps arms expressing approval. Me and Roberto have a certain pose we make consistently for pictures and in real life (photographic proof to come)

Ramen Robot: 1000 won

You put in a 1000 won bill and this ramyun (Korean for spicy top ramen) comes out. It was broken so some people were repairing. I snapped a picture of the naked ramen robot.

Tons of Studying: Lies

A lineup of Macs...

Lots of Takeout: Truth

Hannah!!! from San Jose/San Francisco and Maricarmen from Monterrey. No not California, Mexico. They are enjoying our favorite 4th meal, jyajyangmyun and jyajyangbap or tangsoo. Its Korea-Chinese food. Black bean with noodles and rice. And also fried pork with sweet-sour sauce (detailed photos to come).

Study Lounge stats

So this is the study lounge. We meet chingoos here. We occasionally study. We watch movies here. We eat food here. We need to leave the Downstairs Lounge now.
Study Lounge Rating: 1/10

Places We Lik

So this is Chobang...

Teammate Gelli

Teammate James

This is our favorite cafe. Its really close to our dorm. Chobang is a children's book publication that happens to run a cafe/children's book gallery. Theres tons of original or translated works. Also they sell cool nicknacks. I like Nicknacks. We come here and study for hours and hours. Sometimes we meet Giggle Fitzgerald here. They also project films onto the far wall. This particular time had The Balloon playing. Lets go banging! Chobanging... (sorry)

Fish 하고 Cake 하고 Beer

They went to Doctor Fish Cafe...

FISH !!SYMBIOTIC RELATIONS PIMP!! FISH

So, you pay the equivalent of 8-9 dollars. You get choice of cake and coffee, tea, or beer. We opted for choco-cake and beer. Then, you go to the feet bath to wash your feets. After the feet ablution you take a hike to the middle of the Doctor Fish Cafe and theres a pool. You sit on the edge and dunk your feet. Fish begin to nibble on your feet. It tickled. A lot. Great.

The one where they go to Gyeongju

So we went to Gyeongju...
This is what i saw...



This is the Bulguksa Temple. We stayed here for a good hour and a half. Taking Pictures...



This is Namsan of Gyeongju. Apparently everyone has a Namsan.

Some more pictures to come for Gyeongju...

Chingoos: Meet Them

Meet My Chingoos: One















-Sascha: Dutch. 21. Tall and Hapkido
-Jesus: Ami. 20? "What it do?"
-Angelica: Ami. 20. "YO! SAMIES!"
-Katharina: Austrian. 21? Rating: 20 out of 3
-Silvia: Austrian 21?. Special Ability: Is game to try different foods
-Hannah: Ami. 22. Scale of 1-10: RAWSOME!
James: Ami probably. 20. Haven't seen him since 3rd grade.

More CHINGOOS to come...