Indian food & VIP Bulldogs

I must apologize, for I left on a cliffhanger, the cliffhanger of the weekend! The glorious weekend!

Though classes are where I get the most laughs/joy during the week, the weekends are what I wait for! Weekdays are when I'm a worker (at an enjoyable job, in a neat, new country, but still), but the weekends are when I get to be a tourist! Which is my favorite role in Korea of course, seeing it all! Exploring it all! Learning it all! (I now have over 10 words in my repertoire, and almost the whole alphabet!)

So, I'll set the scene;

Friday  8:14 pm, the bell is about to ring to mark the end of my final Middle School class, I wait with baited breath...tik...tok...and then Fur Elise begins to play (the lovely jingle they have chosen to mark the beginnings/ends of classes).

FREEDOM!!

I bound from the class (I actually walk quite calmly after offering my polite farewells to the students) and run down the stairs (I actually walk quite carefully per the signs that read 'No running or looking at cell phones') and rush into the teachers office (I actually saunter in at a lazy pace, not wanting to look too eager to leave to the other teachers) and within the blink of an eye (about 15 minutes) Taylor & I are heading home!

Kyle, the only other American, is leaving tomorrow (Saturday) and is having everyone at his flat for a little video-gaming before his farewell dinner. Alas though, by the time Taylor & I arrive (since we work the latest on Fridays, and it's now 9:00pm) everyone is quite hungry & ready to go hunt down food, so no gaming for us (boo). We end up in Itaewon (the place where most of our weekend nights seem to originate, as it is very foreigner-friendly) at a little Indian eatery, now mind you, I have no experience with Indian food, nor will I make it a goal to gain experience with Indian food. It wasn't bad, per se, it just wasn't...good, though the bread (naan) was fine. I think I just like spices I'm used to, and curry isn't one I'm used to. Plus, I don't find Indian food particularly attractive, which is a bit disappointing in Korea where it seems presentation is on par with cleanliness (and for reference, they take their cleanliness very seriously). But again, it was an experience! And I do like trying new things. And their place-settings were pretty pretty :P

On the far left is Chicken Marsala over rice (Taylor's meal and quite spicy), the naan is top and center, and my pork dumplings (also quite spicy) is center-right.

To add to the positives of the evening, the restaurant itself was quite unique/cool. It was very (as Taylor said, 'stereotypical'), which was both fun & funny. And of course, being out to dinner with all of the foreign coworkers, and two of the Korean teachers, was super enjoyable. Hanging out with people from different areas makes conversation both easier and often funnier due to the differences in words or pop culture.

After dinner, when we were all thoroughly stuffed, Kyle, the guest of honor, took one of the last subways home to finish packing and prepare for his looong flight on Saturday that would take him to Africa where he will be staying with a friend, and possibly teaching English again, for 6 months. The group here is very well-traveled, and more often than not, teaching in Korea seems a springboard for a long young-adult-period of traveling :D

But back to our evening, we went to a little Irish pub (our group now, Haley, a Korean teacher, and Aaron, Caroline, Danella, Craig, Tay & myself) where we enjoyed the conversation and stories from past teachers or classes until close to 1 in the morning. Afterwards our group split again as Aaron and Caroline decided to go home to bed as well, but the nightlife in Itaewon is so vibrant, Taylor and I were far too awake to go home just yet, so now Haley, Taylor, Danella, Craig & myself moved on to The Bulldog (the bar Tay & I have gone to twice on our own, receiving very warm welcomes each time from one of the waiters). It is one of the only bars we know we like, and it always has good music (I've already added to my music collection multiple times because of their influence, such as "I'm an Albatraoz" by AronChupa), so that was where we directed the group, and boy am I glad we did!

As I said, Taylor and I have gone to the Bulldog two times before, but never so late (pushing 1:30am now), and as soon as we walked in we saw it was quite busy. The small space between the bar and pool table which is usually empty was filled by people dancing (probably only 15-20 people, but when we have come to the Bulldog before, there are only 15-20 people in the entire place, so this was a big change). Suddenly. the 'small but friendly' bar we had advertised to the rest of our group seemed a big fib :O

But no sooner had I began to lose hope while scanning the busy room for enough open seats for our large group than did Roy appear, the extremely friendly bartender/waiter who had given Taylor a back-rub on our first visit, and took pictures with us and added us to Facebook upon our second visit. His face lit up when he saw us (and after looking in his phone to remember my name) he exclaimed "Tierney!" and gave me a hug, he then shoo-ed away the normal hostess and asked how many we had. I told him of our five-person group and he disappeared into the crowd. I could juuuust see him off in the corner of the underground bar, at a corner booth, large enough for six, as he shoo-ed other patrons out of their seats so that we could sit there! We were all quite impressed and grateful and sat down right away.

In addition to the robbery of the coveted corner booth, Roy also brought us large glasses of water whenever we wanted (the bar-tending staff are only supposed to serve small bottled waters apparently, and charge an arm and a leg for each) and a free shot for all five of us. Yes, Roy is a very good waiter indeed, and his hospitality has solidified the Bulldog as not only one of Taylor and my favorite bars, but also one I'm sure more of our foreign-teacher-friends will frequent as well. Well done, Roy, well done :)

 Annd here's Roy & us from our second visit (on St Patty's Day)

After dancing and talking and laughing late into the night at the lovely Bulldog (but not late enough to take the first Subway home), we stopped off at a hotdog eatery, hailed a taxi & made it home to the apartment building we all live in (besides Haley who took a separate taxi). Most of the taxi-passengers slept on the way home, however I do not like sleeping in taxi's in Korea, as I feel my vigilant eyes are needed to stop us from dying in a fiery crash (the driving here is madness!!) so instead Craig teacher and I discussed the woes of modern news-casting, and our views of NPR and BBC during the 30 min cab ride, which was very fun, and he (like Taylor) has an International Relations degree (and a Master's in something similar) so he was incredibly knowledgeable,

Once we arrived, and Taylor and I were sure that everyone was safely ensconced in their respective rooms, we went home, had some toast and Advil (always a good precautionary step to take when you have sightseeing plans the following day) and hit the hay! Dreaming of mountains & observatory towers (hint hint for Saturday's plans). And though I wish I could fit Saturday's events in thi post as well, I took many pictures and I doubt this little blog can handle the amount of data I'm about to spew about Namsan's North Tower and more :)

Until next time.

All of my love,

Tea