Photo Round-Up

I thought I would just do a short post with some remaining photos that have been kicking about. For anyone that reads Lynne's Blog too, these photos will be old news to you I'm afraid! At the end I'll update you on recent news, and there has been much excitement! But for the benefit of those haven't seen these pictures, here we go.......

"You're my besht mate I luv you". This was taken from a night out in Itaewon, where we ended up in a club called Big Electric Cat watching a local band. The band were all piss poor apart from this suave looking fellow, who we got chatting to afterwards. There aren't many Koreans who look like an oriental blend of John Lennon and James Brown, so it was certainly a Kodak moment. Just look at that hair, this is one funky dude. Unfortunately for our bequiffed friend, we were shockingly drunk, so he had to contend with not only understanding our English, but also our drunken gibberish. He coped admirably and drew us up a list and a map for other live band venues close by. Did I ask him for a rendition of "Sex Machine"? I really don't remember, but given my genuine love for his very Un-Korean soulful locks, I wouldn't be at all surprised! Get up-uh, Get on up!
"Kimchi Salute!" Ah now this must be a familiar sight to my friends. Here I am exhibiting all the signs of oncoming inebriation. Do I always look like this when pished? If so, I wish somebody had told me sooner, what a twat! Previous to this pub, we had invaded the table of some Germans, who were fantastically all tucking into some German sausage and sauerkraut. When a language barrier exists, and you're already drunk, it seems like a good idea just to shout out movies from the country in question, and at least share a mutual nod of satisfaction. However, in this case it appeared that Germans dislike German films, and, in particular....Goodbye Lenin! Bloody idiots. I have no idea what is happening in the next photo, but it looks like fun. And I'm guessing the Soju switch had just been flipped.


It's a bit disheartening that while Lynne manages to relatively control herself, I seem to either be melodramatically falling off my stool, or attempting a fairly accurate impression of a neanderthal man having an epilectic fit. Apologies to anyone reading with epilepsy, and don't sit so close to the screen!

Last but not least, we have a picture of our first full Korean meal. It was a shame for all concerned that this meal was spontaneous, and required the removal of shoes and sitting on the floor. My feet were positively reeking, and if Koreans knew what cheese smelled like, they probably would have identified that aroma as I squeezed onto my cushion. This is also the first picture of our Director, James, to grace my blog. He is quite an entertaining fellow, and just like his wife Jennifer, he "LOVES MEAT!" And no, I'm not trying to be witty, seriously whenever the topic of food comes up, Jennifer excitedly exclaims just how much she "LOOOOOVES THE MEAT!", completely unaware of any gutter-minded connotations that could come from that! In general, meat really is a big deal to people here, with whole restaurants devoted to, and celebrating the wonder that is meat, usually decorated with pictures of slightly worried cows. As we had read, a ridiculous 25 different dishes arrived at the table all at the same time, and it was a great chance to try some more bizarre foods. The main dish for myself and James was Bossam, a stack of fatty pork kept on the gas burner on the right of the table. Despite the apparently fatty meat, it was totally delicious and melted in your mouth. There was also a bowl of little fish, with even their eyes still intact. It was literally like someone had taken a net up to "Swanny Ponds", swiped some shoddy looking minnows and chucked them in a bowl. I gamely chopsticked up a couple of the blighters, looked into their dead bulbous eyes, and chewed them up. Tasted like fish but worse. Other delights included what appeared to be a bowl of leaves just plucked off some tree, and tasted pretty much what you'd imagine trees to taste like. And, a massive wooden trough filled with some gelatinous white substance, vaguely like tofu. I really hope it was tofu, as it looked disgusting and could have been steamed dog blubber or something.

Anyway, a brief recap of the last week. After using our Hanguel reading skills we realised that not only were there 4 of Korea's infamous Noreabangs ("Singing Rooms", like Lost in Translation), within spitting distance of our apartment, there's even one in the basement level of our school! We checked it out on Friday night, and I will let you know about that next time! It certainly didn't help my bloody throat though, which still feels like I ate a cactus when I was pished. On Saturday, I met up with Ross and we got drunk-ish and went to see Korn. In case, for some reason, you are reading this entry having not read earlier ones......No, I do not like Korn, we were going for a laugh. However, you might be surprised at how the gig turned out! We also had the chance to check out Dongdaemun, a fantastic area of Seoul. In school related news, Bobby class successfully completed the cutting, colouring, and glueing, of The Alphabet Train.....and goddammit I have the pictures to prove it! This coming Thursday we have a works meal at a seafood buffet. In Korea, that does not mean, some prawn cocktail, scampi, and Bird's Eye fish fingers. This means that it will be a complete nightmare of disgustingness, so we look forward to it with more than a little trepidation. Anyway, all that will be covered next time, take care everyone.

Oh, one last thing..... this is my phone number and address, in case you feel like phoning up drunk, or sending me some presents. I like.....Lemsips, Double Deckers, Magazines (Q, Total Film, Empire, even NME), Baked Beans, Flaming Hot Monster Munch, Walkers Thai Sweet Chili, Red Bull, Scottish Cheddar, Haggis, Any flavour of "Millions", and extra cheap plain T-Shirts (size large). Of course, I'm joking, sort of.

031-977-0288
Chris Waddell
Gyeonggi-do, Ilsan-gu, Jungsan-dong, 1562-5, Sinhyundae Officetel, 607.