seoul formal night

We’re finally here, our last weekend (my second to last), unfortunately nothing overtly epic to announce… just my good old fashioned typical weekend ;). Friday night, out with the guys from the CAC and some of the lifeguards for some sam gahp sai- Korean bacon!!! Karaoke, and some good times! Let it be known, Weevil and I scored 100 singing “you’re the one that I want”- she as john Travolta, and I as Oliva Newton John!!! Went to sleep at 2AM, then woke up around 4:30 to catch the 5AM free shuttle to Osan! Hey who needs sleep on our last weekend? Alas, I do! Crashed on the bus for a very bouncy, but successful nap. Woke up in Osan, and hung out there catching up on some skype and R&R.
That night, was our designated “formal” a hop skip and a jump away- Itaewan, Seoul. Hahaha, timing it perfectly once again (and by accident), we arrived in Seoul on another Korean holiday, one similar to our independence day… anyway, hotels were full around the surrounding areas, but we lucked out finding one of our best ones yet (not sarcastic), Capital Hotel! However, this stroke of luck came after Matt lost his wallet in one of the millions of taxi’s patrolling Seoul… killed his weekend for sure. So there we are, running around trying to find his wallet, searching for hotels, not exactly sure where we are, surrounded by foreigners and locals alike, all while sweating in the hot, humid night, wearing our formal attire- myself in my suit pants, long sleeve shirt, tie, (wisely deciding not to wear the coat), skater shoes, and hat- keeping it fly ;). Anyway, our night did not officially begin until around 10:30… but we met up with some other people, including Devin from last weekend, and Jeremy (amber’s friend) and some of his buddies. Now, don’t freak out, just laugh and enjoy this next part… We ended up at hooker hill, matt attaining the record of 4 solicitations as he scaled this mini, dirty, hill, us watching from a distance; ended up at Polly’s at the top of the hill, asked this big dude how to go about getting the one table for some pool… had to sign up. Was planning on playing Jeremy’s friend for fun, realized I signed up for a tournament style, winner moves on play… won 3 games in a row, should’ve been 4, but my last ball dropped in an uncalled pocket and the other guy got ball in hand for the 8 ball!!! Still had fun beating me some army dudes ☺. Finally retired back to the hotel where we proceeded to fit 7 people in our room made for 2- actually a comfortable fit, and slept soundly until the next morning!
The next morning, we were to meet up with Jeremy for some sushi at Nico Nico’s again- gotta love their “love love” roll! Were gonna check out, jump a subway, get some lunch, do some exploring- I really wanted to see the electonic market, and catch the free shuttles home getting back around 8… Seoul had other plans for us. To give you an idea of our day, know that I am currently blogging on the bus ride back (it’s almost 10), partnered only with one of our original 5 person group! Let me back track a bit though… woke up, checked out, all okay, if a little bit late. Then we tried to walk to a subway station we didn’t exactly know the exact location of, got tired and hot, waved down some cabs, rode to the next available subway, got on (matt stopping by the hotel one last time to check for his wallet)… it hadn’t turned up, got on the subway, took much longer than we anticipated, now running late, after pushing up the lunch date time, frantically run to catch our transfer line, just make it, discover two stops later we are going the wrong direction, get out, hop the other one going the opposite direction, now even more late and starving, finally arrive at lunch, eat some delicious sushi rolls, make plans for a red mango stop before heading home; finish lunch, walk out toward red mango, decide we might be cutting it close to our departure time, get in some taxis going to camp Youngsan (split into two groups being 5 people big), miss our destination by a couple blocks with about 7 minutes until the bus departs, waste a few minutes completely lost, trying to figure out our next move, matt realizes where we are, speed off on foot toward the base, are blocked by a big wall with barbed wire and no gate, decide to go to Seoul Station and catch a train to Osan for the free shuttle hoping to beat our (victorious- on the bus, counterparts from the partner taxi), miss our train by minutes, have to wait an hour and a half, do some in station shopping, finally get on our train, ride uneventfully, split from matt who tells us to shuttle it to a nearby Songtan (then taxi it to the base), arrive at Songtan with time to kill, decide to walk our way back to base; get lost, walk some hills, got some ice cream, did some Korean 200 wan (quarter) machines, got some stickers, walk around, find cab, catch it to base (waaaaay off from where we were), arrive near base, get some AMAZING yaki mandu- some of the best yet (which is saying something), remembered we had neglected mandu street, made mandu street plans for the upcoming week, taxi’d our way to the bus station, made it, bringing us full circle to where I began… oh and all this happened while we carried our weekend bags (me including my suit…). All in all, another very very successful weekend, typical, hilarious, fun, and the type of adventure we’ve become accustomed to. Especially Weevil and I, who are probably too chill and flexible for our own good ☺. Lastly, I caught up on some homework, and spent almost an entire battery charge writing on the bus! This was definitely a great weekend to end on- the gang all together, some minor hiccoughs (matt got screwed), good times, new memories made, and excellent company!!!