Dragged around Seoul

17.08.2012

OK so, after we watched Kung Fu Panda 2 in class I went to Seoul to visit with Dave. I am off until Thursday, so I can do some traveling around the country until then.

Oh by the way, Jason is more normal now, after the first weirdness he displayed, he's alright, but still annoying. I change my mind about him. Don't know when I'll see him again, so it doesn't matter anyway.

On the train to Seoul, I felt more at ease. I don't know if it was the rhythmic motion of the train I was on or the feeling of escape, just being able to get out of Iksan for a while and away from my crazy apartment. No idea what it was but I was feeling kind of awesome and really secure with this whole thing.

That all changed however in a few short hours.

Dave met me at Seoul station at Bean and Berries, where I bought a crappy juice for $5 just to use their wifi. He was buying shoes and only bought some really crap canvas ones because he was in a rush to come and pick me up. I on the other hand, would have gladly waited, if it meant he could have found proper ones. I had a newspaper and was reading it and everything.

Anyway, it was really great to see a familiar face for once. And things were looking up, right. We went straight to the hostel, Seoul Base Camp, which is basically an army barracks set up in a large studio apartment. Right now I'm using a computer plonked down on a piece of plywood, made into a sort of desk.

It was Dave's brother Russ' last day and of course Dave wanted to hang out with him, so that meant that by default, I would have to too. At first I thought it would be awesome, because he had this "all you can eat and drink" idea. Some friends he met before were going to it. Little did I know that it was at least a 2 hour subway ride away (with three transfers) and the food and wine were absolute crap. Nevermind that, Russ thought it appropriate to divide the tab up unevenly so that I paid the most. I'm not sure how much extra he kept, but maybe it was $4. Not a big deal right, but I just felt that if he was dragging me around the city to see this girl he's crushing on for a night before he leaves, the least he could have done was figure out how to divide the bill up evenly. Everybody's plate cost the same. It's the principle of the thing you see.

OK so I can deal with the cold and tasteless western food, the vinegary wine and getting gipped $4. I can deal with all that.

What I cannot deal with are fake people. This place was LOADED with them. I don't know who his friends are, but my god what fakery there was on display that night. I can't really explain it but I was getting a horrible vibe. Maybe these people are lovely when they are not posing for each other at the "intercontinental hotel", but it just seemed like everything they said to me was either condescending or like they were humouring me until they could talk about their own thing. I guess I should've just sucked it up for Dave's sake, but I'm a baby. When they wanted to get into a cab instead of just taking the subway to put even more alcohol in their veins, I just couldn't do it.

I tolerated the snobs up until this point. My legs were not moving me into those cabs. Everyone kept telling me "Oh, it's cheap it's cheap, don't worry about it." Yeah, you don't seem to understand. Maybe I don't understand either. But when I'm in another place, I tend to try to do the same things as normal people do. I don't try to prance around like a princess, taking cabs everywhere when a subway is just fine for me. A couple of the girls told me they took a 1.5 hour cab ride already to get to this place, now they were taking another one back. It was probably the cheap wine and the 1.5 hour sleep that I got last night, but I begged Dave just to write down the name of the subway station I needed to get to the hostel. He still tried to convince me to come, which I felt really bad for, because I was kind of ruining his last night with his brother.

I dunno, maybe I'm the princess here, but sometimes my entire being does not let me do things. At that moment, I could not force myself to get into the cab. I just could not go and watch these people drink and act like idiots anymore. Finally, Dave was nice enough to write down the station and walk me to the subway. I don't know where he went after that, but I said sorry about a thousand times. For some reason, I didn't have to transfer at all to get back to the hostel. It was on the same subway line! That made me a little more irritated. Then, on top of that, there were no beds left at the hostel, so I slept in Dave's bed and when I woke up, I found him on the couch in the lobby

Right now, he's snoring and looks like he won't be getting up for a while. I'm sorry Dave. I hope you had a fun night with your brother besides my little temper tantrum. Pictures are coming soon.

Iksan station