Love Shots, Hometown Strangers, and the Morning Blues

(Be forwarned, this entry involves alc*h*l)

01.21.07
5:11 pm



it was to the town last night. David, Katrina, and I met up with jinni a former teacher at ECC, whom I had met just once before the morning after I arrived. When everyone met to go north for new years. of course I had no memory of her. She introduced us to her brother Jong Wong and his japanese friend Yataka Takahashi. the first four places we asked said they were full. Jinni thought it was because we were foreigners. finally we found a place called Soldier Camp. Ironically there were no soldiers inside. the walls were decorated with nazi periphinelia. we ordered two bottles of soju, a plate of fruit, and a plate of sausage. Like I've said before, Koreans never drink without eating too. anyway we hadn't eaten dinner. so two birds.





i don't really like soju to be quite frank. it's kinda thick and smells like rubbing alcohol. Mildly sweet and clear. Well like it or not I frankly drank more than a little. we played different games of Jinni's devising. Consisting of targets, missions, and love shots. i, having lost one game, had to find a table of women patrons and ask them in Korean for a shot.

Jinni went with me to a table of moderately aged, yet still attractive, women. I spoke my line. they were so surprized to hear Korean come out of my mouth that they just stared at me. I was afraid I said the wrong thing. Finally one regained her wits and offfered me a shot of her beer. I accepted and we all drank together. they spoke a little English and kept calling me handsome. Quite flattering. Then Jinni made us take locve shots. wrapping our arms around, the way newlyweds do. and took the shot. two of the women accpted.



When we left the restaurant jinni showed me a picture of her. I don't know what it was for, looked like a photo that would go in a year book. I asked if I oculd keep it, she said I had to tell people it was a picture of my girlfriend. I said look at this picture of my beautiful Korean girlfriend. she snatched it back, prove it. what? prove it. I of course had little clue what she wanted me to do. so as we were walking down the alley in downtown at two thirty in the morning I leaned over and kissed her on her cheek. her cheek was soft like a fresh baked dinner roll. I was half afraid that this kind of forward behavior would merit a slap in the face. Koreans, of course, never kiss or show affection between the sexes in public. She, however, did not respond at all. She merely said "i cannot have a botfriend before kat does." kat laughed it's too late she said, he already kissed tou.



Before we met up with Jinni and crew, Katrina explained to me that jinni was the coolest korean that she knew. and having known the girl for about two hours now I had to agree. One of those people that is just bubbling with positive energy. too bad she's not teaching at ECC anymore. she's moving to seoul soon.

David proposed that we make our way to Itaewon Crew, a bar they had visited last week. No one knew where the bar was, so we just followed David. Miraculously he led us straight there.

it was a cool kinda foreigner place. In spite of the foreigners. Black and White spray paint murals on the walls. black handwriting scrawled on the ceiling. A pool table, currently occupied by a large American man and a scantily clad asian female. She has no ass, David said. using hand jestures to explain what he was trying to say to Taka and Jong Wong. No aassss. He repeated.

The owner of the place was a skinny young Korean man. I met him in the mens room. He told David to kick me while I was peeing. Later he took a shot of our smuggled soju.

mingle mingle, David told me, Taka and Jong Wong, we had become quite comfortable sitting alone in our corner of the room. So set out, wandering around. I parked myself next to katrina at one of the floating bars. She was talking to some guy that I recognized but couldn't tell from where. Nathan, Nathan. It was Taka. Where are you from? Texas. Ah yes. He beckoned to me. He was talking to a woman, American by the looks of her. Me too she said. No way, what city? waco. what?? are you serious? So am I. I don't believe it. That's so crazy . What high school did you go to? Midway. So did I!



Strange how life is. We talked about Waco, high school teachers that we both had or remembered. she graduated five years before me. But many of the teachers were the same. Weird talking about something like that in a place like that. She kept saying, "no on evvver makes it out. It's a black hole."

The night wore on. Jinni, Jong Wong, and Taka left. Promising to do this again sometime.



David, Katrina, and I got into a heated discussion of the difference between Canadians and Americans. she said the difference was that Canadians weren't Americans. Which was exactly what I thought was true, but didn't think that any Canadian would admit to it. Much less think that was a valid identity.

We busted out the smuggled bottle of sohju promising to leave when we were done. We got the owner to sit with us. And take a shot of the soju. I don't think we finished it. It was almost 5. Mchonalds would be serving breakdast in less than an hour and a half.



I don't know why we went to Mcdonalds. Guess because it's twenty four hours. For some cheeseburgers. Even while intoxicated they tasted like crap.

Got a taxi home. And began to feel all the effects of the alcohol. I hate riding in taxis while under the influence. Thought I might hurl. finally, we made it home. Only a short walk. Short walk. up this hill. up this hill. up the stairs. up the stairs. unlock the door, shed the cloths collapse.



Woke up this morning feeling worse than when I lay down. Splitting headache and nauseau. I was in no mood to get out of bed. Even though I hate lying in bed during the day. But lay I did. Lay and lay and lay. which sucks because david and I promised to make "beautiful music together" today. having failed to do so yesterday. deciding instead to rearrange my apartment into a more livable space. we had to enlist Katrina in the project after laboring for a half hour and after moving eveything around and finding ourselves with a worse arrangement than we started with. We ended up moving the big brown wardrobe obelisk out onto the balcony, freeing up an immense amount of space in my room. and placing the tv on top of that. so now I can watch the tube if I turn around in bed and look out the door. It's like a dentist's waiting room. Its a tight squeeze, so tight you might think it was designed to be there. anyway I feel sorry for whoever has to move it.



Haven't gotten out of bed for a prolonged period of time all day and it is now after five. I did stand long enough to vomit a bucket of water into the toilet. Felt a little better after that. Thought I was just hungover bad, but now I think I might be getting a little sick, there is a bug buzzing around.

(for those distant lovers, rest assured. I'm still quite single.)

i'm a moron. yes. apologize all around.