Club Volume

I didn't blog last weekend, but I will make up for it with one huge blog! (I actually started writing this on Saturday, and I've been adding to it since then, but I didn't have the pictures in it so I didn't post it...)

Jenn in front of Club Volume

On Friday night we went to Club Volume, which is in Itawon, about a 30 minute cab ride away. We went because one of the Koreans at our school, the guy who works under Danny and fixes the copy machine, and does a bunch of other things around the office and with the kids, is a DJ at the club. He is a pretty big deal, because Club Volume is supposed to be the hottest club in Korea. I think they call it the hottest because it is the most expensive to get into! The cover was $30 before 11pm, and after 11 it went up to $40!!! I never would have paid that much to get in, but since we work with DJ Swan, he put us on the guest list and we got in for free. It was pretty fancy inside, but the drinks were also expensive. It wasn't my style of music, but I still had a fun time. After Club Volume, Jenn and I went to Hungdae and met up with some other people from work. It was a good Friday night, but Saturday morning I wasn't feeling so hot.....

Tara, Susie, me, and Janique at Club Volume.

DJ Swan doing his thing. His Korean name is Suin, and it sounds like Swan.

Jenn, Janique, me, DJ Swan, Tara, and Susie.

The drinks were mad expensive at the bar, and this was "happy hour" which was at 11:20. They passed out these drinks for free. There were no drink specials.

I don't think I've mentioned this guy before, so here it is....
In the alley behind my apartment building(when I say alley it's not what you are probably thinking, it's more of a dead end road with restaurants, a hospital, a church, and some other things on it.) there is this old man who stands outside one of the restaurants handing out fliers. I always shake my head no, and he makes this huge grunting noise and gets mad. He does it every single time anyone refuses his fliers.

On Saturday I was feeling pretty hungover, and Amanda and Susie came by on their way to get coffee. I don't drink coffee, and I was too hungover to get out of bed, so I declined the invitation. Susie is leaving next week because her contract is up. She is trying to get another visa so she can come back in February to go to college here. Her mom is Korean, so she can get a visa that would make her like a Korean citizen, but her mom is missing one document that is important, so her other option would be to work at SLP part time, and still go to school. Since she is going home, and not positive she will be able to come back, she has to get her Korean Won back to the US. Right now the exchange is AWFUL going from Won to US dollars, and if she transferred money now she would get only $6700 for 8,000,000 won. When she first got here it was almost an even exchange and it is killing her to loose so much money. I hope by the time I got home in 11 months the exchange will be much better!

I met Amanda for lunch before Korean class. I still wasn't feeling so hot, but I did want to go to class because it was starting over today. Alisha has joined the class too, so we were too many people for a cab, so we took the subway. It was kind of a pain, and we had to transfer a bunch of times, and it took forever and we had to stand the whole time. We were a little late to class, but we learned the alphabet! There are a few letters I haven't memorized, but I did pretty well. After class Amanda and I went to Yongsung, the electronic market where I bought my cell phone. We bought speakers for our computers, and I also bought a humidifier because it is very dry and I wake up every morning with chapped lips and a sore throat. The speakers are really nice, they were originally $31, but Amanda and I were both buying some, so I tried to give him $50 for two. He said no, so I said ok, $55 and he said no again, but I just kept telling him we were going to give him $55 for two, and he boss came over and finally said OK. So we got them for $27.50 each. My humidifier was supposed to be $25, but I knew there was one at Homever for $20, and I said $15 and he said OK. So we got a lot of good deals! We also ate at a fried rice restaurant that was really good. We had this salad that was shredded cabbage with strawberry yogurt on it, and surprisingly it was really really good!

In all the subway stops they have bootlegged movies for sale that are 2 for $5. They are new movies, usually still movies out in theater, so it's a good deal. They have Korean subtitles, but that doesn't even really bother me anymore! The one we were at on Saturday had Max Payne, which I wanted to see, but they were sold out of the other two movies I would have chosen as my second choice. If you only buy one movie it's usually $3, but since they were out of the only other two movies I liked, I told him I'd give him $2 for Max Payne. At first he said no, but then I just kept pointing to the one they were out of, and then I gave him $2 and he gave me Max Payne. I was in a real bargaining mood and I wasn't going to pay more for one movie just because they were sold out of the other two movies! I was getting so good at bargaining on Saturday that when Amanda and I bought mittens at a legit store, I was thinking about haggling with the clerk to see if I could get a discount!!!

After shopping, we went to see Eagle Eye in the movie theater in the mall we were in. It was really good. I'm shocked at how many Koreans who can't understand English go and pay to see a movie they know is going to be in English. I would be so pissed if I had to go to a movie in my own country and read subtitles. It must be so annoying, but the movie theater was packed! During the movie my throat started hurting a lot and I thought I was getting sick again, but the next morning it felt fine again.

It's very interesting spending so much time with Amanda, who doesn't drink. We have been doing other things besides going out to bars. She does go out to the bars with the group, which is nice, so it's not like I have to choose to hang out with Amanda or drink, because I can do both. But sometimes it's nice to just hang out and do sober things. (I know, most of you are probably shocked at this statement!!!) Apparently I made a comment one time that has been quoted... and it was "Amanda, if you drank, you would have no problem peeing there!" as we were walking miles to find sober Amanda a bathroom after a night of drinking. Janique said that is when she fell in love with me. haha You would think that not drinking would save me money, but really it doesn't. Because instead of drinking cheap beer while getting ready and then going out for cheap drinks at the bars, we tend to go out shopping and I spend way more money than if went to a bar!

Amanda and I went into a food store we went into while we were waiting for the movie to start. They had samples galore! It was so fun walking around trying all the weird things they were cooking up! I did skip the Spam and dried squid sample tables though... There were about 5 beer samples set up. It was amazing, I've never seen so many samples in one food store!

On Sunday we went to Costco. I'm not really a big fan of Costco, because I am only one person, and how much food can one person who eats out every meal really eat? But they do have American things there, like oatmeal and cereal, and stuff that you normally can't find in Korean food stores. I got a huge box of oatmeal for $27. It killed me to spend $27 on a box of oatmeal, but there are 55 packets, so that's about 50 cents per breakfast, and that I can be happy about. I know everything is in bulk, but there are just some things that I can't see spending so much money on at once. I did find sheets for $22. The coolest thing, is that I have Pajamas that match the new sheets!

Where does my arm end and my sheets start???

I also bought laundry detergent. Liquid, good smelling, bubbly laundry detergent! The stuff I had been using was powder, and when I took the clothes out they had the powder still stuck to them, and I watched an entire cycle one time and it didn't get bubbly at all! I feel like good detergent was a good investment.

On Monday after work I went to the dollar store, and found a Christmas tree for $2. It's about two feet tall, and I really wanted a tree, so I bought it, but when I got it home I realized I made a mistake. I need a bigger tree..... It's a start, but I need to be patient and wait until I see a nice tree and buy it. I do have a start on some decorations though.

There is a new girl who came named Laura. She is staying in a hotel until Susie moves out of her apartment.. tomorrow. I'm sad to see Susie leave, because I liked her, but she will be back in February. Laura is from Canada and seems very nice so far. Last night Susie let us walk through her apartment and take things she wasn't keeping. I got a mirror, a cute chair, a pair of green sneakers, some beautiful Korean cereal bowls that are actually meant for beepinbop, and the curtains that Susie had hanging, but it may be awhile until I can figure out how to get them up in my apartment.

Something really cute happened today... I'm teaching one of my classes about prepositions (under the desk, in the desk, on the desk, behind the desk, in front of the desk, etc.) and for homework they had to draw pictures of sentences. One of the sentences was "The mouse is in the kitchen" and when I was checking their homework, I looked at one boy's paper and he had drawn a circle with what looked like drum sticks coming off the sides with a mouse in the circle, and at first I was confused, but then I realized he thought it said "The mouse is in the chicken." I tried not to crack up laughing when I saw it. I understand how he confused the words kitchen and chicken, because they have similar sounds, but I wonder if he thought it was strange that I wanted him to draw a mouse in a chicken.....

This is the famous Suin du boo! The big bowl of soup is on the left, and I spoon the tofu and soup over the rice. Most of those sides I do not eat, but the side that looks like noodles is actually some kind of vegetable that I do like, but it is a little spicy. I put a fried egg in the soup too, but that's not in the picture. You can see the tiny tin cup in the picture too. I get all of this for $4. It's very delicious!!

I finally found a famous squatter! I never need to use a bathroom in public, so I have never seen one, but when we were in the subway I wanted to take a picture of one so I went to the bathroom. I'm still not sure how to use it without taking your pants all the way off, or peeing on your pants... When I need to use one I will let you know how it goes....