this is a long one, sorry....

it's been a long time since last i blogged. that said, it's been a busy couple o' weeks for one jamie mcgeorge. lots of meeting new people and then drinking and making a fool out of myself with them at the norae bong. i just want to give koreans a good impression of drunk american chicks. i'm pretty sure i'm succeeding, woo hoo! This sonsaengnim likes to party!!! Yup, Im a dork.

last week i was walking home and sort of cut off this dude when i was crossing the street. he was talking on the phone, but abruptly hung up and approached me. within 5 minutes of talking to him, we were making plans to meet and speak english together over beer and dinner. so that was cool. later that same night, i was at the bondaegi place (sp? hof with silkworm larvae as a side dish) and the server that we were convinced hated us wanted to go out sometime to drink and speak english. for a while i didn't even know his name, so when he would call or text message, it just said "bug guy" on my phone. actually, i know his name, but my phone still says "bug guy." he text messaged and called quite a few times. I guess that even if his english is lacking, at least he is persistent. i did end up going out with both of said dudes last week and was really glad that i chose to answer the phone instead of hide behind the caller id like i'm used to doing. the guy i met on the street (jong-heeeeeee) i ended up eating clam soup with (not a euphemism...) and we drank beer in my neighborhood. he had a list of questions for me when we went to the bar. out of all the koreans i've met here thusfar, he strikes me as the one the most earnest in his desire to learn english. he wants to go drink, but he also wants to address several pages of questions he has prepared. hopefully i will learn some korean from him as well.

I met bug guy in the university area a few days later. He had a friend with him who actually spoke better english, so he ended up translating most of our conversation. I know that as I relay all this, these sound like a string of really awkward interactions Im getting myself into (even other Koreans I know are constantly asking me what do you talk about with these people?)and we know how I pride myself on awkwardnessbut its really not like that at all. I would be lying if I said the conversation seems really natural, but the sentiment at least seems really natural. And there is this fascination constantly being reciprocated, confirmed, perpetuated why do Koreans do this? Why do Americans say that?

After drinking, went to the norae bong. For some reason, singing dont stop believing in the company of two dudes who have no idea who journey is is not as fun as my inebriated self thought it would be. Koreans at the norae bong are not like drunk Americans at karaoke. Koreans pick the most heartfelt, sentimental love songs and render them gut-wrenchingly. Americans pick the party jams and like to march in place as they sing (okay, by Americans, I mean me. Im a fan of marching in place in general). But the norae bong is the unofficial end of drinking activities, so I knew I would be going home soon anyway. Parted ways with bug guys friend, then bug guy walked me home (his apartment is near mine). When we got to my door, he asked if he could kiss me, so I awkwardly said uh, I guess on the cheek. So I turned my head and he ended up kissing my hair. So that, in all its awkward glory, is the most physical action I have had in at least 3 months (aside from creepy dude in seoul who tried to molest me, but Ill try to block that one out). Despite all this, it was a really good night and I will probably hang out with him again. It sounds silly, but I think these sort of awkward interactions are one of the purposes of my life. Awkward people gravitate toward other awkward people. And its a beautiful thing--or at least a highly uncoordinated, graceless thing.

On Friday night, met up with Jong-Hee and his friend, Mr. Ham. They were both eager to meet jules and rory. We drank with them for a while at a bar in jules neighborhood. Then my friend Michael met us and we went to another bar. We ended up drinking many many ginormous pitchers of beer and lots of soju. A very good night, and some pretty interesting cultural exchanges. We played so many drinking gameskorean and American--high low red black, bullshit, and several soju lid games. It was funny when we played bullshit though, because instead of calling "bullshit" they would say "you are a liar!" Michael walked me home and my normal walk from julies house ended up taking at least 30 minutes. I offered to make him some food, but before I had even cooked it he was passed out in my bed. So I slept on the floor. Somewhere in the middle of the night in my comatose/drunk state, we ended up switching spots. Then he ordered delivery Chinese food the next day as a hangover cure. So Friday night was great. One of us drinkers ended up making pizza (read: barfing a lot), but it wasnt me.

The next day I headed to seoul for the lotus lantern festival. I really like the city of seoul as a place to visit, but this third trip confirmed my belief that chuncheon or any of the smaller cities are the places to be. I think Im having a more unique experience maybe than the masses of foreigners in seoul, as I am basically forced to have much native Korean interaction. The opportunity to mingle with only other esl teachers is not as everpresent in chuncheon as it appears to be in seoul. It was a sort of reverse culture shock to be in seoul, as I again felt painfully self-conscious around all the judgmental whiteys. Of course Koreans are judgmental tooIm not a Korean, but Im living in koreabut their judgment seems so much more objective to me than that of other Caucasians.

Another aspect of seoul that was so tiring was the subway system. I guess its convenient, but I felt like I was underground or in a taxi or on a bus all day long. Whats the point of being surrounded by mountains if you cant even see them? I think overall, it was just the pace of life that I didnt like. Constant struggling to be somewhere, making plans and feeling pressure to keep them. I much prefer the relaxed, unhurried life in chuncheon. Things in korea seem to happen in double-time already--so much life compressed into a small timeframe. Why would I want to speed that up even more?

Anyhoo, that was Saturday. Lots of traveling, lots of walking around, lots of drinking. Lots of fun, but quite exhausting. There were no lantern festivities going on that night, so the focus was just on seeing different parts of seoul. We ended up at a bar called the beer factory. I dont know which brilliant person decided that serving 4 liters of beer in a giant column with a tap at your table was a good idea. But I want to personally thank him/her (look at rorys myspace picture. We couldnt even fit the whole thing in the camera frame). Who needs electricity, or the telephone, or the cotton gin? Things that facilitate inebriation are much more useful inventions.

On Saturday, woke up extremely late and decided that more drinking was in order. After all, when in seoul...do as you normally do in any other city. So we navigated the subway again, and ended up in the area of city hall, where the lantern festival would be taking place. There were many many tents set up and a major street closed off for the festival. So this part of the day was like an arts and grafts bazaar: make a lotus flower, paint the Buddha picture, make another lotus flower, etc. there were also lots o lanterns for sale. So Jules and rory bought a lot for other people, and I bought some for myself. At the end of the blocked-off street, there was a pagoda-ish area that had all these brightly-colored lanterns strung overhead, blocking any view of the sky. Other things of notelots of whiteys, lots of monks, lots of breakdancing, lots of everything.

Food was in order, so we went and ate some soup (remember, Im a soup fan) with more beef in it than even I am used to. Nothing makes a girl smile like a big plate of raw beef that she gets to cook in a boiling pot on her table. At this point, we three had been debating whether or not to stay for the actual parade or not. Pros: its a lantern festival in one of the largest cities in the world. And we dont even really know what that means. Cons: we live in chuncheon and have to work in the morning. Lantern festival means we stay overnight and spend more money and get up at 5:00 am to make it to work in chuncheon on time. After much debate, we made a wise decision and stayed for the parade. In Columbia or Jefferson city, mo a parade is a completely asinine thing. Merely an opportunity to get hit in the face withbut never actually catchcheap hard candy thrown from the floats of people you never really cared about (i.e. homecoming court, class of 79). So my standards for a parade are pretty low. After eating, we walked outside and turned a corner. And my mind was unmistakably blown. Besides the masses of people flanking both sides of the parade, there was an insane amount of people actually in the parade. This city that was the picture of exertion and activity had been gorgeously and elegantly reduced to a glowing sea of undulating people and lanterns. It was breathtaking, surreal, ethereal. A beautiful and soothingly clear reminder that we are in a foreign land. The sense of history in this country is a very palpable, everpresent thing. Everything Koreans do seems to pay homage to ancestors, elders, a hierarchy passed down through the ages, and somehow surviving, despite technology and modernization. Something los estados unidos is relatively devoid of.

Post parade, went to train station, and found a motel nearby. I also saw more prostitutes up close than Ive ever seen in my life. Not that a girl from Missouri is routinely exposed to people who have sex for money. anyhoo, they were all very pretty and friendly. And of course, they spoke english well. Yup, whores are bilingual.

I just noticed Ive had the same box of Kleenex for three months. I need to blow my nose more.