Les Test Ecoles.

This was my first excursion out of Seoul. I have been in Korea for just over two months (time flys). I wish I could say it was to tour the country side and take beautiful photos, but it wasn't. I was going to a pub crawl for some girls birthday I was yet to meet.  The buses in Korea are amazing; a lot of leg room, double arm rest, so you aren't sharing with the stranger next to you and plush, comfortable seats. The first thing I thought when I sat down was Mike, my boyfriend, would be very comfortable. He is very tall. Because of that, whenever I am planning vacations for us, I have to be mindful about getting us aisle seats, so he can stretch his legs. It's kind of ironic that their is so much personal space compared to buses in the USA. Americans are larger and Koreans are significantly smaller then us. Beyond the comfort of the ride, there was a lot to focus on out the window. Unfortunately, I couldn't take any pictures.

I finally saw cemeteries. They are concentrated on hillsides (unusable land) and they were mound shape. I also so this one river lined with colorful wooden shacks. In the shacks were very comfortable leather seats for fisherman to sit in all day. It was very rural from Seoul to Chuncheon, my final destination. Chuncheon is on the east coast and the ride is the equivalent of taking the bus fro Philly to New York City. It was very cheap, too. It cost just over 9,000 won.

I was invited to this gathering by my friends from Philly that live very close to this area. For 30,000 won you got a lovely pink T-shirt, entrance to five bars, unlimited beer and food. All in all not a bad deal. It started at the birthday girl's apartment and I saw a few other people their that I have meant previously. Their was a mix of people from Canada, UK, New Zealand and the US. I was surprised by the number of people that came to teach in Korea with numerous friends, significant others or both. People had their little cliques and then their were the obvious loners, heavy girls and Korean girls, searching for an American man all present. I also meant a lot of people from "Philadelphia". I understand why people living in Korea say they are from Philadelphia to other people. Most people are more likely to recognize that then some small town outside the city. 

This one loser though started up a conversation with me about how he is from Philly and he hates it and he can't understand why I like it there. I explained to him I am never bored there. I have great friends that are involved in a lot of different things from restaurants to art, there's always something to do for the most part. As the conversation proceeds I discovered he never lived in Philadelphia, he is from Abbington (which I meant a lot of people in Korea from there). There is nothing wrong with living there, but that is going to be a total different experience then actually living in any city for long length of time like I have in Philadelphia (going on over seven years). This guy I couldn't tell if he was trying to impress me by trying really hard to be cool or just had no personal skills. Later he came up to me and pointed to the tattoo on my foot. He said, "Oh, how do your parents feel about that." I replied to him you are talking to the wrong girl about parents getting upset about a tattoo. Then he picked on my black rimmed glasses. I understand that hipsters have taken over the whole black rimmed glasses thing, but honestly I have been wearing this style glasses for almost six years.  I replied to him, "They are Gucci, I am not a hipster."

This was the start of my evening meeting some of the worst people ever and having horrible forced, fake conversations. However though, I did meet some really great people. And my whole team was amazing. When we got to Christine's apartment, the birthday girl, we got a shirt, a bottle of soju and assigned a team. My team below was comprised of Keith and Pete from the UK, Kathleen, Justin and Simon. All of them were so much fun. Their was one Korean girl on our team named Go On (amazing name) that I barely talk to. She seemed to be one of those typical girls tracking down an American man. Our team name was the Les Test Ecoles, which just became Testicles. After we drank our bottles of soju and had some whiskey jello shots we went to the first bar. It was a German style bar and they brewed their own beer. Oh and yes we were those loud Americans that you hate seeing outside of the US. Embarrassing and disgracing our countries. Our first task was trivia and I will now always know Stephanie Meyer writes those dumb Twilight books.

Next bar was T-shirt decorating.

Aaron draws penguins quite well.

Kay and me.

Everyone busy decorating. There was about sixty of us in total.

On the way to the next bar, I saw this male underwear in a store window. WILD STAR DUST.

Third bar was beer pong. And yes this brought out the competitor in me and with playing with some many different people from all over the world it was a bitch to agree on rules. I don't think we ever did agree on anything. Its like playing asshole in high school. Everyone plays differently. I think that's why I stopped playing drinking games a long time ago.

Me, Justin & Pete.

My shirt decorated by Aaron.

Simon & Justin.

Simon and someone from the Rim Jobs. They beat us the second round of beer bong. It was an intense game. We were winning and then we got stuck with each team having the one cup left scenario. It went back and forth forever. I also made some arch enemies. Some fat, gross annoying girl that kept changing the rules and flashed me her disgusting nasty tits to distract me, but I got both balls in. Then some other moron who made fun of my glasses. I think I shot him the look of death and told him I would fucken kill him. He quickly came over to kiss my ass and apologize profusely.

At the next bar we were fed again. This is the birthday girl eating fried chicken and holding a deadly bottle of insanely strong Chinese alcohol.

After that bar things got bad. We were suppose to go on a scavenger hunt. My team fell apart. The other two girls were gone. Simon was throwing up and Keith and Pete were ridiculously drunk.

Simon trying to make a comeback. We needed a picture with a Korean and a sparkler for one of the items on the list (they did provide the sparkler).

During the scavenger hunt that was suppose to conclude at the last bar our team got separated. I ended up lost in Chuncheon for a very long time. We ended up in this clothing store, that was closed and no one there. They apparently don't lock the stores. They just put up a red tape to stop you and throw some tarps. I can't believe people are trusted like this.

We did eventually make it to the bar. Someone had to come pick us up in their car. Then I started thinking how badly I want to drive and I can't believe I won't drive for the next year. I miss the freedom. Anyways though I went straight to the bathroom once I got there and was confronted with this toilet. I don't even know what I was suppose to do with all those buttons.

Finally, like any noght of too much drinkiing it ended up with horrible food very late at night. Their McDonald's are open twenty-four hours. The only difference is, they are actually really clean and the people working are really nice. Look at their uniforms!

The next day back to Seoul on the bus was hell. A two hour journey took four because of traffic and a girl infront of me was puking in a bag.