Insa-dong

On Saturday Ellen and I met in Insa-dong. It is a part of Seoul that is known for shopping for traditional Korean things. There are crafts, paintings, Hanboks (traditional Korean dresses) and more! There is a section where you can do your own crafts so together we made rings. You get to put little crushed confetti like pieces on the ring in your choice of color and then you shellac it with a quick drying clear glue. We then spent the rest of our time in Insa-dong walking around shopping and spending time at a little coffee shop.

Hard at work on our rings

She then invited me out with her friends in Bupyeong. Her best friend Jin Hee is now dating a guy who actually went to their middle school, but the girls didn’t know the guys then. I’ll call him Mr. Jung, since he said that’s his English name (also known as his family name with Mr. in front). Mr. Jung brought along his friend Brandon, who also asked that I call him by his English name. Either way that makes it easier for me since I can’t remember their Korean names anyways.

The Koreans with the waeguken

Well, we went to a Soju house, which is a typical bar/restaurant where you can get all sorts of food and drinks. We got some typical dishes of dokbouki, fried eggs (aka omelets), fruit platters and squid. The guys made sure the food kept coming as quickly as they were finishing bottles of soju. When we first got there the guys were pretty shy and you could tell they felt really uncomfortable practicing their English in front of a waeguken (aka foreigner). I had already met Jin Hee before, and I knew she wasn’t comfortable speaking English very much. However, once the guys were about 3 bottles of soju deep they didn’t want to stop speaking English. They said I was the first foreigner they really got to hang out with, so they were really enjoying their night. It was a lot of fun for all of us so we ended up staying pretty late, but luckily Ellen and I were able to catch the last subway home.