4th of July in Korea

I’ve written previously about how incredibly proud you become when you sing the National Anthem in another country. That experience, however, is trumped by spending a 4th of July abroad. Just to make it clear, I would have much rather spent my 4th in the USA, but you gotta make do with what you got.

My friends and I decided that we were going to make the 4th a weekend long celebration, and do something big both Saturday and Sunday. Because of this, we decided to stay in on Friday night…but I still managed to have a blast drinking in my apartment while talking to friends on Skype. I ended up staying up until 4am…which is ungodly late for me, but it was a good night talking to my old friend Melanie.

Friday night Spencer, myself, Stacy, Cheoseouk, Eva, Eva’s friend Paul, and Feel Moon decided to go to a restaurant called VIPS which was supposed to be this high end restaurant. It was a nice place...and extremely expensive (we each paid at least $40…which is about 4 times what we normally pay for dinner. I got bar-b-que ribs. They were underwhelming to say the least. Unfortunately my desire for ribs got the best of me because I broke my own rule. I NEVER eat at rib places I don’t know, and never try a new one unless someone I trust recommends it to me. I’ve eaten at a lot of places in my day, and there are only 2 I will eat at these days. Jerry’s Old Towne in Germantown, WI and Bobby Q in Phoenix, AZ. What made me thing they would have good ribs in Korea…I will never understand. So despite the high price tag, the ribs were mediocre. Each meal with with a “salad bar” which was basically a buffet…but still I’d estimate the quality of the food to be akin to Ponderosa….edible, but not worth the price. The night ended with everyone going back to my apartment to drink soju, but was sadly interrupted when Eva’s mom called to ask her to come home.

Saturday was a bit more exciting. I hadn’t heard of any parties or anything and I couldn’t afford to go to Seoul for the weekend, so I got a bunch (12 in all) of my friends together for dinner. We decided in the name of the holiday we had to go American…so there really was only one choice of places to eat…TGIFridays! Maya and I decided to pre-game before we went, so we were both a little tipsy by the time we got there. The food was excellent. I had a combo meal that included boneless wings, chicken fajitas, and a brownie. I also drank 3 mudslides which were tasty as always. After TGIFridays spencer and I went to MillerTime for a pitcher and waited for Feel Moon. He picked us up and we took a little drive through the Red Light District in Jeonju. It was exciting because they girls are gorgeous, and there is always an element of danger involved because the place is run by Korean gangsters and foreigners are NOT welcome. I took two videos of the drive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuREijF6chQ
http://www.youtube.com/wcath?v=uyuGvIW6H08

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July…I can’t wait to celebrate next year back in the States!