Monday: The Short-lived School Trip and Local Wandering

Monday was my fiancee's last day of the semester; a half day of packing up and no classes so she brought us all in to meet the teachers and students. We got to the school and met her two co-teachers, who are new this semester, but I met both of them back in November when they were teaching other classes. We hung around for a few minutes with Daniel, Branko, and Adam making a show for the various students who were helping clean up the office, before heading over to meet the principal. He has a swanky office with a number of comfy leather chairs, and we sat in there for a bit, not really talking much as he doesn't speak much English. We gave him a bottle of Ice Wine before heading back to the English office.

At this point, the vice-principal came in and told us all that there is a quarantine-like rule in effect right now that says we can't come to the school until we've been in the country for a week. I guess I can understand it, considering the whole swine flu scare going on (we had to have our temperatures taken at the airport to enter the country), but it was odd that they told us after we had been hanging out for 45 minutes. Also, we weren't a surprise to them as my fiancee had cleared bringing us with her with her teachers the previous week. Oh well, no real matter, though I'm a little sad I didn't get a chance to say hi to some of the people I met on my last trip.

We left and went to get some breakfast. I introduced Branko to Seoul's ubiquitous bakeries, specifically Paris Baguette, one of the more common chains. It was a huge hit with him. So much so, that we ended up going there for a breakfast snack almost every day of the trip. That man likes what he likes. We also took a trip to the E-mart department store as Adam was equally impressed with their selection and cheapness after his first trip there on Saturday. We hurried back home to meet my fiancee when she finished her half day of school, and then ran off for lunch with her one co-teacher Soo-yeon.
Our constant source of breakfast

These hotdog bun things were delicious

Lunch was some tasty Samgyupsal (bacon) and some Soju. We started talking about the few drinking games we knew, and Soo-yeon filled us in on the sketchy parts and taught us a few others. Our friends were a tad surprised by all the drinking games she knew and kinda thought of her a big party girl, but my fiancee set them straight telling them how pretty much all Koreans know drinking games. Of particular note were "The Game of Death", and another game where you pass around a bottle of Soju and have to each take a turn pouring some into a shot glass floating on beer in a pint. The person who sinks the shot glass has to chug the pint, beer and Soju. After lunch we got some Patbingsu (a shaved ice and ice cream dish) before saying goodbye to Soo-yeon.

Patbingsu

Soo-yeon amused (and scandalized?) by Branko

We went off to the Hyundai department store for some shopping (Daniel wanted to find some Konglish shirts) but didn't turn up much so we wandered back home.

Adam amused at the above sign while shopping

Daniel, Adam, and Branko ran off to a PC Bang to do the very Korean thing of playing Starcraft, so my fiancee and I got some time to hang out. They were inspired after seeing the Starcraft TV channel. Daniel had never played Starcraft, Branko is a beginner, but Adam has A LOT of hours under his belt.

Starcraft Channel. Always on!

Adam clearly dominated the newbs.

For supper we went to a nearby Fried Chicken restaurant for food and beer. The chicken was ok, but the beer came in some massive pitchers. We got some Soju and played our newly acquired games. One table near us had a really drunk guy, who got into an argument with the owner and started dropping glasses and plates on the floor shattering them. This started a fight as the owner had to physically remove him, while a young girl in the restaurant started crying, bringing her mother into the fray (yelling only) against the drunk. It lasted a minute or two, and we were all pretty disgusted with the ass.

It didn't ruin our night though, as we finished our food and drink and went off in search of Noraebang (karaoke)! The first place was too expensive, so we went a few doors down (noraebang is everywhere) and found a place to our liking. When we sat down and started to sing, we discovered that we were in some sort of erotic noraebang room, as the monitors were showing soft core porn. I peaked into another room in the place and it was normal, so I don't know why we had the porn, but it wasn't really a problem. Some of it was pretty weird though. We picked Puff The Magic Dragon for Daniel (as he sings it when he plays guitar), and the screen had a woman stripping while on a swing suspended from a hot air balloon. Weird. Anyway, we all had a good time singing, and Branko rocked it when he did Gold Digger with "authority and exuberance" according to Daniel (and drunkenness). My fiancee got 100% on one of her picks. It was a good night!