Adventures in Boyfriendland

I have become one of them. You know who they are. Those friends who disappear once they have a boyfriend and only surface once in a while to make sure the world is still spinning.

So let me tell you about our weekend adventures. Most of them you would hardly find exciting but a few are worth mentioning. :)

One weekend we ventured out to the Korean National War Museum to check out a special Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. We were both really excited to see real life copies of the Dead Sea Scrolls (I missed the exhibit when it came to the Pacific Science Center) but also more than a little disappointed by the blatant bias of the religion exhibit--there was almost no mention of Judaism, Islam, Samaritans, the Armenian Church, or Eastern Orthodoxy. But we had lots to talk about and that was good. After we finished the special exhibit, we went outside to look at all the Korean and American war machines. Very cool. We also had a little fun taking pictures. :)

Looking for North Koreans.

I have no words.

This weekend kept us a little busy. Saturday we met some friends in Seoul for a little Costco shopping. Some of them had been here for a long time and still didn't know where Costco was! We went and bought less than we thought we would; our friends bought more than they thought they would. The result: we ended up packing their groceries half-way home for them. But that's okay. :) We also wandered around Seoul, picked up some Haggen Daus, visited a piercing shop (I needed new nose rings and one girl needed a new lip ring), enjoyed the beautiful sunny weather, and then settled down that evening to watch a movie (Into the Wild) and eat homemade hamburgers! Yum! I did the cooking and J made watermelon shakes for dessert.

Sunday we went out to Seoul again to pick up J's pants (he dropped them at an alteration shop the day before) and do some shopping for trekking gear. Right now we're trying to figure out how the best way to purchase stuff for our respective trips and it looks like the best way is online. However, we all know that buying things online can be tricky, especially with clothes. So, we went out to try things on and look at what's on the market. We had some fun at the Arc'Teryx store and then wandered around some crazy neighborhood with tons of gear shops before abandoning our search of gear for a new search for food.

Heading back to Sinchon, we hit up a Mexican restaurant called On the Border (it's American but I've never heard of it; you?). Mmm, delicious! The biggest quesadilla I've ever seen. I only ate a fourth of it and was full! Then we walked to Ewha Woman's University (yes, I know it should be Women's but this is Korea and that's not my typing error) which contains a very large, very confusing network of clothing shops and shoe stores. There are probably more shoes for sale in Ewha than people in Jeomchon. We were looking for a specific store he found once called "Make Yourself Fucking Beautiful." Koreans come up with the most creative names! I wanted a picture of it for my blog but alas, looks like it's either been swallowed by the shoes or has been closed and replaced by some other cleverly-named shop like "Natural Laundry" (which does exist).

While out on our little tour of Ewha, we ended up sitting in a park/courtyard of some department store with hundreds of other couples silently cuddled under the moonlight watching a live woodwind band. It was cute. And a little cold. Eventually we got up and moved again.

That's when we found this little gem of a motel:

Motel Good Time: We give you good time, many time, any time, every time!

I think I've explained the Korean love motel before but if I haven't, let me do it once again. The Korean love motel is a place of dubious character. It's where young Korean couples disappear at all hours of the day along with married couples and cheating husbands. I don't think I need to tell you what happens inside; the term "love motel" speaks for itself. However, I will tell you what you can find inside: circle beds, mirrored ceilings, red lights, giant bath tubs, sex toy vending machines (sometimes in your room), and tons of prostitute calling cards. The cost: usually around $25 for the night but sometimes you can pay per hour. Unfortunately, I've had the displeasure of sleeping in a few love motels myself. They're just too cheap to choose a reputable one instead.

As it started getting dark, we hopped on the subway: Jeremy headed home, me headed to the bus station. Along the way we met this interesting character. He is by far the coolest man in Korea. He was selling sewing kits on the subway and tried to sell Jeremy and I one but we were way too distracted by his glasses to care about his product. His glasses had some gold rope holding them together along with maybe 60 yards of scotch tape. The lenses looked like the bottoms of wine bottles and his little beady eyes barely opened behind them. To top it off, he had a total of four teeth and lots of nose hair emerging from the black abyss. He was too cool for school. Jeremy told him he wanted to buy his glasses but the old guy didn't understand (or maybe didn't want to) and kept saying something like, "You make world peace and buy from me and I support my family." It was pretty cute. And then he went on to ramble off every English word he knew in some incoherent babble. We were laughing so hard and were over joyed when he agreed to let us take his picture. I bought a sewing kit just because he was persistent and I can't refuse an adorable old man. :) I guess later on that night Jeremy ran into him again and they became good friends!

Jeremy and his new friend.