a quickie... or not...

i've got a few minutes and nothing to do while i wait for katrina to get ready. she's my friend who lives in Ulsan, which is north of Busan (i'm to the west) i arrived here last night and met her at the bus station around 7:30. i've been starved for foreigners and she told me there are tons of them here, so i figured i'd check it our for myself... and she was right! i haven't seen so many since i left orientation - it was kind of weird actually... at first i was dazed by it and couldn't stop staring at all the white people - i've only seen one in my neighbourhood and he more or less ran the other way (am i THAT scary looking??). so it was definitely different to be seeing them on the street. i know i'm talking about them as if they were something odd, but it really is a strange sight for me.

we proceeded to go for dinner - we had tak galbi, which you might remember from a previous post. i asked for "less hot" and it was really tasty. then we went to "holly's cafe" for some iced coffee and some of the best cheesecake that i've EVER had! that's where the foreigners started appearing... just walking down the street... very strange. some russians tried talking to us, but neither of us speak russian, so that was a bust. none of the english speaker came anywhere near us, let alone talk to us.

i wanted to check out an ex-pat bar - since we don't have one in gimhae (that i know of), so we went to MacKenzies. i was imagining an irish pub style place, but when we walked in the door it wasn't a "western" - in the sense of american western - bar, it was a "western" in the sense of cowboys bar... kind of funny... but the staff didn't speak any english and the place was empty, so we left.

we proceeded to look for Benchwarmers - a 'western' sports bar - and after getting incredibly lost and wandering around for way too long, we finally found it! there were english speakers and white people, some germans and a couple of Koreans. oddly enough, none of the english speakers really talked to us, the germans were really nice and hung out with us off and on and there was one korean who sat with us. it was a little annoying since we get together so that we. don't. have. to. speak. super. slowly. like. we. do. at. school. but it was all right. kind of funny too.

at one point in the evening the korean pointed at his chest and cupped his hands to imitate the shape of a breast, then said "Korean women small breast." while pushing his hands down to show a flat chest, then while pushing his hands back out said "american and canadian and british and australian women large breast." i was blown away... but it does get better... then he pointed at Katrina and said "silicone?" !!!!!!!!!!!!! it was incredible! i almost fell off my chair! that is just one example of the way Koreans don't have any qualms about asking extremely personal questions only minutes after meeting you. it was hilarious at any rate. i must note here that kat's boobs aren't ginormous (super huge) she's an average canadian girl... a little bigger than mine.

anyway, the evening was really nice, i should probably say night, since we left at about 1 am... we hopped into a taxi and headed to the north of the city and kat's neighbourhood. she wanted to take me to the WA Bar near her house for last call. it was a really nice place with huge pints - i'll post some pics when i get home. anyway, the table of korean university students sitting next to us "loved" us. they kept talking to us and taking pictures with us... it really is an ego-inflating country... everyone is always saying "i love you", "you're beautiful", "you pretty girl"... at this rate, i'll have a head the size of montreal by the time i get home!!! it was nice though... they make me laugh.

later on (around 2:30, another foreigner (the only one in the WA Bar) just walked up to us. he looked a little lost and scared, so i invited him to sit with us. his name is chris and he arrived about 2 and a half weeks ago... we works at a hakwon in kat's neighbourhood, so at least she has a new friend... i think he was really happy to see us. we're supposed to see him today, but the cell phone number he gave us is wrong, so who knows... anyway, got in at around 4 am and slept until 10, now we're off to busan for the day to check out the 'biennale' should be a good time... tonight we're headed to O'Briens, an ex-pat bar in busan... hopefully to stay over with a friend there... stay tuned for more!

oh ya! had some korean nachos last night... more on them next time!