Adventures in Korea: 홍대

So, last night was the beginning of my first weekend in Korea, and I'm pretty sure I did it right.

The "buddies", a group of Korea University students whose job it was to show us around, hosted a party at "Star Beer" from 5-8, which kicked off the Friday night. There was food (including spaghetti, ha!), beer, music (both recorded and live) and some dancing. I went with Anna, and afterwards, some of the people we had met earlier in the week during the orientation/tour invited us and another group of people out to grab some Korean food, to which we agreed. A group of about 16 of us went to a Samgyupsal restaurant. There were holes in the table where they placed hot coals, then put metal plates over top on which we cooked Samgyupsal and Galbi. We also drank more beer, this time with shots of Soju mixed it, called "So-Mek" (소맥, a combination of the words 소주, Soju, and 맥주, Mekju, the Korean word for beer). Afterwards, we voted on whether we wanted to stay in Anam and go to a bar, or take the subway to Hongdae and go to a club. I voted bar, since we had originally planned to go to a club the next evening, but club won the vote and we headed to Hongdae.

Even in Anam, Korea has a much more active night life than I am used to (and boy, can they drink), but in Hongdae, that is multiplied by a hundred. We arrived at around 11:30, and there were tons of other people wandering around, though I was told it doesn't really get busy until midnight-1am. We drank more 소맥 and then found a club to go to, "nb1". It was completely packed. I mean, shoulder to shoulder can't move your own arms packed. The fog machines combined with the fact that people are allowed to smoke inside clubs in Korea made it hard to see too far in front of your own face. Add in all of the flashing lights and it was pretty much like wandering around blind. We had a ticket for a free drink with our admission, and Anna, another person from our group, and I pushed our way to the bar to redeem it. Afterwards, we tried to walk out to the dance floor, a new song began, they filled the place with fog, and when it finally cleared, we were all separated. Fortunately, the 16 of us had agreed to meet outside the club at 4am should we be separated so I wasn't too worried. I danced, occasionally ran into people I recognized, and over all just enjoyed seeing what night life in Korea was like (at least for young people). We met up at 4, took a couple of taxis back to Anam, and after a shower to wash away the bar smell I crashed at around 6 in the morning, waking up at 2:30pm.

Tonight, we decided to forgo a second night at the clubs and are instead going out to get dinner and then going to a night market. I'm very excited, and hopefully will be able to take a lot of pictures!

I don't have many pictures from last night (though hopefully can post more when other people from the group send them), but here are a couple: