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Saturday, February 21, 2009

We officially LIVE in Korea now!

Last night we went out into the downtown area of Cheonan for some drinks with some people we met from our class yesterday. The downtown areas of nearly all Korean towns look like Time Square, with flashing lights and billboards covering the buildings from top to bottom! It’s a beautiful sight!

We started off our night by trying to catch a taxi... which was not an easy task. We were apparently on too small of a road for taxis, and ended up walking at least 1 mile in the freezing cold before flagging one down. The best part about our taxi ride, other than that we were finally in a warm place, was the fact it was only 1800 WON, which is equivalent to approximately $1.20. What a deal huh?!

Once we arrived in the downtown area, we walked towards a bar called the Cizi Club that was recommended to us by some local Koreans. There was a major language barrier at the downstairs lobby, and we were finally loaded into a tiny elevator and sent to fend for ourselves.

When the doors opened, we were shocked to find a HUGE, beautiful, and fairly ritzy club... that was completely empty! Apparently we were too early for the party, so we explained to the emploiyees that we would be back at 10pm by flashing all 10 of our fingers and using the best Korean we knew!

We then headed over to a restaurant down the street. The boys all ordered soju, which is the most commonly drunk liquor in S.K. With their soju, we were given free soup, seaweed and a bowl of snails! We all cringed at the snails, but by the time we left, they were nearly all gone.

You have to actually suck them out of the shell, and then they look like little snakes, about 2-3 cm long and are VERY slimy! Kind of disgusting... but we were feeling adventurous!

When we were done there, we walked the streets some more and stumbled upon this restaurant...

Yep, you read it right, "Boobi Boob." Unfortunately there wasn't enough room for all 9 of us, but we took a group picture by the other sign, just to commemorate the moment!

Just steps outside that restaurant, we ran into some Korean college age guys who were sooooo excited to see us!

They wanted to practice all the English they knew, which was actually quite a bit, and play host, like most Koreans do! :) They invited us to go to a restaurant with them, so we followed... and the rest is history! We ate pig intestine, which was super chewy! We had to chew it at least 2 minutes before it could be swallowed...


...cheered a lot!

... talked on the phone to their family and friends...

... fed each other (which is what they do when they feel close with friends! We knew at this point, they loved us! Instead of saying, "I want to feed you," though, they would say "I want to eat you!" It was hilarious!

.... and ultimately had an awesome night meeting new Korean friends and American and Canadian friends, who are luckily going to be in Pusan with us!!