My weekend in Jinju: May edition

Ok - Jeju break. Yes, there is an entire extra week with mom that will be posted - although there aren't quite as many pictures etc. Hopefully the posts will be a bit faster now. Part of the reason these posts take so long to write is uploading pictures and video. In the last few days, Blogger has kept rejecting my pictures saying "rejected by server". The odd thing was it wasn't doing that to all my pictures, just some of them. Still it was very frustrating trying to get them all put online. Then I found out that it was because my free storage space from Blogger (which uploads to a Picasa web album automatically) was full. So I paid $5 to add a bunch more storage - you're welcome world.


Back to last weekend. On Friday night, Ally made dinner for me, Rob and Cindy. He made pasta carbonara, but with a twist since he used eggs and not cream to make the sauce. It was still good. I met his girlfriend Cath and her new co-worker Justin, who lives in my building and had been here for a week. Liezle came over too and we all went out and met up with Emily and Kyle at Go West. It's a "wa" (or western) bar, meaning they only serve "western" drinks (i.e. no soju). We decided to go across the street to Tez bar instead because they have cocktails and don't totally rip you off. Tex bar is a bit odd because they have couches and barstools but everything is covered in red velvet. A handful of other people met us there and we had a grand ol' time.


On Saturday, I met Liezle's friend Vera (another South African; she works in Geoje) who was in town for the weekend. The 3 of us met for lunch at our "gimbap shop". I had bibimbap and Liezle had this dumpling soup, which I think mom would have liked. After lunch we met a group of people down by the river. We attempted to recreate wiffle ball and failed big time. It was really hot and nobody felt into it. We got kicked out of our spot again by the golfing Koreans, who must have the area booked on Saturdays from 3-5. We moved to a covered area with benches which was actually nicer.

Vera, Liezle, Jen, Matt, Eoin and Justin in the shade

After river sittin' for a few hours we all went to Ally's boss's friend's restaurant. The food we ordered was called dwaeji galbi (which sounds like wedgie). It's marinated pork. It's awesome. We were in 2 tables of 5, had lots of drinks and food between us and it was about $10 each. This is why it's sometimes good to go out with a large group (although if you do, you should eat/drink because you'll end up paying for it). The waiters and staff were really nice to us. Cath got a little tipsy and sort of loud and Ally got mad at her for yelling here, which was kind of funny.

Our cook guy (sort of). That's meat, mushrooms, garlic, bean sprouts and kimchi on the grill.

After dinner we went to Terrace bar. It's right down the street from my house. It was a beautiful night and we sat outside and ordered beers. We played the peanut game and then categories. It started to get cold, so we went inside in the back where there is a large couch. Some Korean guys were next to us, but didn't mind us taking over the area. In fact, they joined in some of our pictures. I told Liezle she could use my camera and she took lots of weird shots and then took an individual picture of everyone - almost like mug shots. Then she and Eoin (owen) started arguing because everyone makes fun of Liezle's English. He tried to speak with a South African accent and she attempted and Irish one. Vera and a different Rob started "talking" to each other and Liezle was like, "Ryan, we have to go NOW" in a way where I thought she didn't want them to be alone together. So the 4 of us ended up going to another bar called Beast Bar (which is actually where I met Liezle). On the walk to the bar Rob and Liezle had an impromtu moonwalking contest, which they both lost. See facebook for the videos.

Me, Cath and Liezle at Terrace Bar

The group (plus a Korean guy) inside Terrace Bar

There was a group of 4 people in the bar (plus 3 bartenders) when we got there. It was one of the girl's birthdays and she was pretty drunk. The table broke 3 glasses in about 30 minutes. The bartenders gave us a drink menu and told us we got a "foreigner" discount - so 1000 won off. We got long beacheys - long islands with cranberry juice instead of coke. These are the bartenders who once played with fire (literally) when I got here, so they were doing "Cocktail"-esque moves with the bottles. Alas, no fire this time.

Then Liezle went over to see if the Koreans could speak English and the birthday girl took Liezle's drink and gave her a double shot of tequila. Liezle told the girl that Rob was her fiancee and that it was customary for the guy to drink shots in her country. So the birthday girl linked arms with Rob, but still drank half of Liezle's drink. It was weird. Then the 4 of us played some electronic darts (I won - woot!). The other people left, so it was the 4 of us and the 3 bartenders. They took our picture with a polaroid and stuck it on the wall with some others. Then we told them to make drinks and come out and take pictures with us. We left shortly after that.

Beast Bar bartenders, Vera, Liezle and me

Vera, McRob and Liezle playing darts - sort of

Rob wanted to go to another bar, but none of the girls did. We stopped off at a roadside food cart and ate. The girls all had toast - it's awesome drunk food. The lady fries an egg and a slice of ham, then butters the grill and adds bread. She puts it together with ketchup, sugar, thousand island dressing and shredded cabbage. Here's a video. I had to upload it on youtube and give a link because it's over the limit for blogger and wouldn't upload. Took me awhile to figure that out.
 

We also ate some fried gimbap, where she puts some egg on the grill, adds a slice of gimbap and flips it over so both sides had egg on it. And I tried some of Rob's pajeon - thin pancakes with green onion slices in it. He also had some dumplings. Then, because we were all eating, the lady gave us free spicy rice noodles. They were good, but I wish we had eaten them first so I could get the spicy out with the other food. After eating we went home.

They went out for breakfast the next day, but I went to church instead since I hadn't been in 2 weeks and probably won't go for another few weeks because of trips. After church I went with a group of people to a place called the Loving Hut. It's a chain vegetarian place that I think might have Buddhist ties. I had noodles with a peppery (but not spicy) sauce and mushrooms and carrots. It was very good and very cheap.


After lunch I came home and did some laundry. Then I ended up meeting Cindy and Liezle for dinner at the gimbap shop again. I had rice and dumpling soup, Cindy had rice and noodles and Liezle had soup with clams in it. We sat and chatted for a long time and then Liezle and I walked home together (Cindy lives in the opposite direction).


All in all it was a good weekend. Lots of new food/restaurants which I enjoy trying, plus pretty decent conversation and some funny pictures - most of which are already on facebook, so I didn't reload them here.