Day 7: Adventures At Bucheon

Teaching English has been overall quite an enjoyable experience, but I must admit that it's quite draining at the same time. The kids are adorable, but have so much excess energy to burn it can be hard to keep up with them. And also, even though I'm only teaching basic English, everything I speak and write out has to be so carefully thought-out. Will the kids understand what I'm saying? Are they learning anything new or is this just review for them? Is this the direction Steven wanted me to take the lesson in? Am I going too fast? Too slow? Steven has been a great director so far, but sometimes the language barrier makes it a bit difficult to understand what he's trying to convey. We're not always on the same page with things, and I find that he gets really frustrated at times with the kids when they don't understand what he's trying to teach them. But if *I'm* having a hard time understanding the lesson...the kids must be completely lost! Either way, it just takes a lot of patience and dedication, and we always seem to figure things out in the end.

So by the time six o'clock came 'round, I was SO READY for the weekend! I went home, had a quick dinner, and got ready for my first night out on the town in Korea. I was meeting up with Charles at 9pm in front of Kolon-Mart, and had to be prepared for absolutely anything. Who knows what direction the night will lead us?

I met up with Charles, and was informed that Glenn, the other Canadian guy who lives in his building, would be joining us that evening. We marched over to the bus-stop, and I got introduced to Glenn. Glenn was fairly...interesting as well... He's 26 (but looks closer to 36) and had a bit of a surly look about him. He's from Halifax originally but has been teaching English in Korea for almost 2 years now. I also got a bit of a weird vibe from him too (where are all the "normal" North Americans?) but he seemed nice enough anyways. We boarded the 015 and rode on over to Bucheon Station - my first bus ride in Korea!
The bus costs only 520 won (less than 50 cents Canadian) and like Charles promised, the bus ride to Bucheon was only around 15 minutes or so.

We arrived at Bucheon, rounded the corner, and instantly my jaw the ground... Bucheon is the closest subway station to me and is located in a MASSIVE office complex. Just outside the station is a huge roundabout with cars spinning around, surrounded by soaring office towers and dozens of brightly-lit restaurants and stores. And I couldn't get over how BUSY the area was!!! The streets were absolutely packed with hundreds of people coming to and fro, all on their way out to hit the nearby clubs and bars. The street with all the cool clubs is a block over from the station, but before heading there Glenn took us down a dark alley nearby, so that he could show us the nearby 'red-light district.' Charles was giddy with excitement - he's probably the horniest person I've ever met in my life, and talks non-stop about various kinds of Asian women (he's lived in several countries in Asia) and what they like in the bedroom, what kinds of panties various nationalities prefer to wear, the girls he met when he was a stripper in Taiwan, etc. Charles talks pretty much non-stop, but at least his energy and enthusiasm are high. And man does he have some interesting stories... Glenn is much more shy and quiet, but certainly made it clear he likes his Asian women too, especially young ones... Anyways....

So we stepped into the red-light alley (which is literally red, due to the buildings' red-coloured exteriors and neon) but it was fairly quiet with virtually no one in the street. We strolled down the alley, and every doorway we passed had some Asian hooker standing or sitting just inside the doorway, skirt pulled high, blouse cut low, giving each of us bambi eyes and pouty lips, beckoning us inside... "Oh the ones here tonight are all skanky and nasty, let's move on" declared Charles. Fine by me!

We headed over the the street with all the clubs, which is *amazing* just to look at and walk through. It's probably at least 6-8 blocks long and is completely lined with bars, clubs, hoppin' restaurants and street stalls selling all kinds of snacks, ranging from corn dogs to pasta to deep-fried unidentifiable sea things. And again, the crowds were unbelievable - so busy, so festive, so high-energy. Music is blaring/screaming/bellowing from giant speakers on each corner - a complete party atmosphere to the extreme! And with the buildings covered from top to bottom in neon, it's a completely surreal sight. Like being in some fantasy Asian music video or something... WOW!!!

Charles led us to a bar called Halloween - the ones that's supposed to be popular with foreigners. It was near empty when we stepped inside (still a little early in the evening - only around 10pm) so we decided to walk around a little more instead, and Charles wanted to grab a snack. We found a cafe that serves Western-style sandwiches and I was very excited about this - I've been craving a half-decent sandwich since arriving - now I know where to find one! After eating his sandwich, Charles was still hungry ("I'm really craving some MEAT, man! Let's go get me some MEAT!") We found the stand selling giant sausages, and so Charles ordered three. While standing there, watching Charles eagerly devour the meat, ketchup and mustard running down his hand and all over his face, something totally cool happened. The bar across the street started to blast "Ice Ice Baby", only it was sung by some Asian guy with a girl singing the chorus!! Charles and I instantly broke out into the lyrics, him and I still having the entire song memorized! Glenn looked at us like we were from Mars, but it was absolutely hilarious to belt it out in the street, and it's a silly random moment that I'll never forget.

More to come later tonight...I must duck out....