Day 174: Fame Kicks In

So I was at work late tonight using the school computers to upload a bunch of photos onto my splashbulb site (my home computer is too slow for this kinda thing) and was also using Messenger to kill time inbetween. A new friend of mine, Jeremy, came online and wanted to know what I was up to that night. Citing that I did indeed have no plans, he invited me out to join him and some other friends for some drinks at a bar in Itaewon. I don't often go out on 'school nights' (actually almost never) but I haven't been Out & About in a while and thought, 'what the hell!'

I ran home, wolfed down some dinner, cleaned myself up, and then subwayed it all the way into Itaewon. By the time I got down there it was after 10:30pm at night - quite late already (considering that transit stops in about an hour!) I couldn't find the bar at first but eventually I found Jeremy and he took me on over to Helios where all his buddies were. This was my first visit to Helios and it was pretty cool. It's quite a popular bar in Itaewon and busy all weekend long. Thursday is Ladies Night so all girls get free drinks...damn girls! Why don't guys ever get Boys Night free drinks? Argh! :-) Luckily Jeremy's roomie Becky was there and so she just went and retrieved drinks for us for free from the bar all night. Right on Becky!

It ended up being a really, really FUN night! Jeremy's friends were all cool and it was just one of those nights where everyone was so friendly and you made lots of 'bar buddies' for the night! The coolest part of the night was when I was standing having a Tom Collins (the first since I've arrived in Korea! DEAR GOD SIX MONTHS IS A LONG TIME TO HAVE TO GO WITHOUT MY FAVOURITE DRINK!!!) with Jeremy & Co. when all of a sudden this guy who I've never seen before came right up to me and said "Hey you!! Aren't you the guy from The Contenders!?? Dude, I saw you on TV!!!"

I had to give him a big smile, laugh and say, "yes, yes that's me, yes you did see me on TV!" (cause really, how many times do we *actually* get to say that in real life??) LOL! He was super excited to chat with me and wanted to know all about the show, how I got on it, what it was like being on stage, etc. etc. I was more than pleased to indulge him with all of his questions, while Jeremy and the gang looked onwards in surprise and disbelief at me eating up every bit of my 15 seconds of fame. (They hadn't known until that moment that I had been on the show.) For the rest of the night I was teased about being a 'Local Celebrity' and we all got a good laugh out of it!

We made lots of new friends tonight (including a really cool girl that I met who was from Abbotsford, we exchanged phone numbers) and we spent most of the night dancing away to all the fun tunes on the dancefloor. After Helios we changed venues and Jeremy and I and our whole entourage/group of new friends for the night went to another bar across the street called The Loft which was practically dead but still fun. I didn't have that much to drink but was starting to crash by the time we got here... Next thing I knew it was after 2:30am and I was DEAD TIRED and more than a bit fearful about having to wake up early for work the next day. By the time we got back to Jeremy's and went to sleep it was probably close to 4am I think....

OH GOD tomorrow's gonna be a rough day!! What a really awesome fun night but I *know* that I'm going to pay for it royally tomorrow! Ahh well, I'm a good boy (most nights, but not tonight!) and am allowed to have a naughty night out once in a while staying up well past my bedtime. Here's hoping I can make it through the day! Ack!