Day 210: Stupid Drunks

So I got some fantastic news today!!!

I GOT MY TICKETS TO HONG KONG!!!

The miracle of all miracles occurred - I actually got bumped off the waiting list and was given an actual ticket to Hong Kong! I'm so excited!!! I had totally given up on it thinking that there was no way that space was gonna open up, but sure enough it has so I'm going! In exactly two weeks tomorrow I'll be flying to Hong Kong! How awesome is that!!???

After work tonight I went out for dinner with Michael and Addie. Michael felt like coming out to Ilsan for the night to hang out, and Addie owed me a dinner so we went to the TGI Friday's at LaFesta. Yummy fajitas - mmmm!!! :-) After dinner we went back to my place to play a little Scrabble. Brian was having a little going-away get-together at Ben's place so we decided to pop into the party after our Scrabble game.

It was a nice little party. The three of us arrived and there was Ben, Brian, Eric, Pauline, Jake & Shannon, Lorraine, and Dennis (and later Paul showed up too.) We all just sat around and socialized, having some beer and wine, played some cards, listened to some music, Jake & Dennis played guitar and sang for us, it was really nice. I only had two glasses of wine and Michael and Addie weren't drinking at all so around 1:30am or so, when the boys decided we should change venues, the three of us decided to just go home.

We all left Ben's apartment together as a group and I guess most of them were quite drunk. This is when the trouble started. Pauline had brought a guitar to the party that she had accidentally dropped and broken. It was the kind of damage that couldn't really be fixed and she'd probably just have to buy a new guitar anyways. Well some of the boys (in their drunken, unwise stupor) decided that it would be cool to take the guitar out on the street and smash it. I could see how this would be funny if you were drunk, but when you're sober (and therefore smart and capable of making logical decisions) it seemed like a stupid idea. The three of us didn't think it was the best thing to do but whatever, get it over and be done with and then we'll all go off our own ways (us to home, the rest of them to some bar in Hwajeong.)

So Ben and Jake took turns smashing the guitar and it took quite a few hits before the thing finally exploded all over the street. When it finally broke it literally did explode, with wood pieces flying everywhere. All of this made a lot of noise and attracted the attention of some nearby Koreans. This one Korean guy came over and told us to be quiet and Ben and Jake apologized for the noise and the mess. So anyways Michael, Addie and I said goodnight and started to walk towards home. We hadn't even gotten half a block away when we saw trouble fast approaching.

A very angry and DRUNK Korean man, probably in his 30's or so, was walking quickly and angrily towards our direction. And he was carrying a very large, thick piece of wood that he was hitting on the street as he walked along. You could tell this guy was PISSED OFF and was wanting to do very bad things with that stick. Uh-oh...

At first we thought he was coming for the three of us, but he stormed right by us and headed right for the rest of the gang. We knew that this was going to be bad news, so we stopped and watched to see what would happen in case our friends needed help. Our friends had already walked another block down the street from where we had left so we weren't all that close to them, but we watched as the confrontation began.

The drunk Korean man began screaming at all our friends and waving the stick around in a very threatening motion. This obviously scared the shit out of all my friends, except for Jake, who when he's drunk is very confrontational. Jake started screaming and swearing back at this guy, and it did not help the situation. Paul can understand Korean, and apparently this Korean guy was screaming that he "hates all foreigners" and wanted to "slit their throats and kill all of them." HOLY FUCK!!!

I honestly thought this Korean guy was gonna beat the shit out of my friends with this stick, but luckily the situation didn't go that far. The first Korean stranger who had told us to be quiet ran back to help diffuse the situation, and all my friends worked hard to try and get Jake to shut up and turn around so they could all just walk away before the verbal violence became physical. There were several tense minutes there where I didn't know what was going to happen and I was really afraid for my friends. I guess in all of their drunken stupidness my friends had pissed off the Wrong Korean with the guitar smashing and the noise.

In the end, THANK GOD, everyone just walked away and no one got hurt, but it certainly was a close call. That Korean guy was obviously drunk and PSYCHO but we had all created the situation ourselves with being noisy. We totally need to be more careful with our late-night adventures, as fairly harmless fun (well harmless unless you're a broken guitar) can very quickly turn into a dangerous situation. It was certainly a sobering experience for all.