Mutual annoyances

Yesterday blurred into today. Literally. I'll explain. =)

In the morning, I finally went to the bank because I actually had time. Korean banks seem so nice. A security guard greets you up front and asks what you need to do and makes sure that you go to the right part of the bank. I went to withdraw money, and since I don't have an ATM card, I have to go up to the counter and physically ask for money. I went up, filled out a little information, showed my bank book and password, then they asked me to put in my pin number. Unaware that I had one, I told the teller that I didn't have one. And she looked at me weird and said, "No, actually, you do have one. Everyone does." And then I guessed it right, but wow did I feel like an idiot.

There was a free event for college/international students planned for last night at a club. So we all decided to go. The dress code, though, was white. So that meant we all had to go shopping for clothes.

We went to the area in front of Ewha Women's University to find clothes. They had so many and it was all pretty cheap too! I found a pair of shoes for $10!! Heels. After getting what we needed, we were so amazed by what they had that we were already talking about coming back. Maggie and I are also now obsessed by this little chicken stand they had so we'll be going back for that!

The area is loaded with stores everywhere. It's wonderful. I'm sure they get a lot of business from the fact that they're in front of a women's university.

After eating dinner, we came back to get ready to go out clubbing. We put on our brand new clothes and took a taxi to the club. I'm fairly certain that the guy went a really long way or something because the way back cost about $3 less. Anyways, we had to get in before 11pm to get in for free and we got there around 10:30...only to wait in line until 1am to be told that WE CAN'T GET IN FOR FREE. One of the security guards explained that their promoters/bouncers checked the line at 11pm to see who was there and that if we were there in line, they'd remember our faces so that we could still get in. Turns out he was misinformed. We begged, we pleaded, we argued, and before that we practiced how to look cute and planned who should go ask (if the employee was a guy, I had to ask but if the employee was a girl, it was all on Mike).

We decided to go find a different club or bar...or anything. So we walked and I guess we settled for McDonald's. I don't eat McDonald's in the US, but...I had to here because they had a Bulgogi burger!! It was delicious. I believe we spent more than an hour in there...

Some girls did eventually go into the club because Richard and Cristine got in and gave them wristbands. Then, they came out after having picked up wristbands off the ground and eventually we all could have gotten in for free. I opted not to go in because my feet were killing me and I was already bitter about not being able to get in after waiting for so long.

After McDonald's everyone wanted to head back, except Mike, Dave, Sara, and I felt like the night was young since we didn't get to do anything. By then it was past 3am but we were determined to find something to do.

It took maybe close to an hour to find a cab back. One pulled up and asked where we were going and we thought, "Yay! We got one!" but after we told him, he drove away. Apparently it's illegal to deny someone a ride. Ugh. It took us like 30min after that at least until finally a nice taxi driver did a 180 to give us a ride. There were all these "foreigner only" taxis that looked really sketchy and expensive. They kept creeping on us thinking that we'd want a ride from them (Dave is white, so it's probably his fault they kept coming- jk!).

We finally made it in to Sinchon and finally found a bar that was open. It was close to 5am and we were confused why in Seoul the bars closed all at 5am, it seemed. Oh man. We had some flavored soju and anju. I think at that time I was more concerned with the anju because it was delicious.

After, we wandered around to find a karaoke room (노래방) but also found that some were closed. We wanted to go to a nice one. So while we waited for one to open, we went into a coffee shop. There are plenty of 24hour coffee shops here. It's really convenient and you frequently find people passed out in them in the morning. We bonded over mutual annoyances during the whole night- it was great! I never though that it could be such a good way to bond, haha.

We finally made it into the karaoke room and when we got out, it was 8am. They kept giving us free time extra time. We actually picked the room based on how comfortable it would be to sleep in! Haha. After, Dave left and Mike, Sara, and I walked back to Yonsei. Then...we fell asleep. It's like I took a nap. There was a coffee shop that said, "Life is short. Stay awake for it." I think that's my new motto now.