bangs

In my habit of starting posts with the word so...

So I've been in Korea for around 10 days now. Not very long, but long enough to encounter certain situations in which I look around at my surroundings and think to myself, "I can't believe I'm in South Korea right now." I'm kind of experiencing one of those moments as I type this; I'm at what's called a "PC-bang." "Bang" in Korean means room, so it's just a huge place where you can come to use a computer for an hourly fee (I think the fee is 1,000 won per hour, which translates to about 68 cents). Other than me, the room consists of maybe 100 Korean teenagers who are playing video games and chain smoking. It's a scene, man.

On Friday night I went out with some co-workers. We first went to restuarant, where I had my first, and hopefully last, encounter with "soju." Soju is the drink that Koreans drink to get stupid, and it tastes bloody terrible. It's what'd I'd imagine Victory Gin tastes like. Not even the Koreans who will drink it relentlessly actually like it; every time I've seen somebody drink it the reaction is the same: their face twists in agony for 2 seconds, followed by a guttural "Eeeuuugh!" sound.

After putting back a couple of drinks, I was taken to a place called a nori-bang, or something like that. Essentially it's a karaoke room that you can rent, and you and your friends can drink all you want a sing karaoke. Anyone who knows me well would probably think that this is the last place I would like to go, and you're right, but it turned out to be a pretty fun time. And let me tell you something: you haven't lived until you've seen two drunk Korean girls singing "You're the Only One for Me" by Brian McKnight. Definitely a "I can't believe I'm in South Korea" moment.

Hopefully I'll get internet installed in my apartment tomorrow. It'll be nice to get to use a computer for a couple of hours and not smell like a bowling alley afterwards.