Saturday, July 3, 2010

July 3rd

Hi,

Only 6pm, but I'm tired already, what's wrong :o. I'm just weak would Pie say. Where is the bastard when you need him ;)

Today I met Joo (은주) for the first time and we had a really lovely time. Not knowing where I'd end up, she stopped a taxi all of a sudden. (Costing only as little as 5k won, which is only about 3 something euros <_<). We went to this nice European restaurant called 'Etoile' (Which apparently is 'A six-pointed star whose rays are wavy, instead of straight like those of a mullet.' So basically just 'star'. Didn't know that). Except for the fact that they serve pickels with Macaroni with cheese and ham, nothing new for me there. She loved it. The food maybe wasn't that great, but it's European, so should I say more? ;). We had a small walk nearby, but that was pretty exhausting. The weather is still really clouded, but because there is completely no wind, it's warm and it gets really tiring fast. I hope to adopt real soon actually.

The streets were really crowded, so we went inside this small cafe, which was actually a cafe/bookstore/icecream/study place, which was really cosy. Every few inches I turned I got surprised by again a new sight. It started with a big circly bookshelve, turning further I saw the typical icecream stand, but when I looked up to the wall behind it, there were a lot of winebottles like you'd see at a wine cellar, all stuffed in wooden shelves. Looking even further I saw a lot of people sitting with their laptops, there was even a desktop of the place itself, offered to people for usage (freely?). Apparently the place has free internet, like a lot of other places have (I guess this is not surprising?). Turning back to the front I saw this small fishbowl with really tiny fish in it, but then it hit me. Beneath the fishbowls there was a big windowsill stredging across the entire wall and it was filled with post-its about whatever had come to the mind of the people who sat there. There were really a lot, we had a hard time finding an empty space to put ours. Which is not all that surprising if you keep in mind people study there. I have a study-buddy who always starts writing on post-its when she gets bored from studying, so these people just put them on a big sill instead of throwing them away.

Still haven't spoken any Korean yet, except for ordering at the cafe, which failed epically. I asked for 'Icecream and a Cappuccino', so when she returns the question with a question starting with 'Iced...' [Didn't really understood the rest], I thought I had made a pronounciation mistake with the 'Icecream'. Apparently they have icy and hot cappuccino's (Icy?? <_<) and she was just asking which one I would like to have. Who would have expected that <_<. So I have to motivate myself more to talk korean, but how can you have a decent conversation, when you can't speak fluently. Yeah I know it's all excuses, so let me try to find something to drink (Can't be that difficult, can it?).

Edit: I got it in no time. How difficult can it be with a family mart or 7-eleven at every 100 meters you walk and on both sides too. Most bars and restaurants are open 24-7, even the Macdonalds is. I had a long walk through the big street near the place I live. It's a big, wide and busy street with a lot of shops, cafes and restaurants. I saw a guy take a piss at the stairs of a (closed) shop (This reminded me of Pie ^^), 2 guys having an argument, with the girlfriend of 1 of the guys holding him so he wouldn't just punch him in the face (It could have been my imagination, but she was standing behind him and holding him really tightly. She might have been scared), etc. You gotta love big cities I guess. Which I don't actually. I like spending time here, but I couldn't see myself go and live in a big city in whatever country. But as someone told me 'you should at least stay at some big city once in your lifetime'. With I agree upon.

*As Egle pointed out correctly. It's 'singroom', not 'playroom'. My mistake, the verbs sound a bit similar.*
With all the street being really busy it was really weird to look in sideway alleys. Yes alleys, because they all were small, deserted and filled with hotels, motels, 'playrooms', ... Why was I even worried about getting a place to stay... With so many of them I doubt the prices to be high. I was joking about the playrooms though, those are actually karaoke places, but if you translate it literally you get 'playrooms', which I thought to be kinda funny at the time. They all looked really shabby as well, but I'll let you know tomorrow, after I've been to one ;) or should i say :(, because I kinda traumatic to singing...

2 comments:

  1. Strange... I've always thought that 노래방 translates as "song room". Ah well.. anyways.

    Go to Norae bang!! It's a must. Even if you don't think you're good at singing. Being in Korea and not going to Norae bang... I dunno. It's like Belgians not being calm *lithuanian mind kicsk in*

    lol

    Fighting!

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  2. Right. I got confused with 놀다..

    ReplyDelete