A Night in DaeHak-ro

A night out in Korea can seem pretty overwhelming, especially in HongDae, Kangnam Sinchon, Sincheon, Itaewon, Daehak-ro or any of the other major hotspots in town. Hongdae, Sinchon and Daehak-ro make a name for themselves by being close to the major universities; Kangnam is a place for lavishing high-priced liquors and girls on clients; Itaewon is near the US Army base, so it's a haven for GIs and other English-speakers (who seem to have more money than brains sometimes, myself included) and Sincheon is a teen district as well, in the well-to-do area of Songpa-gu.

My latest foray was to Daehak-ro (daehak/daehak-kyo means college/university, ro means street). We went to a ddak-kalbi (grilled chicken) place and saw a group of 3 guys whooping it up Korean style (copious amounts of soju and food and louder speaking). One was pretty funny. I don't know if he was doing it for my benefit or to show-off to the Koreans around him (Koreans sometimes show that they know English as a form of one-up-man-ship...it shows they are educated and studied a lot, no matter how brutal the usage). He was saying such things as "Excuse me, could you calm down?" (actually, he said that A LOT) and "I'm sorry" and "Okay!". I think he was practicing to be a bar bouncer or something. Anyways, these guys got pretty loaded. When one of them was away from the table it looked like the other two were a little amorous (Korean men sometimes hold hands or put their arms around each other, especially after a gallon of soju). I snapped the picture below before we left.


2 guys who really like each other (but they are not gay).

Then when we finished walking nature was calling me...but not #1. I took a look into the hwa-jang-shil (bathroom) in the restaurant, but it was a squat-type. Then we came across this theatre (below...oh, and Koreans usually pronounce theatre and Seattle the similarly). It was new so I took a look. Man, that bathroom was spotless--maybe it looked so good because I figured that all of the ones in the area were squatters or brutally dirty affairs, as they usually are in smaller, older buildings (man, how do these women do it?). Anyways, that's the tip. Look for the newest, hippest building (especially ones with Western food or themes inside) to find the best W.C. (another way Koreans denote watercloset).


Fantaseum

Since Korea has millions (ten of millions, likely) of cellphones (handphones, as they call them) you'll find public pay phones only in a few places: the airport, the train/bus stations, major hotels and the subways. (Well, I've seen them on the street sometimes, but not that often, and not when you need one.)


phones

Another instance of Korean marketing gone bonkers. Red Mango is a major bing-soo (shaved ice garnished with fruit and stuff and then topped with yogurt or ice cream). But the tagline for the firm is a little....well, weird "Start loving myself!". When I explain it to people they really get confused.


Red Mango
Another thing here that's funny is girls wear shirts that say "69", it's a brand here but they are oblivious to the hidden meaning (if you don't know I can't explain it here, this site is family-friendly). Or church-going girls will have a Playboy scrunchie in their hair...not knowing who "The Hef" is. Koreans also have no idea the multitude of words we have for a part of the male anatomy (so the scene in Austin Powers where they say "woody, Johnston, boner, balls, willi...) goes over most of their heads. They have one word here for it go-choo (hot pepper), and they're pretty surprised to learn that their word for 'ward' in a city (dong) is also another euphemism for gochoo.


And, to cap it off, in the subway there was a guy taking a snooze right on the floor.