drunk in the jil jul bang

When we go out with the foreigner crew, we almost always go downtown to Unangdong, where most of the westerner bars are. It’s a cool area, right near the train station, and the buildings were actually built more than fifteen years ago. There are wide blocks of pedestrian walkways, with tons of stores, restaurants and bars. Last night, however, we decided to drink locally. The new teacher at our hagwan, Brian, and I met our crew at Sole, a bar less than half a block from our school with a picture of Keanu Reeves on the door. Meanwhile, Taylor went off to rummage around in the garbage and try to find good stuff to stencil on (she finally found spray paint at a supermarket, and was very anxious to get spraying). Brian and I enjoyed a pitcher of Cass while we waited for the other guys to show up. Drinking in Korean bars is kind of awkward sometimes, because Korean people always, always, always order food when they drink. Having already had dinner, neither Brian nor I were interested in any side dishes, making us the only people with no food on our table (save the edamame/cracker/vegetable platter and sprout soup that come complimentary). For some reason, it was free cigs night at Sole, and some ladies brought around plastic beer mugs with colored lights in the bottom, a pack of cigs and some rosemary sprigs in them. Every table got one, and when they set it on your table, they would then pour hot water in it, which would cause a dry-ice steam to pour out around your new cigs. It also created quite a pleasant smell.

It’s worth mentioning at this point that most of the friends we have made so far work at the hagwan directly below ours, and there is definitely some serious competition and rivalry going on between the two schools. Our friends brought their bosses, and I was sitting next to one of the directors, who insisted that our bosses had “stolen all their ideas” from his hagwan, and was constantly trying to impress me with how well they treat there teachers. Also, these guys were Korean, so of course they ordered a huge platter of spicy chicken, boiled egg and vegetables. Everything was going good, the pitchers of beer kept flowing around the table, a couple rounds of pineapple soju came around, and I even became hungry enough to sample some side dishes. Luckily, at this point (while moderately sober) I informed the group of my odd habit of only speaking in shouted Spanish after I’ve had too much to drink. I shouldn’t have said anything about this, because they would discover this fact soon enough for themselves. Our ringleader, Ben (known to Taylor and I as Ben X), was pushing to go downtown, but we decided instead to travel to the convenience store down the street. Interesting Korean cultural fact: every convenience store has outside seating, and drinking at the seven eleven is actually a very popular past time. So, we sat down outside the mini mart with several “pitchers” (1.6L bottles) of beer, and I proceeded to have a very heartfelt discussion Ben X about disciplining my students. The Spanish was already starting to come out.

By the time we left the convenience store, I was definitely taking a few tumbles here and there on the perfectly flat and smooth walking surfaces. Taylor got everybody fired up to go to her rubbish rummaging spot behind “Shark Zone” (a mall). We went ahead a picked up three mannequins between us, some odds and ends, and I’m pretty sure that this was where I picked a large tree branch that I decided I needed to carry around with me. After an interactive photo shoot in the street with the mannequins, somebody brought up the do re bang. Bang in Korean means “room”, and do re means “sing”. So the do re bang is where you go to do karaoke, and true to the name, you get your own private room and karaoke system. This one even had a private bathroom. A fact I promptly forgot when I started to get salty mouth syndrome, and left the room to try to find a toilet. The guys outside were like “dude, you have your own bathroom in that little room where all your friends are.” Oh yeah. By the time I got back to our room, my mouth was no longer salty. There was even a shower, in case you got a little sweaty while singing. I was intently trying to peruse the song book while everyone else sang, and never did find a good song.

After we left the do re bang, we ran into Ben #3, who we had been with earlier in the evening, alone outside a seven eleven with a bottle of soju. I’m still a little hazy on the details of where he had gone, and why he was drinking solo at 6:00 in the morning. Well, of course we had to sit down with him and finish off the soju. Again, somebody came up with a wonderful bang idea, and soon we were all off the jil jul bang. I’m pretty sure jil jul bang translates as “hot room”, but it is the public bath house. This one is 24 hours, and also located in a mall. I wasn’t sure anyone would be bathing at 6:30 on Saturday morning, but there were definitely some folks there. The tubs weren’t quite as hot as I like them, but it was still relaxing. It did not sober me up. We (the dudes) were supposed to meet Taylor after twenty minutes, and all of a sudden I looked up and everybody was gone. It took me a while to drunkenly slither back into my clothes, and by the time I got out into the lobby, none of my crew was there. I don’t know why I thought this meant that Taylor had gone home without me, but I did, so I left immediately and went home. Taylor was not at home; she was at the jil jul bang waiting for me for one hour. Sorry Tay Tay. Today I have been absolutely useless.