on vacation

So...this weekend was interesting to say the least. Plus it seems my internal clock has now been thrown all out of whack. Thanks for that goes to a guy I met while on my visa run last weekend. He had invited me out with some of his friends for yogurt soju on Friday night, and even though I was rather apprehensive about it I agreed to go. So at about 10:45 I met up with all of them at Samsung Plaza in Bundang (which is hella far from where I am living now). Knowing that they probably wouldn't be finished with the evening before the subway stopped running at midnight, I figured I'd take a bus or a cab home, so I wasn't too worried about it.

Most of the evening was fun...that is up until the point when the guys in our group decided to pick a fight with another group of foreign guys and this one crazed Korean girl. And no sooner than they had started yelling at each other did tables and chairs start flying in every direction. The last thing I heard before I promptly stepped out of the bar was "I'm gonna kill you!" shouted by none other than the guy who had invited me to hang out with him (he was yelling at one of the other guys, not at me!). Needless to say that's the last time I intend on seeing him. I just don't feel compelled to hang out with people who are reminiscent of college frat boys, and I don't want to be in that kind of company.

So by the time I left that bar it was already almost 4am so instead of spending money on a cab I decided to wait it out and take the subway home when it started running again at 6:30am. Of course the flaw in my plan was that I had no idea what to do with myself until then. At least I wasn't very tired. Thankfully another guy who had been sitting next to me at the bar had also decided to leave when the fighting broke out cause I guess that really wasn't his thing either. He offered for me to hang out at his place until I could take the subway back home. Having no other options I happily accepted.

Jason (the guy) lives in an Officetel very similar to the one I lived in while in Bundang. It was very posh with a separate loft and everything! He showed me around and then we proceeded to listen to music and watch Conan O'Brien until it was time for me to go. Before I left though he took me up to the roof to see the view. The sun was coming up at that point so it was actually very cool! After that we went back down to his apartment, I gathered my things and left. We also exchanged numbers and said we should hang out again sometime since both of us are fairly new to Seoul and don't know many people yet. He's a nice enough guy I guess, so who knows, it might be fun.

Anyway, since that night when I stayed up til dawn my sleeping schedule has been all messed up. I've practically become a vampire, sleeping all day and then stalking around at night. I'm slowly trying to adjust myself back to normal, so hopefully by Wednesday I'll be keeping regular hours again. How annoying...

So yeah, I didn't really do very much the rest of the weekend in the way of touristy stuff (cause I wasn't awake for it), but I did managed to hike up Mt. Namsan twice (once on Saturday night and once tonight) and yesterday I hiked up Mt. Inwangsan. It took forever to get up that one, but it was well worth it cause the view from up there is spectacular. Tomorrow I might try hiking up there again if I get up early enough. Needless to say, I'm really starting to enjoy hiking...

So this week I am on vacation but don't really have much planned...just the normal sight-seeing stuff. I'm just glad to finally have a chance to breathe and relax. How nice.

Here's some of the stuff I did get a chance to see this weekend...

the Buddhist temple near COEX mall

the giant Buddha statue

some statues and markers near the entrance

the main building

a smaller Buddha statue

some odd looking figures by the main gate

Seoul's World Trade Center

a statue in Yeouido Park

the ceiling of the gazebo on top of Mt. Namsan

hiking Mt. Inwangsan

from the top of Mt. Inwangsan

the arch at Dongnimmun Park

a random structure in front of Kyobo bookstore

some undisclosed street...somewhere

the view of downtown Seoul from a bus

Seoul Station