Bugs, wiggly squid, and hookah :-)

Thursday night, after work, Albert and I met up with Ted, his lovely girlfriend, and his friend Harry to hang out for a little while.  The schedules changed at our schools because it's a new semester now and things are absolutely crazy for all of us, so we needed a night to just relax a little while.  I got out at 9 and we all met up and headed into our little town.

Ted had a plan.

We met at this pretty little log cabin-y restaurant to have some rice wine and a leek/chive Korean style pizza.  There was, however, a surprising side dish:

Bugs. . .

 ..

. . .or more accurately, caterpillar pupa. . . .

 Are we actually supposed to eat that?  Ted, Harry, and even Ted's adorable, tiny little girlfriend were chop sticking them right into their mouths.  Lindie had told me that she tried one her first day.  I don't know if she actually knew what she was trying, but after some persuading-and of course not wanting to be outdone-we, very reluctantly, tried it.  Here's the video (not for the faint of heart. . .)

Tastes like a bug.  I'm so sorry, Adam and Noah, for making you eat these when we were kids!!

Here's Albert's quite braver attempt:

Thank goodness for rice wine :-)  They all had a good laugh about it though, so that was good.

The pizza that was being delivered there in the background of the video was really nice :-)  And it's fun because everyone just goes at it and tears it apart with chop sticks.  Eating is fun in this country :-)

Bugs, fresh veggies, and bean sprout salad :-)

Ted and his girlfriend (who we were actually beginning to believe didn't exist)  Aren't they cute?!  She really was brave, I think, to come out, since she didn't speak any English.  Good times :-)

 While we were there, and feeling a little adventurous after the bug-eating, we decided that it was just the right night for getting VERY fresh octopus and squid.  So fresh that it was still wiggling.  Delicious.

There was a very lovely surprise side dish at this place, though.  Duck.  Duck!  Awesome.

Squid salad, duck, and tofu.  There's a soup in the middle and two fresh salads on the other side.  We were waiting for the crazy main course. . .

Tofu.  Really nice :-)

 And then came the moment of truth.  I was actually really excited about trying it, Albert was a little more. . .hesitant.  Here's the preview, pre-eating. . .

Since I was so excited I decided to go first.  Here goes:

Awesome.  Now, here's brave Albert:

Very nice.  It doesn't taste like much at all.  Of course it's slimy and wiggly.  It sucks on to the plate, which makes it really hard to pick up, then squirms around on the chop sticks, and then swims a bit in the salt and sesame oil, and then sucks on to your tongue, cheeks, rook of your mouth, whatever.  Very interesting.  They told us that we have to just hold it in our mouths for a moment before chewing it so that it has a chance to stick to something :-)  Very cool.

We ate all of it.  Yum.

The hookah place that we went to the previous weekend (when it was out of hookah) texted Ted and told him that they just got some in.  Hookah is supposed to settle your stomach, and we figured since we had still squirming bits in our stomachs that was the thing we needed to do :-)

Ted, looking like quite the sage.

Harry.  It very soon became a competition between the boys who could make the best circles or get the most out of the nose, etc.  Boys.  :-)

This place is beautiful and has the best little chai teas and lassi drinks, and I just love it there.  We've been there three times this week :-)  No one is ever there, so we're trying to enjoy it as much as we can before it disappears.

Exactly what we needed after a crazy day at school.  Very relaxing.  Then it was time to get ready for Korean lessons in the morning and our very, very long Fridays :-)

Couple glasses!

 And that was our Thursday :-)

Crazy fun weekend :-)

This past weekend two significant events happened.  The first was Lindie's boyfriend FINALLY got here to Korea.  The second was Ted took a very important English test.  We decided that both occasions deserved a night out.  So, Albert and I met Jean (my Korean teacher) and Ted at around 9 on Saturday night to start the festivities.

First we went out to eat while we waited for Lindie, Rob, Ji Young, and Jonah.

We went to Three Pigs, which I know I've blogged about before, but it's always a good time.

Here's a video of our lovely cook mixing up our salads for us.  Also, in the background, you can see how crazy this place is most of the time.  :-)

Awesome, right?

Me and the boys :-)

 So, we ordered a lot of meat.  Like you do, at places like this.  Ted cooked for us.  Which was wonderful because when it's left to me I always burn everything. . .or eat underdone pork, and that's just not good for you.

Yum

When I get home I'm going to have scissors on the table all the time.  I never thought they could be so useful, now  I don't know what I'd do without them!  :-)

Hungry!!

Our talented chef :-)

Jean, my Korean teacher, being especially uninhibited :-)

Good times with good people and, of course, good food!

More (and a different kind of) meat.

Delicious!

Dessert!  Ice noodles.  And the scissors are back.  Ted told us that the ice noodles weren't as spicy as the other choice for noodles, but they were still a little spicy for me.  The boiled egg and cucumber were good though.  He was cutting up my noodles for me because they are incredibly long, then you have to stir everything together.  It's quite good :-)

 Then it was time to FINALLY meet Rob!  And here they are, the lovely couple.

Ji Young calls them a "cockroach couple" which apparently, in Korean, means a cute, lovely couple.  Still, cockroach?

Ji Young and I

Ji Young and Albert

Ji Young being Ji Young :-)

The Cockroach Couple.  He had been off the plane for about two hours now, I think.

Ted, modeling my silly bands :-)

Doing Ted's hair with the silly bands. . .

Doesn't he look darling???

Yes he does!  :-)  what a good sport.

Okay, in what is now one of the most FOUL moves my blog has EVER pulled I have to just TELL you about the craziest thing of the night.  We had to go to a singing room.  We always have to go to a singing room, right??  Well, I had to run to the restroom and when I walked into the room I could not believe my eyes!  My Korean teacher, Jean, a very reserved guy, was absolutely tearing it up inside.  Not just singing his heart out, but dancing like a crazy person as well.  It was amazing.  Absolutely.  I was flabbergasted!  I had three wonderful videos of his antics, the last of which actually showed him pouring soju on his face (right in his eyes) he must have been REALLY into it, because soju is about as strong as vodka and that really had to hurt.  But it was incredible!  Here's a shot.

King of the singing room.

Jean really helped all of us get extra into it, even Jonah :-)

Ted was singing Jason Mraz and rocking big time :-)

Against his wishes (and quite possibly, better judgement) Rob actually, finally, sang.  Rock on.

We sang all the classics, Zombie (which was a lot of fun, Ted and Jean did some amazing Zombie impressions) Stayin' Alive, some great Jason Mraz songs, some fun Korean songs (one of which was a kid's song that David taught me a while back, I tried to sing it in Korean while Jean was singing it in English) awesome time all around.


So, that's three places so far, but the night wasn't over yet.  We went to another place to play pool for a while.  The owner was trying to close early so we didn't stay too long, but we ended up losing Lindie and Rob there, and we went off to try to find a hookah room because Ted knew of one that I think had just opened up in town, but it was closed.  Soooooo, we decided it was time to eat again.  Our town never closes.  :-)

They tired to chose the least spicy thing that they had.  It was amazingly spicy.  So.  Amazingly.  Spicy.
And it was totally served in a shovel.  Awesome.  :-)

Rock on!

 They also got a Korean style pizza which is almost like a crepe base with veggies and sea food and all kinds of good thing.  It's not spicy.  I think I ate almost half the pizza (and I think almost all of the sweet macaroni salad) to extinguish my poor, flaming mouth.

After that last place it was almost 5am so we decided to call it a night.  But we made about a million plans for the near and farther future to get together a lot more for some awesome fun :-)



The next day, Sunday, I woke up late (of course) and it was a beautiful day, so I texted Albert and told him that we should go to the beach.  An hour later, armed with our guidebooks (something I haven't used since summer) we got on a bus, and an hour after that, we arrived at the beach.  Well, not really, we got off somewhere because the bus that I got us on didn't actually go to the beach, it seemed, but it did get close.  So, we got off the bus and started walking.  It was A LOT colder close to the sea.  And it started to rain a bit.  Oh well, we had to see the ocean.  We got to Home Plus (which is right next to it) and tried to find something to eat because I was stupid and hadn't eaten all day.  Nothing really looked good, even though I was pretty much starving.  Home Plus, just as a side note, is like an enormous Meijers, it's a lot nicer than Wal Mart, and is about five stories high, and packed to gills with people all the time.  Anyway, we walked a bit farther and say a Frypan, which is American Style chicken fingers.  Obviously, that was the right decision.  We stayed there for a while and it stopped raining so we ran out to see the beach.

beach hair :-)

a little better :-)

 We were going to meet up with Lindie and Rob to get some dinner and go to a DVD room, which is one of the best ways to wind down a weekend, so we got back on a bus and headed home.  They were at Three Pigs, and randomly so were Jonah and Ji Young, so we had dinner with them again.  Albert and I had already eaten and planned on just sitting there while they ate but Ji Young still fed us. . .until we were absolutely bursting.  :-)

Then we went to a DVD room.  We couldn't convince Ji Young and Jonah to join us because after the really late night Saturday, Jonah still had to go and open the cafe at 9am, so he slept for maybe two and a half hours that night, so they went home.  And we went and watched The Experiment, which was a strange but actually rather good movie about a behavioral experiment with prisons. . .pretty good.  Intense.
During the movie I got a call from Jean and a text from Ted, or a text from Ted and a call from Jean, I can't remember which, but I called Ted and thought it was Jean and he invited us to go to a hookah room with him and a friend of his, so the four of us left to meet them.  It was Ted, turns out, and he was with his friend who had just come back from studying English in the Philippines.  They were eating squid.  It had almost stopped moving by the time we got there.  We chatted while they were eating and while we were talking the couple at the table behind us started having a fight.  It was a couple of young people and the girl was drunk and was really giving it to her boyfriend.  So, being the people that we are, Albert started filming them as sneakily as possible.  Not sneaky enough, turns out,  because when they finally left, the boy had thrown his bag on the floor and when he came back to get it he swore at us in both Korean and English and flipped us off.  Whoops.  Still, funny.  Ted and his friend, Harry (which is also Ted's actual English name but we still call him Ted) were actually really offended for us, but actually we thought it was pretty funny, not to mention we deserved it.  But the manager also apologized to us on our way out.  Oh well.

Ted studying his still wiggling squid.  Yum.  

 We were there for a little while, so by the time we got to the other room Lindie and Rob had to go, so Albert and I went in with Ted and Harry.

We have pictures of the place, but I have to just tell you how absolutely gorgeous it was.  Gorgeous!  It was in the basement and all down the stairs were hundreds of empty wine bottles, and then in the actual place it had little padded, cushioned, beaded alcoves along the walls and in the middle was this reflecting pool with candles and a little fountain.  Just beautiful!  Very Indian/Bohemian, just my thing :-)

Anyway, we sat down in our little alcove and ordered some lovely teas and our hookah, a cherry molasses one (instead of tobacco.)

Our waiter came back a little while later to explain that they were out of everything and we would just have to have tea.  Bummer.  So, we got chai tea, some yogurt drinks (lovely!) and a red berry tea and all tried everything.  And just talked and talked and talked.  Really nice time.  Here's the room!

Albert and Harry.  :-) 

Ted and I :-)

Another one of the little alcoves.

And, of course, ours.  The floor was heated.  It was very, very warm in there.  I was glad for the frozen drink :-)

The reflecting pool in the middle of the room.

Another alcove.

Our lovely drinks :-)  and some cookies.

The stairwell to get there.  Beautiful!  :-)  Way to set the mood early, guys!  A lot of the stairwells here are, actually pretty gross.  This one was beautiful!

We stayed until about midnight and decided that it was time to go home and get ready for work the next day. Talk about not letting the weekend go!  Great weekend, lots of good stuff, and really good times with good friend.  Again that night we made a lot of plans to do things, beach parties, cherry blossom festival, mud festival, just everything.  Plenty of good times ahead.  :-)

So, that was the weekend.

Whew!