Chicken Feet.

Our fellow coworker has been a little down lately so Britt and I took him out for some dinner and drinks tonight. It's so much better now that the girls have the majority. I just have way more fun. Like tonight, for example.

The conversations got increasingly weirder over the course of dinner and at one point we were talking about which of us would be eaten if we were stranded at the top of Mount Wolchulsan and the survival of two depended on the death of the third. I think it's pretty obvious which one should be eaten. I've got more meat than Britt and it's all tender, not like those stringy muscles you get when the meal is a regular at the gym. Hell, I'd probably eat me, too. I bet I'm delicious.

But the second Shadow went to the bathroom, "So if that happens, we eat him right?"
E: "You distract him, I'll hit him with the rock."

It's so nice to be in the majority for once.

The restaurant was one we'd never been to before, so we didn't really know what to expect from the menu. They had chicken, so we figured we couldn't end up with anything too crazy. Hey, I eat chicken all the time. The first dish we got was the typical Korean style hacked chicken parts. I swear they just put a chicken on a cutting board and hack at random. You never really know exactly what part of the chicken you're picking up. It wasn't bad, but we wanted something a little more specific the second time around.

B: "Chicken legs! At least we know what those are."

When the dish arrived, we all figured at first that the waiter had dropped someone else's food off at our table. Then I saw the foot of a chicken in what I can only assume was the middle of a death curl. Oh man. Talk about being lost in translation. Chicken legs do end in chicken feet, yes, but I still feel that we were tricked. That waiter had to have known what he was doing. Why would a group of foreigners order a plate of feet? That would never happen.

Of course we tried them. Spent 16$ on feet, I was determined to eat 16$ worth of feet.

I almost vom'd on the first piece. I got from the ankle down and it was chewy. Like cartilage chewy. And it had toenails. Man. They really should have taken those off. I put in a good effort, but ultimately couldn't get it down. I tried like a champ, but spit it out like a little kid given a brussel sprout.

I guess I'll take random chicken chunks and be happy.

We Got Floor Seats!

So even though the plan was to arrive before the souvenir booths had even opened, it seemed that we missed that by about 3 hours. We arrived shortly after 1pm to buy goods for a 6pm show. The line was incredible. No wonder we didn't get anything yesterday. These people must have showed up at 10am.

We stood in line for almost 2 hours before we made it to the front and everything but the towels were sold out. Who cares? I got a towel. And we were the last group to get them, too. They sold out while we were standing there. If we had been 5 people back, we would have stood in line for 2 hours for lame tote bags. I guess they're not really lame. They're supposed to be the reusable shopping bags.

But we got the towels. So we walk over to sit down for a while. While I was standing in line before I heard someone ask a concert official if the show was sold out and heard her tell the person that they could still buy tickets for the show if they wanted. I didn't really think about it again, but while we were sitting down Britt turned to me.

"Next time we'll buy tickets to both shows."

So I left her to watch the bags while I walked back over to the information booth to inquire about seats. I approached the woman I had heard talking before, but was nearly tackled by a VERY eager concert official. "I can help you! You need help? Me! I can answer your questions!" She informed me that there were floor seats available at discount price, because the visibility was poorer. They were under the shelf of the upper deck so it "cut off half."

"Half of what? Half of TaeYang?"

No, just the top part of the stage. We were going to miss his entrance and exit. No big deal. We saw that yesterday. All he does is stand there while they lower him onto the stage and then bring him back up at the end. Not sorry to miss it.

So I ran back to Britt, grabbed our stuff, and started running back over to the official all while trying to explain what we were going to do. We needed to run to get the last tickets and I wasn't even sure I had enough money left to pay for it all. No worries. We got tickets to today's show, too.

Except we were carrying all of our stuff. We needed to find lockers. We headed back to the subway station to look for lockers, but found none, so we headed back on the subway to try and find a station that did have them. It took about an hour to find a station on our return route that offered lockers for all of our junk, but the nice man at information told us which stop we should head to.

Then back over to the University. We have become pros at finding this school. We're going to find a hostel in the Kyung Hee area and stay there always. It's so much better than the area we usually stay in. There are food places, parks, and shops. The other hostel is always booked and has no food around it.

We switched seats as soon as the show started so that we could be on the aisle, and no one ever arrived to claim the seats. Everyone was still sitting for the show, but the seats were definitely better. Things progressed pretty much the way they did yesterday, but then 2NE1 jumped on stage! They weren't just there today they were rocking out. They performed two songs and everyone was standing! This is so much better!

At the end of the show he did an encore, too. Since so many people had left already, we were able to run right up to the stage for the last two songs of the show. I was probably about 6 feet from TaeYang. Britt was 4.

Was it worth getting back at 2 am again? Absolutely. I can't wait for the next show.

I'm an Expert at These Concert Things.

After leaving my roommate at home for my KAT-TUN adventure, I found us something that we could both enjoy. My roomie is a TaeYang fan and I was able to grab us some tickets to his show today. We took the bus to Seoul early this morning, checked into the hostel, printed our e-voucher and went off to find Kyung Hee University. The directions on the website were less than clear about the concert's exact location, but we asked the cashier at the Tous Les Jours.

She told us we needed to take a bus. No problem. There's a bus right there.

It ended up being the right one. This university is beautiful. It actually has a campus and old stone buildings with pillars and cathedral style buildings. It's awesome. I wish I could go to school here, too. We followed the signs and arrived at the location 2 hours ahead of time. And everything was sold out! There were no more posters, t-shirts, signed cds, promotional towels, or glow sticks. How does that happen? How can everything already be sold out? At least we got seats, right? Right.

I didn't really worry about what line to stand in this time. As foreigners, we're not ever expected to know what we're doing. We just do what we think is right, and helpful people point us to the right place.

So we get inside and the show is awesome. We're nowhere near the stage, but there's no one standing in front of us either. Not bad seats at all. Actually there was no one standing at all. Everyone just enjoyed the show and cheered from their seats. It was totally different from any concert I've ever been to. We wanted to stand up and rock out, but not as the only foreigners in the section.

I enjoyed watching every other foreigner there (about a dozen) trying to figure out how to find their seats. Not that hard. Or maybe I'm just awesome at this now. I can't sing every word to every song yet, but Britt can.

About halfway through the show, we watched 2NE1 walk in front of our seats. They're my favorite girl group here in Korea. We couldn't figure out why they would come to a concert that wasn't theirs, but it didn't matter. We could have reached out and touched them. IF we were standing up.

E: "Why is everyone... wait. Is that 2NE1?"
B: "Omigod! That's 2NE1! That's 2NE1, right?"

The show was awesome. We were able to walk back to the subway on our own without the bus. It was really only 3 or 4 blocks anyways. We plan to go back tomorrow to buy the souvenirs before the second show. Does it matter that we will not be attending that one? No. We have ticket stubs from yesterday. And who's going to question us anyways? It's not like this is a closed campus. Anyone can walk around here anytime they want.

I will get that promotional towel.

We Definitely Needed to Allot More Time For the Park.

We started the day off with some Lotteria. We weren't sure where it was, but the town is really only so big. We figured there had to be one hidden away somewhere. Right as we were about to give up and hit up a kimbap place, the clouds opened up and a beam of light shone dow- Okay. Maybe it wasn't that dramatic, but it was a sight.

Haeshindang is a park full of sculptures that would definitely not be allowed in America. It was built to calm the spirit of a young woman who died before her wedding day. Her fiance took her out to this rock to collect clams or something stupid and couldn't come back to retrieve her when a giant storm blew in. She ultimately drowned. After her death, all the fish in the area disappeared. So to please this woman, this incredible park was built.
Entering Haeshindang was a little awkward, I'll admit it. What kind of people frequent such places anyways? Will the Koreans think poorly of us for walking through and having a good time?
No. There were whole families in there walking around enjoying the sights. There were ajummas hugging statues and just having fun with it. There were little kids running around laughing and pointing at everything. There were people sitting on some very creative benches and a whole section for the animals of the chinese zodiac. We didn't realize how expansive that place was. It just kept going. We thought 3 hours would be enough time, but it clearly wasn't. Next time I do Samcheok, I'm going to stay for a week. Even then, I'm not sure I'll be able to see and do everything that that town has to offer. It's incredible. I have to go back.

These little monsters were all over the place. I have never seen a spider look quite like that. Their webs are enormous.

Samcheok isn't actually close to anything, but I still wanna do it. I liked being cut off from everything like that. I really enjoyed being one of the only celebrities in town. I can't stay in Gwangju for another year. I need my next year to be full of different adventures.

The journey home was just as long as the one there yesterday, but I of course slept the whole way. We didn't get back until 2am and we all have work tomorrow. No biggie. Tomorrow's friday anyways.

It Takes a Whole Day to Get to Samcheok.

First, you have to take a 4 hour bus ride from Gwangju to Seoul and then a 5 hour bus ride from Seoul to Samcheok. Am I regretting the delay? Yeah, kinda. This place is really awesome. I totally underestimated the appeal of this town. It's not just a small town to crash in near a wildly inappropriate park of sculptures. We didn't arrive in Samcheok until 6pm and we really only had time for dinner and hotel reservations.

The great thing about small towns is that they try so hard. I guess they don't get so many visitors, so they try to make the city as welcoming as possible. There is usually a tourist office around the bus terminal and this is how you can book a hotel last minute within walking distance of the bus station. These are also the people who answer your questions about where to find food during a holiday.

I think I could live in Samcheok forever and never get bored. This place has mountains, caves and beaches. There are hardly any foreigners and it's hard to find someone who speaks a lot of English. This is just the place I've been looking for. This could be my next home. I imagine it can't be that hard to get a job here. How many people even know about this hidden gem? This place is like Korea's own secret paradise.

It's a little farther north than I'm comfortable with, but I think I might go for it anyways. Samcheok. I like the sound of that.

Yep. Crazy's Contagious.

I have all but decided to renew. What can I say? My kids are that awesome.

Today was Monday and Friday all at once. The wonder of Chuseok. This holiday is poorly timed, sure, but at least the school is closed for tuesday, wednesday, and thursday. I'm heading to Samcheok to check out the small town there. I want to make sure that small towns are for me.

And the penis park at Haeshindang. Who knew there'd be something that scandalous in Korea? Can't wait.

Anyone Else Get a Gift for Chuseok?

It's a big one, too. Shadow convinced me to open it in the Lounge and we were all speechless when the lid actually came off. The box is beautiful, but I totally assumed I would be opening a giant box of Spam. It's the kind of gift that is good for any occasion. That, or toothpaste.

But I got a giant box of candied gim. That's seaweed. Yeah. The stuff you wrap around sushi. I got it jellied, candied, and covered in sugar.

How freaking awesome is that?! I'm going to try them all. I wonder if there is a specific way that I should be eating them...