this past weekend i was feeling a little down because two people that are very close to me were both having their (separate) weddings that weekend. since, i’m in s. korea at the moment, i wasn’t able to attend either one.
to cheer myself up, i decided to take a quick train ride to seoul. i left busan at around 7:30 and arrived in seoul around 10:ish.
first stop, itaewon
now let me remind you, in busan i am one of the very few “coloreds” in the city. but in itaewan, boy, they are everywhere. i was in complete shock. no one prepared me for this. i thought i had died and gone to (insert any majority black city here).
i shit you not, one of the first observations i made from the cab was a large african-american woman (i’m not making this up) standing outside of a kfc, yes kentucky fried chicken, yelling at her child down the street; “i’m gon’ whoop yo ass if you don’t get back here!” in busan this would make the headline news (not literally, but everyone would be staring), but here no one even looked twice. wow!
so, i just decided to make this trip to seoul kind of last minute. well, there was a rattler (famu) get-together that saturday, but i knew of nothing going on that friday night. i just sent out a few texts to some people i knew there and decided to go where the night took me.
i got a response back from an acquaintance i knew from tallahassee, whom i ran into a few weeks prior in busan. small world, indeed. she was planning to stay in that night, but since i was in town, she made it out to kick it. now, we’re practically best friends.
the first thing i did after getting dropped off where the action seemed to be, was go up to a group of approachable individuals, whom all happened to be from africa, and asked them where i could get a cheap motel. just something to put down my bags, cuz i didn’t plan on sleeping that night. i party like a nocturnal animal that also happens to be a rock star. you can’t party any harder than that folks.
one of them offers to walk me to a motel down the street from where they were congregated. i immediately realized that i was in hooker row as we made our way past all the tight, short skirts on all the loose, high women. don’t worry i’ve never paid for it and never will. unless you count dinner and a roofie (that’s just a good investment).
so, i drop off the bags, pick up my swag, and hit the street like it were someone that’s smaller than me and just looked at me kinda funny (yes, i am that dude that hits people just because they are smaller than him and look at him funny).
i meet back up with the dude’s crew; two gals and another dude. he leaves, and the rest of us stay. he has other things to tend to, and i don’t ask any questions. farewell, my friend.
we head over to a south american bar and listen to some latin music. the music of love! (so they say) but unfortunately there’s nothing in this place i’d love, except maybe for that sexy lil thang that was holding my drink. no, not the bartender or some other chick, i’m referring to my left hand. i thought to myself; “dick, if it keeps trying to get you drunk, you’ll have to give it what it wants.” let’s move on.
it’s about that time for my friend to meet me at the subway, so i say my goodbyes and head over to the number 3 exit and wait for her to arrive. once we meet up we decide to seek out some nourishment. the cuisine choices are plentiful, the decision was difficult, but we finally went with arabian. lamb and chicken. a bit pricey, but delicious nonetheless.
we’re back in them streets! we go to a club called, “un”. boy, this club was hood! it actually felt like i was back in texas, cuz they sure played tx music heavily in this bitch. we drink, we dance, and we have a good time. surprisingly tho, we tapped out pretty early and laid it down before sunrise. losers!
the next day i check out the motel and check into my buddy’s apt. she has a little studio, like most english teacher in s. korea. nice and quaint. we get some brunch and take a nap before heading to the yongsan army base for the rattler get-together.
the get-together was nice. good food, good company, and an all around good time. it wasn’t strictly a rattler event as there were a few outsiders amidst us. included my new tag along buddy, who attended fsu. it as all good tho and all love.
straight from dinner we hit the scene again. we first stopped at a reggae bar, where i ran into the same dude that escorted me to the motel the previous night. we stayed there for just a little while before heading over to another party town, which name escapes me a this moment.
we ended up in this pretty cool hippie club that played techno, but also had random instruments laying around that the patrons could play. this one dude was rockin’ the didgeridoo. sounded pretty cool, but it was also being drowned out by this one other dude on the drums, that just could not catch the beat. i don’t think he even tried or knew that he should make an attempt to stay on beat. he was just having a good time. perhaps he was “special”.
next stop was a more crowded and less mellow place. plenty of foreigners, but of the lighter variety. nice change of pace from the previous night. we hung out there for a bit, listened to music, conversed with some strangers, and decided to call it a night shortly after. i took a shower and laid it down.
the next day i was supposed to meet another friend for lunch, but it was starting to get late so i changed my departure time to around 3:00 p.m. we met up at a bar close to the subway station and found a really nice indian restaurant with a lunch buffet. me in a buffet is kinda like, well… me in a fuckin’ buffet. i mean i will eat until i can’t. the food was pretty damn good and by the time we left i was stuffed like a girl with me in her. full!
i dropped of a package in the bathroom of the train station. i came out a brand new man and boarded my train. i was off to sleep and off to busan. all-in-all a nice trip.