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In order to ensure I’d have enough time to meet up with the Seoul-based friends who convinced to return to the capital, I needed more than a weekend. However, given the budget-busting Airbnbs, I made accommodations to return to the ole’ Hongdae stomping ground where I could attempt to live cheaply for a few days. After a three week absence, I must say I was also curious to check-in on the drama.

I took my time packing up my belongings in the Airbnb Monday morning, and hopped on a bus to get to Yeonnam-dong. When I entered the hostel, I was surprised not to be greeted by any familiar faces. Being too early for check-in, I dropped my bags and went to an Indian restaurant about three doors down from the hostel. I had always meant to try its lunch special. It wasn’t worth the return.

I swung back through the hostel to grab my backpack and spent a couple hours in the wonderfully fragrant bakery/cafe. At 3 pm, I returned to the hostel to check in and change for a run. The living was fuller at the time, and with many recognizable faces. One person asked in a somewhat accusatory tone “Why did you come back?” I suppose I could have retorted: “Why haven’t you left?” but I was otherwise welcomed like I had never left. Nevertheless, I hold that it is better to leave a place and return then to always stay there. You need the perspective of seeing other places for comparison, and there is a frisson to returning to a familiar location.

I took a longish run, stopping at 9.5 km to buy groceries, and carefully jogging the 3.5 km return trip to avoid overly tossing the 500 won marked down salad packs. After a quick shower and change, I wolfed down a salad before taking out the bottle of makkoli and packet of prawn crackers I also bought as a supplement. I spent the evening in the living room hanging out with guests and volunteers.

One of the volunteers needed to go to Hong Kong on a visa run, and had been having trouble booking a plane ticket, so I did that for him through my Chinese bank in exchange for cash, which means I might have just enough to squeak through.

Apparently in the interim, someone had punched in an Netflix account to the set-top box, so my harddrives are superfluous. On the other hand, the account isn’t age verified, so a lot of content is blocked. Even shows like “The Good Place” which is as wholesome as cheese. What the forks? Looking for entertainment options, I recommended we watch “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and we ended up finishing the first season that night.

A group of partiers went out drinking and I wasn’t even tempted to join them, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t drink too much. By the time I finished my bottle of makkoli, a Norwegen girl came in with a 1.7L bottle of beer. When she went on the second beer run, I handed her some cash. Despite the best intentions to not drink too much, too late, I personally accompanied her on the third beer run. (And I suddenly recall that I don’t know exactly how much that last bottle of beer cost).

I went upstairs to use the bathroom once and came down with a box of fried chicken and tater tots.

It was past one when the partiers returned and within minutes there were noise complaints. After getting chewed out, I took the initiative as a party pooper, finished my glass, hit the lights, and went to bed.

Drama Update: Other than a new volunteer, there wasn’t a major shift in the composition of the hostel workforce. One long term resident had to be kicked out including with the involvement of the police for fighting. Finally, I received confirmation that I wasn’t insane with the insomnia of my final few nights in the hostel, as I overheard one volunteer try to talk reason with the perpetual violator. Chatting with her later, she asked if I noticed anything missing. The guitars are gone.

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I was a bit hungover in the morning, which was spent studying Korean and drinking coffee with peace and quiet. I had an early lunch of salad and green curry (with free rice), and tried to take a nap. Mid-nap, I got caught up in a conversation in social media and wasn’t able to get out the door to a coffee shop until nearly 3 pm. Where does all the time go?

Under recommendation, I went to a Vietnamese coffee shop for an authentic ca phe sua. It was a cool little cafe, but not really suitable for working, so after a halfhearted attempt to be productive, I gave up and headed back to the hostel. I hung around the entrance for about half an hour shooting the shit with a couple of the guests. There are quite a few interesting and friendly people, but it is magical the affect this hostel has on people, sucking them into its gravitational field, resulting in very little tourism.

At six, I hopped on the subway to go to Gangnam to meet someone for dinner. We had fried chicken and beer at a Craft Hans which was nothing like the establishment of the same name I had patronized in Itaewon. One order of chicken was more than enough for the two of us and I even left food uneaten. She paid, which was only fair, as she had blown me off on previous attempts to get together. Despite a few extra weeks of studying Korean, the conversation was rather strained Konglish with reliance on Papago for translation. That was disappointing. She offered to drive me home, but I declined the offer.

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Indian Lunch Special	9000
Coffee and Choco Croissant	5600
Home Plus groceries	9350
Beer	5600 (?)
Hostel (4 nights)	203 RMB
Vietnamese Coffee	5500
Total:	381 RMB (USD 57)

Running Total:
13102 RMB
(USD 1957)
Daily Average:
256.9 RMB
(USD 38.37)

One of the cardinal rules for budget travel is to plan out your itinerary to minimize backtracking because the cost of transportation from place to place can make a real dent in the budget. On the other hand, when one is hanging out in a small country for more than a month, one sometimes finds oneself shuttling back and forth. And so, Friday morning found me packing up and heading to the Busan train station to journey back to Seoul for a week. I left Seoul because I was lonely and bored and tired of the pollution, but there are compelling reasons to return. At the same time, there are reasons to get back to Busan as soon as possible.

Anyways, at the Busan train station, I had to wait in line to buy a ticket from the counter because the handful of self-service machines were credit card only. Despite the wait, I had basically perfect timing to hop onto the “cheap” train, though I suppose I should actually try the KTX express train some time. It doesn’t seem worth paying double the price to save 2 hours, though. I grabbed a coffee and a donut from Krispy Kreme before settling into my seat on the train. I napped, listened to podcasts, and studied Korean on the ride, which passed quickly.

The sun was setting behind an overcast sky as the train pulled into Seoul. The cold, drizzling rain made me question myself as I found my way to a bus stop to get the the Airbnb I booked. I found the address (though I wish the map had told me the “short cut” was over a hill when I could have walked around) and let myself in through the pass code. At this point, I feel safe in generalizing that no one in Korea uses keys. Every apartment has a smart lock. I spent the weekend in an apartment hosted by a young Korean couple with a passion for surfing. They were still at work when I arrived around 6 and I vegged out for a while until my growling stomach forced me to seek food.

I went to a weird tonkatsu restaurant. It was on the second floor and painted in primary colors. A number of kids were running around while their moms were collecting empty beer glasses. It seemed like both a bar, offering reasonably priced draft beer and a kids restaurant at the same time. I had a cheese tonkatsu, which tasted like a giant mozzarella stick, though on close inspection there was pork inside. When I returned to the apartment, my hosts were back home, eating pizza and watching Big Bang Theory. We briefly said hello, but it wasn’t a situation to hang out together. I watch half of Loving Vincent and passed out early

Train ticket	28600 W
Krispy Kreme special	4000 W
Cheese tonkatsu + beer	11500 W
Airbnb	87.66 USD

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My hosts were out the door before I got up in the morning. I made a coffee, but didn’t want to hang around the apartment too much so I located a McDonald’s on the map and took a walk. I passed through a park — actually the same railroad park from the Hongdae area (I wonder how far it stretches) — and generally got an impression of the neighborhood between two stops of the subway. I hung out in the McDonald’s until about 11 and popped by a eMart Supermarket to pick up a salad for lunch.

I took a nap and went to a coffee shop to work for a couple hours. The coffee was a bit expensive, but it was a really cool cafe/photo gallery. I would have liked to stay longer but it was the high afternoon and the AQI had dropped to an acceptable level for exercise. There is a stadium and park in the area, so I jogged over there and did laps in the stadium while a soccer game was underway. I just assumed it was open to the public, but when the game was over and all the players were leaving, I left too because I would have been the only person left in the stadium. I headed into the park afterwards, but it wasn’t so good for jogging because it was basically just a big hill. However, there was a massive collection of exercise equipment on top of the hill, including free weights. I ended the run and lifted weights for about half an hour.

On the way back to the apartment, I wanted to grab a sports drink and snack, but time was tight. I had an appointment at 7pm to meet my high school classmate who I see every time I visit Korea (and had blown me off when I was in Seoul a few weeks ago). We went to a restaurant that was more like a Korean pub in the sense that the food was mediocre and mainly served to accompany the alcohol. Her friend who owned the place kept commenting on how handsome I was, which I guess might have been weird, but in all modesty, I’m used to that from China. We went through a couple bottles of Makgeolli, a Korean rice wine, though it might be better to think of it as a rice beer, and a couple dishes including fried tofu (supposed to be “pancake” style but, whatever), Korean sausage stir-fried with veggies, and some cold noodles.

We had a great talk, discussing work, ethics, and life philosophy with barely any reminiscing about El Paso. That’s really good. On three visits over four years, we’ve gotten to know each other quite well, graduating from relying on common history for small talk to freely shooting the breeze.

My friend picked up the tab for dinner on condition that I buy the cocktails at the bar. Southside Bar, opened by a couple Texans, was inconspicuous on the fourth floor of some random building along the main street. The place was full of expats enjoying their Saturday night. I didn’t even look at the food menu, but I saw some nice looking tacos and heard the wings are good. The cocktails were crazy expensive, but properly done with two full pages in the menu for their original creations.

At some point, my friend’s boyfriend joined us and we joined the table where his best friend and business partner was drinking with his fiancee and its getting hard to describe the situation without names. In any case, it was a lot fun and we didn’t leave until 2am. Fortunately, though my airbnb isn’t in Itaewon, it is close enough to walk home, which helped me sober up enough that I wouldn’t wake up my hosts when I stumble in.

McDonald’s Deluxe Breakfast	5800
Salad	3980
Latte	5200
Cocktails	76000

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I definitely had a bit of a hangover in the morning and lounged around until around 11am, when I needed to get some food in me. I went up and down the street looking for some hearty Korean fare, eventually stopping at a place specializing in “Hangover Soup.” It wasn’t my intention, but the place was packed, so it had to be good. And, seriously, when I say specializing, I mean that was the only thing on the menu. After waiting a few minutes for a table, the hostess sat me and another guy together. Recalling the soup as I write this, I could go for it again.

Afterwards, I hopped straight on the subway to head to the World Cup Stadium for what is now my Sunday in Seoul routine of sauna and swimming. I had good soak in the hot tubs and half-napped in the common room. While lounging around, someone I had matched with on Tinder that morning asked if I wanted to grab lunch. Since I had already had lunch and hadn’t gotten to my swim yet, I proposed dinner instead. So much for grabbing a salad at the Home Plus (which surprised me by being open on Sunday when it had previously been closed). Why is it suddenly so easy to be all social and meeting people when it was so hard last month?

The pool was pretty crowded with a bunch of kids fooling and some people getting private swim lessons. A kid moving crosswise in the middle of the pool ran into me on one lap. Pretty much all the lanes had several people hanging out on one end or the other and I was surprised by the size of some of the swimmers. I don’t want to be fat-shaming or anything, but I’m kind of used to small skinny people in the pools, which makes it easy to share with 4-5 people in a lane. Anyways, I set a new personal best record, doing 40 laps or 2000 meters.

I wanted to hang out and study Korean for an hour before going to my date later, but I was really wiped by the exercise. So, when my date texted to ask me to hurry up, I got dressed and hopped on the subway to go all the way over to the Coex Mall in Gangnam. It was, let’s say, an interesting encounter, where I was more like a girlfriend or therapist helping her analyze/interpret a situation. TMI. We split a half BBQ chicken, half original New York cheese pizza. I’ve been craving pizza, so that hit the spot.

I finally spent all the T-Money on my transportation card, and had to top it up. So, that 50 bucks lasted about 6 weeks. Not too bad.

I caught a bus back to my airbnb so I got to enjoy some night scenery from the windows. My hosts were sitting at the table drinking wine and listening to old Korean music when I got back and I joined them. We chatted for a couple hours before going to bed. They are good people.

Hangover Soup	7000
Spoland	10000
Pocari Sweat	2000
Tmoney	10000
Pizza	16000
Soju	1550

It was an expensive weekend. Not just traveling back on the train, but staying in an apartment (versus a hostel) and dropping big bucks socially. Maybe it is better to be bored and lonely. Ha!

Total:

1687.5 RMB 251 USD

Running Total: 12721 RMB (USD 1894)
Daily Average: 259.6 RMB (USD 38.65)

Though I had no complaints* about the hostel I was staying in, when the week I paid for ran out, I decided to change locations. It is maybe a bit too comfortable in Haeundae where most days I barely venture to eat or drink coffee outside a 100m range of the hostel. Furthermore, I had heard from some expats that Haeundae is like its own world apart from Busan, so I was starting to worry that I wasn’t experiencing the “real” Busan. I booked an Airbnb in a more central location to accommodate the change.

I didn’t wake up as early as I wanted and didn’t have the energy for the long run I had planned to take in the morning, but still go out there to log another run along the beautiful Haeundae beach. After a quick shower, I made a pot of ramen noodles to finish off the lettuce and chicken from a few days ago. I went back upstairs to pack up and after bringing my stuff down, I had a second breakfast and worked on my computer until noon.

I dragged my stuff to the subway and rode the 30 minute distance to Seomyeon. The area is like an entirely different world, crowded with people, restaurants, and shops. I met my classmate for lunch (my treat this time) and followed by coffee.

There were tons of tempting places to eat and even several clusters of street food to sample, but I was so full from lunch, I wanted to keep it light with a salad. I headed over to the nearest Home Plus to buy enough salad to last two days, and spent the whole evening in my private studio apartment with a double-double bed. The most exciting part of having a private apartment was that there was a washing machine and detergent. I have been hand washing my socks and underwear regularly, some shirts occasionally, but these jeans I wear every day have gone six weeks without a launder. I don’t have another pair of pants to wear while waiting for them to dry. I had a chance to do a lot of laundry (by hand) in Daegu, but access to a washing machine was almost worth the price differential over the hostel (which would charge 5000 a pop).

I finished Pride and Prejudice and spent some time browsing the Chinese reading app on my phone for other books. I reread the first chapter of
Pride and Prejudice in translation and found that entertaining, but wasn’t willing to pay for more than the free preview. I do need to get a Chinese book in my rotation to keep that low frequency, literary vocabulary fresh.

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*One actual complaint is I had a weird roommate for almost the whole week. I never saw him in person, but he was literally in his bunk 20 hours a day doing God knows what (there are privacy curtains). But, seriously, I went in and out of the room morning, afternoon, and evening, and he was always in there.

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Thursday morning was cold. The weather app said there were snow flurries, but I didn’t see anything outside the window. I had a coffee and went out to exercise. I had about a kilometer on the streets before reaching Busan Citizens Park, on the other side of the train tracks. It’s a huge park, and was beautiful in the bright sunlight. I jogged haphazardly along the intersecting paths, often returning to a cluster of exercise equipment in the northwest corner to do a set of pull ups.

I had a lunch date and arrived at the restaurant a few minutes early. There was an old auntie in the lane telling passersby to come into eat. I was able to convey in Korean that I will eat there in a bit, but I was just waiting for a friend first. While waiting, I looked up and down the street at all the enticing restaurants with bright signs advertising delicacies I’ve never even heard of. I wish I could throw this diet out the window and start eating 5 meals a day, but then again, a meal is so filling, always coming with rice and banchan. Once again, I ate too much at lunch, but had a leisurely afternoon in a cafe to digest over conversation.

March 14th is “White Day” in Korea, a sort of local Valentine’s Day. Apparently, the custom is for women to give men chocolates on February 14th and for men to give women candy on March 14. I gave an avocado.

They were doing street repairs outside my apartment from 8 pm until 7 am. Oh, that was annoying.

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Jjimdalk	23000 W
Salads	5980 W
Airbnb	56.78 USD
Sports Drink	2000 W
Stir Fried Pork	21000 W
Bibimbap	5500 W
Total:	729 RMB (USD 108.5)

Running Total:
11034 RMB
(USD 1643)
Daily Average:
240 RMB
(USD 35.7)

Monday morning was clear again after the rain, though the air quality was already back to the baseline mid-50s. After digesting my breakfast, I went out for my longest run yet–15.5 km. Midway through the run, I stopped to take a photo and saw a message from my parents. Oh yeah, Monday morning, Skype time. I wrapped up the run as quickly as I could, and dug out my computer for the monthly check-in.

While talking, one of the hostel workers came by to give me a gift bag, thanking me again for helping them shoot the hostel promo. It was a canvas tote bag, which is always useful, and a mug, which just makes me laugh. So, I’m already the crazy guy who carries a mug around so I can use my Aeropress to make coffee, but now I have two mugs. It’s a lot of extra weight in the suitcase to lug around. I’ll have to figure out something to do with it, especially as I kind of prefer the one I already have — a freebie from a conference — which has a picture of a brain and the Guangzhou skyline on it, versus just the name of the hostel.

After a quick shower, I had lunch at my usual spot, ordering the Soybean Paste Stew, and drinking a whole pitcher of water. I had just gotten back to the hostel and plopped down on the couch to zone out, when I had another call to take over WeChat. By the time that was over, the exercise and meal were wearing me down, so I took a quick power nap before heading across the street to get a free coffee and get a little bit of work done.

In the late afternoon, I headed over to Home Plus to buy a salad, but took my time exploring options to get more nutrients and stretch a dollar. I found a pack of pre-cooked (oven roasted) chicken breast that was basically the same unit price as fresh chicken breasts and avocados were also on sale, though the price would still shock anyone in the US. They worked out to about a dollar each or the price of a bottle of soju. Although on second thought, nine bottles of soju might be fun.

I tried to do a bit more writing or studying in the evening, but I couldn’t quite get in the mood. I’ve noticed, I’m losing my mojo. Even for Korean studying, the motivation is flagging. I went up to bed fairly early and read for about an hour before turning off the light.

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While I was downstairs making my coffee in the morning, I got a call from someone I haven’t seen in a few years. I guess I need to finalize some plans to add 3 months in Europe to this global trek and add a visit to Paris. I suppose I wouldn’t mind some A1 level French. Merde!

I walked over to the Busan City Museum of Art and toured all the galleries on the third floor, which consisted only of a exhibition (“Unbelievably Heavy, Awfully Keen”) to a contemporary Busan-based artist and a smaller handful of pieces listed as donations from some rich person. I was quite impressed by Bang Jeong-A’s artwork and sense of humor. Some of the works were quite psychedelic and the names of the paintings surpassed the usual descriptive — self-important spectrum one often finds on the title placards. For example: “He Had a Grudge Against His Unfaithful Girlfriend who was Living with him and…”, “Take This, You Brats”, “What Made Her Life So Miserable?”, and “Goons–Yes! Bro, Bro, Bro.”

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Wonderful exhibition of #art by 방정아 (Bang Jeong-a) at the Busan City Art Museum #부산시립미술관 Go visit before it ends on June 9!

A post shared by @ danwu248 on Mar 11, 2019 at 8:59pm PDT

On the way back to the hostel, I swung by Home Plus again to get more salad fixings and a snack, and ate at the hostel. I opted against a full-on nap, but ended up dozing on a couch in the coffee shop after reading for a bit. I’m maybe a day from finishing Pride and Prejudice. Speaking of literature, I was perusing Twitter and found a discussion of which books a guy says is his favorite is a giant red flag. Scrolling down, I think I’ve read 80% of the titles and authors being piled on and definitely enjoyed them. I get how saying a particular book is your favorite may reveal the shallowness of your intellect, but I feel like we are moving closer to some book burnings. There seems to be Cultural Revolution-style mob mentality rampant through the progressive circles of the online community, and even a recent oped arguing this point aroused an inordinate amount of wrath from the China twitterati. Nevertheless, the fact that thought policing and identity politics are starting to be satirized suggests a reversion to the mean may be coming.

Anyways, in the late afternoon, despite being a little hazy, I went out for a short run along Haeundae beach alternating sprints and jogging. Without even showering, I changed to less smelly clothes and went to get a haircut in an old school barbershop. The barbershop was “straight out of central casting,” with 60s music on the radio and a DJ running through the events of 1966 while introducing each song. Despite being traditional, it was luxury and probably the most expensive haircut I’ve had in my life. I kept looking at the price list, which had numbers like 3, 5, 7, 1.5, and thinking those prices seem way too cheap. Well, instead being multiples of a thousand (which is the norm when abbreviating in Korea, especially as 1000 won is about a dollar), they were multiples of 10,000. C’est la vie. The barber spoke English and it was a much better experience than a hair salon.

I went directly to dinner afterwards, checking out a restaurant from the list of recommendations in the hostel. As I was heading back the 100m or so to the hostel, some large drops of rain started falling. I plopped down on the couch just as Eat, Pray, Love was starting on the projector. I was almost tempted to watch but it isn’t really the environment to follow a movie. I played on my phone, but regularly looked up to marvel at the style of exoticism that appeals to middle America. I couldn’t feel more like a farang if I was walking down Khao San road in fisheman pants and a Chang tank top. On the other hand, I would be willing to pay money for a movie that was just Julia Roberts eating pasta. And now I am imagining a whole series of films of famous actresses eating various foods. Heavens.

I went upstairs early and kept reading Pride and Prejudice, but was interrupted at some point to Facetime yet another person. I spent nearly an hour in the stairwell, where I could get a decent Wifi signal. At the end of which, both of us agreed as to how weird the situation (the call, not the circumstances of where I took it) was. Then, straight to bed.

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Lunch (Duinjiang jjigae)	6,000
Home Plus	23850
Subtotal	29850
Home Plus	11990
Haircut	30000
Dinner (Suyuk)	10000
Subtotal	51990
Total:	81840 (495 RMB) (USD 73.76)

Running Total:
10305 RMB
(USD 1535.6)
Daily Average:
234 RMB
(USD 34.9)

I had breakfast as usual on Saturday morning, and after allowing myself enough time to digest, I changed into my exercise clothes and took a jog. I went all the way over to Gwanan Beach, a distance of 7 km one-way. I took a short cut on the way back meaning the entire distance was only 13 km. Actually, at the end, I was running up and down the street in front of the hostel to get me from 12.8 km to an even 13. It is a good running course for the most part with only one stop light to worry about and pretty much always next to the water.

Back at the hostel, I was drinking water and chatting with the weekend worker when a guest came in. She had stayed in a different part of town but didn’t feel comfortable out and about at night, so she was considering moving over here for the night. She asked if there would be any events going on that night, and the employee, whom I will call Yeon, answered that he was having friends over to the hostel for a little party.

I, on the other hand, actually had some plans. My college classmate (I have quite a few of them), well technically my shimei (little sister), was going to meet me for dinner after work. She forwarded me a link to a restaurant near in my area and I had a bit of sticker shock at the price list. 60-70 dollars for 100g of beef on the barbecue. Yikes.

I met her at the subway station, and despite my hopes to practice a little Korean, we stuck to Chinese, our usual lingua franca. I was struck by how rusty my spoken Chinese was (so I guess I wasn’t fluently chatting in pure Chinese the other night). We didn’t go for the insanely priced beef, ordering a mountain of pork belly instead and had a feast of a dinner. She picked up the tab, but I was able to get the Starbucks afterwards. I managed to get some positive feedback on my weeks of Korean studying by showing off some knowledge of vocabulary words.

I walked her to the bus station so she could go home (her parent’s home, technically in the next city over), then walked back to the hostel. The previously mentioned party was in “full swing,” a few people hanging around the kitchen island drinking beer and wine out of a box (equivalent to 7 bottles). An invitation to join was accepted.

There were three Korean men, one of whom was a sports model, but they were constantly coming and going–presumably to smoke–and there was one girl. She was very pretty. I had noticed her in the morning and wanted to say hi, but was too shy. It turns out she was Japanese and spoke good English. Two Korean girls joined they party and I was fairly overwhelmed by the beauty on display. I couldn’t believe all three of them were between 20 and 22 years old. I wish I was as young as I look.

There was a Japanese couple — on their honeymoon — somewhat party adjacent and two other Japanese girls were brought on board shifting the balance from Korean to Japanese (though everyone seemed to be fairly fluent in Korean). I could recall enough Japanese to say “I’m American,” “I don’t understand Japanese,” and “are you okay?” It’s completely unfair how I’m trying to approach Korean with a laser focus, but I’m constantly being present opportunities to converse in Spanish, German, or Japanese. One language at a time.

I didn’t speak much and mostly just tried to pick up as much of the conversations as I could. A Brazilian guy who was craving a friend came over and was relieved to find I could speak English. We talked for a bit, all the while I was thinking how much I’d rather he go away so I could keep practicing my listening. It didn’t matter much because two Air Force guys on a hall pass for the weekend joined the party with a half bottle of Jack Daniel’s Honey Whisky. They just went for it with the pair of Japanese girls, doing their best to make conversation through a translation app on the phone.

The Korean American one at some made a comment to me about trying to keep his buddy out of trouble. So, when I noticed the airman was starting to drunkenly paw at one of the Japanese girls and she was receptive to his advances, I stepped in to cock block him. I merely conveyed to her that he had a wife so she could make her own decision. Ironically, not long later, I noticed the Korean American airman and the other Japanese girl come back in about 40 seconds apart and it occurred to me that they had both been gone for some while. I didn’t get the age of these two girls, but it would be fair to assume they are in their early 20s, and I know the two airmen were slightly older than me.

One by one, everyone went off to bed and I got stuck polishing off the Jack with one of the airmen until 2 or 3 in the morning.

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I had a hangover the next morning for sure. I had talked to the two airmen about going to a sauna and when they stumbled down during the breakfast time, we confirmed our intentions to recuperate with hydrotherapy. Busan has some hot springs in the north and one of the many hotels in the “hot spring village” purports to be the largest in Asia. I went on my last visit and I’ve been itching to go again. Unfortunately, when I piled into a cab with the two airmen and another random Korean guy, they wanted to go to one in a downtown shopping mall. Spaland certainly covered the bases in the sauna area and had a very impressive jjimjilbang (the section where you roam about in pajamas). I got stuck in the front of the cab, which is the universal sign that I had to pay. It wasn’t much (as in it would have basically been a dollar each) and I drank a lot of free alcohol the night before, so I tried not to let it bother me. (If the roles were reversed I would offer a 1000 won note).

While I was still going through my cold tub/steam bath routine, I noticed that all three guys had disappeared. That’s odd, they all just left without saying anything. I finished up and headed into the public section, where I found them without really looking for them. I tried to take a nap on reclining easy chair in the relaxation room, but couldn’t quite fall asleep. Around noon, one of them got hungry and they collectively decided to leave the sauna for lunch. Considering how gd expensive the place was, I wasn’t really keen to make such a short stay, but I did have a video game tournament I could go to in the afternoon.

I took my leave of them and hopped on the subway to go to HQ Bar in Gwananli. I swear everyone on my subway car looked like a supermodel. I’m thinking a switch has been flipped in my head. How have I been here over a month with my head in the lofty clouds not noticing how insanely beautiful Korean women are? Walking down to the beach from the subway station, it looked like I had enough time to grab a lunch first, so when I passed a place serving oxbone soup, I popped in. Everyone in the place turned to look at me as I walked in. Even the restaurant had quite a few beautiful women in it. This is definitely the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon at work. I found my eyes kept wandering over

I rocked into HQ Bar at 2pm to find it not very crowded. I ordered a Coke and played a few warm up games of Ultimate Smash Bros. I couldn’t believe the turnout, 24 people competed and there were easily close 40 people in the bar all afternoon. A lot of people brought their own Nintendo Switches and controllers. Entrance was free, so I was happy to just not be the worst player, and considering I only had maybe two weeks of “training” in Beijing (shout out to Bearguy), I am satisfied with my performance. I squeaked out a close win in the first round of eliminations, and even though I lost the second round I did get one KO in.

I chatted with quite a few people over the four hours I was there, and though a lot of people looked really familiar (from pub quiz), I couldn’t be sure. I feel like my years in Beijing have made prejudiced against English teachers, as if it is a dirty word. It seems like a decent profession in Korea. One guy I was talking to actually had a teaching degree so its not like stereotype of fresh college graduates taking one or two years to goof off overseas. I eventually ordered a beer and then another one with a double cheeseburger. It was expensive, but hot damn, it was good.

The rain seemed to have finally tapered off so I walked back to the hostel from the bar during what would have been sunset if not for the thick cloud cover. I did my best to hydrate and stay awake until a reasonable hour to go to sleep.

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Lunch (Set meal with fish cake soup)	6000
Cookie (with free coffee)	1000
Starbucks	10100
Day 41 Subtotal:	17100
Cab	4900
Spaland (adult, weekend price)	18000
Beef soup	6000
Coke	3000
Beers	8000
Double Cheeseburger	15000
Day 42 Subtotal:	54900
Total:	72000 W (435.6 RMB) (USD 64.78)

Running Total: 9810 RMB (USD 1459)
Daily Average: 233.5 RMB (USD 34.7)