Happy Halloween!

So before the holiday escapes us entirely and all memories are forgotten. . .here is a brief pictorial recap of Halloween in Seoul! Enjoy!

Friday afternoon I arrived at school in full "costume," thoroughly enjoying the slackjawed stares that I commanded on my brief, five minute walk from Dootavill. Not once did anyone comment, laugh or commend me on my outfit, rather they just gawked, not quite sure what to make of this absurdly dressed human being!

Nate on the other hand, dressing like a Hajima, or elderly Korean woman, decided it would be best if he changed at school rather than frighten the general public by exposing them to his, possibly, inappropriate representation of Korean culture!

A before-school photo shoot with the 'rabel rousers,' our eventual accompaniments for the evening. From left to right: Michelle, Cleo and Julia.

Oh yes, I did actually teach class like this! Three of them to be exact! To be honest, I rather enjoyed teaching with sunglasses on as it allowed me to keep an eye on the students without them realizing it. . . .it also allowed me to catch some shut eye. . .without them realizing it! While many were taken aback at first, not sure if teacher was in costume or simply had gone mad, they eventually warmed up to the holiday spirit as I rained candy down upon them throughout class. Bert (bottom left) even adopted a 'scary' voice to address questions in class. This was most likely due to me jive talking my way through class in what must have been an entirely incomprehensible accent!

After finishing out first classes, Nate's co-teacher, Hannah, suggested that we stop by the elementary school, known as Parthenon, to say hit to the kids! I quickly asked Anna for permission and was elated to have her agree! Oh how wonderful it was to have a twenty minute break in the middle of an otherwise non-stop six hour day. We swung by Parthenon and, to the students' delight, brought with us handfuls of candy that we had picked up from Lotte Mart that morning. After stopping by everyone's classrooms we took a picture with Minra (sp? DYB keyboardist), David (acclaimed drummer for E.L.) and Kelly, also dressed in the spirit of the holiday!

Throughout the school day both Nate and I were continually pestered by students wanting to take pictures of and with us, most of them in high-res on their uber-advanced cellphone/television/videogame consoles. The particular student above is dressed in Nate's alternative costume of a rice paddy worker!

While the day dragged on foorreevvverrr (our Friday classes are not particularly enjoyable for either of us), 10:30 eventually rolled around as we packed up what was left of the candy and headed out. Just kidding, I had no candy left, I ate everything that the students didn't and had the stomach ache to prove it by the end of school! As we got ready to head back to Nate's apartment before hitting the town we waved goodbye to Kim Young, Joseph (enlarge to picture to see him waving to you), who was stuck working late and unable to celebrate as he had to be up early and back at school the following morning! Too bad!

Taking off from school I had only one thing on my mind. . .food! Nate dashed across the street to Mickey D's Meat Shop to pick up a pair of Big Mac sets while Cleo and I darted into the Gimbapchonggook to grab some chamci (tuna) gimbap (rice rolls wrapped in seaweed often compared to sushi but only in the sense that its rice, seaweed and rolled. Other common ingredients include sesame leaves, radishes, cooked egg, strips of ham, and plenty of unidentifiable veggies. . .oh yeah, and mayo!). Back at Nate's, the Fearsome Threesome readied themselves while I ploughed my way through my two meals; one Korean and one America but both fast food!

Back outside we dodged the cold by quickly piling into a taxi. Or so we thought! We were quickly booted from the first cab that refused to take and 'extra' person. Nevertheless, another soon came by and Celo was able to talk him into accepting a fifth passenger at a nominal cost. . .good deal! Before heading to 'Club Night' in Hongdae, as desired by our Korean accomplices, we first made a stop by Hyewah where Celo lives, with her family, to drop off work materials! While this stopover lasted much longer than expected we did eventually arrive in Hongdae where we were met by throngs of college students and English teachers dressed in all levels and varieties of costumes. The most predictable and over played: the Joker. The most original and outrageous: Nate's Hajima. . .by far!

Too bad that all of the clubs adhere to a remarkably strict dress code that requires one wear appropriate footwear, which apparently Rainbow sandals do not fall into! We tried to get in at least a half a dozen places (each time skipping the lines that must have kept hundreds of people waiting hours just to be more crowded inside a noisy club) but were rejected each time based on Nate's footwear! The bouncers evidently didn't have a problem with his orange tights, female garb or sun visor but apparently the thought of letting a sandaled freak into one of their clubs was beyond unacceptable! We eventually made it into one place, that was more like a sardine factory than a club, and promptly left. Not before Nate was able to meet a girl that randomly was not only from Michigan but familiar with Nate's red Mercury Sable that once belonged to his cousin from the Detroit area! Can't say she had fond memories of the car but hey, what're the odds that I'd meet someone who actually knew of my Bonnie here in Seoul!?

Ghosts Dancing!

We finally found our way into a basement spot that was almost entirely abandoned yet blasting brilliantly perfect Halloween music. Entering the small 'club' we were greeted by Will Smith's "Switch" which makes me think solely of Mark Abbott whom I doubt will even encounter this post (Hello! if by chance you have). After the couple sitting in the back left the five of us had free range of the dance floor as the only other souls in the bar were the DJ, a lone waitress/patron and a bartender/patron ) notice him dancing with us over my shoulder! For the next few hours I tore a whole through the dance floor enjoying not only the hilariously American music but the fact that most Koreans, even those 'close' to us, are simply blown away by any and everything that we do on the dance floor! For example, notice Michelle above closely analyzing whatever ridiculousness I happen to be partaking in at that moment! I can't lie though, it feels good to be a star!

Speaking of which, I never did adopt a true title for my costume that started out as Disco Stu* in my imagination. (*From the Simpson's episode where there's a garage sale and someone picks up a jacket with 'Disco Stu' embroidered on the back with rhinestones and shows it to his buddy in full 70's garb who declares "Disco Stuuu, doesn't advertise.") So as the evening wore on I tried on a number of different titles. To some I claimed to be Disco Stu, to other's Lenny Kravitz. Finally, Cleo decided that I was a 'Rockstar' in general. The only issue here is that in Konglish, "Rockstar" is pronounced "Lobster." Seriously, there is no distinction. . .thus, for the rest of the evening, I was a 'Lobster!!'

As our legs and patience with each other grew weary, we decided to pack up and head out, in search of another possible venue, which we did not find! What a shame it was leaving the only place where Nate really looked like he belonged (see above in full size)!

Alas, we said goodbye to Julia (above with Nate) and Michelle who called it an 'early' night around 3:30am. Not quite ready to give up on Halloween, Nate, Cleo, her Blind Date from a few nights ago, and I headed off to wind down the evening in Ho Bar 3. . .in case you're wondering, yes, there are a number of other Ho Bars that are appropriately numbered. Finally, around five in the morning we all decided to turn in and Nate and I took off for Hangik University Station where we caught the morning's first train heading north. One transfer and about an hour later we arrived at Sanggye Station where we caught a cab back to Dootavill and called Halloween night a wrap. . .well after the sun had begun to make her big comeback!

I arose Saturday afternoon just in time to catch a train towards Gunja for DYB band practice. Turns out the bus that I took to Hagye Station went the looooong way and I ended up being about ten minutes late! Oops sorry everybody! Ha, no worries, I wasn't the only late one! Cleo rolled in to the studio a few minutes after I did looking at least as dishevled and exhausted! Must've been a good Halloween!

Nate had planned on meeting us at our rehersal site to practice putting the rap into the song. Somewhere along the way, the directions that I relayed to him, which involved no subway transfers, directed him halfway across the city. Hoping to recitfy the situation I was in contact with Nate throuhgout practice, trying to direct him back to Gunja Station, where lines 5 and 7 meet. Unfortunately, he was unable to make it in time and decided to head back towards Junggye just as we were finishing up for the day! Ha, a successful practie nonetheless as Razer declared that we are at 80%. . . a big step up from our 50% last time. . .whatever that really means!

After practice Cleo came back to Junggye with me as she had planned on going out to Itaewon with us for Halloween, round two. Not quite sure what it is about the place but where Itaewon once scared her, as for somereason it does many native Koreans, she has managed to not only warm up to but fall in love with this, somewhat seedy, foriegner hang out! So anyways, we got back to Dootavill only a few minutes after Nate too returned, having spent the past hour or so aimlessly riding the subway across town! We decided that dinner was certainly in order and I ran out to grab a pair of pies from the local pizza shop. I mean local as in proximity and locally owned, as I am not in the market for the $20-$30 pizzas offered by local favorites such as Papa Johns or Dominoes!

We got through the pizza in record time sitting on Nate's recently acquired couch (thanks to Joseph moving out) while watching the start of a movie that seemed to take place entirely under the Crescent City Connection linking downtown New Orleans with Algiers point. . . ah how I yearn to return to my dear nola! After cleaning up the enormous mess that Cleo insists on making while eating, we readorned our slightly broken in costumes and headed out into the night. Without the patience, or desire, to deal with the subway anymore today, we decided that splitting a cab to the 'Twon would be reasonable enough and thus did so.

Itaewon greeted us friendly as always with English signage/speakers and pallatable food. We decided to begin our night at the famous expat hangout (read, teacher bar) Gecko's. Wouldn't you know that Nate had to fight a ninja before we were allowed inside! Good thing he was able to beat her or I dont' know what we would have done!
The rest of the night went by as any Halloween round two would! We frequented our favorite spots up and down the Hill while even trying out some new ones. Okay, I lie, we didn't end up going anywhere new but sure spent a lot of time looking for the Wolfhound where supposedly a wildly fantastic Halloween party was taking place. No worries that we missed it however as we were reassured by a throng of Canadian girls that it wasn't worth fighting the crowds. . .then again, a service elevator with a half dozen people in it is more crowded than the majority of Canada.

Doing the Halloween Boogie!

Cleo continued to try on costumes. . .that weren't hers!

In search of Wolfhound we were greeted by an interesting surprise in the form of, well, it was none other than the infamous Harry! While I am genuinely curious as to what his current plan is (last I heard he 'hated Korea' and was going home, this of course coming after his DYB fallout) I stuck around for about all of 30 seconds before deciding that whatever he was ranting about wasn't worth my Disco time. Turns out he was not only in search of but had managed to pick a fight. . the only problem is that guys that he wanted to be fighting had managed to walk away and now Harry didn't know what to do! Darn sham. . . I hate it when the guys I'm trying to fight just leave. . .why can't they fight back, but not so hard that I hurt my beautiful face!

Following my ears, heart, and possibly head, I wound up across the street at our favorite third floor, outerspace/Woodstock/rock n bowl themed venue. After bailing out on a little-bit-too-much-sound-not-enough-music band at Woodstock we rounded out our evening at Ye 'Ole Stompers, the best dance spot this side of the 38th parallel. At Stompers I was able to get the last of my grooves in before the owner decided to shut up shop as he was not only having trouble speaking but standing without assistance! Thus we decided it was time to call it a night and appropriately did so. . .

All in all, Halloween in Seoul, I give it a 6.6 outta 10. It's definitely not New Orleans but it was a bit more exciting than East Lansing! Who knows where I'll spend it next year!