Well I've had an interesting weekend. It didn't turn out quite how it was supposed to, but it's probably the best one I've had so far this year.

I had to work on Friday (I only work for an hour every other Friday, and only to tell a story to about 30 children), but I managed to cross every item off my to do list before 3:30 p.m. That left me lots of time to get stumped trying to move past the pathetically basic step I'm currently struggling with in the creation of my website. I've been struggling with the step since last March when I gave up. I've made it a goal of mine to learn how to do this properly before this March, so I've got a few more months.

Just as I was starting to settle into this week's episode of 24, my friend Al called to announce he had arrived in Seoul. I tore myself away from the t.v. and went down to Itaewan to meet him. Al is a remarkable fellow. I met him through my friend Rhoni about two months ago, and have seen him most weekends since (including Christmas eve in Beijing). Each time we meet, I find out more fascinating things about his life. From his experiences, all of the places he's been, the work that he's done, the people he's met, you would think he's 60. At least. Anyway, we wandered up to an Indian restaurant I had been to once before and remembered it being better than it was, where we had a bite to eat before heading out into the bars. The first one we visited was Geckos, which was characteristically packed with American military. I usually don't go there until later in the evening (closer to curfew when the rowdies are gone), if at all. At one point they played Garth Brooks "Friends in low places", which they often do there, and it seemed every American in the bar wailed along (nothing like the Gumi girls dancing on the tables in Psycho to "the Gambler", but very down home). I was astonished when Al asked me why everyone knew the song. I told him they always play it at weddings, smiling to myself for knowing one little thing that he didn't...trust me, it's the only one.

We then attempted to go to Bricx for a bit, but they were having some sort of raunchy sex themed party that we were not in costume for, and thus decided to go to a "footballers" pub that Al had once been to. It turned out to be Hollywood, a pub I had been to a few times, but somehow managed to forget about. I'll have to remember that one more often. The rest of the evening was spent with Al telling stories, and me losing my point in the drunken rambles that come so easilly to me these days. He smoked. Bummed one off a Frenchie. I didn't.

The next day started late for me. I slept off and on until just before 2 p.m. when the 56th phone call for my new roomemate convinced me it was time to get up. I went out into a rainy day to buy cat food for Toby's Norco monster, who seems to do nothing but eat and bite me, and began to waiver on my committment to head down south to Gumi to see my girls. Rainy, cold, grey days do not make for good travel weather anywhere. Thoughts of being cold for two days flitted through my mind as I tried and tried and failed to get in touch with Rhoni. After a brief chat with Toby (who was at work around 1 a.m. on a Friday night!!!!!), I decided to go ahead down to Gumi. I figured Rhoni was sleeping or having touble with her mobile, as she usually is. I should have tried harder to get a hold of someone else...

I had decided to take the train down to Gumi. It's about a 4 hour trip, and I had planned to go too late to reserve a seat. No matter, as my new favourite method of travel is buying a standing room ticket, and then getting a seat in the dining car. Much better for those of us who prefer writing to sleeping on trains, and doable with the mere purchase of a 3,000 Won pint of beer. Enjoying my time, seeing some sights south of Seoul for the first time in a while the first hour passed by very quickly. I was feeling more content than I have in a few weeks, when my mobile started ringing. Finaly, Rhoni was calling me back. I knew there was trouble when she started by saying "You haven't left Seoul yet, have you?" I told her I was an hour out, and she began to curse. Apparently, at 5:00 a.m. my friends had decided to check out snow festival in a town about two hours from Gumi. And had forgotten to call me. This is the type of news that would normally have set me off into some kind of outraged anger or hurt. For some lucky reason, though, I wasn't altogether too bothered. I got in touch with my friend Ryan in Daejeon (an hour down the line from where I was) to see if he felt up to doing anything instead. He just wanted to stay home (lame ass) though, so I decided to get off at Pyeongtaek and go back to Seoul. I had absolutely problems changing my ticket, and I even got a refund! The only bad thing was that I had to spend 30 minutes of the trip standing as there were no seats and no dining car.

I got back into Seoul station, and called up Al. For some lucky reason (unbeknownst to me at the time), I had grabbed the number of his hotel before I left home. He was planning on going dancing later on, but wasn't up to much yet. Being around dinnertime, we decided to meet for a bite. We went for Deukk Galbi (chicken breast cooked with cabbage, carrotts, potatoes, thick and spicy red pepper paste, long chewy rice cakes, and strangely apple. I've never had it with apple before) and talked about religion, death, and the errosion of my self confidence - a long, slow process that I've decided has come to an end - among other things. I decided to trail along with Al for a while longer, and we went to his hotel for me to stash my now unecessary backpack, and to look at some of his pictures from his recent trip to Australia. He had these shots of beetles that were unlike anything I've ever seen. Blue, green, tourquise, purple. Never have I seen insects in those colors. Eventually we headed to Hongdae, the premiere club district in Seoul. We started out at Tin Pan, my favourite little bar in the area for some cheap booze before we went to pay the absurd prices in the clubs. During the warmer summer months Toby and I had developed an effective routine of going into the club for about an hour of dancing, and then heading street-side to a convenience store to pick up a couple of cheap beers and drink them on the curb. So nice to live in a place that lacks the conservative liquor laws of North America. We headed over to Jokerred for about two hours. They were handing out promotional packages of cigarettes at the door. I put mine in my purse for about 5 minutes, then handed them over to Al. Somewhat reluctantly, but it's for the best. We spent our time talking mostly about literature instead of dancing, and then we went to Matamata, where I left Al around 3:30 a.m. to take a taxi home to my Norco.

Awoken multiple times by the telephone ringing for the roomemate, I had an unsettled sleep this morning. Al called around noon to tell me to come fetch my bag so he could go back to Daejeon to work. I decided to have a Sunday afternoon out on my own, and headed off to my favourite shopping area of Seoul to browse. Insadong street is Seoul's way of showcasing traditional Korean handicrafts. It's a wonderful place that attracts foreigners looking for trinkets to take home, and is blocked off to cars on Sundays, making it a great place to wander. It was snowing, so Insadong was pretty empty, with many of my favourite shops standing closed. Unable to do much browsing, I decided to take my book out for lunch. I went to Au Bon Pain, a recent more appealing addition to the mostly Pepsi owned western food outlets in Korea, where I enjoyed a bowl of clam chowder in a bread bowl, a cafe Americano, and a couple of chapters of Hilary Clinton's "Living History." I stopped by the interestingl named YoungPoon bookstore and picked up this week's Economist and a copy of Gustave Flaubert's "Madame Bovary", as recommended by my friend last night. I toyed with the idea of heading out to a movie, but decided instead to come home and do laundry. Walking up my street I saw the roomemate had reappeared from his long absence (been gone since midday Friday) and was on the stoop smoking. Sigh.

Now it's laundry and prep for my classes, among other things. I'm going to give that website thing a go later on. It's a short week at work, as the Korean Lunar New Year holiday begins on Wednesday, giving me 5 days off, so the prep will be minimal.

And that, my friends, is an update. All of you who harrassed me for info had better comment.