The Weekend

Friday night I went for roasted duck with my boss Jason, my co-worker Andrew, and Jason's Korean golfing buddy Song-nam. It was there that I had my first run-in with Korean soju - a vodka-like liquor that is extremely dangerous for a variety of reasons.

Soju facts:
1. A pint of soju costs roughly $1.
2. It's liquor.

The bottles of soju kept coming, and it took me a little while to realize that I was really, really drunk. Afterwards, Jason and Song-nam went back to their wives, and Andrew took me to Rio's- a bar full of white people. I didn't remember too much, and the next day I was still a little drunk when Andrew came knocking at 4 PM. He was really excited because he had acquired beef and a grill, and was going to cook burgers.

I met the gang, some of whom had already met me at Rio's the other night. We had a gang of about 6 foreingers, and we went to a bar called King Kong. Then everyone went outside and started drinking in the square. Open beverages are legal. So is drinking in cars and taxis.

We started collecting more and more westerners. We had English-speaking representatives from Canada, New Zealand, Scotland, England, and the U.S. Within the U.S., there were two Californians, two Virginians, and a guy from New Mexico.

Koreans approached us throughout the night, and tried talking to us. Most of the time, they knew only a few English phrases, which they would repeat over and over again. They were all about taking pictures with us. White people here are minor celebrities. A man who knew only about a dozen English words, one of which was "bodyguard," insisted on getting a picture with me.