An Alien Abroad

The Expat life can be odd......the things you take for granted back home are all turned on their head when you live as an Alien Abroad.

To begin with, instead of socialising with the hand-selected friends from the last 20 years of your life, you are randomly placed with other westerners who potentially have no more in common than the fact they all speak English. So you all get wasted all the time because alcohol makes friends. You're in a distant country for a limited time, so you act different too.....stay up later, travel further, see more. And you say goodbye. Constantly. Most expats here are on short-term teaching contracts, so throughout the year you attend more leaving parties than birthday parties. And this weekend, was Matt's leaving do. Which is a very sad loss.

So London has it's Camden....and Korea has it's Hongdae....and that's where we were headed to make our farewells! Hongdae is vibrant, buzzing, neon, filled with young people, and is one of the few places in Korea where you are guaranteed to see white faces in the crowd. Outside food stalls, naerabangs (singing rooms), nightclubs, pool halls, bars, outdoor arcade games, markets, and young musicians playing in the park. No wonder we all make a beeline for the place whenever an excuse for a party comes up.

So Lee and I were a trifle early. 3 hours early actually. Obviously we got a little over excited. So we headed to one of the pool halls to try and show each other who's best. (I am). Korean pool halls don't usually sell alcohol, but they don't mind you bringing your own drink in so we were set to go.

3 hours and 16 lost games of pool later I went to meet the others for the shenanigans. Garten Bier (which has ice cup holders sunk in the tables, bells to alert the waiting staff & the requirement to buy hot octopus pastry balls) and then a move onto The Beatles Cellar Bar which is small, pretty empty so perfect for taking over, and you can play your own music. Believing I hold a far superior music taste to anyone else there, I sauntered up to the bar only to draw a blank and realise the only person I wanted to listen to was Cliff Richard...so thankfully someone else took over and I went to do shots of whiskey. I don't even like whiskey. At least I wasn't rolling around on the ground.....

And so our night came to an end and we got a taxi home. Not without a run in from the Korean police along the way...involving an on-foot police chase when the policeman thought I was trying to run away from him, when actually I was just trying to run to the local shop for water. Easy to confuse I suppose.

Needless to say, Sunday was a hungover write-off, and I am now vowing never to drink alcohol again.  Again.