Choosok Holiday #2...Jenn's Birthday

On Tuesday night Saejin and I went to meet an old friend of mine from Sunchon. Jenn has been in Korea for as long as I have and asked us to join her for her birthday dinner. I've been to her last four so I am expected each year even if we rarely hang out still. We went to her favorite place in Itaewon called Suji's (an over priced restaurant for home cooked meals, 20 dollars gets you two slices of meatloaf, mashed potatoes and steamed veggies). The food isn't great but it does feel like a home cooked meal. Not that I'm saying my mom's food is bad I'm talking about comfort food here which makes the place popular among expats.

After dinner Jenn took us all to her local hang out "The Big Electric Cat" because it was open mike night. There isn't much of an English music scene in Korea but if you are looking you can find it here. I've always had fun in this bar and hadn't been for a long time. Three of the eight guests at dinner got up and played for Jenn. Her boyfriend Simon was the best I saw but we did leave early because of an odd phone call.

Saejin got this "weird" phone call from his buddy Sung Ill who was out on a blind date. He told Saejin he had to meet because Sung Ill really liked this girl he was with and wanted Saejin to impress her. So we met up with the two of them as they sported their red faces from booze and impressed them by bringing them to meet our equally red faced friends (Heidi, Rachel-Lynn, Shelly and Jes) who were out at a different bar.

We had as few more drinks but were good and went home by 1:00. Before sitting there with your mouth open and critically thinking 1:00 is quite late, remember bars don't close in Korea. Leaving a bar at 1:00 am is like leaving a bar at 10:00 back home. The reason we left so early was because we made plans to visit an Island off of Incheon the next day to sit on the beach and tan (and/or to drink beer).