date night.

we decided we wanted to spend our date night at a kissing room.  in korea people live with their parents until they are married.  it doesn't matter how old.  and often times parents won't allow their child's significant other to come over.  so there are all of these options around town for couple.  there are game rooms, dvd rooms, and even kissing rooms.   ryan and i went to one, and it was really shady.  basically you walk into this little 5x5 foot room that has sheets and a couple of cushions.  the whole store was dark and awkward.  so instead we went one floor down to a couples cafe.  when you walk into this place, the waiter seats you in a private room with two booths, a computer and a call button.  the call button is used when one is ready to order off the menu.  after that we decided to go to a 4-in-1 room.  this room is pretty tiny.  it's a 4x8 foot room with an asian floor couch and a computer that can be used for internet, movies, karaoke or wii.  ryan and i paid for two hours and had a blast playing mario kart and singing karaoke.

groupee

ryan was invited to play electric guitar in a band at a huge festival in seoul.  the festival started around 1pm and ended around 1am.  the street the festival is held on is swimming with live music and packed with people spilling out of the bars and venues.  a few guys from church created a band and played at one of the venues.   they did amazing.  their set included some black keys, jet, feist, the beatles, the monkees and phantom planet, (not their california song).  the crowd ended up being a good size for their show.  it was a lot of fun for me.  i ended up growl-cheering after every song.  i gotta support my man...

hongdae arts market

hongdae is a really fun part of town.  on saturdays and sundays there is an arts market in the park put on mostly by university students.  i love going, because everything is handmade and so unique.  i often can't contain my spending when i'm there, because i want to support the artists and everything is one-of-a-kind.  it reminds me a little bit of portland.

this guy did a 10 second characterture for one penny.  the line was long!  ryan and i decided that we would just go home and draw charactertures of each other instead of waiting in line. 

go giants!

we went to our first baseball game in korea.  baseball is a very popular sport, and the fans take it very seriously.  we didn't know anything about the teams before we went, only that the couple who invited us were huge fans of the busan giants.  so ryan and i decided that we would cheer for them at the game.  as we were approaching the stadium we saw a booth selling paraphernalia and decided to buy some noise-makers and giants hats.  it was at that point we declared that the giants would be "our team" while here in korea.

...little did we know that the giants are in 7th place out of 8 teams in korea.  let's just say it was a rough game for them.  the score ended up being 0-5.  ryan and i second-guessed our decision, but we will hold strong and stay true to "our team".  besides, "our team" puts bright orange trash bags on their heads from the 7th inning until the game is over.  the team colors are orange and black.



a few differences between attending an american baseball game and a korean baseball game are:
-  the audience is split depending on which team they are rooting for, just like in high school and college sports.
-  at a korean baseball game there is a team of girl cheerleaders and one main male cheerleader for each side.  the main male cheerleader runs around doing flips and starting chants.
-  the crowd has a different cheer for each baseball player.  most cheers derive from a led zepplin tune or rolling stones.  unfortunately there was one player whose cheer was taken from "mary had a little lamb."