Friends, Makgeolli, & Johnny Depp

Last weekend was Halloween. Back home, I never really celebrated it. But, having said that, I must say I had tons of Halloween themed fun in Daegu!


But the fun didn't start in Daegu. Oh, no. It began in good ole Seongnam-si. I left school at 5pm, and rushed to get everything I needed for the 6pm bus ride.

Clothes? Check.
Book for the bus? Check.
Kimbap, oranges, and other goodies for dinner? Check.
Makgeolli? Definitely check.
Shoes? Check.
Money? Check.
Laurie?

Laurie?

Mmmmm...it was 5:55 (our bus was leaving at 6), and Laurie was nowhere close. This was not her fault by the way. She left straight from her school for Seongnam, but sometimes the buses turn on their "piss off foreigners" sensors. This was one of those days. The bus came late, and there was tons of Friday afternoon traffic. It was obvious we weren't going to make it on time. But all was ok!
Because we had Makgeolli.

In case you are wondering, or didn't read my Morning Calm post, Makgeolli is Korean rice wine, and it is the most delicious thing on earth (besides chocolate, OBVIOUSLY).

So we went to the bus terminal, and saw a 6:40 bus. However, after refunding (we think anyways) and purchasing new tickets, we realized we were leaving at 7:40. Apparently Seongnamers can't get enough of Daegu on the weekends, and everything was sold out. So, we sat down to enjoy our dinner and Makgeolli and started talking about our week.

See, Laurie and I don't see each other or talk a lot during the week since we live in different cities. So the weekends are filled with catching-up girl talk, which is one of the best things about my weekends! Anyways, we quickly finish the bottle and realize we need more. A lot more. We then make the genius decision to drink during the whole bus ride so we can show Alex and Jodi what we are all about this weekend.

Now its 7:20, and Laurie leaves to find Makgeolli. A homeplus is on the 3rd floor (like a Wal Mart) so she sprints through the store, miraculously finding the Makgeolli, and buys 3 big bottles. By the time she comes back, its almost 7:40! Yes, we almost missed the bus for the 2nd time.

We sit down in the last row, get settled, and crack open the next bottle.

Then my stupid quotes started to tumble out of my mouth.

Me, motioning my hands in the same direction as the bus is moving: "Wait, are we going this way?"
In my defense, we were going west and we were supposed to be going southeast. Still, it was pretty funny. Or maybe it wasn't and we just thought it was. Anyways...

About 10 minutes in, I got the hiccups! I hate hiccups. They suck. We each had our cups filled with Makgeolli, so I was trying to slowly drink it in hopes it would relax me.
Laurie: Is your cup empty?
Me: No, why?
Laurie: Oh, I was going to scare you if it was.
Me: Oh, ok.

A few minutes pass...I finish my cup and my hiccups are gone...
Me: Ok, my cup is empty now. Scare me.
Laurie just looks at me before cracking up. I don't speak for the next 30 minutes due to shame.

After a much needed bathroom break 2 hours in, we spot some rides. Photo op!


Laurie just hopped on top like a normal person.


I got all the way in, like it was actually about to fly off into the night.

As we were getting close to Daegu, we started passing tire shops. For some reason, Korea wraps their tires in with bright gold and silver aluminum foil looking stuff.

Laurie: Oh, I see those everywhere in Suwon. What's up with those?
Me: You've seen those in Suwon? I haven't seen them on any of the cars in Seongnam.
Laurie gives me the same stare after the scare me comment before dying laughing.

We somehow got there early, so we walked across the street to the Lotteria (which is a generic McDonald's...you can just imagine how delicious that is). We had drank the 3 bottles on the bus, plus the one in the terminal, so what did we need? Another bottle to go with our fancy Lotteria meal, duh. I pop over to the FamilyMart while Laurie orders an order of cheese sticks and sweet potato balls.

This is what comes to our table.


We're on our 5th bottle of Makgeolli, and we just got two whole cheese sticks for an order. This apparently is the funniest thing on earth, because we can't stop laughing. I still have no idea why Alex and Jodi picked us up and actually brought us back to their apartments. They are just that good of friends.

The following day after we woke up, we went downtown for lunch and shopping.

Downtown during the day...it gets busy at night.


The first arrow says: krispy kreme doughnut, bacon, zisomething, cheese


This hoodie says "Do you have any girlfriends?" and "The girl dances very well these days because of the ballet lessons."


I have no idea what to write here.

Saturday night, we went to a murder mystery play that Alex was in.

Regardless of what they said, I still think Alex did it.



Afterwards, we took Daegu by storm. Lots of fun bars and dance clubs. One bar even had...

...so you know this was a good place!

There were also some cute Halloween costumes...




Who knew a Korean could look so much like Johnny Depp?

In conclusion: We had a blast! Thanks to Alex and Jodi for the great weekend. :)

ps-We did manage to find a bar that had a "traditional" Korean dance performance. I'll show the video soon. It deserves its own post!