Friday, May 30, 2008

The Legendary Dog Soup of Insae-Dong!

Ok, legendary was definitely an exageration, as it took the local tourist information bureau a good 10 minutes to locate it (even though it was less than a kilometer away)! But it was nonetheless a highly memorable experience.

Although we had a map, it sort of omitted most of the alleyways (the fact that streets don't really have names didn't help us much either). Here are some pictures taken around the restaurant.








Some of the alleyways were on the narrow side.






Finally, the dog soup resto!


This is the first thing you see when you step in. On the
right, out of the scope of the picture, is the kitchen.


Bubbly!


The soup of dog!


Elise and I modeling the soju and the dog soup.




Saturday, May 24, 2008

Nepalese Food and Noraebang

Today Remi, Elise, Erika and I went to First Nepal to eat Nepalese food. It was simply awesome!

Now you see it.


Now you don't!


We then walked around Bupyeong and ended up in a park. The girls wanted to walk around, so Remi and I sat down on a park bench while waiting. Then, all of a sudden, a woman with a cat sat down between us and began speaking to Remi in Korean. This woman was probably in her late thirties, was holding (almost strangling) a cat in her arm and kept interrupting her stream of Korea with "I like you", "SOS" and "American". Remi then asked me, in French (since it is statistically impossible that a random Korean citizen understands the language), to distract the woman, so I spoke to her. Since I had addressed her, she began speaking to me instead. So, we then called our Korean buddy Shin and passed him to the woman, to see if he could make head or tails of this situation. According to Shin, her sister had thrown her and her cat out of the house and that she needed somewhere to stay. He also said that she was bat crazy. So yea....

Anyway, to get her off our case, we called the girls and asked them to pretend to be our wives. Remi even slipped on the plain gold band that he keeps in his wallet to dissuade unattractive girls in bars. But upon seeing our "spouses", she left quickly enough though! Strange......

Well, after that interesting experience, we walked around the nightlife section of Bupyeong and went to the bar Woodstock. We did see a few things along the way though!

Family Mart is a chain of convenience stores in Korea.
Guess their weren't very original and just used the
same name for their store... and the same sign...


A couple of humorous signs!


Yea... not something I would name my shoe store...


Remi and I looking simply fabulous at the Woodstock
with the jewelry that the girls bought.





Erika's friend Sandy came to meet us at the bar. Soon after, we all decided to relocate, so we headed over to the Vietnam-like bar that doesn't really have a name. (mentioned in the post Couchsurfing Night) We even brought orange juice to mix with the soju (since soju alone isn't all that delightful...).

Sandy, Remi and Elise at the Vietnam-ish bar.


Once we had consumed all of our juice, was decided to go to Noraebang. Noraebang means singing-room in Korean, which is exactly what it is. It is like Karaoke (which means false, or empty orchestra) except that you are in a room with your friends with all the equipment. One hour costs about twelve dollars, so well worth it!

Sandy lreaching for the song book.


Remi singing in some Asian language.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Mayfest!

Ok... How to describe Mayfest... Well, I'll cover the important parts first! During Mayfest, tents are set-up all over campus by the university and by the different with tables and chairs are set up by the university and by the various student associations. And, these are there so that people can sit down and drink. All day, and all night. Literally. Some people don't even go home for the whole week, seriously. Apart from that, activities, shows and food stalls are also all over campus, making it a week of partying. Needless to say, classes were even more laid back than usually!

Gliding from the top of the student union building! Too bad that there was a wire to guide it, it would be much more interesting otherwise!


This is where you pay to beat up one of the members of the boxing team (since they're not allowed to fight back).


Tents selling food, cell phones and... alcohol! Yes, in the middle of the day. You take it to class with you, it makes time pass more quickly!



I don't really know what they were up to...


Tents full of alcoholics, *oups!* I mean Koreans!


Bunch of Korean girls singing Moulin Rouge (see video)




Breakdancers.


Traditional drumming.


Rollerblader dressed as a flying squirrel
(you get used to this kinda stuff after a while!)




They are opposed to American beef. Can you tell?


The night scene, where the drinking really begins (no that's not quite true, it doesn't actually end for the whole week...)


Hip-hop concert to protest student fee hikes.


Pictures taken at the French department's tent.











At the German department's tent.






Taken near the airplane (yes, the set up tents underneath an airplane too!)







Costco!

Just a few pics of the Costco food court.

Erika trying to dodge the camera... When will she learn...


Look familiar???


Yup. Canadian back bacon!