While at work, my friend Josh finally got back to me about meeting up. He offered to go to my place and wait for me to finish work. I told him there wasn't much to do and that I would meet him in Hongdae since he was in Sinchon. The only problem was that he drove his car and he needed to find parking. Lucky for him, I know Hongdae and suggested a parking lot that was by a shopping building and movie theater.
So after work, I ran home to get my bag. I wasn't expecting to meet him and had planned on coming home and having a quiet evening before going to the meet-up place for the hike. I made it to Hongdae faster than I anticipated. I messaged Josh and he told me he was in a movie and to travel slowly. Whoops. I waited for him in the building and he left the movie early because he said it was boring.
For dinner, I suggested BBQ and we headed to the good ole Bonga. We ordered the standard meat and grilled 3 orders, plus got dwenjang jjigae (soybean stew) and rice at the end. I forgot that I'm eating with a guy! It was fun eating and talking with him. While we were at Inje, I wasn't very close with him. He had a kind of popular-jock reputation and we didn't interact a lot. But since I've been back here, we've been in touch here and there and more friendly. It's nice to realize that time changes people and that you should get to know someone before you judge them on their reputation. He plans to move to New Zealand next year (2016) and hopes to be a chef there-though he studied physical education and...marketing or something. He and my "bro" Ji have talked about opening a restaurant together after he gets there.
After dinner, Josh suggested going back to the building where his car was parked because he needed to have a receipt to validate his parking ticket. Well, we went to the Baskin Robbins and got some ice cream to share, but it didn't come to very much. He asked the worker and she said that he needed to have a total of about $10 to get the ticket validated. So, he said after ice cream he'd buy a smoothie from another store. We ate and chatted more. Then, we stopped at another shop for him to get a smoothie. After he bought it, he asked the worker about the ticket and the guy said it had to be a total of $10 from ONE receipt. Whoops. Earlier he had suggested that he needed to buy some clothes from UNIQLO (a popular chain) and I reminded him of that. He was happy to be able to go there and get the $10 from one receipt, but I felt bad because he didn't need to have bought the smoothie. We parted ways at UNIQLO and he said he'd contact me the next time he was in Seoul.
I went to Daiso because I needed to buy a headlamp. Well, there were no headlamps there, but instead I bought a flashlight and some batteries. I poked around in a few other shops before taking the subway to the meeting spot for the hiking trip. I got there early and found a place to stand and charge my phone in the subway station. Then I went outside to wait-ugh it was so cold! I stood outside for about 10 minutes before meeting someone else and then a 3rd guy came along and told us the bus was waiting further down the street and to follow him. I got on the bus and we waited a little more for about 5 other guys to arrive.
The bus then went on to a suburb of Seoul, Suwon and we picked up another 5-6 people and finally a third stop and we got 3 more. By this time it was after midnight. Some of the people in the back played different games, but I chatted with the guy sitting next to me, Austin. He's from New Orleans and is teaching English here too. We made a pit stop and then everyone slept from around 2 until we reached the spot at 4:30. There we suited up and took a group picture outside near a sign for the mountain.
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| Josh and me |
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