Lessons 86 - 88

(1/5) Lesson 86: There are still a few more helpful things to know if you plan on using the trains in Korea.

If you study this picture, you will see words in orange on the left. This tells you where the train is headed. The one at the top is the Byeongjeom train. Underneath is the Cheonan/Sinchang train. Next to the words in orange are green symbols that tell you where the train is right now. Right now the Byeongjeom train is at Suwon Station (one stop away from Seryu, the closest station to my apartment and the place where this photo was taken). The red symbols tell you if the train is arriving, waiting, or departing from the station in green. Unfortunately, I have yet to memorize which symbol means what... but at least I know where my train is!

(1/9) Lesson 87: A juicy bar is a very curious place.

The first time I heard about juicy bars was after I had been in Korea for only a week or so. Men are the target patrons of juicy bars. A "juicy girl" is paid to sit and chat with the man who buys her drinks. Usually the drinks are just juice (hence "juicy bar" and "juicy girl") as it is more expensive to buy her an alcoholic beverage. Also, alcohol incapacitates said juicy girl and if you're buying her alcohol every 15 minutes or so, she'll be very trashed very quickly. There are some bars where a patron can buy the girl's night by paying a "bar fine." I'll leave the rest to your imagination.

Before this night, I had never actually been to one of these places. I was out with my AF buddies at Xanadu, a bar in Songtan. Whilst having a few drinks, I mentioned my curiosity about these juicy bars - I had never seen or heard of any place like them before. So where did we go after Xanadu? Chicago. It was totally awkward (I was one of two girls there who was not a juicy), yet I was morbidly fascinated and found it amusing that the girls were wearing only the jingly parts of cheap bellydancing costumes. This is a glimpse of what I saw that night. If you are easily offended by stripper poles and girls in mini-skirts, don't watch it.

(1/10) Lesson 88: Only real champs play soccer in six inches of snow.

Sunday marks the first time I have played a real soccer game since I was about 10 years old. Well, it wasn't really a proper soccer game because how easy is it to play in the snow? (Answer: Not very.) Has anyone seen Bambi? Yeah, we were like Bambi when he encountered the frozen pond. (Read: Sliding and falling everywhere.) The previous day a few of us gathered up snow shovels and spent a few hours shoveling the lines on the field in an attempt to improve playing conditions.

Yeah... we had our work cut out for us.

This was all me, suckas!

I played defense for about ten or fifteen minutes (thank you, asthma) but I actually managed to get the ball away from someone several times. And let me tell you, it most certainly was not because of talent. Our feet were completely soaked and frozen (the semi-packed snow went up past our ankles), and we were stumbling, slipping, and missing the ball every time we went to kick it, but it was a blast! (And totally worth all the shoveling!) And our OSL9 team won against the ROK guys. Huzzah!

Fyfe taking a shot...

And falling on his arse instead.

What does our defense have that yours doesn't? Snowballs.

A photo of someone not falling down.