Day 16: Friday, September 9

In Itaewon

Friday night is usually the night that the foreign teachers at my school go out and Itaewon was determined as the place to go.  Chad & Sara, Nick& Nicole, Hilary and I traveled on the subway, transferring lines one time, and met up with another ex-teacher of Wonderland, Paul.  The seven of us wandered around the main street which is “lined with about 2,000 shops as well as jazz bars, nightclubs and ethnic restaurants”, according to my travel guide.  Since “this district is popular with both foreign residents and tourists”, the streets looked more like Toronto than the Korean-heavy population of Gwacheon.  In the town where I am living, it seems that the only Caucasian people I see are the foreign teachers I work with at Wonderland; whereas, in Itaewon, there were people of all ethnicity, and the variety was comforting.

We ended up at Scrooge’s pub for dinner –a place that served up fish & chips, had rugby on the TV and a “moose crossing” sign on the bar.  I ordered a GIANT club sandwich with a side of fries for 9,000 won and fell into the Cass trap again, since the Korean beer is less expensive than any soft drink.

Hilary & I at the pub

 After dinner, we went searching for a casual place to waste time since Chad & Sara were meeting their tour bus (headed for Jeju) at 2am.  As an aside, Jeju is the most Southern island of Korea, so the trek there must be reserved for long weekends such as this.  This Monday is Chuseok which is the Korean Thanksgiving and one of the three main holidays in the country, so we have Saturday to Tuesday off from work.  There are a bunch of rituals and costumes that are a part of Chuseok that I will be sure to include in a later post, so for now I will continue with our night out in Itaewon.

 

So, we ended up at Hollywood Bar that featured pool tables, darts and one doggie guest.  I have to mention that the dogs here are all small (mostly to match the size of people’s living spaces) and dogs are both a sign of wealth and affection for the people here.  It is not uncommon to see people carrying their dogs in their hands or allowing their dogs to accompany them to shops or, so it would seem, bars.  Amazingly, two tables over from us, there was a tiny white dog sitting on a barstool calmly for as long as we were there.  The canine spectacle could only be championed by the sheer diversity and flamboyant lights flowing through the streets of Itaewon.