Weekend in Seoul

So last weekend i took a trip to Seoul to see a show called global gathering. Lots of great Drum nd Bass and DJS and lots of fun! I had to ask to leave school early because of an 'apointment' so that i could catch my bus at 430.. which is when im supposed to finish school anyways. i dont feel so bad doing this because i come in on mondays an extra half hour early, so i figure since my contract states im only supposed to work 830-430 i can cut out a few minutes early every once in a while on a friday to go travel. The show was awesome. Lots of dancing and jumping around. we literally made it there the second crystal method was finishing and prodigy was starting. After the show i took a cab ride with my friend Amy to her friend nicole's house in Sujigu. This is in the north east corner of seoul. When we went looking for cabs we found a long line of them and we talking to nicole trying to get the exact place to go, giving the phone to the driver and having her friend who speaks korean translate where we were going. all seemed fine until he started waving his hands at us and rubbing his fingers together... it seemed he wanted money. BUT the meter wasnt running, and we hadnt agreed on a price. So we call the korean speaking person back and he tolld her he wants us to pay 70,000 Won. which... its about the equivelent of 70$. this... seemed quite rediculous to me, since the distance was about the same as from notl to downtown niagara falls,which would cost about 30$ at the most. Anyways, since we were already in the cab we didnt have much of a choice in the matter. so we payed the gradeous amount of money... the cab driver felt that we wanted to still party or something, even though we were falling asleep in the back watching the sun come up, and switched on some strobe lights and dance music... i thought i was being punked, or on that cab game show... but no... so.. being me, put my face into his face and started talking very loudly in english asking him to please stop... i may have thrown in a few choice words, considering the situation he put us in. he turned off the music and lights. its lucky neither of us had epilepsy...

now in my experience of travelling throughout europe, i rarely took a taxi, my feet were there to carry me through the night every single time, no matter how far of a walk it might have been.  but, i was always warned about taxi drivers ripping foreigners off when they least expect it. this was my firest experiece with it actually happening. and it kind of took me off guard.
the rest of the weeked faired pretty well.. the next day we slept in and ate pizza and watched amovies. a nice relaxing saturday afternoon. in the evening we headed into the city (a 2,000 won bus ride might i add... thats about 1.50) and went to the 'western district' known as itaewon. walked arounf there for al ittle bit and relished in all of the non korean's. then i went to another busy area, the name escapes me rightnow to meet up with some friends there and headed to a hookah bar. it was pretty neat! they had like tree houses all overthe place, we ended up in a place that was 'underneath' a tree house. but it was pretty awesome. a nice little meditation space filled with lots of pillows and blankets. it was a litel cozy with 10+ people under there, but still really great.
i stayed at a friends house so that i could stay for free and i slept on the floor, the bruises on my hips are still evidence of the wonderful sleep that i got. haha. we got up around 10 and decided to go into the city again and get some food and go to the folk flea market. the most amazing place in the world. im serious. i love this place...so many interesting things to find and look at. i bought myself a guitar, after much deliberation; i decided the 35$ was worth it. ill post a pic soon!

then i got on the bus, almost didnt make it... grabbed some kim bop (korean sushi) and read the rest of my book... home is always nice when you are exhauseted.