Friday night I went to see The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and it was mesmerizing. Aesthetically pleasing would be an understatement. Before watching this movie I had no desire to go out afterwards for even one beer. Smaug's beauty, fitted with Benny Cumberbatch's eloquent British tongue, along with an excellent fight scene along the riverside where elves and dwarfs battled hordes upon hordes of orcs revitalized all of my senses! With a bounce in my step I decided to go out with an Ultimate friend for drinks at a bar called L-Zone. Apparently they were having bottomless drinks, a Friday night staple.
When we got there I met some other new people through my fellow movie-goer and walked up to the bar.
"What time does the bottomless drinks special end?"
"1am"
"What time is it now?"
"11pm"
"Here's my ten thousand won, I'll have a rum and coke, please."
After countless drinks and just as many sunken cue balls 1am had befallen L-Zone and, without a doubt or itch of hesitation, we moved the party elsewhere. Once we got outside into the bumping district of KSU the neon lights overwhelm you with 24/7 barbecue spots, convenience stores and bars that stay open until 6 in the morning. These differences separate Korean and Western night-lives by miles. With the opportunity to eat food at almost every other restaurant and continue drinking cheap bottles of soju and beer: you can't complain especially when its dirt cheap!
I remember leaving bars in the frozen town of Thunder Bay at 2 am after they ring the bell at the bar. Wired off the company, brisk air, and energizing jager-bombs and there's no where to go. With nothing to do we would all cab to someone's house and continue the nightlife in some gross college living room with shitty seating, warm beer, and frozen fish sticks or worse. Usually random textbooks and clothes were scattered around the floor too, reminding us that we have sunday mornings that require research and trips to the library. Sometimes the music was okay, but other times it was country music or house music. Either way it put you on your back ready to pass out in no time because there was nothing to stay up for once the city shuts down. No one expects the night to last past last call.
Now that I've been exposed to Korea, and the concept of the 6am subway ride home from Blue Monkey I don't think I can go back to the bell toll at 2am. Even 3am could be a stretch. Maybe when I get back that means I'll have to grow up. It took this quiz and although I was caught in the middle with some of them this website said I'm mentally a 19 year-old. I honestly blame the country I live in. I'm not stressed unless its over something trivial like my CTs being difficult, or me just losing things. I'm saving money, I love most aspects of my job, and I'm active enough outside my job to avoid boredom/ depression. I can't take the Korean life seriously anymore. This is a vacation at the worst of times. I probably could take on more responsibility... but that'd take away from this experience.
Bar hours are one of the many things Korea has going on that not many other places could sustain. There's a lot of respect for everything and everyone in this country and that's why people have the privilege to go out until 4 in the morn because they won't rob, rape, kill, or vandalize anything or anyone. I wish there was a way Canadians, and Westerners as a whole, could achieve this sense of community and respect for everything, but for now its only a pipe dream. Just to clarify, I'm not converting to some pro-Korea-anti-Canadian ideology: I just think there are tons of really special things in this country and you don't have to dig very deep to find them. With news about Rob Ford, and gang violence its difficult to see a city, let alone country, that's banded together to support each other, and that's something that everyone wants deep down: a place where we all stand together and can join hands with family, friends and strangers of all walks of life and know we have each other supporting one another as we party safely until the sun rises.
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