  Today is Saturday. I had to work. I hate working Saturdays. Next Saturday is my last ever at Wonderland. It would be so fucking great if it was the last Satuday that I ever had to work on. I've been a bit remiss about posting lately.... I apologize. Last weekend I went to Seoul with a friend. We got to Seoul late Saturday evening, and headed straight to Itaewon.
The first bar we walked into, we ran into four more guys from Jecheon. And later that night I managed to run into the only two people I know that live in Seoul. It just goes to show you how small the world of the efl teacher in Korea can be. We ended the night wandering through the seemier part of Itaewon. At one point, we found ourselves walking up a street which must have been the gay district. Four of us wound up sharing a room in some seedy hotel on hooker hill. It was...an experience. (Yeah, yeah, yeah, get your minds out of the gutter. It wasn't that kind of experience. ) And having had it, I can say that I have no desire to repeat it. I'd rather spend the extra 10000 won and get a room with a bathtub...or even just one with a sink and a mirror in the bathroom. I felt a bit bad after the fact for being the downer on the whole experience. But its never fun having a cold, having your period, and not having any privacy or decent bathing facilities, and having to share what you've got with one other woman and two guys.
The two guys headed back to Jecheon the next morning, and us girls went off in search of English books. Where we ran into yet another guy from Jecheon. After successfully navigating the subway, finding some books, and not to mention staying in a yogwan in Itaewon, we felt we were ready for a challenge - Cheese. Jecheon has a dearth of proper cheese. About the only thing I've seen here is processed sliced stuff and rubbery almost flavorless "pizza" cheese. Seoul has cheese. Real cheese. I've seen it. Brie, swiss, camembert, nice sharp cheddar, feta, even mascarpone (Tiramisu, anyone?). The first time I was in Seoul, I saw it in a grocery store. But that was in Bundang (rich suburb) in Samsung plaza (snazzy mall - they've got a Chanel boutique there) which maybe implies something about their customer base (lots of money with more cosmopolitan tastes) and therefore a diffence in what they stock. Surely, though, in an area as rife with foreigners as Itaewon, cheese should be just as simple to locate?
However, try as we might, the cheese was not to be found. First we went searching by ourselves for some store - couldn't find it. Ask a few people for help. We asked this incredibly nice girl from the Netherlands, who knew where this supermarket was that had Western food. She was walking in that direction, and brought us most of the way. But, unfortunately, none of us seemed to have any inate sense of direction, and without our guide we got confused and couldn't seem to find it.
So went back to Itaewon, drank some more, and did some people watching. Isn't it great how the human psyche can recover so easily from such crushing disappointment? The Great Cheese Trek may have been a failure, but the Pina Coladas were fucking fantabulous. 
