More of February

So on February 18, I finally met my cousin Sung Mi's boyfriend. They met while they were both in New York studying English, but they actually went to elementary school together. Small world isn't it? He actually lives near me in Yeouido, so I met with my cousin and walked over to his apartments to meet him. They let me pick where to eat so we want to Apgujeong (압구정동), which is an area in Gangnam. I had been craving American breakfast forever, so I found on a restaurant on the internet called Butterfinger pancakes. It was fulfilling to eat eggs, bacon, and sausage. I got hungry just typing that sentence.

Later on in the night I also met met their other friends from New York. One is a Korean dude and the other was actually a married Japanese woman. It was a reunion of sorts. After meeting at a coffee shop, we went to eat at some Vietnamese restaurant. It was my first time eating Vietnamese food, but it wasn't too bad. Next we went to 63 building and drank at the sky lounge. The pic you see to the right is me taking a pic off the window, simultaneously getting the reflection as well as the city outside. And I had to take a picture of the menu to show you how expensive some of the bottles of liquors were there! Make sure you zoom in so you can see the actual prices. We didn't drink heavily as typical in most Korean meetings, just one Long Island Ice Tea for me.

Then on the 25th I tried raw fish for the first time. We ate raw tuna and it was delicious. It tasted nothing like canned tuna. The part I liked best was my uncle pours a shot of soju for the restaurant owner/chef and he takes it. I thought that was pretty awesome, a good display of camaraderie. Along with the raw fish of course was more soju, so I got pretty wasted. That night it snowed quite a bit. I took a taxi home and after getting off, I almost slipped on the snow like 20 times on the drunken walk home. I caught my balance each time and was pretty impressed with myself.. but damn that slippery snow!!

The snow looked awesome the next day. In fact I took a pic of myself the next day with all the snow there. As you can see I still haven't cut my hair either

On the 27th I have a placement test at my university to see what level I will be put into. Since I had never been to the university I took the subway to Seoul National University Station, then I was to take the green bus #5512. The campus was nothing like I picture and the Language Institute building was a lot different than what I expected as well. I checked it out and waited for the same bus to take me back to the station. I got back on bus 5512 again, but after a few stops I was told I needed to get off. The bus just parked there with other buses and I was puzzled. I guess the bus route ended and I had to board another bus. Oooops.

I had another fun adventure going to the Homeplus in Bucheon. In case you don't know Homeplus is like the Walmart of Korea, but a little nicer. I think I already mentioned it in a previous post. Anyway I told the taxi driver to take me to Bucheon university ipku yuk, which is the station name, but he must have not heard the yuk part, which means station. So he actually dropped me off at the University entrance. So I asked him again and he pointed to the left. I figured the station was nearby and got off. Nope! After walking around I was lost. I then had to ask some random students walking by where I need to go. Luckily they were walking towards that direction and were able to help me out. Of course when I tell people I'm half Korean I seem to get more favorable treatment, so they were very cool to me and even walked past the place they were going to to make sure I was going in the right direction. I know they'll never read this, but thank you guys!