I danced with a cute gay man, learned some Korean and stayed out till 5am but not all in that order. Saturday started with me and another teacher (D) trekking to a community center to take free Korean lessons. I have been warned by other teachers to tackle learning the language as soon as you arrive to this country before the complacency sets in and you become comfortable with pointing to what you want.
After the class, D and I went to eat at an amazing Shabu restaurant which counted as the best meal I have had so far in Seoul. We were flirting with the idea of going out to a bar later in the night with another fellow teacher but not fully committed to going. I kept insisting that I would only go out if I knew that I would be back home by 1am. I had Sunday service to attend the next morning afterall.
We ended up in the foreigner’s part of town which has at least 20 bars in a 1 mile radius. This could be dangerous. This area at night has a spring break vibe to it; young people walking on the streets, out of one bar on to the next. We started at a straight bar, had some shots with a group of expats and boogied on a makeshift dancefloor by the DJ. J(other teacher) dragged us to a gay bar he frequents every weekend and I followed because I had no concept of time at this point.
A cute gay boy was eyeing D all night but soon realized he was straight and proceeded to dance with me for the rest of the night. D wasn’t feeling the gay bar after my umpteenth dance with cute gay boy and suggested we go home. I glanced at my watch as we got in the cab and saw 4am. What the? Did I not hear them say last call? D said there is no last call in Korea and you have to keep track of time some other way.
He wanted to go flirt with some bartender at a local bar after spending 3/4’s of the night in the gay bar and I easily complied. As I drank my last beer, I thought about how I would be singing church hymns in less than 5 hours. Oh, where was the last call when I truly needed it…
