I’m starting to notice a bit of a recurring theme with the
stories I have been writing on this blog. It seems rather regular that a story
starts with “We were drinking in a park when… “ and this story is no different.
It was Friday night and through a friend of a friend we were
drinking with a group of maybe ten French guys. Generally, the relationship between
Britain and France is antagonistic, but after a few drinks with these guys I
was having a great night. An easy icebreaker between European males is to talk
football, they supported Lille and Arsenal is basically French so we had a lot
to talk about. After a few drinks I started to realise that I share many
similarities with the stereotypical frog. For instance; French people are rude
and obnoxious, and I’m rude and obnoxious. French people rarely shave, and I rarely
shave. The French are known for being great lovers, and I’m… OK I’m not that
similar to them. Anyway, we were drinking in Hongdae park when a Korean bloke approached
us and he was asking us if we wanted to fight him. It turned out that this guy
is a professional boxer and was giving people the opportunity to pay him to
fight him. So you pay him to get your arse kicked. You know what, I’m good. I
don’t know if this guy was training for a fight and wanted some different competition,
or maybe he was just after an ego boost but he was not short of opponents, one
being one of the French guys who was out with us. He was drunk which made the
fight all the easier for the sober professional. There was some basic
equipment, gloves, headgear, and a bloke with a smart phone to time the rounds
so you know it’s legit. There was also a sign tied to a tree which explained
the rules.
Here is some of round 1 (notice the drunk guy with the
makgeolli).
Some of round 2.
Unfortunately I ran out of memory to capture round 3 but it
was a blood bath. The boxer didn’t want to fight the third round stating that
he’d batter him, which inevitably happened but the French guy was persistent (I
know, a French guy who wants to fight – that’s unheard of!). The fight finally
finished and the French guy was covered in blood and his face was black and
blue. The boxer finished the fight a little sweatier than before. Was it worth
it? Definitely not.
We continued drinking in Hongdae but the drama stopped
there.
The following day we went to the Lotus Lantern Festival
which was spread out across Seoul. We checked out a few of the Buddhist Temples
(Bongeunsa and Jogyesa) and watched the parade come through Dongdaemun. It was
pretty cool. I mean, essentially it’s only fancy origami with a couple of
candles but impressive all the same.
We had our term break this week, a couple of days off during
the week. We went down to Suwon to see Rabel and to explore Suwon. It was great
we walked around the city and walked the length of the fortress walls. A great
day of sightseeing.
After a full day of sightseeing we rounded the day off with
a Noraebang (karaoke singing room). I tolerate these places and I’m often
forced to sing even when I don’t want to, I went along with the guys this time
but made it clear that I was coming for the beer. Very soon into it while the
guys were singing I got a really strange impulse… to sing! This had never
happened before. I sang an Arctic Monkeys song (poorly) and I really enjoyed
it! Before I could gather my thoughts I was lining up another and by the end of
the night I had sung Oasis, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Spice Girls, Shaggy, and
Frozen (when in Korea, do as the Koreans do). I thoroughly enjoyed the karaoke
and I never thought that would happen in my lifetime.
Back at work today but we’ve got another long weekend ahead
of us. I could really get used to these two-and-a-half day working weeks.
