He Has No Enemies But is Intensely Disliked by his Friends

This Oscar Wilde quote reminded me of my friend Ben, the only difference being that Ben has plenty of enemies. I was lucky enough to have him visit from England over the past week or so.

Ben arrived on Monday and I met him in Cheers for a quick catch up and a few pints. He had just departed Sydney having also just met up with Ed and Amy, as well as a few other friends from our hometown of Bedford, so we had a lot to talk about. Josh and James finished work and joined us, unfortunately because of the distance between Ganseok and Kundae and due to my early morning classes I went home while the drunkards did what they did best. Josh, James, and Ben continued this custom for the week, I’m sort of glad I lived quite far away as an entire week of drinking would have been challenging.

To make up for not seeing Ben during his stay in Korea I met up with him on Friday afternoon. We had all planned on going out that evening so it was stated between Ben and I that we wouldn’t start drinking too early in order not to peak prematurely and would wait until later around the time that Josh and James were due to meet us. After an hour of boringly walking around Hongdae we decided that enough time had passed and we had our first drink around 16:00. Josh was not impressed when he arrived around 23:00 and Ben and I were considerably buzzed.  

It was the weekend that one of my many alter egos had struck again. The Tefl-on Don was his dynamic self, tagging Seoul with his motto. Drake has YOLO, I’ve got TnM.

Saturday morning/afternoon was a real struggle. Ben was adamant on going to the Coex Aquarium in Gangnam so we arranged to meet at 17:00 at Samseong Station, only 20 minutes from my home. Disastrously I was running late and arrived at the station at 17:30 only to go to the meeting point to discover that the guys weren’t there. I tried for a short while to message them to meet them at the aquarium but after as I didn’t receive a reply I thought the best thing to do was to go to the aquarium and hopefully meet them there. When I arrived there was no sign of them, I thought what great mates I have, I was only half an hour late and they’ve ditched me for the day. I bought a ticket and went into the aquarium alone, like I was Billy No Mates. I rushed around hoping to catch them, missing some of the exhibits only to make it all the way through and still be alone. What a great day. I walked back towards the station hoping to receive some sort of contact from them but before I did Ben and Josh appeared from the crowd from nowhere. I smugly asked them “where have you been then?!” It turned out that they were also late getting to the meeting point and when they received my message they headed straight for the aquarium. But due to their lateness they were in fact a few steps behind me along the way. So as I raced through the aquarium they were waiting for over an hour for me to arrive. When I didn’t turn up James even ran back to the station to see if I was still waiting there. What great mates I have! I felt a bit awkward, considering some of the things I called them as I walked around the aquarium. We went to the aquarium as a group and I got to see the sea creatures properly that time around.

 

One of the main reasons we went was that Ben really wanted to see the 3 enormous whale sharks that their website bragged so much about. We discovered that there were no whale sharks on display at this aquarium which Ben was not happy about; he hasn’t been nicknamed Miserable Ben for no reason.

The aquarium was fun, four lads making many terrible puns; often relating to crabs, beavers, and clams (you can insert your own here). 

It is quite harrowing to be so close to a predator even if there is a thick layer of glass between you. I always remember a piece of advice that if you ever find yourself in situation with an aggressive shark then you must punch them on the nose. I’m pretty sure that advice is for sharks… or children, I can never remember.

I always enjoy observing animals, from a safe distance. As unbelievable as some of the BBC documentaries are, they will never put into perspective how astonishing some animals are. The sheer size of a shark, the layers of teeth, and the movement of a fish as it effortlessly glides through the water so streamlined, truly incredible. As I thought this I realised that all of Korea is like an aquarium, there are fish tanks on every corner whereby you can pick out your fish and have it killed, gutted, and on a plate in 30 minutes. Koreans will eat almost anything so I started to think of the exhibition as less of an aquarium and more of a buffet for the locals.

They had a nice penguin display; they’re always fun to watch. It was nice to see that they were put in enclosures that are similar to their natural habitats which is apparently on the set of Spongebob Squarepants.

We headed to Kundae, went for a Korean barbeque and started the night. Our first time out in Kundae, variety is the spice of life and it was a really good evening. Around the area I had seen a bar called Bar Ireland Yuki, we went in but I couldn’t quite understand the relevance to the Emerald Isle. It was an odd place, the bar had hundreds of photos on the walls and ceilings of the staff. It was like a stalkers dream, the only thing missing was a message written on the walls in blood and faeces.

It was really good to see Ben for a few days, although it was a shame that I couldn’t have seen him more over his stay. Although, he’s here till Tuesday afternoon but with the snowfall today hopefully his plane is cancelled… only joking.