Today I feel absolutely ill. What a way to start the week—weak. Sore throat. Etc. I’m wallowing in misery at the moment. But to continue the narrative…
On Saturday the six of us—Dana, Bianca, Nika, Jonah, Kiehl, and I—woke up relatively early to hit the mountain. It took us forever to find breakfast and the correct bus, so we didn’t end up hiking until at least noon. It was a chilly, overcast day, too—a good enough temperature for hiking, I suppose, but it certainly didn’t lend any beauty or glamour to the drab winter scenery. I remember thinking as we were walking how happy I was that it is even possible to hike in Korea at this time of year. Sure, it makes me sad sometimes when it’s cold and there’s not even snow, but year-round hiking pretty much makes up for that small flaw. Anyway…I found I was horribly out of shape, but I kept up okay. We hiked a couple 700m peaks, made a loop, and headed back down. It was really nice to be hiking again (the last time was in northern Vietnam), especially with friends. It seems that too often we just end up sleeping and eating and drinking and don’t really do anything worthwhile together, so this was a nice change, even though it was only a five hour break from said partying. Dana and Kiehl made sure to end our hiking with a bang, skinny-dipping in the icy stream with a few casual Korean onlookers. It was a hoot.
That night, we went out to dinner, followed by a bar, and finished at a DVD bang. We were having trouble finding something suitable to eat and in the end, we ended up eating probably the least suitable meal possible. It was pretty good, but oh-so-spicy and not very filling kimchi soup does not mix well with soju and bamboo wine. But it did make for an amusing time. I’m pretty sure all of Daejeon has a poor opinion of Americans now, after the cultural ambassadoring we did on Saturday night! At the very least, they will never associate Americans with class.
When we finished eating, we went down the street to Miller bar for some more drinks. Here is where things got really crazy…or Jonah got crazy. He broke three glasses, called one of our absent friends at least 40 times, and finally stole food from the table next to us. Granted, we all thought they left (since when do guys and girls go to the bathroom together?!?) and they had been done with their food for a while, but yeah…probably not the best thing to do. Especially since it was cold spicy squid. I don’t think these people were too mad about the food, but somehow in the excitement their cigarettes had disappeared. Dana sprinted to a store half a mile away to replace them, and then shortly afterward we discovered them in sly Jonah’s pocket. Sooo funny…and yet, so mortifying. I usually hate to be part of a rowdy group because I don’t like to be thought of as obnoxious, but I think we were at least borderline amusing to our neighbors and there was certainly no harm done to anyone at the end. Except Jonah, who proceeded to puke multiple times that night. Poor kid.
After the cigarette and food stealing incident, it seemed time to go, so we packed it up and headed to a DVD bang (a room you can rent to watch DVDs). I’d never been before and I was really excited for it, but of course I passed out halfway through. Too much ice cream and beer. Plus, the new 007 was not enough to keep me awake. At least I stuck it through, though—by the end, our group had dwindled to three.
We headed home around 2:30. After an incident with management, who seemed none too happy about our sleeping arrangements (you’re evidently not supposed to have six people in a room), we finally went to sleep.
The next morning, I was feeling the effects of the night before. I swear, I used to be able to have multiple nights in a row even wilder than that, but as I’ve gotten older, it just hits me harder and harder. I suppose it’s a good thing—all that alcohol is certainly hard on the ol brain—but it’s annoying when you’re trying to say goodbye to your friends and all you can do is snarl like a bear. We woke up early so we could all get home at reasonable hours; plus, what else was left in Daejeon to do? Hiking….check. Funniest movie ever….check. Most ridiculous night out in Korea…check. All that was left was Costco. Mmmm, love me some of that pizza first thing in the morning!
We parted ways around noon. I walked to the bus station (a familiar route by now!) and proceeded to sit in a bus for the next three hours. Unfortunately, the roads and reading and my abysmal condition got to me and just before we reached Buyeo I had the misfortune to encounter my pizza again. Gross!
And now today, I am paying for the glory of my weekend away. Sigh. Growing up sucks.