magnetonic

I trust everyone is enjoying their holidays.

I'm not. For one, I don't have a break right now. My school never closes. I will get my vacation time later, whether they like it or not.

Of course, Christmas had to land on a Saturday, when I'm off anyway, but I did have a good time. Jackie and I went to Seoul on Saturday morning. We met our friends Trish and the Downings. We ate lunch at Schlotsky's Deli in 이태원 (Itaewon; an area teeming with foreigners and US soldiers). It was good, but very expensive. Trish left for Thailand.

The four of us then proceeded to the War Memorial Museum, but not before Steve ran out to get a pair of socks because he'd worn too-thin socks. He doubled up and we were off.

The war museum was interesting. Outside there were lots of planes, tanks, copters, missiles, etc., on display. Inside there were lots of displays about war in Korea starting from hundreds of years ago to the present. We spent no less than four hours there. Not my ideal Christmas activity, but what can you do in a country that's mostly Buddhist?

We left for 강남 (Gang-Nam; a somewhat upscale neighbourhood). There were lights and decorations and music and people and such. It felt a little more lively than the wax figures in the museum. We had a free shot of José Cuervo Gold tequila on the street (that you can drink on the street and promote liquor so openly makes up for the lack of Christmas cheer) before finding a not bad restaurant.

The resaurant's menu was quite confusing—and not because it was in Korean. There's a "mandatory" salad bar, onto which you can add a side of steak or some such main dish.

We headed out to Oh Charley's, a random bar on the street. We were shafted on our table, as it was in a strange corner with small chairs. After downing two or three pitchers, we moved to find something with better atmosphere.

On the street we came across a Turskish kebab spot. It looked very appetizing. Steve started talking to the Turks in a language that I could not recognise. They were laughing and saying stuff back, but Steve didn't seem to know what they were saying. It turns out that Steve was speaking Uzbek, which is a form of Turkish, or something. They could understand him, but he couldn't understand them. We didn't eat for some reason. I still don't know why we didn't eat.

We found some place that we had been looking for: a micro brew bar. We went in and I had a brown ale.

We wanted a kebab, but they had literally just closed. So we had some Steff hot dogs instead. We called it a night after the midnight snack.

A hotel was our next stop. It was nice, with a widescreen TV and surround sound speaker system. DVDs were free, sent over the network directly to our room. We got Jersey Girl but fell asleep.

The next day we had good but expensive Vietnamese pho.

We walked to COEX, which is a giant convention centre and shopping mall. It took an hour, equivalent to two subway stops.

There's an "Apple Experience Center" there. The first time I saw nice Apple stuff on display in a long time.

We went to a department store near the bus terminal. I bought a pair of Dr Martens with the money that my parents had not yet sent to me for Christmas. It was a pre-emptive Christmas purchase.

That ends my Christmas/Boxing Day adventure.