Meat, Soju, & Beer in Korea
Ah Korea. An excellent place to visit if you'd like to test the capabilities of your liver, expand your waistline, crash your immune system, and likely take years off your life in just a few short days.
And that's exactly what we did in Korea... No temples. No museums. Not a single cultural or touristic attraction to speak of, actually. Just good friends–both old and new, lots of delicious food, a bit of light shopping, and way, way too many bottles of soju. And beer. And mackgeolli. And fucking bag drinks.
We arrived in Seoul on a beautifully sunny Thursday afternoon and made our way to our adorable Airbnb in a traditional (read: ramshackle) Korean neighbourhood just outside of Itaewon. We grabbed a couple of beers at the Family Mart (as you do) and posted up on the roof to wait for my good friend Andrew Musick to finish work.
Around 6 o'clock we made our way to Musick's house to catch up over some beers before eventually meandering over to his neighbourhood BBQ spot for the first of many meals comprised solely of red meat, beer, and soju.
And the next few days in Seoul followed essentially the same pattern: wake up late, scrounge up some lunch, try to rehydrate, do a bit of shopping, then meet friends for dinner and drinks that would carry on until the early morning hours.
Or the late morning hours, if you're hanging out with Michael's friend Taeyang.
When we peeled ourselves out of bed to leave Seoul on Monday morning, we were both ready for an early night and a vegetable or two. But we had dinner plans with some of Michael's old classmates in Daejeon, so instead it was meat and soju again. And then a couple of hours in the noraebang, for good measure.
After Daejeon, we spent a lovely night with one of Michael's old classmates, Juhee at her home in Sejong City. She made us an incredible dinner of Galbi Jjim (short ribs) and Miyeok Guk (seaweed soup), plus about a million side dishes... and while we still drank too much soju, we did manage to get to bed at a reasonable hour.
We caught the train to Daegu on Wednesday morning and vowed to have at least one early night before the weekend, but somehow we wound up at a bar for trivia night, drinking cheap beer, and making new friends. And we lost to a team called Chick-Fil-Atio.
Our last weekend in Korea was just like almost every weekend I've ever had in Korea–lots of delicious food, an almost equal amount of soju, a few bag drinks, and a steady stream of friends to hang out with.
To Nick, Meredith, Yujeong, David, and Kelly–it was great to see you all and thank you so much for making Daegu feel like home again! And to Nolo, thank you for coming all the way up to Daegu to visit... and thanks for arriving at 1am and ensuring that we'd be out wayyyyy past any reasonable hour.
