Day 1 - The Longest Day Ever

Despite having to sit bitch for 12+ hours, the flight wasn't bad at all as I was able to catch up on some movies, dozed off when I could, and played some games on my DS. Out of all the movies my limited attention span could tolerate, Juno was by far the best movie I saw on the plane. It was a very pleasant surprise and I didn't think I could enjoy watching a movie about a high school girl getting pregnant as much as I did.

The flight landed a little early, and considering the time (06:00), getting my luggage and passing through immigration wasn't bad at all. My cousin and aunt were waiting for me at the terminal and my uncle picked us up at the curb. After a couple of minutes of catching up, they asked if I was hungry, to which I responded, "I can eat". After about 10 minutes of indecisiveness on everyone's part, I put my foot down and suggested McDonald's. Yes, my very first meal in Korea was McDonald's. My uncle not ever having McDonald's breakfast before said it was terrible.

After breakfast, we ran errands. I dropped off all the crap my relatives from the states had me deliver and it felt great being relieved of that burden. Once we were done, we went to my aunt's place where I met my cousin's son for the first time ever!

I don't remember the last time I held a baby, so it was a little frightening at first, but I didn't drop it or make it cry so I guess I'm good.



My uncle still dissatisfied about his breakfast wanted to go eat, so went to some restaurant to have some kind of pork and kimchi dish:



After lunch we split up and my girl cousins took me shopping. I told them to pick a top that would allow me to fit in better with the natives, so my cousin Min-Hee picked and bought me an awesome but absolutely fob-ulous hoodie:



As a thank you I bought her baby an awesome outfit:



Feeling pretty exhausted from the red-eye flight, running errands, eating, and shopping, I took a nap for a couple of hours until it was time to pick Stephen up from Seoul's Incheon International Airport:



We got there at 5:50 PM and at 6:25 PM, he finally appears:



Stephen and I decided that we'd eat first and then check into the room. We had Korean BBQ which is probably a better way to kick off a trip in Korea than McDonald's, but I waited for Stephen on purpose. That's how bulgogi brothers do it. If you notice in the pictures, the vents are pulled down to the grill, and while it's not 100% effective, it does an awesome job. Despite neither of us getting much sleep in the past 24 hours, we decided to drink, but that goes without saying:



We were probably more exhausted than drunk, but the night must go on. Stephen has a high school friend living in Itaewon, so after checking in and resting a bit, we made plans to rendezvous with her there. Since we had time to kill, we decided to scope out the area:



Later we had some Glenfidditch whiskey at the hotel bar which was kind of a rip off quantity wise (tiniest shot into a glass of ice ever) but at least it was good. My cousin Yunhee met up with us and we made way to Itaewon. It was around 11:00 PM and trying to acquire a cab at this point was annoyingly difficult. It's not that there weren't any cabs. On the contrary, there were many and we must have got refused around 20 times. Taxis are extremely cheap in Korea so at this time of night, so it has to be worth it to them to take you around. We finally found a nice cab, but it was of the more expensive variety. I think it came out to $5.00 whereas the normal cabs would have been around $2.50.

At Itaewon, Stephen was anxious to drink so we entered a random dive bar only to be denied because we brought a girl. Wow.

We finally met up with Stephen's friend Nicole and went to a trashy but packed lounge called B-One:



After they were sufficiently caught up and parted ways, we waited for Yunhee's friend Nari and my other cousin Ki-Young. The drinks at B-One or whatever were pretty strong, but Stephen and I were still anxious to drink so we had soju in a street vendor tent (pojahng mahchah):



Once everyone convened, we took a cab to Gangnam Station and drank more at a bar called Lemon Terrace:







Nari and Yunhee left us around 3:00 am when Ki-Young decided to take us to one final stop at Chungdahmdong. More drinking ensued and we'll just have to leave it at that because I'm sure by now it's boring to hear that we just kept drinking.

We finally got home at 7:00 AM or so after 12 hours of drinking. It was awesome and somehow memorable.