A Mexican in Itaewon....

SADLY I am yet again unable to provide pictoral evidence that I didn't just sit in my room all weekend but like last weekend when Ice Skating was the only exciting thing on the adgenda, this weekend's activity probably isn't worth blogging about but I am still disappointed about how little I have been blogging recently.

One of our friends, Marie, was celebrating her birthday this weekend, and was kind enough to invite Kevin, Charlie and I to celebrate it with her. Her, and it seemed like pretty much every foreigner in Suwon and Seoul, were all headed to Itaewon, which is one of the military base areas in the capital, for the evening so we decided to join in the 'party' and actually do something with our weekend for a change.

Despite the temperature dropping to below freezing for about the 100th day in a row we braved the weather and boarded the train to Yongsan, before catching a cab over to Itaewon, which is about five minutes away. It's pretty ridiculous to think that first the first six months we were here, and heading to Yongsan regularily, we were taking a 1h 30 min subway ride, but these days we are able to get there in about 25 mins, in the comfortable seated surroundings of a train! How different our stay might have been had we not had to board the damn subway to get everywhere!

Anyway once we were there we met Marie and she showed us the Mexican restaurant where we were eating dinner. Being in Itaewon was a pretty surreal experience to be honest. Maybe this says something about how long I have been in Korea for now, but it was actually a shock to see that it was pretty much 50/50 in terms of foreigners to Koreans. A ratio that I have always been on the negative side of (baring my week in Thailand) It's not that I was put off by this of course, but it did seem very strange to be surrounded by so many western people.

The Mexican restaurant where we were was already filled with alot of Marie's friends and we got chatting with a few of them before ordering our meal. Kevin and Charlie are big fans of Mexican food so they were pretty pleased to be eating there, but not having much experience I was just delighted to be eating something different for a chance (no offense Korea!) I think that my six or so experience of eating Mexican have proved that I do actually like it quite alot, and although we're not lucky enough to have Taco Bell or anything in England I look forward to the oppertunity to sample it's cuisine in the near future.

I had a combination meal of a chicken taco and a chicken burrito (inventive I know) it was extremely delicious and for around 15,ooo won it was well worth it.

After eating we headed off to meet some of the group who had headed to a bar which was just down the road from the restaurant and then we went to another place, which pretty ridiculously was laid out like a beach with deck chairs and sand everywhere! But as it started to get late, the three of us flakes were getting tired and decided to head back to Suwon.

Grabbing a delicious Moroccan sandwich for the ride (I know, I'd just eaten right) we got back to Suwon after some much needed fresh air and a good evening in the company of friends.

Speaking of which, next weekend I am playing tour guide for (possibly) the final time in Korea as my friends James and Luke are coming over from England to visit me. They will be arriving on Friday morning and staying for a couple of weeks, in my extremely small room. It's going to be good to have some familar faces around and show two of my closest friends exactly what I have been doing with my life in the next nine months, and hopefully it will make another two weeks pass by as time drizzles away on me heading back home and leaving Korea behind.

The foreigner football season also kicks into effect for it's spring season soon which is something to look forward to. Considering I have done very little exercise over the winter, and not kicked a ball since our last game it is going to be an extremely interesting first training session! To be honest it will just be nice to do something but go to work, eat or sleep!

Well, that's my blogging finished for the week. I hope that wherever you are spring is close to arriving, it's still pretty cold in Suwon, but hopefully we are leaving the snow behind us.

Take care

Ben xxxx

“The best way to waste your life, ... is by taking notes. The easiest way to avoid living is to just watch. Look for the details. Report. Don't participate.”

Chuck Palahniuk