At the movies...

Well, for some reason my internet connection isn't working in my room. Korean internet security is really strict, so although there is nothing wrong with the network I, at times, will not get internet access.

Anywho, what I've been up to. Well I went to the movies. And that was interesting.

They don't put butter on their popcorn here, but they do carmel and cheese flavored popcorn. You can also get both at the same time, although it wasn't for me. I chose to get a mango drink instead, which was GODLIKE. The more I think about it, the more I realize America needs to catch up. We need to get up to speed on on internet infrastructure as well as mango drink infrastructure. Seriously people, let's get with the times.

Anywho, we saw the Karate Kid 3, which was basically a remake of the first one. This one takes place in China, however, and instead of Karate Mr. Miyagi we've got kung-fu man Jacky Chan as the teacher. I won't go into details about the movie, but let's just say it involves plenty of flipping, 12-year olds kissing (felt pretty unclean at that point), and Jackie Chan delivering one of his best performances yet (seriously, he was the best actor in that movie).

Going to the movies has generally the same vibe as going to the movies in America but there are differences. The first thing you will notice is that you are assigned seats by your ticket. The "best" seats are reserved for those who buy the tickets first and the last people who buy tickets will generally be put in the rows closer to the screen. What do you do if someone if someone is sitting in your seat when you get there? Just turn to the teenage boy who took your seat and yell "chugu le, papo?" (do you want to die, idiot?). Bonus points: his girlfriend will probably dump him after that. Score.

The next thing you'll notice is how clean the theater is. American theaters make you feel as though you should take a shower upon returning home. Korean theaters by constrast, have a total lack of candy, popcorn butter, soda stuck to the floor. Hooray for not feeling like a fly caught in a trap when I need to get out of my seat. Honestly, EVERYTHING is much cleaner in Seoul...especially the Metro. Oh yeah, another bonus. True players can get their mack on extra hard in Korean theaters because every other arm rest flips up to allow you and your date to embrace just as Jacky Chan is beating down some 12 year old ass. Wicked.

So you're there in your comfortable and clean seat, with your cheese popcorn and mango juice thinking, "wow, Seoul knows how to party" and then the commercials begin. And I'm not talking about some "let's all go to the lobby" bullshit. I'm talking about a non-stop power-hour of ridiculous why-would-anybody-want-this-retarded-crap commercials. It was like any marketers wet dream and it was twenty minutes long. I shit you not, close to 15% of this movie was devoted to shoes, clothing, cellphone advertisements...oh yeah, and one trailer for Toy Story 3. One particularly strange animated commercial showed factories pumping smoke into the air, which caused the polar ice caps to melt. What comes next in the commercial you ask? Well naturally polar bears dancing in hell. For some reason they were extremely happy and I could not pick out what the hell the commercial was trying to sell me. My Korean speaking friends could not decipher it either. WTF indeed. Yet another commercial featured a scantily clad women promoting Soju (a vodka like drink made from rice, like korean sake) to a crowd made up primarily of minors. What does the commercial ask them?

"How many bottles can you drink?"


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After the movie we went out for Shabu Shabu. A place where they bring you food and you grill it yourself. Sounds like a lot of work, but it's really fun when you're pounding beer and Soju. Oh yeah, and Kimchi ages like wine. I had some old Kimchi that was so good, I can only assume that they started making it when Napoleon had crossed the Rhine. Baseball is fairly popular Korea, so during dinner we got to watch the Samsung Team pound some team not sponsored by a corporation. Poor bastards didn't stand a chance.

Oh yeah, and there was a world cup game going at at 3:30 in the morning. I didn't stay up for it, but even at 11:00 the streets were littered with girls carring around their drunk boyfriends. I assume there were many that probably did not even make it to the game.