Day 44: Clubbing in Hongdae

Most of today was spent lazily at home in our beds.

The weather was fine and I was regretting just staying inside more and more and at some point suggested Celine that we go out for dinner at least - and also buy some bananas.

As we were about to step outside the dorm, I got a message from Johanne asking if we were up for going going to a club tonight with her, her roommate, and a friend of theirs. Of course! Coincidentally, I had just looked in my calendar, thinking that I'd like to go for a drink soon. I haven't really clubbed in Korea except the first time I went to Korea and we went to Itaewon. That was weird. I was not too much of a fan.

I told Johanne that we were on our way out and we agreed to meet up at Sinchon station later in the night and go to Hongdae together.

The Hyundai department store, from where we'd planned to buy bananas, was closed :(( No bananas for us today.
Today we decided to try the last out of the three 'secret' restaurants that Wonjun had showed us. It was We had some really good 돈까스 (Tongatsu = paneer cutlet), that had a very Christmas'y feel to it due to the slight taste of cinnamon.

Since we were going to a club, Celine and I dressed nicely in a dress and skirt accompanied by full make-up. When Johanne and her friends arrived, it dawned on us that we might stand out tonight just a bit since we were going to a hiphop club. It's Johanne. We should have seen it coming that we'd be going to a hiphop club. Oh well. They said we looked fine but that we'd probably just have a couple of extra people hit on us tonight.

We were supposed to download this app and show it to the bouncers to enjoy a free entrance offer until 23.00. We couldn't make it work but were let in for free anyways?

The club was pretty full already but Johanne's friend wanted to drink a little outside the club so after grabbing our entrance bracelets, we went to a kiosk to buy alcohol to drink at the playground area in Hongdae. While standing there, an older Korean man came over and started talking to Johanne. He seemed drunk and took off his jacket (possible to put over her shoulders?) so we decided that it was time to move and go to the other end of the playground area.

Suddenly I felt someone poke my shoulders and turn around to two Korean guys. The one who poked me introduced himself and said that his friend liked me and that he'd come to ask for my number since his friend didn't speak English. I don't have a Korean number so they got my Kakaotalk. I think it's pretty brave to pick out one out of five girls like that so I thought it'd be too rude of me to turn them down just like that. They seemed nice anyways. No big deal.

Aight, the girls had finished their drinks and wanted to get in the mood by going to a 노래방 (noraebang = karaoke room) first.

When you go to a noraebang like this, you either pay per 2 songs or for a specific amount of time. If you go to one like we did where we paid for an hour or so, they'll give you 'service,' which equals to more, free time in the room. We got a lot of extra time (I've heard that this happens a lot in Hongdae and Sinchon since this is where the students go) and returned to the club between 01-02.00

So somehow we had misunderstood the entrance thing. The entrance was free until 23.00 but only if you stayed inside the club all this time. If you came back like we did, even with a bracelet, you'd have to pay an entrance fee, which sucked a bit. Oh well. We'd left our stuff in there in a locker so we had to pay to get back in. Now that we were there, the other part of the club was opened. The club consisted of two parts and this second part was supposedly a lot more lively than the first part we'd gone to when we first entered at 23.00.

Alright so we go down and find a spot near the dj stand where we can dance in our little group. Celine had been worried about what would happen if she'd have to dance with some guy. "How do you dance with guys?" she asked. It was cute. I told her to twist her body and flail her arms but she probably shouldn't take advice from me because I am just as awkward when it comes to dancing with people. Celine and I didn't know most of the music played there but the atmosphere there was cool so we enjoyed it anyways and tried to follow the rhythm. Once a song that we knew came on, we grew 200% more energetic and sang along !

I truly enjoyed going out with a small group of girls like this. If anyone got a bit too close to one of us, the rest of the girls would shield her or switch spots with her so all in all it was a very comfortable experience.

From pretty early on, one guy dancing near me kept trying to make eye contact and I was desperately avoiding it. Celine and Johanne seemed to find it pretty funny and tried to persuade me to acknowledge his presence after a while. I did, and danced with him. I was pretty proud that I managed to without crawling out of my skin from awkwardness. Celine cheered on me on the side. 

I went upstairs to the lobby to chat with him and both Johanne and Celine came up to check on me several times if I really wanted to talk to him or just couldn't escape the conversation. I wish it'll be like that again next time we go out.

Now back to dancing! We danced a lot and once in a while one or two of us would go outside because they felt cold from the A/C that was placed right beside where our little group was dancing.

At some point it was Johanne, Celine, and I outside. We were just standing there, talking, when three Korean guys came over. They didn't seem to have any intentions but striking up casual conversation, which is nice only in a while.

As I was talking to one of them, another Korean guy came over and this one was most likely drunk.

He started talking to me, almost unaware of the other guy I was talking to, then stopped, apologized to the first guy for breaking into the conversation, and asked if he could talk to me as well. First guy was just like.

"Yea sure"

And so second guy goes ALL in.

He said I was pretty, that I looked like an angel, that I must be a barbie doll, and was convinced that I was a goddess. Yes. Even though I tried to answer in Korean, he insisted on speaking English to me.

He asked me where I was from and if I had a boyfriend. I lied and said I had one and he asked if the guy in front of my, the first guy, was my boyfriend, which we both denied.

Oh well, I 'had a boyfriend' se he excused himself and went back over to his friends.

First guy and I continue our conversation with Johanne, Celine, and the guy's two friends. Not many minutes pass before the guy comes back over, sing's Aqua's Barbie Girl, and asks me the same questions that I already answered before.

He was definitely drunk.

While I had to answer the questions once again and explain that 1) no, the guy I was talking to was not my boyfriend and 2) yes, my [non-existing] boyfriend was very sexy, the three guys were back inside. Celine, Johanne, and I laughed about it afterwards.

We danced for a while more with Johanne's two friends. 

There was a pretty attractive guy and his friends dancing near us that I wanted to dance with but once I'd made my way over to him, I was too much of a scaredy-cat to try to strike up a conversation hahah.

At some point we lost Johanne's friends. They had probably gone somewhere else to dance so we decided that it was time to return home. It was around 05.00 anyways. But which night out is complete without McDonald's to round it all up?

That morning we went to sleep after the sun had gone up ☼