The cultural and language clashes are usually either really frustrating or just hilarious. Bender and I experienced both sides of the spectrum in about a half hour tonight. We managed to buy tickets to World Trade Center after a few awkward looks from the cashier. I think Bender finally got someone to understand when he said "9-11". We then had about an hour to kill so we went to grab a beer around the corner. In Korea it's pretty much illegal to purchase just a beer at a restaurant without ordering some sort of food plate to go with it. We ordered a couple of cheap beers and the only thing that looked half decent on the menu was the "French Fried." The silkworm larvae wasn't gonna do the job. Now we weren't expecting to be served up with American fries, but what arrived at our table may just have been the nastiest combination of foods I've ever seen. Basically, it was a tray of corn covered in cheese. Bender took one bite and said "I'm done." I made it a couple more, but then the gag reflex started to kick in and that was the end of that adventure. Yeah, that one fell on the frustrating side of things. I was hungry.

When we got back to the theater, we handed one of the doormen our tickets. He immediately began to smile. And this wasn't the "aww foreigners" kind of smile. That bastard knew exactly what was about to go down. He led us to our seats. Hold on, I mean seat. It was a love seat. When we purchased our tickets, there were red seats and green seats. We didn't know the difference so we just picked two next to each other on the green side. Yeah, they were next to each other alright. There were couples all around us making out. Really, it was just two seats together with no armrest in between, but it was easily the gayest experience here so far, and also one of the funniest. Luckily once the movie began, we were able to spread out and we each got our own loveseat. I gotta say though, I did miss Bender a little bit when he moved away.

A quick note on the movie, 20 minutes in, I knew I wouldn't be able to handle it. I saw United 93 and it was pretty emotional, but WTC was about 10x that. I think it was a good movie, probably too good for just five years removed. I don't know, Ground Zero is still a massive void and they just found more human remains at the site yesterday. It's still too real. That was the most uncomfortable I've ever been in a movie theater.

Friday night was our first time experiencing Itaewon at night. David, the foreign teacher I work with, lives down there so he showed us around. He showed us too much. Really, the problem is Itaewon does not close. There's usually that point where you're forced to stop drinking because, well, the sun is coming up. When that stop trigger isn't active, things can get messy. The last place we went to, the one that left Bender and I in a coma all day on Saturday, was at a place called Hooker Hill. It was just as sleazy as it sounds. A lot of the bars had girls sitting outside yelling out in Konglish trying to seduce foreigners. Thankfully we avoided those places. But what we unfortunately did not avoid was Polly's Kettle House. All they serve there is Soju Kettle. Soju mixed with Kool-Aid. It tastes pretty damn great. So great that after we left the place at 6 am, Bender and I both tried to get in separate cabs to bring us home. Seems normal, but remember, we don't speak Korean. We both know what station we live out, but Korean is all about pronounciation and damn, I can't even pronounce it right when I'm sober. So we didn't get anywhere. I was also on a bus at some point. I have no idea where I thought I might be going. I finally made it home at 8:30 am. Bender passed out in a cab, lost his debit card and then resumed passing out on the subway. He got home at 11am. It was pretty horrendous. But I feel like we needed to get that night over with. You know, the one where you hit bottom and then the only place to go is up.

Teaching was going great until the end of last week. I feel like I tried too hard in the beginning to be the "cool teacher" and while doing that, I think I missed my best chance to gain the kids' respect. There's only a few classes that are really out of control, but they are driving me crazy and it's kind of ruining the rest of what's been a good experience so far. I'm gonna have to get tougher this week. I might make the bad students sit on the floor during class. In one of the worst classes, where all the boys do no work and just yell all class, I told them I was going to throw them out the window. They said the police officer would come and get me. I told them there's no way he would care. He'd understand. And really, I think he would.

I moving into my new place tomorrow. It's definitely going to be smaller, but I'm so looking forward to it. I've been sleeping with the light on the past few nights just to tame the mosquitoes. The two dogs in the apartment complex bark 24/7. The fruit guy driving around in his van at 9am with his boombox hawking apples never fails to wake me up. It's just got to be better than this. As I was telling Bender earlier, I think tomorrow will be a big day in my Seoul experience. If the apartment is half-decent and I can get back on track with some of these kids, I'm locked and ready to ride out one hell of a year. Otherwise, the long cold winter in Seoul may feel just a bit more colder this year.

(Photos- A Buddhist temple in Anguk (top) and the boys getting silly in Itaewon)