First night on the (international) town; back to base at midnight

So on our first Friday night in Seoul, Sam and I decided that Korean food is driving us bonkers (we like it, really, but it gets old kind of fast) and we'd like to go out for a night of Thai food and gay bars. Right in the heart of Seoul, flanked on either side by the U.S. military base and Hooker Hill lies the international enclave of Itaewon (ee-tay-won, sort of).

Itaewon is great for many reasons. First, in our neighborhood we probably only see a half dozen non-Korean folk on any given day. That's not a problem really, except we don't have any friends yet and no one really speaks any English where we live. Itaewon, on the other hand, is TRULY international. Not just American-Euro International, but African, Middle Eastern, non-Korean Asians, etc. There is a lot of flare in the neighborhood, it's crawling with English speakers, and you can get any piece of clothing custom made, tailored, or embroidered for reasonable prices. Second, because it's so international, the Koreans have allowed Itaewon to become the land of vices. You know, there are strip clubs and gay bars. Naturally Sam and I feel right at home. The only problem is that Itaewon is a 45 minute subway ride, and the subway stops running at midnight here. So you have to decide early whether the night is going to be worth a $20 taxi ride (which is actually quite cheap for the distance).

So Sam and I find a cute little Thai restaurant and I get to eat an entirely vegetarian meal that I got to pick from an ENGLISH menu. I've been working on the Korean alphabet, "Hanguel," but I've only just finished learning how to pronounce the letters. Basically, I still only know like five words of Korean.

After Thai, Sam and I decide it's time to enter the land of strange and go to a Korean gay bar. Our first choice, which we selected from a gay guidebook to Korea (they have one of those?) was a tiny wine bar tucked in behind a Reggae bar. Cute, friendly, and slow. So we enjoy our happy hour drinks, buy one get one free cocktails, and move on to the real center of gay life, "Homo Hill."

Homo Hill is really a little alley parallel to the main drag "Itaewonno." There are about 8 bars within a single block, so you definitely know you are in the right place. We walk up and down the alley a few times, debating which bar would be the best to meet friends, and settle into a small one right in the center of the street. It's a mostly expat crowd inside, a few Korean guys, and a ton of twenty-something lesbians in catholic schoolgirl outfits. We figure this is our ideal place, so we enjoy happy hour here (a little too much perhaps), and eventually throw ourselves at a group of friendly looking lesbians. Two of the three ignore us, but one adopts us and gives us the low down on being gay in Seoul. "Gays here, especially gay men, are evil. I've had gay men try to break me and my girlfriend up. Gays will tell lies to come between you two. Gays have AIDS here. If you trust each other, you will survive Seoul. If you don't, say goodbye to your relationship." That was basically me paraphrasing, but to be fair, she really did say all of that.

But what's more, and unbeknownst to us until this point, this is a MILITARY gay bar, as in everyone here is gay and in the U.S. military. Our new mentor explains to us that it's not uncommon for the patrons of this bar to quiz any newcomers at the door about their identities. We tell her that we are English teachers, and she tells us that if she didn't believe us, she would make us show our passports with the teaching visa stamped inside it. Suddenly this strange bar, where the prefer hair style is the buzz cut, suddenly makes sense. We now realize why all of these 50-60 plus patrons know each other and why they are going crazy on the dancefloor. Everyone is in the military, or, as we soon figure out, they have been axed by "Don't ask, don't tell." Lovely.

By the end of the night we are toasting with a male soldier who was celebrating his birthday and planning on getting married to the female soldier across the table. That's right. They are both gay. As the female soldier said to her fiancé, "Hey, consider yourself lucky. Who else would marry you and let you sleep with as many men as you wanted to?" Brilliant, yet bizarre. We finally found the only English teacher in the bar, a nice Canadian from Vancouver who was clearly the most well-adjusted person there. We took down her number, and she very well may be our first friend in Seoul. We'll see.

So the moral of the story is, if you don't think there are gay people in the military, you fly on over to Seoul and we'll show you a nice little spot where the boys and girls like to throw their shirts off and play doctor. More to come! We have a three day holiday Monday through Wednesday, and then we actually begin teaching! Woohoo!