Ending my two-week vacation in style

I'm having Indian lunch with one group of friends today, and then it's dinner and an art museum at one of Seoul's historical palaces with others.

I only left the Seoul are for one day during my break, when I went to Suwon, but I had a great, relaxing vacation, did almost exactly what I wanted to each day, ha ha ha, and spent lots of time with friends I have known here for a few months, and new friends, as well. So to me it feels like a very fun vacation, without traveling far.

At least two friends and I are planning on going to the the large port city of Pusan (also spelled Busan) in October for its annual film festival. Others might join us. When I meet some new friends of friends, they are amazed at how much I know about museums, plays, films, music, etc. in and around Seoul, and some have called me a "culture guru," ha ha ha. It isn't as easy to research information like that here, because of the language barrier, so when I find out about something that excites me (like, say Judas Priest and Michael Schenker Group concerts, or "Chicago: The Musical" and "Evil Dead: The Musical") , I am doubly happy.

A week or so ago, I saw what looked like a fun jazz club one evening in a "quiet" (if there can be such a thing in Seoul), historical-section-meets-European-artsy-section called Samcheon-dong. Some friends and I went to it on Friday night, and wow, it was everything I hoped it would be! It is called La Cle; it's in a basement, and looks just like an old jazz club from the 1950s in Paris or San Francisco (because, let's face it, there were very likely no cool jazz clubs in Korea in the 1950s). The atmosphere is excellent, the piano/drums/upright bass trio that played that night was great, and I loved the dank, musty, old-basement smell. I told my friends who I went with that when I am in Seoul, if they don't know where I am, I am probably at La Cle, ha ha ha.

Later that night, I went out with some newer Korean friends to a restaurant that serves ramuyen (spicy ramen) in old, beat-up, dented, metal bowls with scorched bottoms. One of them told me that Koreans occasionally like to order ramuyen in this style of bowl because it reminds them nostalgically of the tougher economic climates here. There is a special name for this style of ramen. When I find the napkin that she wrote that name on, I will post it here. Anyway, it looked great, and I really wanted to try it, and I did, the next day. By the way, maybe you already know about this, but I had never heard of it before coming to Korea: cheesy ramuyen. It's simply putting a slice or two of American cheese on your ramen, letting it melt a bit, and then stirring it all together. Not the healthiest meal option, I know, but though it sounds strange, it tastes great.

More soon. I have been wanting to update this blog more often, but haven't been around computers a lot during my vacation. It's back to my office tomorrow, so I will have both a computer and air conditioning, both of which make blogging easier.