Pardon me. Could you tell me where Hooker Hill is?

Did the title grab your attention? It's not what you think. There was no dirty old man asking me directions to a hooker bar in Korea. Nor was it a smart ass korean kid who thought it would be funny to say that to a foreign girl. nope. it was me. i was the one who tapped a young american couple on the shoulder and asked them (mumbled and avoided eye contact) "Pardon me. could you tell me where hooker hill is?
"

to give you an idea of what it is...it's a hill that real korean hookers live on. they leave their doors open and are scantily clad in their underwear waiting for koreans, vagabonds, buddist monks (yes! i actually saw a buddist monk on the street!) to solicite them for business. now why exactly do i want to know where hooker hill is? well...

i was there to meet some friends. all the way up hooker hill, admist the dingy,dimly lit brothels, are little hole in the wall dance clubs and lounges. (yeah right) i mean, i do have to be honest, most of them are pretty crappy looking and i probably wouldn't trust any guy who said his favorite hang out spot was on this street. we are in itaewon...the capital of foreign world in seoul. all the expats come here and there are plenty of bars on every corner. but at the top of the hill is a bar called stompers. it is owned by a british or irish guy (it was too loud to distinguish the accent) and all the expats come to hear and to play music. i was a bit skeptical at first, but i found that it was small and cozy and the musicians don't blare their music so loud that it hurts. don't get me wrong...it's not upscale at all. and because it's so small, once about 20 people get in there, you might need an oxygen mask to get through the haze of cigarette smoke. but it was a good time. i met some people that i had hung out with earlier for st. patty's day and we danced for awhile to an all chick korean band playing beatles music. it was rad. (i get to say rad because we were listening to beatles music).

st. patty's day was really a great time. and to think i almost bailed and didn't go...because of a cold. a cold! i cannot believe what a whiny brat i can be sometimes. well, i must toughing up a bit because despite the cold (forecasting snow) and my cold i made it out.

as for activities there wasn't a lot going on. the excitement was probably just in there being SO MANY foreigners. it was like being in america again, only the foreigners came from all over the world. and there was free guinness. ah! i love guinness. you were only allowed one cup so it wasn't like they gave away tons and tons of alcohol. i did however partake my 10 oz of guinness and it was devine.

there was also a band playing from ireland. they sang and they talked with their delicious accents. i really wanted to hug them all. but nothing compared to the parade with the adorable koreans dressed up as irish folk! seriously, it was by far the cutest thing i have ever seen. i think the only thing cuter could have been little korean children in irish hats or something (because what is cuter than asian babies...except maybe puppies).

anyway, i was there with a lot of different people and we danced and laughed and had a great time until we were all so frozen we couldn't move our hands. we wandered the streets until we found a western bar called USA or i think it actually might have been called western bar. there were about 20 of us and there was no one else there so we had the place to ourselves. after awhile we played a drinking game called social but with the most horrible light beer you can imagine. and there were so many of us playing that after almost an hour, i had only gotten through about a quarter of my beer. that was ok though. i hadn't drunk much of anything all day and it was more fun to watch people who had been drinking a lot constantly forgetting what they were doing.

anyway, it was a great time and i took a lot of pics of the parade which i will post soon. but it's late and i'm trying to become more organized which means i have to get up early so i need to hit the sack. goodnight:)