Things I Don't Remember: The Boxer

My first night out on the town in Korea was two parts great fun to one part insanely dramatic and terrible.

To begin, I got on the bus and met Francois at City Hall, where we went together to a going away party for a (foreign) girl who is leaving Jinju. Because the circle of foreigners is so small, it was a good place for me to meet tons of other people. We got there, and it was overwhelming to me. After going an entire week of seeing one or two foreigners, total, I was suddenly in a room full of them, and we were all speaking English. Everyone was pretty much already drunk by the time I got there. It was definitely not what I expected, but I had a fun time and met a few great people, namely: Janice, a tiny little thing from Northern Ontario who sings karaoke songs in Japanese and speaks a lot of French when she is drunk; Justin, quiet and witty, from Montana; CR, who loves to cook and write screenplays, from Northern Michigan; Caroline from England, I'm certain she loves Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Agitha from Brazil who had the best laugh I've heard in Korea; and lastly, Gareth from Wales who loves to watch rugby. It was a great time.

After about an hour or so, myself, Francois, Justin and Janice went to a Noriban, or a singing room (karaoke). We tore it up for an hour; I sang a thrilling rendition of "No Scrubs," everyone yelled at the top of their lungs to "Sweet Child of Mine," Janice sang a weird Japanese song.... it was great.

Above: Janice and Francois choosing songs.

We then decided to go back to a different bar for one more drink. This is where things started to take a turn for the worst. While walking to the Terrace Bar (maybe a five minute walk?), I was accosted by some douchebag from Scotland named Allie. He just started grabbing me, and pushing me and stuff. A complete stranger to me at this point; it was completely inappropriate, even if we DID know each other. So, I turned around and promptly asked him to stop touching me; I told him that he should not touch strangers in this way, it was totally inappropriate. He had a few choice words for me and flipped me off, walked away, and that was that.

We soon arrived at the bar, and Allie was of course there; Francois immediately wanted to leave, and I said I'd go with him. (I don't know my way around yet, and Francois was going to help me find my way back.) As we began to head out I was saying goodbye to the people I had just met when Allie called out, "Goodnight, you fucking nutjob." This was of course completely uncalled for, but I was ready to just ignore him and leave. Francois, however, was really upset by this and punched Allie in the face. Soon, to the horror of everyone else sitting in this bar, a full scale fight erupted, complete with Allie catching Francois on the eyebrow and busting his face open. There was blood everywhere, I stepped through it on my way out. In complete shock, I fled the scene, Janice and Justin helping me into a cab and getting me home.

So it was kind of a terrible night. I woke up the next day with a sense of dread; was EVERY night out in Jinju going to be like this? I decided to meet up with Caroline and Gareth to watch a Rugby game later on that evening to try and make a better impression. We drank a few beers, ate some delicious barbeque pork, and all in all had a lovely time together. It was much more low key, and much more to my liking than the previous night. These people are really nice and cool, and I can't let one bad apple ruin my time here (even if he's a REALLY bad apple). I'm so thankful for friends like Francois who stood up for me (even if picking a fight with a crazy drunken idiot wasn't the best way to do it). He had to have stitches on his left eyebrow and his face looked pretty banged up... and I felt terrible.

This is Francois today, looking much better than yesterday. We got a pizza (!) at the grocery store and had a great time. If you look closely you can see the stitches and the black eye, though.

All in all, the dust seems to have already cleared, though no one remembers seeing a fight between the foreigners before. Of course this happens on my first night out in Jinju. I won't let it keep me in the house though.

In other news, I've already resumed my role of official cat sitter; this weekend, I cat sat for a girl named Colleen who went to Tokyo. I played with her tiny little kitten named Chester, and it was lovely. It was a really rainy day and we snuggled and watched Mrs. Doubtfire together. She informed me she's actually moving back to the states in November and will not be taking Chester with her, so she's trying to find a good home for him. As much as I love kitties.... I have to think about this one.... After all, I'll be returning too, one day.