Arabian Nights and Sweet Potato Cake!

Makolli
Originally uploaded by Shazzbazz draws the Line!.

It's been a lazy day for me, quite the emotional roller coaster too. I went out most of the day yesterday, normally Fridays are my busiest days even though it was designated as my art day (seeing that I have no classes), oh well I have Saturday and Sunday too. But, today I awoke in shock to hear of the time and to acknowledge my lack of motivation to get up with my now pathetic attempt to have two alarms that was sure to get me up and early. Luckily for me a friend called to wake me up at 11am, but I can say that I did go to bed late after a night out.

Where did you go, you may ask; well I went and met coworkers, as we were to celebrate a birthday, Korean style. I was late; my usual thing, not that I think I'm fashionably late, I just have poor time management skills... anyway the coworkers who ended up being just the girls had already started drinking Makkoli (for definition: http://www.sogang.ac.kr/~burns/cult951/korliq.html) in your typical Korean Makkoli drinking spot, which is a really interesting experience that is not to be missed, the atmosphere is really cozy especially in the winter season. We ate some yummy sesame leaves pajeon (Korean pancake) I love the stuff and the red hot peppers that they put on it, even though everyone else at the table struggles to take them off, sacrilege!!!

We then left for our next place (Daeguans normally hit numerous places from a restaurant with meat and alcohol to drinking spots, to a nightclub then ending the night in a singing room) the chosen place was a nightclub but before we hopped into a taxi we had to buy a birthday cake.

The bakeries here look so scrumptious but it's really quite different to what you expect, as Cherie my sweet tooth partner in crime who loves baked goods soon found out while she stayed in Daegu. However to my surprise the sweet potato cake my coworkers' chose was rather good, either the cake was exceptionally good or my taste buds are really changing!!!

So off to Arabian Nights in our chosen taxi, with a smoking driver, that was until I asked everyone to open their window; having had some drinks (myself that is), being in the backseat at night in a Korean taxi (they drive as if on a race track) with cigarette smoke... smells like a disaster waiting to happen! The club was huge, amazingly huge. The ceiling was fantastic as if you were looking at the night sky (hard to do in a city) the seating was plentiful and so were the booking agents!

Hhhmm... Korean nightclub culture involves the act of booking, basically these agents come waiters/waitresses grab hold of girls and place them at a table with guys, the girl stays for one drink or more if she wants. But the act itself I find a little disturbing at times, as the girls sometimes just want to be left alone but are dragged over to a table sometimes of older icky men, after the one drink you should see the girl run! My co-workers were upset that they didn't get asked.

Anyhow back to the entering of the club, the huge stage was right at the back of the club with the small dance floor right in front. It was so far away I felt like the MC Hammer concert I went to in Wembley Arena, where basically he was so small it was a good thing they had screens (not that I missed much anyway)! The band playing at the time of entrance wore bright yellow suits but their movements reminded me of girls in the music video "You Might as well Face it Your Addicted to Love" by Robert Palmer. Not even a smile! The music was terrible too; I call it taxi music or aujumma music. Meaning music for older married women.

The girls did want me to get up and dance I tried but the feet weren't moving, I normally love to dance, but this night it just wasn't happening at all! Several acts came on but the beat was all the same, I realize how much I depend on the beat to get me going, but after concentrating while I sat alone I realized where I knew the beat from… my old Casio keyboard I had when I was kid!!! I finally got up when a Korean hip hop dance group that basically lip synced the songs, anyhow they were cute and different from the rest of the evening that I was able to move! Yay! And that was the evening!