I was enlightened to a new phenomenon in Korea that did not exist in my lexicon of experiences. Normally on a Saturday night I end up going out to some hot spot in Pusan such as Kyungseung (경성), PNU (부산대학교), Haeundae (해운대), or Semyeon (서면) and hitting the local bars, clubs, or Makgeolli place (막걸리). Last Saturday night I happened to be having a guys night with my buddies Marc and Tim in the Kyungsung area. We began to hit all of the normal favorite bars such as Kino-Eye, Thursday Party, etc… but I have now discovered my favorite bar in Korea. At the risk of sounding like Jay and Silent Bob from Clerks, my new favorite bar is just having beers in front of a mart on a busy corner. I know it sounds lame but keep with me while I explain.

In a normal bar situation you pull up to the bar and buy a pricey drink (same price of 2 drinks at a bar will let you drink all night at the Apex) then you either speak over very loud music or attempt to go dance. During this time you see scores of the same people rolling in their crew. Generally as the night moves on you will be seeing the same people and same antics if you stay at that one bar. At the Apex basically the night life of Korea is brought to you as it parades on by which can be hilarious and extremely fun in it’s own right.

Things that happened on Saturday night:

• Between Marc, Tim, and I we saw 20+ people we knew who all decided to stop for a chat
• Insanely funny and crude conversations while surrounded by tons of people who can’t figure out what our English-ee slang means…absolutely hilarious!
• I saw a fight where a Korean guy got a tooth knocked out
• High fiving random ajashis as they walked buy
• Meeting a group of Korean girls that speak better Spanish than English
• Teaching said girls every Spanish curse word we know
• People playing strip flip cup
• Turkish dude with a Kebab cart