Mikan- a bubbly, Korean loving, blonde who is always laughing and has a funny accent from North Dakota
Laura- an amazing girl who is always the biggest sweet heart, loves techno music and anything that lights up that she can spin in the air, from Minnesota
Ange- yet another blonde with a South African accent, a good girl, she was my bestest friend here and always liked to have fun and smile
~~~These were the originals who started the tradition... as teachers come and go in Jinju, we were adding new smiles and saying goodbye to some great ones~~~
March 12, 2010: First Ever Girl's Night
Mikan, Laura, Ange and I decided to take a trip to Busan to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. We arrived, shopped a bit, found a hotel, ate at a Samgyupsal restaurant, went to the bars in PNU to listen to live Irish music and then shopped the next morning. At the beginning of the year we were crazy shopaholics and Korea was still super new to us.
At this point in time, we realized Girl's Night needs to happen much more.. the group we were hanging out with in Jinju was mostly guys & we were the only girls.. so it was soo refreshing getting away from Jinju and living it up.
April 8, 2010: Discovery of the Mecca
HAEUNDAE BEACH.. Home to Elune, Maktum & Fuzzy Navel
In our li'l city of Jinju, dance floors are far and few between. We were going a little stir crazy, and had all sorts of built up energy with no real way to release it. So, we packed up our bags again and went to Busan!
The same 4 girls, with the same missin.. fun, dance and laughter!
This time, Busan was epic.. it was unlike anything we had seen in Korea. Fuzzy Navel was found, a mexican restaurant serving amazing food and margs. We then discovered Elune, which played lots of techno. And we also found Club Maktum... which has a two story giant-silver-fuzzy-lit-up penis as its enterance! I kid you not my friends, Korea is a special place! haha
May 13, 2010: Haeundae Beach
This time, we added a new girl to the mix:
Claire- a spunky blonde Brit, who will also always stay out way past your bed-time
Of course, we had to get our Mexican fix first. Then we ventured to Elune because a British DJ, PunkRolla was DJing. Ooooh P.R., Laura and I fell in love with the DJ! However, the DJ fell in love with the Korean girls, paha.. why wouldn't you when you're in Korea?? Crushed.. :) The music pumped, we were stars as usual.. not very many foreigners there ever.
During the night, we noticed this middle-aged man who is beyond super tan (hardly looks Korean), acting as a promoter/insane dancing/whistle blowing/light up glove rocking star. He was too funny/pervy.. I was dancing on stage, and he grabbed me and put me on his shoulders and I got to bop around the club waaay up high! I won't lie, it felt pretty cool... people don't really do that in the US!!! Then, we spied a couple of white guys up in the VIP (as I said.. super easy to spot, amongst a crowd of Asians). The funny thing is, that instead of THEM coming up to US, they sent a Korean guy friend down to the floor to ask us to come to VIP to meet them... Being Korea, it definitely did not surprise us, although coming from white guys, it DID surprise us!!(Side note... there are Korean Clubs.. I have one in my city.. where a waiter will go up to a girl and say "This guy wants to meet you, come with me to talk to him".. and they DO.. and that is the whole point of the night clubs) We said heck yea, why not?? VIP? They were US Marines who were hanging out with some super wealthy Korean contractors in Busan. So we ended the night with them in the VIP/Karaoke room for a while, definitely a highlight of the night!
The next morning, we rested at the beach, and it was amazing!
May 21, 2010: Ulsan
Buddha's Birthday
Mikan, Ange and I decided to go to Ulsan for part of Buddha's Birthday (a 3 day weekend). We had an amazing time, met some hilarious people, and were bombarded by Koreans who had hardly ever seen a foreigner! This weekend was written about in a previous blog!
June 10, 2010: Haeundae
New smiles:
Christina- an adventurous and crazy soul with an inspirng New Zealand accent
Kirsten- a fun chick who is of course from South Africa and BLONDE
All I wished for my birthday is that it would be spent dancing with my girls! And I got it :) We all had so much fun at Maktum and Elune dancing the night away!!
The next day we played at Gwangali Beach for their celebration of the ocean!
Then the unthinkable happened... there was not a girl's night during, July, August.. SEPTember.. OCTOBER.... what was happening!?? There were lots of vacations imbetween, we were all out discovering Korea and other countries, some got boyfriends, there were festivals happening all over the place.. and we didn't have/take the time to plan a night out together.
Until... my last Jinju girl's night ever, came upon us!
I planned a girl's night, and made everyone promise me it would happen because I leave Korea in about a month! And it happened :)
November, 20, 2010: Haeundae
Meet the new girls:
Sam- although she is definitely not new, this was her first girl's night.. she is my super cool friend from NYC
Angeline- a fun-loving graduate from JMU, Go Dukes!
Dana- Ange's replacement, but her blonde is quite dirtier :), my li'l ecuadorian amiga
I was super excited and also a bit bummed about this girl's night. I was missing my friend Ange, because she had gone back home to South Africa :( She had been at every single girl's night before that, so it was different, but I partied in her name!
We all decided to go to Busan around noon, go ice skating and shopping, and then head to 'za beach! The ice skating hardcore wore us out (and sucked!! bah), so we were all slow at getting ready once we found a love motel. (The love motel let us have 7 in our room, niiice!!) We headed to Fuzzy Navel for mex and margs and then went to Elune!
It was an interesting night. First, at Fuzzy Navel, I noticed a girl at the table beside of us.. and she looked sooo familiar. It took a hot second to figure out how I knew her, but I figured it out! I had met her briefly twice in Beijing, once in a van on the way to different shows (Acrobatics/Kung Fu) and once on my way to Tiananment Square. We talked each time, and knew that we each lived in Korea but never had time to hang out in Beijing.
I was too big of a chicken to walk up to the table of 4 girls and ask if I had met her in Beijing.. even though my friends swore she had been staring at our table earlier in the night. Mikan ended up going to the bathroom at the same time as a friend at her table, and asked her if her friend had gone to Beijing for Chuseok (creeper!), she said yes and they each sat back down at the tables and told us. We screamed a bit, hugged, and talked about our trips! How random?? Neither of us even live in Busan! I love travelling!!
At Elune, the thong guy was there of course. He has been a highlight of all of our trips to Haeundae. Mikan and I tried to get his attention when he was on stage to talk to him, and he ended up inviting all of us to VIP. So we hung out with him a bit and roamed around all of Elune.. a great way to end the last girl's night in Korea!!!
GIRL'S NIGHT, I'll miss you!! I have soo many great memories from every single one :) Cheers to my girls, LYLAS
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