friday night go stop, chillin' with bobo at gyopo

october 24~

the next friday after class, i hung out with my students. we picked up some chicken and hung out at my apartment, playing go stop and drinking beer. there were many spills as the game grew in intensity.

[richard, daniel, jisu, and philip]

[after most of us ran out of coins and dollar bills (i dont remember who won that night), we gave up go stop; i taught jisu some things on guitar]

[philip - he works as a radiologist (operating the x-ray) at a hospital in suwon; he likes 소맥 ('so-mek' - 'soju' mixed with beer, 'mekju'). he's planning on going to austrailia soon where he hopes to marry an australian girl and continue his medical career]

[daniel - he works as a surgeon at a hospital in suwon; he and philip met in med school and came to gukje together. apparently daniel gets considerable amounts of time at work to sleep or study english in his office; i once asked him if he ever nodded off during surgery; his answer: maybe. daniel wants to move to a larger hospital where he can do easier surgeries that pay higher and have less risk, such as cosmetic surgery; many of the surgeons in korea are pursuing this same career direction, and there are becoming fewer and fewer surgeons who will do the more dangerous surgeries.]

october 25~

the next day, saturday, i headed back into seoul (when i lived in suwon, i went into seoul pretty much every weekend, sometimes twice a weekend, or even during my afternoon break) to meet my friend bobo. we went to gyopo bookstore together in jongno where i wanted to pick up some books. i bought the brothers karamazov (which i have as of yet completed half and from which i am taking a break) and several short story books by korean women authors, and one novel bobo recommended called The Interpreter, written by a korean american woman, which i just started. bobo helped me get a membership to the bookstore, and ive already saved almost $7!

[this is the building that houses gyopo bookstore - jongno]

[bobo]