Fireworks Festival

This past weekend was the Seoul International Fireworks Festival. I guess it is kind of a big deal. I met up with Janine at Gecko's and was suppose to meet up with a bunch of friends as well. Of course I couldn't find them, so Janine and I went out on the town alone. We had some dinner. The best Calimari I have ever had is at this place. I think I found a new dining place on the weekends. Janine and I took a cab out to whatever island the fireworks were on and on the cab ride were able to watch most of the fireworks from a bridge over the river to get to the island. I was amazed at the amount of people there. There must have been close to a million people crowded around this island and surrounding area to watch the fireworks. Once they finished Janine and I walked to 7/11 to get a street drink (this is becoming a tradition) and walked back into town. We just bummed around and ran into my friends who I hadn't seen in a very long time and decided to meet them in Hongdae. Hongdae is another university part of town. So we go, got lost, got ripped off by a cabby and finally met up with my friends at Tin Pan, a bar in Hongdae. It was packed, it felt like the Anvil on a saturday night. It was ok though. By this time, after not finding our friends, or people going home on us the night was pretty much lost and we weren't having the greatest time. We left Hongdae to go back to Itaewon to spend the night. I just wanted to go to sleep so bad! So we went to the Hamilton Hotel. Janine said there was a Jinjabang there. From what I gathered it was a hostel of sorts, but with access to hot tubs and a sauna. Was I ever wrong. It was the sauna of the hotel. 10$ to stay the night, access to the hottubs and the sauna and a sleeping room where people can just sleep on the floor. Good enough. I was tired enough to sleep on the floor. So we get there. I go into the area and there were people just sleeping on benches, floor, some people in the shower. A lot of them naked. I felt like I was going to enter another movie...this time a porno. So i just round a corner to sleep in, and after the persistant snoring kept me awake for about an hour, i went to sleep. It was really odd, just to see people walking around naked like nobody's business. I got up pretty early and came home. I'm not sure how I feel about the social scene in Seoul. I am sort of disappointed thus far. I hope more weekends to come are better. I've had fun, but it really hasn't been at all like the minute expectations I had. Next weekend I am suppose to go to a birthday party. Hopefully that will be a little more regular. I need some regularity. I'm feeling quite a bit of regret this weekend of being in Seoul.