6 Months in Korea!!!

It was 6 months ago today that Gianni and I landed in Seoul, South Korea. It really doesn't feel like it's been that long. We've learned a lot about the culture here and done a bit of traveling. We're both really enjoying living here. I'm so glad we came. I have no idea when else we would have had the opportunity to travel to and explore Asia, but it is so vastly different from any Western country. We aren't doing anything really to celebrate except that it's quiz night, so we're getting some dinner at a restaurant, but that's good enough.

I do want to mention that this last weekend we went to a board game cafe! There are so many things to do in Korea that you can't get in the USA: norae bangs (private, karaoke rooms), PC bang (internet cafe/video game room), arcades, photo booth studios, cat and dog cafes, bowling, DVD rooms. It's awesome! We had been wanting to go to the board game cafe for a long time, and we finally went with Maria and Matthew. There are two options: pay by the hour or unlimited game play. We opted for the unlimited game play, which comes with a free drink, for about $5 per person. They have a nice range of really tasty drinks, including coffee, smoothies, and soda. They don't sell alcohol because they probably want to have it be a place kids can go to as well. They have so many games you can play. The people who work at the cafe are supposed to be able to explain the rules to you, but I don't know how they are able to remember the rules for all the games! We saw them explaining the rules to the people near us. I wonder if their English is good enough to

Punishing the loser with the squeaky hammer!

teach us a new game next time. In addition to all the games and drinks, they also have punishments for the people who lose! You heard me right! If your friends decide they want to punish the loser of a game, they can either embarrass that person by making him or her dress in wigs, hats, and crazy glasses or--the more popular option--hit them over the head with a giant, squeaky hammer! All night, you hear these squeaks of the losers getting hit. It was hilarious! Maybe next time we'll have to implement Korean rules! We started off playing a new game I had never heard of but Maria taught us. You play in teams to try to get two lines of five chips in a row. It was fun, but we were really just killing time while we waited for someone to be finished playing Settlers of Catan. We really enjoy playing it with Maria and Matthew, but I only have the small version, so it was nice to be able to play the real game again. I forgot how long the games take though! All of us were getting kind of board with it as 11pm approached, and we were finishing the second game. We decided that we are going to start keeping score of who wins the most games over the next few months, and the winner will get dinner paid for or something. We had a really fun night, but next time I want to try more games!