I went out Friday night here in Ulsan.  There’s a couple of bars the foreigners hang out in and they haven’t changed much since I was here in 2005. I went to Benchwarmers, a sports bar in old downtown that is owned by a Canadian and his Korean wife.  On Friday nights, they play Bingo. Woo hoo! I hadn’t played that in a long while. I initially thought, “Bingo? How lame.” But seeing how everyone else was going to play I joined in and actually won a game.  My new friend, Scott, played a trick on a girl and inked her beer bottle with a bingo dauber. She wondered why everyone was laughing at her and didn’t realize her lips and teeth were bright green. A dauber fight ensued and several people looked like a war party  of Comanches getting ready to scalp the settlers.

I made some new friends and met several friends I had known from last time, but, timing is everything.  A couple of the ones I knew are leaving next week. I’m happy to have hooked up with them before they left but will benefit from their leaving – they have some household things they’re selling I need (the last teacher to have this apartment swiped the coffee pot and grinder) . They also have both a car and motorcycle for sale.  

The car would only cost $400 and sounds nice, but I’m leaning toward the motorcycle.  Dealing with traffic here is so much easier on two wheels than on four. They allow motorcyles to ease up to the head of the line at any light or traffic jam. I got a ticket for that in Dallas and the cop (nay, Pig, a word I reserve for only the butthead cops) was a total ass who doesn’t deserve the badge he wore.  Here they understand that allowing the bikes to move up eases traffic, not inhibits it. Despite the weather and safety issues of riding a bike, swiftly moving through traffic to avoid the cars and jams makes it worthwhile. And yes, I’ll wear a helmet – its the law.

Tonight, I’ll check out Tombstone, one of the other foreigner bars, and see who else is still here or interesting enough to meet.