Today I've started to get involved in some expat communities over in Seoul. There are three groups I've joined that should be good fun when I get over there and will help me to meet people and enjoy myself.
The first group is the Korean Film Group, which meets once a week to watch Korean films with English subtitles. The group is about half expats and half Koreans looking to improve their English. They go to a movie and then a bar afterwards to discuss the movie. It looks like it's going to be really fun.
The second group is the Yupggiklub where about 50 people gather once a week to have drinks and talk about their experiences in Korea. Again, it's about half expats and half Korean who want to learn English and meet expats. This one sounds very fun and slightly crazy, but nowhere near as crazy as the third.
The Seoul Hash Hash Harriers is a 'drinking club with a running problem' where the members get together on Sundays to run off their hangovers from the night before, and then to drink having succeeded in that task. It is something of an institution among British expat communities and branches of the club can be found anywhere you find the British. The running is done in a traditional British prep school manner (and like in Orson Welles' "The Stranger") where a leader runs out front dropping paper clippings and the others follow the trail. He stops dropping the clippings every once in a while to let the slower runners catch up as people look around for the trail. It sounds like a pretty amazing time and I'm told the group can get rather rowdy.
Anyway, these are three social activities I'm looking forward to. Eli is also supposed to be coming up to Seoul at some point and I'll be hanging out with Pat and Jacob as well. Overall, it should be a fun time up there. If only I didn't have to go to work!
