Rebels Without a Cause

About three weeks ago Jiwon and I watched "The Rebel without a Cause." We truly enjoyed this classic teenage drama and decided that good-looking, charismatic men like James Deans simply don't exist anymore. We couldn't think of a single male movie star that could match his appeal. After the movie I took Jiwon to my favourite bar in Insa-dong. It's on a corner of an intersection and it offers a great view of two streets and all the people passing by. It's the best spot for serious people watching. A pitcher of beer and a plate of tubu kimchi (tofu with kimchi) later, we were still in a mood to rebel against this world's lack of good men. Well, there is always some kind of ersatz, i.e. soju, that evil chemical nectar, the beloved drink of Korea that tastes like watered down bad vodka. We had two bottles at a songyapsal restaurant, sans songyapsal - the only food we ate there was some pickled radish. A great basis for heavy boozing! From this place we moved to the Jongno pojang macha (food tent) strip. After some consideration we chose one and continued our soju consumption. I remember that we ate some noodles and later some hellishly spicy pork stew - and we drank more soju. A group of business ajoshis [married Korean men] were sitting at a table on the other side of the tent. A short middle-aged, chubby man with a beautiful turqoise accordion and military uniform was entertaining them playing waltzes and singing sad Korean folk songs. Jiwon, the crazed photograph that she is, made me walk over to the ajoshi table and establish contact with the player. I did, first gingerly and then, thanks to a somewhat fuzzy brain soaked in soju, boldy and some would argue even seductively. Me? Nonsense. The ajoshi, of course, obliged and walked with us over to our table where he continued to amaze us with his accordion virtuosity.
Jiwon and I got home around 3:30 A.M. The next morning I had to wake up early to prepare everything for workmen who were scheduled to change the wallpaper in my house... How did we feel after all that soju? Some things are better left unsaid, trust me. Let me just say that even now, three weeks after the soju spree, so much as seeing a green soju bottle sets both my brain and my stomach into violent spinning...