Chusseock festivities - Saturday, Sept. 17th

Debbie's best friend from way back who presently lives and works in Masan came to visit for Chusseock. Debbie loves this girl, talk about her all the time. Jen didn't disappoint one bit in spite of the high expectations that I had. She's one of those beautiful, smart, funny, affectionate, easygoing girls that you love to have around. I met the girls 3:15 in front of the Seoul Cinema. Another Masan visitor Sean from Oregon joined us to watch Charlie and the Chocolate factory. I wasn't overly impressed by the movie, but I've seen worse.

After the movie, - and seriously craving chocolate - it was off to Debbie's for some wine and Cheese, where Andrea joined us. Plates and glasses emtpied and hair teased high (see the photo) we headed back to the city to meet Sean and another Masan visitor Garreth (who looks like Jimmy Stewart) for dinner at La Tavola. The food and especiallly the wine were great but the service was lousy. At the end, the manager decided to take my meal off the bill and give us a bottle of nice Sicilian wine as a compensation. After the dinner, it was off to La Cigalle where my dessert was so stale, I couldn't handle more than 1/4 of it. Then Hellios where some of us were swarmed by handsome young black men and where Andrea and I got free beer from a G.I. as a reward for dancing like "rock stars." I wanted to go home, but the girls convinced me to go to Hongdae with them. There we danced in M2, a hosue music establishment. Not my cup of tea, I get extremely bored with the same beat . A cute Korean girl danced with me and offered me her drink, showing thumbs up and saying "Gooood!" - as in, not bad Grandma. And Grandma I was, no doubt the oldest person on the dance floor. Andrea and I left around 3, the others remained staying long enough to have breakfast in the area. I got up at 1:10 pm the following day, only to get ready quickly and joined the same gang (plus Clare later) for breakfast at the Rocky Mountain Tavern, followed by Caesars and gin rummy on the patio... but you already read about it in the installment above. Shown here: Debbie and Jen getting ready for the big night out.