This post goes hand-in-hand with my last post and is something that I definitely felt needed it's own section:
The drinking culture
The drinking culture in Korea is quite different from that in Australia. I crave the drinking culture here, mostly because alcohol is just a part of everything you do at night time, without necessarily meaning that you are going to get drunk. During the day time, people walk around in their business suits with places to go and work to do, all serious in the face. But then when night time comes, everything changes. I am trying to think of a way to adequately explain Korea's drinking culture, but unfortunately - like most things on this blog - I feel I cannot do it justice. You will just have to come here and experience it for yourself!
Rather, I will pick a few things I love about the drinking culture here and explain why I love them as best I can!
- The fact that you can drink on the street: This is a strange thing to love, but drinking on the street in Korea is not as trashy as it sounds. There is no law in Korea that forbids street drinking, so it is a common occurrence. This does not mean that everyone gets smashed on the street (of course there are those few individuals who take it upon themselves to do so), but rather, it is sort of a pre-drinking place before you enter the club/bar. There are areas in each suburb which seem to have been designed for street drinking, and so I have had some great times on the streets with my friends, meeting strangers and having great chats.
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| Street drinking in the busker's circle in Sinchon. |
Crowds for street drinking can sometimes get quite large. There is an area in Gangnam, in particular, which is exchange-student central. It is located outside a convenience store (of course) and without fail always has exchange students outside drinking. Whenever we go, we see new faces and have the opportunity to meet exchange students from many different universities in Seoul. It's awesome! The below three photos were taken in this area:
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| People pre-drinking and socialising at our spot in Gangnam. I do not recognise half these faces. |
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| A selfie, which I somehow missed. |
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| Street drinking areas are often places for intense chats. |
On one occurrence, we spent three hours chatting on the street and only one hour in the club! On a Friday or Saturday night, it is a lot of fun on the streets because there is no loud club music, so you can have a decent conversation, and you can also meet random people (maybe with the help of a little liquid confidence). There are many characters in Seoul, and the streets are a great place to meet people and to just bond in general.
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| On this occasion, in Hongdae, the three of us sat on the street in the same spot, literally just speaking in a fake Southern-American accent for about 2 hours and getting way too much enjoyment out of it, laughing at ourselves and saying hello to almost every person who passed by (the guys behind us judged). It was one of my best nights here and I will never forget it! |
In truth, I often have more fun drinking on the streets than in the actual clubs themselves, especially if we are playing Korean drinking games! Speaking of which...
2. Korean drinking games: Aw man. Just. So much fun. I cannot wait to come home and teach you guys Korean drinking games. Whenever we go out drinking, I make a point of playing these games. And everyone is keen to play. They are not considered childish at all, they are just part of the culture. Drinking games make for awesome memories, many laughs and a great way to break the ice with new people. Often, I have found myself in a social scenario with new people, and drinking games are a great way to get to know them, because there is a drinking game for almost everything, including getting to know someone. These games are a lot of fun and you don't even have to play them with alcohol (my lecturer has played them in class with us before). They test memory, coordination, attention-span and confidence.
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| At one of our favourite drinking places, a Japanese all-you-can-drink restaurant called MuSa. |
At this point, I would love to provide a list of all my favourite drinking games, but a) I like them all so it's hard to choose and b) they all have Korean names so no deal on remembering all their proper names. The most popular English-named ones here though are 369 and Baskin Robins - mostly every person you meet will know how to play these. Fun fact: Korea actually provides this weird pre-pre-drinking beverage that prepares the stomach to be able to handle more alcohol without getting drunk, and without getting a hangover. These can be found in every convenience store and explain why Koreans are usually able to drink more heavily than you think they can.
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| My friends and I drinking at a communal area in Sinchon. We played Truth or Dare with some hilarious results. The group behind us were also playing drinking games, and they also had a guitar, which was awesome! |
The Seoul nightlife mixed with its drinking culture often has hilarious results and always provides a good time. So the final aspect of the drinking culture that I will talk about is:
3. The streets and the people: At night time, a magic spell is cast over Seoul, which seems to bring out the friendliest and most festive sides in everyone. Walking the streets at night time is a vastly different experience from walking the same streets during the day. Everywhere you look, there is cheeriness and kinship. I often like to just watch (without being too creepy) groups of people drinking together. Groups of Korean friends are interesting to watch in that they interact in such a different manner from Australians.
A group of boys/men, for example, will walk around with their arms around each other, or just with a hand on the other's shoulder, and when they sit together, they sit close and show lots of friendly skinship (the point in any relationship where there is physical contact). This warms my heart because I can just see the affection and camaraderie there and I must say it is one of the things I love about this culture. It sounds weird, for sure, and obviously not every group of friends does this but I find that it is more common than not. Women are the same, walking arm in arm and calling each other by affectionate names. You could probably notice it amongst the Koreans/Asians in Sydney. It's nice.
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| Walking the streets on a bar-crawl with some of my dear friends. We've got some solid skinship on the right there. |
So the streets really are a nice place to be. Everyone is out to have a good time. One night, for example, I was sitting with one of my friends who was visiting for a few weeks. We were drinking on the streets in a communal area with lots of people, enjoying the vibes and applauding the buskers, when a group of 4 people (3 Koreans and 1 international) approached us and said that they would love to share a beer with us. So, we spent the night laughing, eating and playing drinking games with these complete strangers and it was so much fun! A lot of Koreans love meeting international people so I will admit that I have a nice advantage here. We stayed out with these friendly people until 4:30 (which is now a common bedtime for me, sorry Mom). In fact, we ended up hanging out with the international student from that group on 3 occasions afterwards (he has now gone home back to his home country but it was such a pleasure to meet you, Kyle, if you're reading this!).
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| A photo taken in an elevator on that night. Nam wasn't there so I had to take the photo for once :p |
I will remember that group of people for a very long time! <3
Furthermore, the fantastic thing about the drinking culture is that it is so cheap to join in! Alcohol is very cheap at the local convenience store, which is why so much street-drinking occurs, and there are so many all-you-can-drink places. One of the things I have also noticed is that the Korean culture generally means that a lot of the time, Koreans love to buy you drinks. My Korean friends have been so kind to me in that they are often quite keen to buy me and my friends drinks. Also, the age hierarchy in Korea means that it is typical for the oldest person within a group to pay for the drinks (this actually hasn't happened much but I have heard it's a Thing). Recently however, I have been happy that my Korean friends have finally started letting me pay for the drinks (cause you know, in Australia, everyone pays their own way so it's what I am used to). Koreans in general are really very kind to international students, but more on that later.
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| Street-drinking in Gangnam! |
You may be wondering: How does so much drinking occur without people getting smashed? And how are people not passed out on the street everywhere? Well, there are many solutions to this problem. Nearby hotels are very cheap for this reason. Not to mention, Koreans are usually kind to their friends and so I have seen a lot of help going on, which is nice. Also - and this is crazy to me - there is this thing in Korea called 'blackout Korea' which means that Koreans can pass out anywhere on the streets for the night, and they won't have their phone, shoes or wallet stolen. This was unfathomable to me when I first heard it, because there is no way belongings would not be stolen if this happened in Australia. Alas, I have seen it with my own eyes: Koreans passed out alone, late at night, on the steps of a building somewhere, with their belongings in plain view, and later, when I come back, they are still there. Seoul is one of the safest places in which I have lived, and I mean that. But more on that later. I have so much more to say on this but alas, time does not allow. I am off now to have dinner at the dormitory cafeteria before my night class, and then, who knows where the night will take me! ;)
Finally, here is a photo of me street-drinking in Itaewon with my two best friends:
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| This was an elevated stage-like area in the communal drinking space and so there were about 100 people who watched us take this photo. |
Check in again tomorrow!!
Signed in Seoul,
Kristin
Kristin is supported by the Australian Government through the Australia-Korea Foundation of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
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