Dropping the Ball in Gwangju

Happy New Year and Merry 2013! We rang in the new year, Korean style, and spent it with our foreigner (wayguk) friends in Gwangju, South Korea. It was a marathon of a Saturday night and weekend so we don't have pictures to prove that we were there. Also, when the clock struck midnight, no one in Gwangju would have known it...I am pretty sure we were the only people around that were scrambling to find a bar with coverage of a 'Times Square Ball Drop' style celebration! Unfortunately, we did not find one (the Lunar New Years is the 'true' New Years for South Koreans). We ate at our first Italian restaurant in SK and it was along the lines of a Macaroni Grill or Olive Garden. It was great to enjoy some Italian food for the first time in awhile. What was most amazing was the total dollar amount of Parmesan that was sitting among all of the restaurant's tables. A large container of Parmesan is about $12.00 at the grocery stores in Korea and the restaurant had no less than $1000.00 invested in the delicious cheese. Our pasta bowls initially had a red sauce, but after emptying a container of Parmesan among six meals, I think we had our waiter wondering why we didn't just order a cream based pasta dish. He probably would have said something about cashing an entire Parmesan if we were Korean, but foreigners seem to get away with being ridiculous at times. We use the term, playing the foreigner card, daily. After dinner we went to a German beer Haus, a club, and an Irish bar. It was a great time and I would without a doubt say that it was "A great success!" Interestingly enough the Irish bar had Guinness on tap and we found ourselves on the outside looking in at a large circle of Irishmen 'jigging' to music truly from the Irish hills. It was an interesting thing to experience in South Korea's sixth largest city of about 1.5M. Sometimes you have no idea what you will see around the next corner.

Our only picture from New Years haha!