We're not alone out here... I've been discovered by aliens.

Since making my last posting, where I predicted that this week would likely progress in a remarkably similar fashion to last week, things have changed significantly.

It turns out that I am not the only foreigner who lives in Milyang. In fact, there appear to be quite a few. I met four of them last night. One of them, Matt, has lived here for 5 years. He was randomly looking around for Milyang related stuff online and stumbled across this blog. In turn, he invited me to join him and his co-workers for beer last night.

It was a great time. He works with a guy named Sean, whom I had met once before at a bar (yet strangley neglected to mention it), and a girl named Laura who has been here about 6 weeks. As well, another lady by the name of Alex joined us, she's been here about six weeks as well. She works at a different school altogether. Matt's girlfriend, Ji Yeon, also came along. I am still a bit amazed that I haven't run into these people before, with the exception of Sean whom I had run into once.

Anyway, we all met at a place called Hof Village. I'd been there once before with James a while back. It has a big sign outside proclaiming it be a "Western Bar." We sat around, getting to know one another for a while, ordered some food, drank some beer. The food was fairly typical, but one part is worth mentioning. The menu called it turkey. Matt and Ji Yeon called it turkey. All of my senses called it ham. It looked like ham, it smelled like ham, it felt like ham, it even sounded like ham, but most importantly, it tasted like ham. Laura, Sean, Alex and I were assured that it was turkey. It came with a bone. A large leg bone. I really wish I could have taken it home and looked more closely at it to determine whether it was turkey or pig. You'd think it should be blantanly obvious, and well, it probably should be for a guy that took a faunal remains analysis course (which I have), but it wasn't. They took the bone away before I could grab it, so that opportunity was lost. Regardless, it tasted good with mustard.

After the Western Bar, we made our way to a place that is about a 30 second walk from my apartment. This place, called Sor, is absolutely amazing. It is so retro 60's-70's and in a very classy lounge kind of way. I love it. The booths are like little rooms with beaded curtain entrances. The lighting and walls give it the perfect atmosphere. In fact, I think it may be the first place I've been to in Korea with a real atmosphere to it. The owner, an interesting Korean guy who used to play guitar and now plays the drums due to a hand injury, has a rather large wall full of old records. He played us specially selected songs all night and sat at the table with us for long periods of time. We drank beer and lemon flavoured soju (very tasty) and talked about work, speaking Korean, music and many, many other things.

All in all, last night was probably the most comfortable I've felt in this city yet. Thank you Matt for contacting me. This isn't to say I haven't enjoyed my time with Edward or HanTae or James or Cathy, but this was the most comfortable yet. Everyone was so great.

I'll stop gushing now.

As said before, I'll be backin Busan again on Saturday to watch Astroboy's final show. Laura said she'd like to come along and Han Tae said he would, too, so it should be a blast.

That's all.

Guy