Noryangjin/Not drinking on a Friday night.

I'm working on kinda a crazy plan for tomorrow. Actually, it's not that crazy so much as something that would just confuse the average person, purpose-wise. But I must say, it is in honor of one the greats. Anthony Bourdain always says if you want to get the essence of any given place or people, head to the markets. And he himself made sure his first stop when he came to Seoul was the Noryangjin fish market.

Well. The truth is, I'm feeling a bit sickly. And my apartment is in serious need of some tender lovin' care. So I've convinced myself that it's not the best idea to go and make the boozy rounds tonight, even though last weekend saw the return of The Boxer, after first Mike, and then The Body Builder departed my company at a certain local. After chatting with The Boxer again for a while, finally learning his name, the owner of the bar waved me over to tell me, through his friend, that he had seen me in rather often lately, and thought I was cute because I always drink so much more than the (often rather large) men I'm with, yet I seem to stay completely sober and always take care of them in their drunken states, and see them home in cabs. He's not one of those skeevey owners we've so often met as foreigners in any given establishment -- he's young, and mostly stays behind a curtain preparing drinks and greasy anju, only coming out to hump the garbage to the curb. Mike took to calling him The Wizard of Oz, due to the curtain act. He gave me plums and we made friends. So now I feel completely comfortable walking into that establishment (gasp shock horror) completely alone.

I'm going to try not to let ten o'clock hit and for that urge to take over. Rather, I'd like to clean this dump until it shines and retire early to give this cold or whatever it is I've caught off the little cretins a good kick in the ass, waking early enough to catch the first train in to the fish market.

Don't worry. I'm not going to go all expat blogger/super tourist on you. I might go ahead and try the eating live octopus thing, though.

Small Town has successfully stuck to his pledge to "never drink again or for a while" for nearly three weeks now, so I'm going to see if he's interested in making this "non alcohol related expedition" with me. Or if he's got anything else in mind.

Gugh. Now I guess it's time to scrub. Can I borrow someone else's nose/lungs for a few hours?