I'm sitting in the computer lab (or PC bang, as it's called here) surrounded by middle schoolers and high schoolers playing computer games, being reminded of why it's a bad idea to come in here late in the day on weekends. ah well. at least I dragged myself out of the apartment at all, which is impressive, considering I wandered home around 4:21 a.m. last night. tricia and I went to the bar thinking it was quiz night, but it wasn't, and the bar was pretty empty...we played chess (which, as much as I'm trying, I just cannot muster any enthusiasm for). I looked around the room and commented on how I just haven't been able to bring myself to have any desire to engage with the people in the gringo bars here. except for new year's eve, and that was disastrous. so I go up to buy order a second drink, and these two dudes are sitting at the bar and start boring holes in me with their eyes. I tried to hide behind the post and not make eye contact, but apparently it didn't work because five minutes after I sat back down they made a beeline for our table and asked if they could join us. tricia said sure, although I could tell she wasn't thrilled either. they introduced themselves: pat, who was in his mid to late fifties, and kurt, mid-thirties. kurt was actually slightly attractive. he'd sat himself next to tricia, and pat was next to me. he tried make conversation, and I tried to be gracious, but was really just creeped out, because he was old enough to be my father, literally. turns out he has a son my age. they're both military dudes, but pat's a civilian now. kurt is in the air force. he had stories about rennaissance festivals and some group of people who roleplay as a mongolian horde. at some point a song came on and kurt turned to pat and asked if it was the smiths, and I said no, it wasn't. because it wasn't. and kurt said "wait, you like the smiths? what about the cure?" and I said that yes, I liked the cure. and he got all excited, telling me that he had the entire cure and smiths discographies on his computer and he couldn't believe I liked them. as though it's difficult to find people who like the cure and the smiths. please. but that opened the door for the music conversation, and we got to name dropping our musical tastes, concerts we'd been to, etc. I was actually into the conversation for once, since I haven't found anyone who shared my musical tastes here so far. he impressed me a bit with indigo girls and tori amos, cuz it's fairly rare to find a straight dude who will admit to liking them. this was about where he made pat switch places with him so he could sit by me. then I mentioned lou reed and he ran up to the bar and requested "wildside." heh heh. a fairly obvious song choice,but not bad. he lost me at blink 182, though. so anyway, tricia ducked out somewhere near the beginning of the music conversation. I did want to stay and talk with them, but I knew I'd have to be calculating about my exit in order to avoid any awkwardness. they'd bought me two drinks. I usually make it a rule never to accept drinks from men because I don't want them assuming things, but I was actually having a good time with these guys and I knew they were harmless. I decided to buy a round myself, but I ended up being about three bucks short so pat had to spot me. oops. he asked if I had enough for a taxi and everything, like he would lend me money if I didn't, and I said I was fine, planning in my head to hit the atm before I caught a cab. I was only planning on staying another half hour or so, but it ended up being more like an hour and a half, during which it came to light that kurt likes rent and phantom of the opera. I began to rethink my straight-dude-who-likes-tori-and-indigo girls theory, and consider a repressed-military-homosexual theory at this point, but who knows. pat mentioned having seen hedwig in seoul, and I got all excited and started reccomending that he see shortbus, telling him that although there was a lot of sensationalism about the graphic nature of the film, it was really about the relationships between the characters. kurt then said "wait, don't tell me you watch movies more for the charachters than for the plot! that's excatly what I do!" this was when I realized that he was either way too drunk or way to enthusiastic and it was about time for me to go. I made a gracious exit after exchanging emails with them and promising to send them some of my writing. then I walked to lotte young plaza, only to discover that the atms apparently aren't 24 hours. the subway had long since stopped running for the evening (that happens here, like in london). so I realized I would have to walk home. I wandered around for a good while slightly lost, because I haven't done a whole lot of navigating downtown on foot. it was cold, and after what seemed like an hour it occurred to me that maybe I just should have stuck with the guys. pat lived very close to me and I'm sure I could have shared their taxi. but I didn't want them to know where I lived. I guess I could have taken pat up on his offer of cab fare, though. I don't know. it's hard to tell what's wisest in these situations. regardless, I found my bearings before too long and made it home at 4:21 a.m. to crawl into bed.