A Little Lesson in the Art of Drinking Soju

I'd been warned. By my pre-Korea research, by other blogs, by my coworkers: whatever you do, beware of soju.

Soju is an alcholic drink native to Korea. Most commonly made from rice, it can also be brewed using potato, wheat, barley or other form of starch. The alcohol content is around 20% and it looks and tastes like a slightly sweeter version of vodka. Sounds harmless enough, but soju has certain characteristics that make it dangerous.

First of all, it's unregulated. Anyone can make and sell soju. Meaning once you purchase a bottle, you have no way of knowing whether or not the alcohol content on the label is accurate, or how your particular drink was made. Over the years this has resulted in the complete deterioration of the tradional brewing process, to the point where most bottles of Soju are now comprised of pure chemicals.

Second, soju is CHEAP. A 300mL bottle costs around $1 (CDN) so a night of solid Soju-drinking will only run you $5 to $10. At that rate you can afford to get into a world of trouble!

Lastly, soju is social drink. It's the bar-shot of choice for most Koreans, and to refuse a drink of soju is considered rude. The Koreans will pressure you to indulge, so if you're really not up for drinking it's best to flee the scene asap.

Needless to say, proper soju consumption is a skill - because that stuff goes down like lemonade, and once you realize how much its hit you, it's already too late. You have to ease yourself into it and slowly build up a tolerance during your time in Korea. You don't, for example, go upstairs to your friend's apartment before heading out on a Friday night, and allow her (a 2 year soju-drinking veteran) to mix your first several drinks.

Thankfully I was blessed with an iron liver, so I survived last night without any war wounds. I still had a good time and the event in Kyunsung turned out to be really cool, featuring some fantastic local artists with tonnes of tables displaying different types of art for sale. Plus, the music was awesome. And there's nothing I love more than great live music.

Anyway, I am going to stop there because I just got back from an all-day beach-a-thon, so I'm starving and need some dinner. Below I've posted a few apartment pictures that I stole from Niki's facebook page (our places are identical and I'm too lazy to take my own pics right now) but I wanted to give everyone an idea of what my home here looks like...

Living area/kitchen view. It's pretty much a bachelorette pad, so when you first walk in there is a hallway, kitchen on the right and bathroom on the left. Look closely and you can see the washing machine right beneath the far counter in the kitchen. I was SO happy to discover I had a washing machine in my apartment. Laundry mats are the bain of my existence.

Yay for Korean TV! Luckily I have a selection of 3 different English channels to choose from each day, usually consisting of 2 different movies and 1 American TV show that seems to rotate between American Idol, Project Runway and Law & Order SVU.

The bathroom. We lucked out and got Western-style showers. Most showers in Korea are not enclosed; they consist of a shower head and drain in the middle of the bathroom, so you have to shower on top of the toilet and sink. My friend Brianna has a Korean shower and it drives her nuts. She can't store anything in her bathroom because it will just get wet.

Niki's view. She is on the 11th floor so she's still able to see a bit of ocean from here.