Tequila

Not as bad as I remember it being.

That said, the last time I did tequila shots was probably 3 years ago. Ah, the early days of college...

My roommate Sam - in a very generous gesture - invited me out for her birthday celebration. I met her friends and saw Itaewon for the first time. That's the foreigner-infused patch of Seoul. We had burritos at a Mexican restaurant and danced at a tropical-themed club with rooms with beaches for floors. We had to take off our shoes so that we could feel the sand between our toes as we danced to Michael Jackson and top 40 hits. I smiled and I danced and I took chances; said things I might not have ever said had I been in Ann Arbor.

I had lunch with Nam Hee in Insadong. We watched honey be spun into threads like spider's silk, wrapped around crushed nuts and sold in boxes like butterfly cocoons. We ate bibimbap out of hot stone bowls and remembered the old days at ASW, and gossiped about the new days we both felt mired in. I tried Five Taste Tea at a swanky Insadong teahouse that she paid for, ensuring that we would be meeting again soon so that I could repay the favor.

On my way there I was chatted up by a 20 year old Korean boy with shiny gold stars studding his ears who, upon determining my nationality and my age (but not my name) announced that we were now friends and that I should give him my phone number. On the way back I walked from the subway instead of taking a bus and soaked up the tiny thrills that would run through my skin each time a fat, cold raindrop burst on my skin. It rained sparsely the whole time. I thought about how much had changed in the past few weeks - how I could open my e-mail and right there on the first page were remainders of notes that I had sent from the condo couch in Ann Arbor.

But how can that be? That was over a lifetime ago.