A Farewell to Jef

Some time ago, Jef came up to Seoul for his last visit before finishing his teaching contract and taking off for Latin-American pastures. We decided to go out to the Shinsa area for our Last Supper. I really like the Shinsa and Apgujeong areas because they have a more comfortable and suburban feeling to them.

Our restaurant of choice after caffeine-stimulated talk was an Italian hideaway called Thira. The name reminds me of a co-teacher we used to know in Busan called Shira. Her middle name starts with a 'B', and we never once found out what it was. Even on her passport, her first names are listed as 'Shira B.'

Apparently it was so bad, no one could even guess it. But she was always so nice, and my nickname for her was 'Mum'.

The food at Thira was good. Not brilliant, but good. I'll spare you the details, except to say that I never was a fan of unpeeled prawns or shells in pasta. It looks nice, but who enjoys peeling a prawn covered in marinara sauce? Luckily it wasn't a first date, or I'd have been dropped like a writhing lobster into a chef's cauldron.

The pizza was interesting and reminded me of the rocket-lettuce pizza you can buy on Rundle Street in Adelaide. I used to dislike rocket intensely, until I turned 12 years old.

We went to a bar called 24/7, which has circular teacup lounges that you take your shoes off for. In the foreground is Jef's blurry head. He is often looking around, in general. Tall people are like mongooses (or is it mongeese?) in that way.

I guess there's more to see when you're further from the ground.

24/7 was a pretty good bar, and they had our favourite Australian wine that cannot be found in Australia - Archangel Shiraz. Perhaps it's only popular as an export, like Fosters Beer.

This is the Shinsa area at night, which has more wine bars than the average university Hof-land. Hongdae and Sinchon are still popular with the university crowd these days.

Kyung-Wan also came out with us that night. He's a funny character who has always been around in some shape or form. Jef met him at a bar in Dongnae called Dove, back in the fall of '06.

We decided to do what Jef likes to do most in Korea, go to a noraebang and sing songs like California Dreaming (Mamas and the Papas), Like a Prayer (Madonna) and Africa (Toto). Jef used to sing in musicals as a kid and is much better than me, who used to sing in the shower*.

*have since stopped due to complaints from the neighbours.

This is a good song, although the first time I ever heard it was here in Korea, sung in a noraebang by Erick Taggart.

Here's me and Mrs F, hanging out and having a good time. Heather likes noraebangs so much, she even goes to them when she's sober.

And here's our dear friend Jef, the last time we saw him before he departed from the Land of Morning Calm. He spent nearly 4 years here and he just left for Argentina to live and work. Jef and I met during training at CDI, and he first appeared on this blog on September 1st, 2006. A lot has happened since then, and he's remained a good friend to both me and Heather. Heather actually pronounces his name 'Jaf', due to her accented vowels, and he has never once complained.

If you're in a foreign country and have made some good friends, be sure to appreciate them deservedly, because one day they might just take off for Argentina...