One night in Jeju, South Korea we were out at a Vinyl bar called Bosco - it was great in there, the food and drinks were very cheap for Jeju and behind the bar was a 10m long wall, floor to ceiling full of vinyls with an old Korean man who's only job was to DJ. Each table had a pen and paper for you to write down your requests and if the old man didn't have it on vinyl then he would find it online for you. This particular Friday was different because we had all booked the weekend off - we usually did a 3 hour activity session on a Saturday morning, followed by boarding duties 12:00-17:00 on a Saturday and Sunday. My 3 hour activity this term was Mountain Biking, which I quite enjoyed, so for my weekend off I didn't book the morning off (this was also partly because I forgot). However some point on the Friday we received a whole school email, explaining that due to a typhoon any outdoor activities would more than likely be cancelled - I probably had a full weekend off after all. So we went to Bosco and after starting on wine, spent most of the night drinking whiskey and ginger ale. The more we had the more ridiculous our song requests got. At around midnight the people Tom and I were with (Rachel and Darija) decided they were done for the night and we should all go home. We got a taxi back to the school but me and Tom weren't finished with the night and I came up with the wise idea we should continue drinking in my room - I didn’t have any beers or mixers but knew I had a bottle of Rakija that Darija had brought me from last time she went home to Serbia. We open the Rakija (this specific bottle was quince flavoured) and soon enough that was gone. Tom and I however, still weren’t done. I had been collecting, as a birthday present for my brother, traditional spirits from every country I visited that year and Tom and I started eyeing up the shelf. Tom was visiting Hong Kong and Vietnam the next week so we convinced ourselves that as if we drank either of the bottles from Hong Kong or Vietnam, Tom could then just replace them the week after. We chose the bottle from Hong Kong, and it's safe to say we chose poorly. It was Chinese Jing Wine, or health wine and the worst thing I've ever tasted. It tasted like medicine, with ginger and cinnamon in it and it made me immediately throw up. The only way I could get through the bottle with Tom was by having a mint with every mouthful.
The next morning it turns out that my activity wasn't cancelled after all so on 3 hours sleep I had to mountain bike in the rain, hungover. I then spent the rest of the weekend eating and going for coffee with Tom, Darija, and Rachel. We also went to a Korean Spa (찜질방 Jjimjilbang), which is a great cure for a hangover if you can look past all of the old naked Korean men in the gender-segregated section.
It also turned out that our plan for Tom to replace the “health” wine wasn’t quite as simple as we’d thought - he didn’t realise that he hadn’t booked return luggage and the drink couldn’t go in the hand luggage. What started as a couple of pound bottle ended up costing upwards of £40 once Tom had brought his return luggage.
One other quick story about Tom, I once gave him a haircut (the first time I’d ever cut hair properly) after the Korean barber gave him the worst bowl cut I’ve ever seen.
Filmed in London, UK.
Known for 7 months at the point of filming.
