Just before the race starts, the odds of several different types of bets on all the horses are displayed on a giant board next to the track. These indicate the payoff on your bet and fluctuate every couple of seconds. I have no idea what they are computing, but it is fun to try and figure out. Sometimes we would bet on a horse that seemed pretty good, but then its odds would suddenly jump to 1.0, which means you just get your money back with no gain if you win.
To bet, you fill out a card and turn it in for a ticket. You can put several bets on a card, so even though I won bets on all but one race, I still came out behind. The lowest bet you can make is 100 won, which is less than $0.10. We were betting $1.00-2.00 per race. All in all it was pretty cheap for a whole day of entertainment.
After the race we went to a Czech bar for some drinks. I have no idea how or why it exists in the middle of Seoul. We had dinner at a Korean restaurant that served sliced pork with a hot soup filled with big spine bones and vegetables.
Adam and Meg had to go home because they had work early, so Chris, Laura, and I went back to Beomgye. We went to the grocery store first, where I bought some stuff to take back home. One of my souvenirs is a big bottle of Soju, which I hope can go through customs.
Laura was tired, so she took the groceries home. Chris and I were going to go to a movie theater, but we changed our minds since he had been wanting to try a DVD-bang. This is where you get a private room with a big screen projector and surround sound, and you rent a movie from a selection in the lobby. When we went up the elevator, Chris said "I hope this isn't something for couples and they think we are gay or something." That was foreshadowing. When we went in it seemed to be just a normal, run-of-the-mill video store. They had action movies, comedies, and dramas from the U.S. and Korea alike. After some confusion with the clerk, we found the movie we were looking for: a Korean interpretation of The Good the Bad and the Ugly titled The Good the Bad and the Weird. The clerk showed us to the room, and when we got there Chris and I just started laughing hysterically. The only thing in the room besides the screen and sound system was a giant half-couch, half-bed thing with a vibrate feature. We still watched the movie, though. We had already paid! In the end, the couch was the only sketchy thing about the place. The movie was good, the place was clean, and the quality of the sound and video was great. The couch baffled us!
It was cool to talk movies with Chris again. I'm glad we went. Earlier in the evening, we ran into Jun who told us Matt and Josh were out drinking. After the movie we went and found them, had a round, and played some darts.
