Hongdae Nightlife

In an attempt to make some friends here in Korea, I've been trying to establish myself as a regular at a language exchange bar called Playground. Every night, they host a language exchange meetup and provide stickers with flags from different countries so people can show which languages they speak. It's about half Koreans and half foreigners, mostly from Europe and the US.

You can see students from the nearby university doing choreographed dances (perhaps k-pop trainees or students at one of the performing arts schools) in the park across the street from the bar. Here are a few in their tracksuits in the chilly spring weekday night performing for a very thin crowd.

On weekdays like this one, there are usually less than a dozen people who come through Playground throughout the night, but on Saturday the number shot up to 20+ people.

Playground Bar closed around 2am and people went bar-hopping afterward. Young people in Hongdae seem pretty nonchalant about the virus, here's a shot of the revelers spilling out onto the streets for cigarettes or a place to puke. Most of them are not wearing masks, and while there are many foreigners (who do seem to wear masks less in general), it's mostly Koreans.

Hanging out in Hongdae I get the sense that the threat has passed and people have already returned to normal, and yet many people elsewhere in the city who I talk to on HelloTalk (a popular local language exchange app) are still trying to avoid social contact altogether.

Today, the government officially began relaxing some of its more extreme measures. 

"Administrative orders on churches, bars, gyms and cram schools that strongly recommended their temporary closure will be lifted on the condition that they comply with strict quarantine rules."

If there's no second wave, on May 5th we'll downgrade to what's called "routine distancing". I'm sketchy on the details of what that looks like, but it sounds like continued temperature scans, hand sanitizer, and face masks but it'd be okay to go to work or school again. The requirements to get there are under 50 cases a day and at least 95% of them traceable.

Right now, we've been well within those guidelines, but the government wants to wait until after April 30 (Buddha's birthday and a long weekend in Korea) to do that. We just have to stay under 50 cases a day and over 95% traceability until then. If we fail though, it seems pretty plausible the cause could be Hongdae. An official from the Mapo-gu district where Hongdae is located told The New Yorker their biggest fear is a super-spreader, saying "The biggest problems are gaming cafés, churches, and Hongdae clubs".

My first day out of quarantine I was positive I didn't have it because I'd just been in isolation for 15 days, so I felt pretty comfortable going out of the house. You can't spread it until you've got it after all. Now that I've been free for a few days though, I'm getting more nervous.

Then I got this alert.

This one's in Mapo-gu, that's my district. A guy pretty close to my age. Came in through the same airport I did. He went to the Ministop convenience store? Is that my convenience store? I think mine is a Ministop. Is this the same address? Nope, 29 World Cupbuk-ro, this isn't my street, this one is closer to the subway stop.

Woah, this guy only went to one place in three days. Just the Ministop, other than that he self-isolated. Wow, I'm glad he didn't come to Playground Bar for the meetup. What if my location history ends up on an emergency alert? Will my gym have to close? Will the meetup shut down? What will people think of the fact that I went to three places today?

I get why they do this. People say the gender and age of the patient aren't relevant, and I suppose medically it's not, but it sure makes the alerts more visceral.

Should I stop going to the meetup? The government just eased the restriction, cases are at an all-time low, and the bartender told me to come in tomorrow to volunteer since they don't have anyone on Tuesdays who know the ropes. Man, I hope I'm not a super-spreader.