Bearthday weekend. :o)

So this weekend started off kind of awesomely.  I had been invited to the departmental dinner that was going to be taking place, and I was excited to get to see all the teachers outside of the classroom for the first time.  We met at some restaurant in Sangook.  I should probably explain how the area is laid out.  I live in Gamgok "which is pronounced more like Kamgook"  and next to me is Sangook.  If I caught a bus there it would probably be about ten minutes of countryside and 80 cents.  After Sangook is Muguk.  Muguk is also called Geumwang, and would be another dollar and another ten minutes of country side.  Neither one of these places are as big as my town + Janghowon, but Muguk is also attached to Geumwang like my town is attached to Janghowon.  Mine is laid out in a much more linear fashion, while this is several blocks deep and several long.  I went to Muguk earlier in the week to eat some Korean barbecue, as there is this place that does an all you can eat thing.  you go and pick up all your sides and acoutrements, then you pick whatever meats you want and throw them on the grill at your table.  It is totally delicious.  I got to see a bunch of the teachers in our area, and there ended up being about six of us total.  It was a good chance to talk with people in a similar position as me, but to be honest, the conversation that night was a little dark.  I am a fan of more upbeat conversations about fun things that happened, and this was more about failed relationships and the like.  Those darker conversations didn't come till almost the end, so I hate to say it like that was the whole night, because it wasn't.  I even saw some of my high school students walking home when I was leaving the barbecue place.  That is funny because it was like 9:30 at night and these kids are just getting home, plus they would probably be there at about 7:30 or 8:00 the next morning, in class before I am even out of bed.  So back to the teachers dinner:  We met at a restaurant in Sangook, and my main co-teacher gave me a ride out there.  It was about 6:30 when we arrived, and the restaurant was in the middle of nowhere.  It was set up like a house, and out front was the principal and the vice principals.  They shook our hands and bowed as we entered, welcoming us to the dinner.  We sat at a table, which they explained was for me, so that I would not be uncomfortable, and I was given the seat at the head of the table.  The importance of this was not lost on me, and I thanked the principal profusely.  Throughout the night we were brought many small dishes of food, which we would eat bit by bit when we weren't drinking, speaking or clapping.  Basically the formula was this.  Principal said something, everyone clapped and then we drank.  Principal asked someone to speak, and they would give a short speech, then when they were done they would say "Kumsamnida" and we would all clap, the principal would give them his soju glass and would fill it, then they would drink, give the glass back to him, fill it for him to drink, then the rest of us would drink.  This continued for every person at the table and there were thirteen of us total.  My speech was basically "I have only been here for one month, but you treat me as if I have been here for a year.  I am halfway across the world from my family and my home, but I feel as if Kamgok and Maegoe are my home in Korea.  I am very impressed with the faculty and students of Maegoe high school, and I hope that we can work together to teach the students valuable lessons inside of the class and out."  It was then translated for my principal and vice principals.  They also asked me to say grace at the beginning and end of the meal, which was not something I was new to, so it went pretty well overall.  It was fun to be at a dinner with pretty much everyone who I knew at the school, and I was seated in between my main co-teacher, and the co-teacher who lives in my building.  So whenever something needed to be translated, they helped me out.  I also learned some drinking etiquette.  When pouring from a bottle one holds the bottle with their top hand on the base, and their bottom hand on the neck.  When drinking a shot that a superior has poured, you turn away from them and drink.  Also as I looked around, almost no one was looking each other in their eyes, but it did happen, so it doesn't look like its disrespectful, just not exactly common.  Either way, this was very good experience for me, and I can't wait to make a fool out of myself at one of these again.

The dinner only lasted about two hours, and at the end I was dropped off at home.  I met up with Graham (the Scottsman from my building not the Englishman from Gwangju who was my orientation room mate) and went out for a couple of beers.  He invited a couple of guys out who were Korean and knew a bit of English, so we hung out for a bit.  Graham had to be up early the next day so he left, and it was just me and the Koreans.  They were a nice bunch, and our first stop was the noraebang.  Noraebang!!!  By far it is my favorite past time in Korea, and as of the time that I have arrived here, I have only done it twice.  Once at orientation, and once here in town.  You get a private room that can seat about six to eight, and then you input a song number and sing it just like karaoke.  I picked a bunch of American pop and classic rock songs, and they picked a bunch of Korean pop songs.  What I love about noraebang is that they just keep feeding you drinks, and they always have a good selection of Muse to sing.  This is a song that I sung that night to bring the house down.  It is both right in my range of singing, and it's a very melodic song that gets really high energy during the parts when you need to belt it out.  There is a reason they are one of my favorite groups, and it's because their songs are just so damn fun to sing.  Case in point this song which is ALWAYS my first choice at noraebang, but this one didn't have it.  So after the noraebang we decided to try and get more drinks, only by this time it was two something in the morning.  We were not able to find any sort of hof that was still open, so we got a couple of beers and adjourned back to my place.  We also got some munchies which was kind of entertaining.  My Korean friends got some hot pepper tuna in cans, and we got some cuttlefish/cheese stick combo.  We also got some beef jerky, then we ate it all up.  We ended up being awake till very late at night/early in the morning, and it left me with surprisingly little of a hangover.

The next day Justin came down from Seoul, Alex over from Geumwang, and John Smith came up from Gwangju.  They all arrived within about an hour and a half of each other, and since I live so near the bus terminal, they all stopped at my place before we headed out.  We initially were walking to where the famous chicken place was, but when we got there it was closed.  We decided we might as well go right next door to the Korean barbecue place and eat some of that, and man was it delicious.  We had duinjon jigae, which is a hot bean soup, as well as some samgyeopsal and galbi.  if you don't know what any of that is, I suggest you read some of my past posts or go try some delicious, delicious Korean food.  We drank a bunch of beer and soju at the restaurant, and then went right around the corner to the western bar.  We had a shot of whiskey and budweiser, then decided it was time to go somewhere cheaper.  We then went to where we thought we should be going, "Harry P's", but it was closed, so we continued back towards my place.  It was only about 12:30 on a saturday night at this point, and several hof's had already closed.  We walked past a group of high schoolers who said "Where are you from?" "Miguk." "Coowol!" "Odie hof?" "K-1." "Odie?" "Dokbaro, orencho." "Okay guys, it's ahead and on the right."  Eventually we cross the river back into Gamgok and on the side of a tallest building it says "K-1" so we go in for a drink.  Well we were just gonna have a pitcher, but that turned into a couple when a group of Koreans wanted to come have drinks with us.  Justin put it best: "Up where I live foreigners are pretty common.  We don't really get stared at, but around here you are a celebrity.  Everyone wants to say hi to you or talk to you."  It is true.  When I am in Seoul or Gwangju nobody looks twice at me.  Out here though they all want to have drinks or say hi, or meet my friends, or know where I'm from.  So one of them, this young girl, took a liking to us and was hanging out with us having conversation.  Eventually her oppa (older brother, not actually, just socially) didn't like that so he came to take her away.  She didn't want to go, and kept throwing off his hand, and he kept pulling her.  Eventually they got into some huge argument out in the hallway.  None of us said a single word throughout the ordeal, as we didn't want any sort of incident, but if this were the states, this would have been one of those times where you would have to intervene on behalf of a girl.  He literally drug her away from the table.  At one point, when she came back, he even talked to the barmaid who told her to go back to their group.  It was weird, but not like totally totally weird, just kind of weird.  Anyway, I am glad I didn't get my ass kicked on my birthday by a giant ripped Korean who looked like he could probably take us all on at the same time.  After a bit more drinking, and a bit more eating, we ended up back at my place and before I knew it we were all passed out.  I awoke the next morning to a Rangers win, and a half empty apartment.

All in all it was a great birthday.  It was my first one overseas, and probably not my last.  I thoroughly am enjoying myself here so far, and can't wait to try and make a trip to Busan, which I think I might be doing this weekend.  No K-pop today since I gave you Muse, but there will be more soon.  Be well young and old, and I hope that your birthday is as adventurous as mine was this year.