A Night on the Town

Today was our school's festival. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I thought the event was going to be outside. As it turns out, "school festival" is just a key word for multi-disciplinary concert. It was basically 3 hours of performances by bands, dance groups, and singers. It was actually really cool and a lot of fun.

When it came time for us teachers to do our routine, we were announced before coming onto the stage, and when we were announced, there was an enormous roar from the crowd. Apparently this was a highly anticipated performance. And so we walked out from stage right, carrying signs that were to be used about halfway through the song. Myself and one of the other guy teachers were wearing white tank-tops, black pants, and a red bowtie adorned with red sequins. The ladies were wearing black tights with black mini-skirts and black blouses. I was the last of our group to walk out onto the stage, and when I did, I was almost deafened by the further eruption of screaming.

The kids (actually it was almost entirely the girls) were screaming throughout the whole routine. It may has well have been N'Sync concert...you know, the kind of pointless concerts where any music is drowned out by the incessant screaming of teenage girls. We did our routine, and it went very smoothly. It was a huge hit, and I have to admit, it was a lot of fun. I'll be a celebrity at school for the next week or so.

Following the concert, most of the teachers went out for a nice lunch at a restaurant. The main course was a very delicious type of fish in a slightly spicy stew. For some reason, I had a reputation (which I did not know about) among the teachers as being a "heavy drinker". Because of this, various older teachers (all guys) kept filling two glasses with beer and handing me one while they take the other. They would then say "no break-ee" and proceed to chug the beer, expecting me to do the same. I happily obliged them but couldn't help but feel that my coworkers were trying to get me drunk...

Following lunch, me and several of the younger teachers went out for bowling. We had 6 people who were divided into 2 teams of 3. We played three games and my team won every single game, riding mostly on my dominating performances of 178, 182, and 140. This won the three of us free drinks and food for the rest of the night.

Following bowling we stopped at our homes to change, and then headed out to a seafood restaurant (the same group of 6.) We had grilled clams and a variety of side-dishes, all of which were very delicious. We downed 5 bottles of soju (for anyone who doesn't know, Soju is a Korean liquor that most resembles vodka, but it is only about 20% alchohol, not 40%). We spent a good amount of time just talking. They tried to teach me a lot of Korean.

Following that, we capped off the night with some Noraebang ("Song Room" - Karaoke) and beer. We were all sufficiently smashed at this point, and that's when Noraebang is the most fun. They did some Korean songs while I played tambourine drank beer, and then we all did some American songs. My favorites were "Johnny B. Goode" and "Bad Case of Loving You".

All in all, it was probably my best day in Korea so far. I had about a dozen pictures taken of us dancing which I will be getting developed today, so once I have them I will post them on photobucket or whatever crazy site I used last time. Also, there's a new article up from the NYTimes on the right side of the blog for anyone who has been following the Fan Death saga.