Well...wasn't quite the weekend I expected, but was a goody anyways. Friday had a dinner with my Korean tutor and a few other friends. Some good 감자탕 (Meat and Potato Stew) and a few bottles of Soju. My friend Mike who brought his guitar decided to break it out and play a little bit oafter we urged him on. A few stums and some chill music later he got the attention of the two ajissis (25 year olds + men) a few tables over. In broken English the guy says " You play a song for us!" Mikes a bit uncertain at first but the green courage kicks in and over he goes to play them a song. A reggea/rock song, one he wrote himself and the guys were enthralled. The guy offered him a shot and even made him do it the 'love shot' way. Mike said, hanna, dul, set (korean, 1,2, 3) and the guy was not happy. Have to do it again but this time in English. After the shots were concluded the guy said he has to now play us a traditional Korean song. He does a few notes...stops. Few notes again, stops. And once more for good luck./ Thought he was just messin' with us but then he began and kept it up. THought it was a nice peaceful Korean song until he started singing. He must havae thought it a kareoke room as he started just bellowing all kinds of stuff in Korean and got the attention of the whole restaurant. Another table called over the waitress and got her to tell him to shut up.. a bit disrespectful I thought, but maybe for a good cause, I couldn't handle much more of his singing.

They left about the same time as us, and as they were walking by, he shakes my hand and says, you are a good man, but running (as he points to my stomach). Excuse me? Running he says again and demonstrates the big belly motion with his hand. I'm livid with this. Sure I'm not thin by any means but u don't go around saying taht to people. He had a few chins so I have him a good ging and said, 'How many chins do you have?". He says, but I'm old. It quited down but I was still not pleased with his comment since I've been working out and getting in better shape over the last month.

Anyhow, Monday morning I was teaching some businessmen who work at Samsung and they said I looked like I was in great shape. I said, well not great, but not horrible shape either, but thanks for the compliment. I’m just doing a three week fill-in job there, they have good English and are quite interesting. Three of them work in the military defense division and design rockets and missiles. The others work in the computer engineering division…a slight change from my 10 year old kids. Very enjoyable.

Back to Friday night, afterwards we head to a little back near Konkuk Uni. (like most countries the best bar scene is around the Universities) where there’s a little bar that has cheap ber and shots and a good environment. From there to the 노래방 (karaoke room) where we sung a little of everything from Nirvana and RATM to Bob Dylan and Oasis. Great fun to go singing after a few drinks. Much more relaxed since you get your own room and unlike China, you sing at the screen with your friends behind you…you never feel like your up on stage and could care less if your singing bad. Friday as a good success.

Saturday got a call in the morning while still in bed. Come hiking! Ummm, maybe let me talk to the girl and see what I can manage. After a little convincing I got us up outta bed and out the door on a hike. Expected a little hill but got a good hour and a bit hike up at mountain. Great view and got rid of the hangover nicely.

Was waiting for a call on Saturday from a friend who lives outta Seoul,. We’ve made plans to go out but he’s missed calling me before, so when I got offered to go for home-cooked Spaghetti, I jumped on the idea. Korean cooked but it was still mighty cheesy and tasty. It was an elder sister of a friends and there were about 6 of us there and a little 1 year old baby. The baby was very scared at first, but was playing with me by the end of the night. Sungku was very surprised that I was fooling around and playing with a baby since all she hears is about my bad students at school and thinks I don’t like kids. The women’s house we were at was a hard drinker. We brought 3 pitchers (about 5000ml) thinking it would be enough. We proceeded to polish off another case of tally’s and when were all feelin fine. A bit too fine for some as the women almost toppled over my friend Richie with her baby in arms. I was a bit surprised and repulsed at carrying a kid around being uber drunk and I could tell Richie was a little shocked himself. When I told Sungku the next day she thought I was just being very conservative, maybe I just havn’t been around many younger parents, but my gut tells me something’s amiss.

Anywho, hit up the 2nd 노래방 in as many nights and went singing away with another 3 pitchers of beer. Planned to go out to hit up the bars at about 230 but the mom was hammered and wanted to come out with us. We therefore had to go in and get her food and let her calm down and stay in the house, she was a wreck and was in no condition to go out any farther. ‘Course after sitting down for a bit it was lights out for me too and soon enough I was in the taxi heading home.

Sunday was chilled, Poker was cancelled which was disappointing but it’ll get doing in time. Saw my new apt. this week! Looked pretty nice. 2 bedrooms, decent size, small bathroom but very manageable. I was supposed to move on Tuesday and had everything packed and cleaned before I went to class on Monday. As I get to school the manager informs me I might have to stay in the house a few days without a bed of fridge…or anything else you might find in an apt. (it was completely bare). Ummmm, hellz no. I’ll just be staying where I am now and you can let me know when you have bought new stuff for me. ‘Course if I would have looked myself I could have found good furniture online the week before, but she has managed to get some 2nd hand and I hope its relatively good condition. It’s a hagwon (small academy) and they love to save money any way they can. Hope they found some good stuff and I’m all settled in by next Monday (finally). I’m sure I’ll have new stories before the week is out on that. I’m spent. Hope your doin well. I’ll post new pics here soon. Happy bday Jerry!

Colin