24^C
Beautiful, just freakin beautiful!
Beautiful, just freakin beautiful!
Living for the weekend, that’s what we do here.. and for good reason too! I’m really hung-over, and quite possibly still a little drunk (see below for reasoning), so I’ll do this in the poonciest way I know how.
Friday 22nd May.
Dear Dinkum-Diary,
Today went off without a hitch! I went to my second school and then after that went to my first ever Korean class. This provinces education board has decided to give bi-monthly Korean classes for their English teachers.. so off I went, bus, taxi and an hour later I was in Bongnae Elementary School. From three-thirty to five we had Yongmin (my ex co-teacher; see previous entries) and Mrs Nam teaching us how to say hello and where we’re from. It was enjoyable enough, but they’re teaching it like we’re supposed to teach English here: drills! Oh well, I had to catch a train to Wonju at five-thirty, to meet Cassie and have a bit of fun.
I got to Wonju at seven pm, met up, and decided to have some coffee. After that we decided we needed something to eat, but we also felt like a couple of beers. So in what can only be described as semi-alchoholic randomness, we made up out minds to get some 김밥 (Korean sushi), and then head over to the Family Mart and sit outside with a couple of Coronas. Note: Family Mart is like a Seven-Eleven or corner store that also sells booz. Over here they don’t really have milk crates instead they have green soju bottle crates. We commandeered a couple of those and sat half on the footpath, half on the road eating Kimbap and drinking Coronas. We had just decided to play a bit of Blackjack, when we saw a Korean guy coming out of the Family Mart with a few beers. As he slowly (and not so steadily) made his way to his girlfriend, in the car, he saw us and started towards us.
“May we join?”, said our soon-to-be-friend Jin-won. That there was where it began; soon we were all playing Blackjack, laughing, and drinking, outside of Family Mart! Jin-won and Chung-hee (I think that were their names) are uni students in Wonju, looking for a good time. Eventually we got the soju out, and after a few more laughs we had decided to go to the Norebang (singing rooms). Jin-won drove us there and the night ended with the exchanging of numbers and the promise that next time we’re in Wonju, to look them up so that we needn’t pay for a motel!
Friday 22nd May.
Dear Dinkum-Diary,
Today went off without a hitch! I went to my second school and then after that went to my first ever Korean class. This provinces education board has decided to give bi-monthly Korean classes for their English teachers.. so off I went, bus, taxi and an hour later I was in Bongnae Elementary School. From three-thirty to five we had Yongmin (my ex co-teacher; see previous entries) and Mrs Nam teaching us how to say hello and where we’re from. It was enjoyable enough, but they’re teaching it like we’re supposed to teach English here: drills! Oh well, I had to catch a train to Wonju at five-thirty, to meet Cassie and have a bit of fun.
I got to Wonju at seven pm, met up, and decided to have some coffee. After that we decided we needed something to eat, but we also felt like a couple of beers. So in what can only be described as semi-alchoholic randomness, we made up out minds to get some 김밥 (Korean sushi), and then head over to the Family Mart and sit outside with a couple of Coronas. Note: Family Mart is like a Seven-Eleven or corner store that also sells booz. Over here they don’t really have milk crates instead they have green soju bottle crates. We commandeered a couple of those and sat half on the footpath, half on the road eating Kimbap and drinking Coronas. We had just decided to play a bit of Blackjack, when we saw a Korean guy coming out of the Family Mart with a few beers. As he slowly (and not so steadily) made his way to his girlfriend, in the car, he saw us and started towards us.
“May we join?”, said our soon-to-be-friend Jin-won. That there was where it began; soon we were all playing Blackjack, laughing, and drinking, outside of Family Mart! Jin-won and Chung-hee (I think that were their names) are uni students in Wonju, looking for a good time. Eventually we got the soju out, and after a few more laughs we had decided to go to the Norebang (singing rooms). Jin-won drove us there and the night ended with the exchanging of numbers and the promise that next time we’re in Wonju, to look them up so that we needn’t pay for a motel!
Saturday 23rd May.
Dear Dairy-Diary,
Saturday dawned a little fuzzy around the edges. We had such a great time the night before that we had forgotten to eat dinner! So we were starving! Off we went to the Korean place we got the Kimbap from the night before and had a feast! On our way we found a cane (see attached pictures) which would set off my costume. After brekky, we were off for more coffee, and then to E-Mart to prepare for the nights celebrations. See, Steve and Rachel had a party for their birthdays, though they decided to make it a costume party. Those not dressed up had me and my special tonic to deal with (poor Brett). My ‘special’ tonic is a Chinese wine that Kurt introduced to us, it really has no taste (unless you can call flaming breath a taste), but it’s cheap, nasty, and you can light it up and use the white-blue flame as a candle or cigarette lighter!
Anyway, let’s fast-forward to the party. Cassie and I had got dressed in another motel in Yeongwol and decided to walk over to the bar where the party was being held (a four minute walk). It was the funniest thing though, as we walked people would out-right stop and stare at us going past. One example was of these men standing at the taxi stand, when they saw us coming they got straight up and scurried out of our way! Another was when a man (about 50) who I’ve been buying water from for the past six months, saw us and immediately put his hands together in front of him and bowed so low that it almost made me want to drop the façade. But I was dressed up and “emanating sheer power and respect” (as Kurt had put it), so I had to go along with it.
So what were we dressed as? I still don’t really know. Guesses at the bar were: Bonnie and Clyde, Gentlemen and Lady, Pimp and.. umm.. employee, Mafia Boss, The Underbelly, a Gangster, and some others that I’ve forgotten. Anyway, let me set the scene for you. Taksabal (the bar) is a medium-sized and quite noisy place with wooden floors and small half-stools which are placed around metre-long round tables. These tables were put together so that the foreigners took up half the bar itself. I had been working on my strut on the way to the bar, so when I got to the front door and entered my first instinct was to make an entrance worthy of my guise. In I went with the gorgeous Cassie at my side.. one step onto the wooden floors and I stopped. Nobody had noticed us enter – and I couldn’t have that. With both hand on my wooden cane I tapped the floor thrice in a not-so delicate fashion. What happened next even surprised me (though my guise would never let me show it). The bar went almost dead silent. I stood there with both hands on my cane in front of me and after a couple of seconds I slowly spread my arms out as if to say “whatdya think?”, “whatdya think your doin”, and “forgetaboutit” all at once. The first thing that happened was that the Korean patrons started clapping and cheering.. taking their lead the foreigners caught on and the silence was broken into a unified boisterous laughter.. then the fun really started!
I won’t go into details, but there was a lot of drinking and playing games and general merry-making that lasted until about 2am. Then some people went home, others went to the Norebang, some went to smoke shisha, and still some stayed at the bar. We decided to stay at the bar for a little while before calling it a night. And what a night it was too!
Sunday 24th May.
Dear GlassAndAHalf,
Anyway, let’s fast-forward to the party. Cassie and I had got dressed in another motel in Yeongwol and decided to walk over to the bar where the party was being held (a four minute walk). It was the funniest thing though, as we walked people would out-right stop and stare at us going past. One example was of these men standing at the taxi stand, when they saw us coming they got straight up and scurried out of our way! Another was when a man (about 50) who I’ve been buying water from for the past six months, saw us and immediately put his hands together in front of him and bowed so low that it almost made me want to drop the façade. But I was dressed up and “emanating sheer power and respect” (as Kurt had put it), so I had to go along with it.
So what were we dressed as? I still don’t really know. Guesses at the bar were: Bonnie and Clyde, Gentlemen and Lady, Pimp and.. umm.. employee, Mafia Boss, The Underbelly, a Gangster, and some others that I’ve forgotten. Anyway, let me set the scene for you. Taksabal (the bar) is a medium-sized and quite noisy place with wooden floors and small half-stools which are placed around metre-long round tables. These tables were put together so that the foreigners took up half the bar itself. I had been working on my strut on the way to the bar, so when I got to the front door and entered my first instinct was to make an entrance worthy of my guise. In I went with the gorgeous Cassie at my side.. one step onto the wooden floors and I stopped. Nobody had noticed us enter – and I couldn’t have that. With both hand on my wooden cane I tapped the floor thrice in a not-so delicate fashion. What happened next even surprised me (though my guise would never let me show it). The bar went almost dead silent. I stood there with both hands on my cane in front of me and after a couple of seconds I slowly spread my arms out as if to say “whatdya think?”, “whatdya think your doin”, and “forgetaboutit” all at once. The first thing that happened was that the Korean patrons started clapping and cheering.. taking their lead the foreigners caught on and the silence was broken into a unified boisterous laughter.. then the fun really started!
I won’t go into details, but there was a lot of drinking and playing games and general merry-making that lasted until about 2am. Then some people went home, others went to the Norebang, some went to smoke shisha, and still some stayed at the bar. We decided to stay at the bar for a little while before calling it a night. And what a night it was too!
Sunday 24th May.
Dear GlassAndAHalf,
Kurt’s leaving us soon. His contract expires at the end of June and then he’s off to Australia for a while before starting his kick-arse teaching job in Shanghai. This may sound like an excuse, but it really isn’t.. I had the idea to have a nice quite Sunday arvo session, you know.. to spend more time with the guy.. make memories and the like. Brett said he knew of a place where we could actually drink outside in the sun, and not only that but they also sold imported beers! So I called around to the boys to see if they wanted to join us. Kurt, Brett, Blake, Alex, and Mason answered the call and at around 2pm we were having a couple of beers on the side of a mountain overlooking Yeongwol while the sun was shining in all its hot hot glory. As Kurt said, all we needed was a cricket set and we’d have left Korea for a while!
As the afternoon progressed we took it easy (still very hung-over from Saturday nights festivities), and just chatted about a few random things. We played a bit of Blackjack and then a couple of Korean birds joined us. We noticed at around four-pm that not all of us had had breakfast, and this being Korea, we could have almost anything delivered to us no matter where we were. So, what better to cure a hangover, compliment our beers, and at the same time provide a well-rounded nourishing meal, than two boxes of hot, greasy Fried Chicken!
We watched the sun go down over Yeongwol and had an all-round relaxing afternoon. Well.. that was until one of the boys said that they felt like some soju. This high-class boutique tea/coffee/beer place had no soju, but I had about 5 bottles of my tonic left over. So out they came, and before we knew it: it was 10pm, we couldn’t walk straight, and I still had to catch a bus home.
What a weekend!
Monday, 25th May.
Dear Choco,
As the afternoon progressed we took it easy (still very hung-over from Saturday nights festivities), and just chatted about a few random things. We played a bit of Blackjack and then a couple of Korean birds joined us. We noticed at around four-pm that not all of us had had breakfast, and this being Korea, we could have almost anything delivered to us no matter where we were. So, what better to cure a hangover, compliment our beers, and at the same time provide a well-rounded nourishing meal, than two boxes of hot, greasy Fried Chicken!
We watched the sun go down over Yeongwol and had an all-round relaxing afternoon. Well.. that was until one of the boys said that they felt like some soju. This high-class boutique tea/coffee/beer place had no soju, but I had about 5 bottles of my tonic left over. So out they came, and before we knew it: it was 10pm, we couldn’t walk straight, and I still had to catch a bus home.
What a weekend!
Monday, 25th May.
Dear Choco,
Today is Monday.. I love Mondays. I have two classes all day, and guess what? I went to one of them and there were no students there! So now I’m guessing I have one class all day. Anyway, I woke up feeling absolutely terrible. Three days straight of drinking will do that to anyone, I guess. I got into work today at eight-thirty and now it’s almost eleven, I’ve done nothing but write in this blog and I’m about to make myself some mid-morning, pick-me-up Tea!
I predict today will go as planned, and I’ll get home at four-thirty. I'll upload pictures (hopefully) and then get some well deserved (not really) sleep!
Until next time,
Sharad/Shiv/Kraze
Confused military personnel, Mother Nature, Me, the Pirate Couple, and a random Korean dude.
We have no idea who these kids were!
Prince Charming.. looking a little terrified for some reason.
What a poser!
2 comments:
ahaha ohhhh good times good times.. i miss tacsabal n hoolala.. seems like it all happened in another life! btw NICE HAT bro.. =D
Ye Kuk, go easy on those Chinese drinks eh. Can't be good. Take care mate and say hi to Cassie for me, from down town San Francisco.
Sorry to hear that some of your mates are leaving the group and moving on. I'm sure the new ones will adjust to you easily.
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