Friday Night

Last night I went to a ‘foreigner party’ with Ken, and had a surprisingly good time. It had the vague theme of being a valentine’s day party (we have a long weekend next weekend so they had it early so people would be around for it) and like most theme parties most people ignored the theme. With the exception of Halloween parties I find that most parties are just an excuse to get together and drink with decorations in the room. At Halloween you do the same but wear cat ears and growl at people.

Having limited exposure to the foreigner bar scene here this was a unique opportunity to meet 50 or so English speakers. In my average day there are only a few people I talk with face to face in normal English, and you really start to miss all the small talk. You really do. You start to look at random Koreans around you and just wish you knew what their thoughts on the weather were.

Most of the people there looked like they were fresh out of school and I had the feeling I was in a college party at times. But seeing as how I never felt compelled to funnel any of my drinks I can be sure that I had not in fact stepped into my past. Everyone was really friendly and approachable, almost all of them were teachers too so they all had outgoing natures. If you can be friendly to spoiled kids all day, being friendly to real humans at night is easy.

We were each given a nametag with a number on it when we came in and there was a wall of envelopes where people could leave you valentines. Its one of those sweet little concepts that always goes awry, like robot teddy bears that go on gambling sprees. I was flattered that I received three notes by the end of the night. I’m off the market but it’s always nice to find out you’re not as ugly as the pictures your kids draw of you.

My flattered state did dissipate when I actually read the notes. They were all fairly funny and very tongue in cheek. One was from Ken, and I can’t get into the details here (my parents read this) but he apparently thought I had a robust rooster for sale. Another could easily be interpreted as first person instructions on how to eat a tootsie pop, which I think was from one of Ken’s friends going for a little off color humor. The final one I can’t even allude to its contents without getting my mouth washed out with soap. It ended with the line ‘I want your Kimchi!’ which makes me believe that it too was written by Ken.


Now the downside is that I drank a little too much and stayed out a little too late. Not way too much or far too late, but my tolerance for both of those vices has diminished in my old age. I consequently was a little hung over this morning. Enough to make me postpone my workout until tomorrow, and I do so hate working out on Sundays.

Now after my workout I was to meet one of the trainers who had invited me out to eat, and have an informal language exchange. I still went to the gym at 2 to meet him, despite just feeling tired and headachy. I didn’t see him there, although I only waited for ten minutes and didn’t look too hard. I just sat in the gym lobby flipping through a Korean bodybuilding mag assuming he would find me. Now I felt bad about leaving but to be fair we may have just had a miscommunication on the time/day. Hopefully I’ll see him tomorrow and be able to clear it up.

As I mentioned earlier it turns out that I have a long weekend next week and tomorrow I will start scrambling to make good on my promise to get out of town. I hear that any good trips will be booked solid by this point so Ken and I are planning to head down to Seoul for the weekend. I’ll keep you posted.