Tigers and Wigs

Last Friday I met Grace and the gang for her birthday. I gave her a pair of earrings and a bracelet that I made, I wasn't going to bring any of my jewelry stuff with me but Gabrielle assured me it would be a good thing to do and I am so glad that I did (thanks Gab!), she loved them and put them on right away. This was the first time that I had seen an actual Karaoke Bar in Gwangju, one that is not a private room. For a while we were the only people there and then a group of older Korean men and women arrived, I guess they were not impressed with our singing because they left after only 10 minutes. Later that night I was supposed to see Jool's Salsa group perform downtown, somehow Michelle and I showed up an hour late and missed it :(Michelle thought it was at 11:00. So we ended up spending the night downtown going back and forth from upstairs, Speakeasy - the foreigner bar, and downstairs, Buena Vista - the Salsa bar. I have to say that I much prefer the Salsa bar!

On Saturday I worked 1:30 to 3:30, I had two classes. When I first started I had taught one of my classes the essay skeleton, I think my director must have liked this because she asked me to teach my 1:30 class how to seperate the book that they have been reading into introduction, body and conclusion. When I finally saw the book I realized that this would not be possible since the book was not written in that format. So I made the best of the situation and had the class write an introduction and a conclusion together. This is probably my most advanced class and I always think that I am prepared for them but they finish everything very fast so we end up playing a lot of games. My 2:30 class on Saturday is supposed to be my director's niece (Chau who goes by Jenny) and nephew (who goes by Tommy), they have both spent time living in Canada and speak English very well. For some reason this past Saturday I had a class with Tommy, Jenny and two younger students whose levels of English are nowhere near Tommy and Jenny. I was baffled as to why they were there, I guess they needed a babysitter.

Saturday afternoon after stopping at 7-11 for a few pitchers or beer and bottles of Soju, Michelle, Ally and I met Jool and Soku at Gwangju Stadium to watch a baseball game. The KIA Tiger vs the LG Twins. I thought this was a great way to spend the afternoon but the game was not very exciting, we ended up leaving before the end - no one had made it home yet.

Michelle, Ally and I were downtown by 7:30 - half an hour late for the monthly foreigner dinner that another teacher in Gwangju organizes, hopefully I can make it to the next one. We decided to go to Miller Time for a drink and some potatoes that Michelle and Ally really like. I was not really a fan, most of the food in the bars here is deep fried - it is getting really old. After Miller Time I wanted to see if I could take some money out of my Canadian account at one of the bank's downtown, I was in for a big surprise when I thought I was taking out 50 000 and it ended up being 500 000. So that was fun, it was a good thing that I had opened my bank account here and was able to deposit most of it into there. We went to a noreabang, this place was great there were different wigs and masks to dress up in and perform. Two of Ally's Korean friends joined us (Sung Geun and Seung Gyun), like most times that this happens, they were shy at first but this quickly faded after a few drink and a few songs!

On Sunday I went downtown for lunch/dinner with Michelle and Ally. We ended up eating at this Outback restaurant, it was good and I was so happy to finally have a salad with oil and vinegar instead of cabbage with either a creamy kiwi or strawberry dressing. We ate so much and then decided to walk from downtown to Home plus to pick up a few things, but no one really knew the way and we were all really tired so Ally made a phone call and turned to us and said "mu mushroom friend will pick us up", "what? your mushroom friend?" I thought this was pretty funny, then she explained that she calls him that because of his haircut. So we walked to meet him, we saw a man sitting in front of a store with a woman and a child, this man must have done something to piss some guy off because next thing we know this guy is running at the man sitting outside the store and they started fighting, I couldn't watch - it made me feel sick to my stomach, especially since the little girl was shreiking, it was very sad. When we met Ally's mushroom friend I was disappointed to see that he had gotten a hair cut and no longer had the mushroom do, but he was very nice and he drove us to Home plus.

On Wednesday night I finally made it downtown to buy a phone card to phone home, I was pumped! Michelle and I had dinner and then met up with Seung Chul, Dongmin and Suki and we finally went to the little Bohemian place by my house that we had been wanting to try out. It was cute but nothing special. My phone card was 10 000 and gave me 104 minutes, I was able to call Jenny, Dave and Meagan! It was awesome to talk to you guys but I was saddened when I tried to call mom and I was out of time, 104 minutes goes fast! I will call you on the next one mama!

Last night I went out with Cloudia and Rachel (another teacher at my Academy), it was nice. Until yesterday I had thought that Rachel did not really like me but I realize now that she is just really shy. She told me that her family owns a Restaurant on Mudeung Mountain and that she will invite me sometime.

This weekend is a long weekend so there is no work tomorrow, Friday - I am told that it is Foundation Day. Ally, Michelle and I will be leaving for Seoul at 6:00 tomorrow morning, I will tell you all about it next week!

Have a wonderful weekend!