Thanksgiving Weekend

This weekend was by far the best weekend I've had in Korea in the last 7 months. I still can't get over the fact that I made it 7 months. I should have a party just to celebrate that.

Friday night I was invited out by an Australian teacher and her Canadian friend. We went to a bar that served traditional Korean liquor. We had ma-ko-lee, which is made from rice (duh). It's white and creamy, quite nice.

The bar was the tackiest thing I'd ever seen. The word tack-o-rama comes to mind. It was as if Gilligan's Island had thrown up all over the bar. Everything was bamboo and thatch. The "booths" were little bamboo mini rooms with paper screen doors and thatched roofs. The traditional gourd spoons used for serving drinks were replaced with plastic gourd spoons. How tacky is that? Half-way through our night some Korean girls at another table kept telling us to "shut up" because we were speaking English. Well, my friends told them off in Korean. It made them shut up.

The following day, I went to a Thanksgiving dinner/party. One of the teachers here throws it every year for the foreign teachers and Korean friends. Well, I almost didn't go, but decided to attend at the last minute. There were about 40 people at the party, half of them Korean. It was amazing to meet so many new teachers and new people. I made some really good friends that will be hanging out with me quite a bit in the future. The food was great. His school paid for the turkey, renting the restaurant, and all of the food. The dinner was very international with turkey, dressing, potatoes, pumpkin pie, encheladas, chicken dishes, lasagna, etc. A little bit of everything.

After the dinner, we moved on to the Ouzo bar. A nice place just to hang out and talk. It was really wonderful just to talk to some new people. I talked the people into checking out the tacky bar from the night before. Out on the street, I met a gang of Russian workers, and I switched into Russian mode. This blew away my new friends who are still in awe. I thought I was really losing my Russian, but it turns out that I just needed a little practice. The Russians were very impressed and said that they'd never met an American that spoke Russian so well. I was on cloud nine.

After peeking into the tacky-tiki bar we went to a different bar, and spent time talking to the Russians and eachother. Long story short, I didn't get home until 2:30. I bought the Russians a round.

On Sunday I went to Itaewon with Victoria. Bought some new neckties for only $8 each. Good deal. It was nice just to walk around Itaewon at a nice leisurely pace.

So, my weekend of new friends and leisure was wonderful. I didn't manage to do any of my homework for my TEFL course, and I spent hardly any time in my apartment. I think that this could be the beginning of a new chapter in Korea for me (not one of bar hopping and drinking) of new friends and a positive outlook.