Birthday Bonanza

Okay, if I had to say which birthday celebration classified more as a "bonanza," it would have to be Wednesday night...even if just for the simple fact that party hats were involved. However, Friday night a couple of my fellow Pyeongchongers(-ians?) met up with a couple others at Kelly's place for a bit before heading into Hongdae. Hongdae is the big club area in Seoul, and the last Friday night of every month is "Club Night." On this night, you pay a $15 cover at the first place to receive a wristband and one free drink. The wristband gets you into most of the clubs in the area for free.


The birthday pose... 

As it turned out, Club Night was the Friday following my birthday, so of course I wanted to go with bells on. Unfortunately, my desire to partake in the festivities was shared by thousands of other young foreigners and Koreans. The first club we went to was pretty packed, with very little room to dance. We eventually got tired of the place and went to the next club. Saying this place was full would be an understatement: if there were fire regulations in this country (and we know now that there are not), then this joint would have been over max capacity by a few hundred people. We waited almost an hour to check our coats, and once we got into the club, moving so much as two inches was such a difficult task. Finally, when we could take the strict confines no longer, we left, and after failing to find another decent club, we headed back home.

Saturday was a lazy day...I was supposed to have a friendly soccer match, but I overslept. Saturday night was my first Korean movie theater experience. In Korea, it's customary to buy your tickets ahead of time because there are reserved seats. You can't just sit in whatever seat pleases you. Here, upon purchasing your tickets, they show you a seating chart so that you may choose your seat. I have a bit of a complex about having to sit right in the middle, but my worries were squelched when the usher explained that there was open seating. We saw "Hostage" with Bruce Willis...I do not recommend it!

Happy Easter! 

Sunday afternoon I met up with Kelly and her coworker, and we went to Itaewon to the home of a friend of his for a potluck Easter lunch. The girl works for the military, which means she can shop at the commissary, which means lunch was a smorgasbord of American grub. Ham, sweet potato casserole, jalapeno cornbread...yummy! For me, the best part was the chocolate chip cookies. Very few people in Korea have ovens, and bakeries only have cakes and bread, so these were the first cookies I have seen since being here! I was in food heaven!

After lunch, we waddled over to Gecko's for a bit before finally heading home. I guess now my birthday week is officially over, and now it's time to begin my steady decline to 26!!!

Mar. 21 - Mar. 25: The Big 2-5

Big Wishes....

Well, well, well...once again, another birthday. And not just any birthday, but the big 25. This is the hump birthday...nowhere to go but downhill from here! I've always been safe at 24 and under, because it always rounds down to 20. But 25? Gulp...we all know what number that bad boy rounds up to!

Before I get into my birthday celebrations, I am excited to say that I am back to playing some soccer again! Friday night at the Rockssin, I ran into some guys that play for an ex-pat team in Anyang. There is a foreigner's league in South Korea consisting of about ten teams, and they travel around playing each other each spring. I gave one guy my e-mail address, and he informed me of the practice time and location.

Tuesday night, I went into nearby Sanbon at 9:30 pm for my first practice with the team. Only five other guys showed up, so we kicked around a bit, had some drills, then played a 3-on-3 scrimmage. Going into this, I was extremely worried about my lack of skills, seeing as I haven't really even touched a ball in over five years. However, I was not as bad as I thought I would be, and I think I pretty much held my own on the little field. Well, at least they said I could come back!


I love birthdays!

Wednesday, the 23rd, was my birthday. After I got off work that night, I went to dinner with my friend Ryan at T.G.I.Friday's (yes, we have those here...this was my first time having traditional American food since I've been here). We then met up with Amanda, Kelly, and some others at the OB (the local foreigner dive). I walked into the bar and was so impressed to see some of my friends with party hats, noisemakers, and of course, a birthday cake! They sang happy birthday, I blew out the candles, and we had a jolly old time celebrating my big day! Of course, I had to work the next morning, so I finally allowed Kelly to drag me out of there around 2:00 am.

Fortunately, Thursday morning I got to skip out on teaching, since we took the children on a field trip to the "Teddy Bear Castle" in nearby Bundang. It was extremely hokey, but it was certainly the perfect day to follow my birthday. I spent most of the morning trying to recover not only from the night before, but also the incredible amounts of pain and soreness that had come upon my body since Tuesday night's soccer practice. I guess I really am getting old! At the last minute, I decided to skip out on Thursday night's practice to give my body a few extra days to heal itself. Plus, I have to be in tip-top shape for another big night...Club Night in Hongdae for Birthday Celebration #2!!!

MC Tiff, Casino, and a Wedding

Friday night was a blast. I went with some friends back to the Rockssin Club in Anyang for Open Mic Night. Once again, the place was packed with other foreigners from our area. I had met the host at the last Open Mic Night, and my friend Amanda had mentioned that I did some hosting on the cruise ship. Around midnight, he pulled me up onstage, and I actually got to introduce a couple of the bands! He introduced me to everyone as the "MC in Training." I was thrilled to death...I have really missed being on the microphone! He told me that I'm welcome to host anytime I want.

Saturday I had to work for three hours to make up for the classes we missed due to the fire. I was exhausted Saturday night, but I met up with Ryan and his brother in Myeongdong and finally had my first real sushi meal since I have been in Korea...it was divine! We then went to the swanky Sheraton in downtown Seoul, which houses one of the city's only casinos. Since it is illegal for Korean nationals to gamble, the place was swarming with Chinese and Japanese tourists and American GIs. I immediately warmed up by dropping $10 on a slot machine, followed by a swift loss of $20 in Roulette, capped off with bidding adieu to $50 in Poker. I shrugged my shoulders, laughed, and we got the heck out of there so that we could still afford a cab ride back to the subway station.


Annie and her new husband bowing to the wedding guests.

Today I witnessed my very first Korean Wedding. Annie, one of my fellow teachers, got married at 1:30 pm in one of the great Korean Wedding Halls. These massive wedding halls consist of several gaudy chapels and a few huge banquet halls for receptions. They host up to five or six weddings a day, herding the people through like cattle. We arrived right as the wedding was about to begin, and since there were no doors separating Annie's chapel from the rest of the building (and the hundreds of Koreans gathered in the lobbies awaiting other weddings), the noise was deafening. As Annie walked down the aisle, a string quartet was playing while thick white smoke was curling down the aisle. I had to stifle a laugh, but was put to silence by the shock at seeing how disrespectful the wedding guests were. Korean twenty-somethings were walking around, taking pictures of each other with their digital cameras, and loudly talking to each other or into their cellphones. Craziness. After the short wedding, we headed upstairs to the banquet hall for a huge Korean feast. It was definitely an interesting experience, to say the least.

Annie and I at the reception.

After the wedding, I met my friend Amanda up in Gangnam for some shopping. I came to Gangnam one afternoon when I first got here, and for some reason I remembered there being loads more stores. Unfortunately, the few shops that they do have are cheezy Abercrombie and Fitch wanna-be stores. Therefore, we hit up some of the knock-off handbag and sunglass vendors before having dinner and calling it a day.

Mar. 14 - Mar. 18: Seoul Tower

Well, no fires this week, thank God. But I did hear a very disheartening bit of information from a guy that works on the third floor of my building. I was telling him about our having to go to the roof, and when I mentioned that we found out about the fire at noon, he looked at me in wide-eyed dismay. Apparently, the fire started at 11:30 AM, and he and his students got out of the building shortly thereafter. So, we were just teaching and having a lovely time up on the sixth floor while the firefighters were probably already putting out the fire two floors below us. It really just makes me laugh at this point!

So compared to last week, this week was very uneventful. Tuesday night I went into downtown Seoul with a couple guys to check out Namsam mountain and the base of Seoul Tower. We wanted to go up into the tower, but unfortunately it is closed off for repairs. However, the views of the city from the top of the mountain were incredible. For miles and miles and miles you could see nothing but the ubiquitous flashing neon signs and strings of headlights from the compact cars winding their ways through the narrow streets. For such a huge city (the population is 12 million here...larger than NYC), there really is not much of a skyline. The tallest building here is something like 64 floors. But knowing that the city was pretty much flattened during the war and completely rebuilt in the last fifty years, it's quite impressive.

A view of the city from Seoul Tower. 

Wednesday night my newest buddy Amanda and I went to the local teacher hangout to finally meet some of our neighbors...and we did! Thursday night was St. Patrick's Day of course, and I think I was the only person in my school intentionally wearing green. I was going around pinching my students, but before they could try to reciprocate with a good dongchi, I would explain the whole customary wear green, good luck, shamrocks and blarney stones, yada yada yada. Really, it's just pointless to even bother trying to celebrate these holidays here.

Well, believe it or not, I have to work Saturday to MAKE UP FOR THE CLASSES WE MISSED THE AFTERNOON OF THE FIRE. Yes, that is correct. We actually have to come in for a couple hours on Saturday because our building was on fire and we had to go to the hospital last Thursday. Deep breaths.......

No Snowboarding For Me

After my day on Thursday, I was looking forward to the opportunity of getting away for a weekend of snowboarding in Yong Pyong with Kelly and our friend Steve. I met up with Kelly Friday night in Itaewon, sticking my bags in a subway locker for the hour we planned to spend at Gecko's. However, upon heading back to the subway to retrieve my bags, I was faced with a locked gate! The subways would not open again until 5:45 AM, so I was straight out of luck, considering we had to board our bus across town at 6:00 AM.

Kelly and I went to Steve's anyway to spend the night, and he packed extra clothing for me to wear. However, as we were boarding the bus, I decided I was going to have to bail. I just couldn't bear the thought of spending the weekend in boy's underwear and shoes. So I said goodbye to Kelly and Steve and headed back to Itaewon to retrieve my bags, not getting home until 7:30 AM. I was exhausted, to say the least, and quite disappointed!

Saturday night I met my friend Amanda and we had dinner at a little Korean restaurant at nearby Beomgye Station. We then met up with Ryan and his visiting friend and together headed into Hongdae. We had a great time dancing with some Koreans at a Ska Bar, but the night turned sour when Amanda and I got separated. I ended up taking a cab by myself back to Pyeongchon at 5:00 AM. The cab ride lasted an hour and cost 16,000 Won, but when I gave the cabbie 20,000 Won, he refused to give me my change. Ah, well, Cest La Vie.

Today was spent lounging around the apartment, doing my best to stay hydrated since my smoke inhalation medicine gives me major dry mouth. Tonight Amanda and I are meeting up again for dinner and to rehash the weekend. I am so exhausted, and I wish I had just one more day of weekend before I have to work again!

Mar. 7 - Mar. 11: FIRE!!!

Wow...what a week. I am in total shock. There's really no point in boring you with the sordid details of my work week, because there's no way I would remember any of them after the day I had Thursday.

Thursday morning was like any other...I walked to school and taught a couple of my morning classes. Around 12:00 noon, just as I was helping my students complete their phonics work before our lunch break, the school cook ran into the classroom with fear in her eyes, whispering, "Fire!" I rounded up my children, and we walked into the hall, running into the other teachers and students. I calmly lined the children up, and just as I was about to lead them out, the Korean teachers told them all to go get their coats....WHAT??!! So I helped them throw on their coats, thinking that it was probably just a minor fire, considering I didn't see or smell any smoke or hear any fire alarms sounding. I opened the glass door to our school's suite, and was hit with a blast of gray smoke. I looked across the hall to the stairwell, and all I saw was thick, opaque black smoke barrelling up the stairs like an angry chimney.

My first thought was to go down, but one of the Korean teachers yelled that we should go to the roof. I ran to the stairwell's doorway and started helping to direct the teachers and children up the stairs. At one point, one of the babies of the school, a tiny 5-year old named Jennifer, stood frozen in the doorway. I picked her up, and started making our way up the stairs. The smoke was so thick you could not see an inch in front of you, but I was feeling around for the children, making sure they were safely climbing up the stairs as quickly as possible. Jennifer had her face buried into my shoulder, and I did my best to console her while encouraging the children to keep climbing.

The Damaged Stairwell. 

As we are on the sixth floor, we only had to ascend two flights before reaching the building's roof, but it felt like twenty. There was absolutely no oxygen left in the air, and every attempt at taking a breath was in vain. Just as my legs began to weaken and unimaginable thoughts began to flash in my mind, we finally reached the doorway to the roof. We greedily gulped the fresh oxygen while making sure the children were all okay. After I made sure the children were being counted, I realized that one of the teachers was missing. Just as I said a quick prayer before heading back into the building to find her, she came running out of the doorway.

The thick black smoke was billowing out of the air vents and staircases, and we knew we had to get off that roof. We were separated from the neighboring building's roof by a nine foot tall fence topped with barbed wire. My coworker Chris climbed over, and with the help of some Korean guys, we lifted the children up over the fence and into safety. Finally, I climbed over, and we made our way down to the street.

The street was swarming with fire trucks, but not one single paramedic...and we needed oxygen! The firefighters were just watching the fire in awe, not even making an attempt for any search and rescue of anyone trapped inside the building. I was dismayed, but finally we all hopped into one of our school buses and headed for the hospital. The children were all tested for smoke inhalation, and the teacher who was in the building the longest had to be hooked up to an IV most of the day. Finally, around 5:00 pm, after the children were safely back with their mothers, we teachers nervously made our way back to survey the damage at school. Of course, the buiding was not off limits, and the clean-up process had already begun. As we climbed the soaking, black stairwell, we were hit with the pungent smell of smoke. The fourth floor was completely gutted, but amazingly the fire seemed to have been contained there.

The burnt-out remains of the 4th floor. 

Other than the strong smell of smoke and a layer of ash and dust over all surfaces, our school was just as we had left it. We grabbed our bags and jackets and were informed that we would still be having school on Friday by our boss, who wasn't even there that day and did not even see the need to ask if we were okay. Aaahhh...it feels so good to be appreciated, especially after such an intense and traumatic day.

After we left the school, we teachers finally decided to get ourselves tested and treated for the smoke inhalation. We were prescribed medication and breathed in a lovely aromatherapy concoction. I wearily made my way home, through the rain, with way too much on my mind. Friday morning, the school still reeked, and half the children did not come back, but who can blame them?

I am still in shock after what happened. I have never felt so close to death in my entire life. I know now that if we had tried to go down the stairs, which is always your first reaction, we would have been trapped on the fourth floor. I have no doubt that we would have never been able to go back up to the roof from there. I am appalled that there were no smoke alarms, and if it had not have been for our cook seeing the fire trucks outside, we would have kept on teaching. I am angry that the firefighters made no effort to look inside the building to direct people outside. And I am disgusted that my uncaring boss felt the need for us to all come back to school the next morning after the day we had all endured.

All in all, I am very happy that we all made it out not only alive, but in good health. I will never, ever take lightly the sound of a fire alarm again; I will certainly be the first one out the door!

Most of the large windows in the building were blown out. 

Korean Basketball

Aaaahhh...what a lovely weekend! Friday night Kelly came down and we met up with some of my friends before heading toThe Roccsin in Anyang. This bar hosts an open mic night every other Friday, and it was packed with English teachers. Most of the bands were Koreans jamming out to American covers, so it was quite amusing. We then headed to our favorite dive, Techno Bar, for some late night dancing.

Kelly stayed over Friday night, and Saturday afternoon we went to a professional basketball game. There are about ten teams in the Korean league, and one of the teams happens to be the Anyang Stars. The center was surprisingly small, but very packed with loudly-cheering Korean fans. We were, without a doubt, the only whities in the joint, but we had a blast, nonetheless, and the Stars won!

Believe it or not, Saturday night I actually had a real date...not a common occurrence around here, to say the very least. I had met a guy in the military a couple months ago and sort of blew him off. I ran into him again last weekend, and he basically informed me that he was taking me out to dinner, so I accepted. We met in Itaewon, and I do realize this makes me every man's nightmare, but I brought a girlfriend of mine as chaperone. A male friend of hers met us up, so we ended up having a somewhat double date.

Sunday was a nice relaxing day, with dinner with my friend Ryan and his pal who's visiting from the States. I am excitingly looking forward to a new week with all my new classes.

Feb. 28 - Mar. 4: Independence Day

As I was hoping and expecting, this week was nice and short. Because the kindergartners had just graduated, I didn't have to go into work until 1:00 pm Monday afternoon. I woke up in time to watch the beginning of the Oscars, with Korean commentary, of course. We also had a meeting with our boss, where we confronted a few scheduling issues he was trying to pull over us.

Since Tuesday was a national holiday, I decided to take advantage of the day off from work by meeting Kelly and her coworker Monday night. We met up in Jongno, the downtown business district before ending up in Itaewon. Tuesday I came home from Kelly's in time to prepare for my evening's private lesson. Unfortunately, upon arriving at their apartment, I was informed that since it was a holiday, they didn't want to do the lesson that night...good to know, after walking a mile to get there.

Wednesday it dumped more snow on Seoul than I've seen since being here. I was fortunately able to sleep in since I didn't have to go into work until 1:00 in order to finally settle some of the scheduling disputes.

Friday was the start of the new classes...one of the worst parts of my new schedule is that I now I have to work 10-7:30 MWF, and 10-4:30/6:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays...add that to my Tues/Wed private lessons, and I am quite the workaholic. Those long days are so tough, but there's absolutely nothing I can do about it.

I am so ready for my first weekend off in two weeks!!!