Epic.

What was the occasion? Based solely on your responses to questions itt, I didn't take you for a big partier/drinker.

Three things:

1. My birthday (though in all fairness, my birthday is today)
2. My friend's birthday
3. Same friend is becoming a father in a couple of weeks

Ran up an 80,000+ won tab. Since double jack/coke's are 10K won and I had a kamikaze shooter for 3,500, I'm projecting that I had 8 DJCs and the kamikaze shooter on top of the soju I drank before going to the bar. During my blackout state, I convinced my friend to pay for most of the tab.

Seeing that I went home alone in the cab, I consider it a miracle that I got home in the first place. I got dropped off at a hospital (normal stop for me) and the next thing I know, I am asleep on my bed. Nobody knows how I got home.

My hangover was so bad that it lasted into Monday morning.

-------------------

I drink plenty, but rarely to this point because of my medical condition (excessive alcohol consumption + forgetting to take meds = bad). Last time I did, I got my friend's girlfriend in a headlock and spent several hours calling her a whore. Nearly lost a friendship over it. In the end, I was right because 4 of her other sex partners were at the party excluding my friend.* So I was pretty proud of myself for being right when I was sober.

I stood in a firepit claiming that it was not a firepit. Stood between active and smoldering flames. Thankfully, I did not get burned.

Evidently, I chugged 2/3 a bottle of scotch whiskey on top of the liter of whiskey/coke, and two large bottles of beer I drank before. Friend showed the empty bottle to me.

I was impressed.

*Side note: She dropped all of the sex partners, has been sober for nearly 2 months and is in a steady relationship with said friend. The friend and I made amends for it.

---------------

In the end, I admire the honesty of many Koreans. I have lost many things and with exception to #5, all have been returned to me in some way. These are in chronological order.

1. Cell phone: I went to a swimming pool at a nearby college. For some reason, I give the phone to somebody at the pool. It gets returned to some administrative office. My friend, an English professor at the college, notifies the school who tells me to get it.

2. Wallet: Getting off of the bus to go to work. A Korean guy runs after me holding my wallet. I only notice him after a hundred feet or so (he ran after me across the street). He handed me the wallet and I tried to give him cab fare (it wasn't his stop) but he kept refusing it. Thought after 3 times he'd accept it. Felt sort of bad.

3. Cell phone (again): Fell out of my pocket in a taxi cab in Ulsan. Lady found it, called the first number on my phone address book and eventually the phone was mailed to a Korean friend nearby.

4. Sandals - I leave my sandals in a taxi cab while on the way to work. Cab driver quickly doubles back and drops my sandals off in the teacher's lounge.

5. 300,000 won - Walker Hill Casino in Seoul: Got black out drunk at a blackjack table. Floorman asked me to come back another time and I left immediately. Unfortunately, I left 300,000W on the table. Called the casino the next morning and never got it back. One hour later, I receive news that my father died.

6. iPod Touch - Left it in a rental shoe at a gym. Somebody found it and returned it to the front desk.

7. Wallet (again) - See above story

-------------

Unrelated note: Where is the little birthday cake thing that should be by my user handle? Unless this goes by Pacific Time or something like that.

new 2ne1 single weeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Christ, this makes "Lollipop" sound like Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Waaayyy too much autotune.

http://www.soompi.com/video/2ne1_new..._to_be_like_me

Like "Lollipop", "Try To Be Like Me" is for a cell phone commercial. Not sure if music for cell phone commercials is just of naturally lower quality or anything like that since I rarely watch it.

yeah i agree loll

sigh.. i was excited til i actually listened to it.

Shame cause I actually like their other three single releases.

I do get to say goodbye to my students on Thursday. Tomorrow is technically my last day of teaching (if by teaching you mean showing movies all day). However, I'm going in to the good school on Thursday to say goodbye to my students.

Gotta say that I'm gonna miss some of my students. The previous expat teacher cried. My co-teacher kept checking me to see if I was gonna cry on my last day of class with them. Couldn't even fake it.

Who knows? Maybe I'll shed tears of joy.

Then, deskwarming for two weeks. Good school gave me days off. So, a 3-day weekend followed by two 4-day weekends.

Said goodbye to everybody at the all-girls school. My co-teacher cried. A few students gave me letters and others came to my desk to say goodbye to me personally. After saying goodbye in front of each class, I thanked the principal, vice principal and school owner in person for being very kind and gracious toward me for the year. I also thanked the teachers who sat around me as they have great co-workers.

Gotta admit that I'm gonna miss the place. But I can't sit still, especially when the other school I teach at appears to hate me for an unknown reason.

As expected, Girls Generation releases another hit with "Oh!"

Girls Generation - "Oh!" (eng sub)

15 days until I'm back in the states.

haha i dont know why but i laugh whenever i watch the music video to Oh!

one thing i kinda dont like about SNSD is that they arent too great live-at least from what ive seen w/ them on inkigayo and music core/music bank or w/e

It appears that at times, 2NE1 lip syncs their live shows. I mean their performances sound *exactly* like their CD tracks.

Not sure if SNSD does that, but I could certainly see them sucking live. I mean, there are 9 of them ffs!

As a musician/sound engineer I can confidently say that about 90% of those groups lip-sync their shows. Not that it matters to the audiences really.

I've seen SNSD singing live and they are pretty good. I mean obviously out of 9 girls I guess there is some weak links.

EDIT : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MilEwA74epE

for 2ne1 it depends. a lot of their stuff is live, at least stuff ive seen on inkigayo. you can hear some of their mistakes etc.

loosekanen where do you work? im a music major so just curious

I work for the Army. Contracted as a trombonist but just sing 90% of the time. It's how I ended up in Seoul in the first place. Was there Apr07-May09.

And notice I didn't say "professional" because while I technically do get paid for what I do (and way more than I deserve imo) I have no delusions that I would be good enough to earn any steady money whatsoever on the civilian economy outside of the cruise ship/theme park route.

ah ok thats cool.

the army actually is trying to get me to join. i play the horn-went to the Cleveland Institute of Music.

hows military life/your job as a musician or w/e?

Yeah if I told my students that bands like 2PM were lip-syncing hacks in concert, they wouldn't care.

"But teacher, Junsu is sooooooo handsome!"

The finality of leaving Korea is starting to hit me now. A week until I (probably) leave behind my group of expats for good. I mean, most of them I won't miss much but there are a few that I will miss a bunch.

Yeah, I am planning on coming back and all but I will rarely, if ever see them. Gotta occupy myself over the next few months or so with some activities that don't involve video games.

Side note: I find it really funny that it's so easy to leave the country, but a total pain in the ass to get into it. To leave, all I do is turn in my ARC and I'm off. I just fear my school ****ing me in the ass over transferring my severance pay + flight reimbursement and this month's pay.

Amazing how easy it is to leave the country, but how hard it is to get in.

Seems that the upcoming money is legit and my friend will transfer to me at the end of March (that's when I get my pension).

Speaking of pension, they make it an enormous pain in the ass to get it. They don't even tell you exactly how. It's as though they want you to leave without it.

I leave for America tomorrow. Leaving the country creates very mixed emotions. Although I am coming back, I probably won't see most of my current foreign friends for good. I will miss them. At the same time, things have been very stagnant for me in Korea and a change of scenery would be very beneficial.

I have a lot more packing to do than I was hoping. Since I don't have a dryer, I have to dry my clothes by laying them on the heated floor. Otherwise, I'll be packing wet clothes. I'm going to be leaving a lot of stuff behind for the next person. Hopefully, they'll appreciate the gesture.

how exactly is it hard to get into korea? lol

Pretty sure Bob is referring to the new Visa laws to get a job teaching in Korea. They've really amped up requirements and enforcement of said requirements in the last few years from what I've read.

ya true they have, thank god

lol

Yeah, they have. Some of it is understandable. Some is a bit over-the-top. Not too long ago at the infancy of EPIK, they were so desperate for teachers that they'd bypass visa laws to get you in. Eight years ago, you could have damn near murdered one of your students and the school would want you back. With the new influx of teachers, they can be more picky and don't need to be desperate.

Regardless, I'm back in America.

SuperUberBob,

Welcome back to the USA. I hope that you are able to find another teaching gig after you handle your family issues. It's been a great thread and learned a lot about being a teacher overseas.

P.S. Since you aren't a teacher right now, could you please bring back Ewa?

f4 visa ftw. its the nuts (although I think its only available to ppl that have korean parents/are korean american or something, not sure)