LORIBANG! and Acupuncture!

Soju is evil, but not as evil as some alcohol I've tried. Last night was the first night of our winter vacation. We have five days off before we start teaching again. Yay! So, last night the president of Ding Ding Dang (but we will furthermore simply call him the president, because no one in their right mind wants to be called "the president of Ding Ding Dang" out of context) took a bunch of us out to BBQ and kareoke. It was pretty great, as the president likes to get everyone to drink as much as possible and pay for all of it. We drank several bottles of soju at our table, which left me feeling a little strange this morning. Afterwards, we all went to a loribang (which I am probably spelling wrong) and sang kareoke---hilarious. I think my favorite of the evening was singing 'Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns n' Roses with another English teacher, Jack, who works for the same company, at a different school. The president started the singing off with a heartfelt 'Hotel California', for which I joined him in dance though unable to sing the actual song. Lindsay and I sang a fabulous rendition of 'My Sharona' and I seem to remember everyone ending the evening on a terrible show of NKOTB 'Hangin Tough", to which no one knew the words. I was a little wary about renting a room with people you know to sing terribly to each other, but it was great. The president ordered some interesting snacks, including chips that were shaped like french fries but tasted like squid flavored cardboard, as well as an actual entire fried squid which somehow ended up all over the sofas but otherwise seemed to remain untouched....strange.

This morning, despite funny left over soju feelings, I ran my first ever acupuncture clinic out of the apartment. It was fantastic to be actually working again, though last night I was asked by a Korean "So...you're an acupuncturist? How does that work? I've never seen a white person who could do acupuncture." While slightly put off, I did not let it affect my performance. I'm hoping to continue practicing on whomever may need it while I'm here and will drink tonight to a continued morning 'clinic' in my very own apartment.

While it's just turning to New year's eve in the states, here we are all dressed up with everywhere to go, once our party gets here. I might try to avoid soju tonight and stick to something else, but we'll see, it is vacation after all.


Happy 2009!