Where do i even begin? Yesterday was a pretty long day, as I was tired from going out the night before. Getting through my classes was ok, but a bit of a struggle. Knowing that last night there was a party/dinner to follow teaching though, I tried in vain most of the day to up my energy/enthusiasm at least a little. After my adult class (10pm), all the other western teachers had gone home, done whatever and were all back, as expected. I ran around trying to finish up some projects and filling out my daily report and next thing I know, Choi (pronounced "chwey") is telling us it's time to go. We all piled into their family van and headed over to the restaurant. I knew it was going to be a long night when the soju and beer just kept on rolling to our table over and over again. All the staff was drinking and I just kept my seat on the floor, sipping my beer observing all the goings on. Oh, the cause for celebration was that one of our staff is leaving to go back to study more. Kind of like a going-away shindig. Things quickly turned truly Corean as one glass after another was filled respectively by neighboring table members over and over. You see, it's rude to fill your own drink. You hold up your glass and someone quickly responds filling it promptly as you hold it out. Well.....you don't really have to in fact usually beckon someone. They usually just see your glass and start pouring. It's a sweet custom, other than you sometimes end up drinking a little more than you may like. My eyes lolled as I struggled to stay awake the later it got and I finally just gave up and decided that as long as I was there, I may as well do as the romans. I sat back and relaxed a little more and stopped thinking about the fact that I had to get up at 7-something the next day. I got to see all Korean staff (including the women) pretty sloshed as well as one pass out. I get the feeling they really needed a night out. They've been pretty stressed since the new school year started here and the number of kindergartners nearly doubled. Well....we ended up going to a nodibong (singing room) and after we'd been there a while, I thought I'd check the time. It was around 3am! I took my leave quickly after that and got home to around 3 hours of sleep before having to get up and get ready to go to Seoul.

I started my first Zither lessons today, at around 10. The Institute the classes are at though, is at the southern end of Seoul, which is why I had to get up and leave so early. Yes.....you read correctly, by the way. I said zither. I read one of the English papers fairly frequently and they had traditional instrument lessons advertised and the national art institute for FREE! I thought I'd give it a shot. 12 weeks (2 each Sat.) of free classes. Why not. I think it must be some sort of government subsidised program to promote culture. Anyhow...the zither is a large 12 stringed instrument (at least here--there are different kinds) that you sit on you lap and pluck. We didn't do a whole lot today, but the woman was very nice and she introduced us to things in her Conglish way of speaking. Check out this web site to see a picture of a "komun-go" (zither) that's very similar to the ones we'll be using.


http://www.askasia.org/image/photos/i000081.htm