Education Centre Extravaganza

So it is Thursday of my first week here. I have been at the school for a full day and a half when my co-teacher (from now on referred to as "My Man") tells me we are scheduled to go to a conference tomorrow night (Friday. What?) from 2:30 (sweet, we are leaving early) until 7:30 pm. I'm sorry, what was that? I don't DO conferences on Friday nights. I live in ASIA. I'm a rock star. I have to get out on the town. Sigh. Since I only know one person here, who happens to be out of town this weekend, I'm at a loss anyway. So away I go, half-heartedly. I say to My Man when we pull up to the Education Centre (could this GET any worse?) that today, today my friend, I will meet a friend.


We gather into this vast conference room (because THIS is how you want to spend your first Friday night in Asia) with about 150 other native speakers and their co-teachers and I realize that this isn't a bad place to be at all. There are beautiful people here, friends. And I am going to meet me some beautiful people.


During break time, I discover two things: I have a knack for meeting new people and Korea has this amazing prepackaged invention. It is a coffee drink that is riddled with, as dad would say, Instantine (instant coffee for those of you who don't speak Italenglish), "creamer" (which always grossed me right out), and a ton of sugar (mostly sugar, honestly). Add hot water and voila done, you have a lovely midafternoon drink. Just when you thought it couldn't get any better, I wander over to the beautiful people and start talking to them. Turns out they are nice and they remember when they were new to the country, aimlessly searching for western faces amidst a sea of easterners. Turns out everyone missed talking quickly as much as I do now. So we get to talking (quickly) and a conversation about a beach outing surfaces, followed by talk of a house party (that's funny since we all live in shoeboxes. More accurately then, a box party. I said it).

We break for dinner, and plans start to come together. Oh thank god. I thought this, my first Asian weekend, would be rather sad, laden with thoughts of wanting to go back home. As it turns out, no thoughts of that nature came into my head.


Without regaling you with all the details, I'm happy to report that this, my first weekend as an Asian resident was successful (if you can call a weekend successful).


I had Korean Barbeque in Beomgye (pronounced close enough to "bum-gay"), drank my fair share of soju, and ended up watching this guy perform on the street for about two hours in total. He was freestyling, breakdancing, and just loving life. I must say I felt a bit sad for him though: other men watching him were mocking him. I loved it though. I just wish I knew how to post a video so you could see him dance. Holy hanna. Perhaps the photo alone is hilarious evidence enough. What you really can't see (and thus, can't fully appreciate) is the bowl hair cut and the teeny tiny pony tail on the top of his head. Not so much to keep the hair out of his face (since you can still see bangs), but more so to add to the outfit. Love him.

I had heard of Anyang Art Park (or perhaps just have seen the signs pointing there) and the associated Water Park and thought, hells yeah, this is prime weather for swimming in chlorinated H2O. Right? So we headed to the Art Park. And found the Water Park. I was reminded (fondly and hysterically) of Turkey Point and Barb Marcuzzi's coolers. And, of course, of the pee bucket. Before us was not a WATER PARK, "Confed" styles (I'm rocking the Hammer lingo), but rather, a river. More accurately perhaps, a stream. How very cute. Not one woman bore her body, so my bikini remained hidden. In fact there were a TON of women dressed in high heels IN the water with their children. This is definately one for the books.

We had to have dinner then. And I drank a plethora of beer. BEER! Can you picture it? Welcome to Asia.