Week One Over

One week down, 19 to go!

Thursday night was a "meeting" for new teachers hosted by the faculty soccer club. I am neither a new teacher nor a soccer club member, but I got invited anyway. Mister Popularity, me.

First round was samgyupsal, grilled fatback pork--in the restaurant, mushrooms are the specialty so there are always three different kinds of them as well. Second round was at Adonis Bar across the street and that was followed by third round in the nearest noraebang. I got home around 12:15 and had two classes back-to-back on Friday morning.

I live a ten minute walk from the noraebang, so I had it easy to compared to some folks. This may partly explain why the subway system runs later on weeknights than on weekends: the "business meeting" is virtually a requirement in the culture here, especially if you are a junior employee. So it's alright if you're getting smashed for work purposes with your boss, but just don't try it on the weekends with your friends.

That's one theory. My other theory is that the taxi drivers' lobby is very strong over in Yeouido (the National Assembly) so they can catch all those tipsy fares--is it a coincidence that the base fare rate goes up late at night when the trains stop running? I, for one, doubt it.