...or at least last night did. every couple of weeks, the principal here takes us out. the first night out with the jung chul crew was my first night here. the next morning was my first expeience of the dreadful soju headache. warning to future visitors: just because your korean friends are force-feeding you surprisingly decent-tasting shots of beer, cola, and soju, doesn't make it the best idea for you. i remembered that tidbit last night and negotiated my way into a harmless couple of cocktails.
around the same time as round one, our table received our soup. while i had figured out that they were talking about t.v. shows like fear factor and survivor moments before, i didn't realize that we were about to have such a challenge at our table. the soup arrived and everyone dug in. they said it was vegetarian, so i stuck my spoon in too. what i lifted out of the communal pot was something startlingly familiar and certainly not vegetarian. "caterpillar baby!" my boss smiled. too bad i already had the spoon hovering over the table. i had to give it a go. i ate a few odd things in thai markets, but crispy-fried-whatever in no way compares to a steaming mouthful of "caterpillar baby." thank god the salad arrived just a few seconds later.
as dinner became more normal (salmon salad, fruits of the sea plate, and spicy mussel soup), my co-workers became less normal, pushing through a few bottles of soju. then they decided we needed to go to a "western style" bar. we went to bar indiana. i think the barman just picked a random state as the namesake, since it was decorated with any and all sorts of american kitsch, including a giant cigar store indian chief statue and budweiser banners. "just like america, right?" "i guess it depends where you go..." in an american bar i probably wouldn't be frowned upon for eating the apple slices from the fruit plate ("very bad for health at night"). hell, there probably wouldn't even be a fruit plate! korean bar snacks absolutely trump their american counterparts. we played darts there; my team finished second.
i thought the night was slowing down at this point, especially considering we had a seven-month pregnant woman in the group. no no, she was worried that i would be tired at school the next day. i told them i would be fine. what 23-year-old will ever be the one to end the party?
apparently, 3 am is the perfect time to go to a noribong, a korean karaoke room. we spent an hour in the cute room on the third floor of my school building singing the world's most random mix of music. i'm glad to know my co-workers and i share a passion for enrique iglesias and savage garden, not to mention a common knowledge of super junior's dance moves ("sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, kalinka kalinka"). too bad there are only five of us. if we can find nine more, we can be the next super junior!
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