Dancing machine...

The last few days have been crazy.

The day before yesterday we spent 3 and a half hours doing traditional Korean dance. It was a lot of fun watching everyone trying to do the dance and sing the chants. It was a great workout and unfortunately the room was not air conditioned.

The last dance involved a select few people (who were chosen by losing at a very simple game) had to put on traditional Korean outfits that looked like karate suits. The rest of us had to wear masks. By the end of it we were gettin' pretty good.

That night we watched a Korean film with English subtitles. It was one of the weirdest films I've ever seen. Apparently, it is the most popular Koran film ever but I can't remember the name of it. It had weird homoerotic sexual overtones involving these showmen from 500 plus years ago. One of the entertainers used to be pimped out in his village so his friend, or maybe brother, got them out of there and went to Seoul. They ended up as jesters for the King. Then the King started having "feelings" for the Eunuch guy (look it up if you don't know what it is). We never did find out if he was a Eunuch and the film had no resolution besides the brother getting his eyes burned out by the King.

I thought the film was terrible and very twisted. I couldn't believe it was the most popular Korean film ever.

We spent today and yesterday learning "teaching methodologies" but in reality we sang children's songs with actions all day. It's a bit overkill and I have to go back and do more tomorrow. Most of my fellow teachers were having a difficult time getting the actions down so I don't really see how the kids are gonna be able to learn it. I suppose the people who have been bashing the Korean education system are right, including the Koreans Profs who have presented to us.

I drank my first bottle of Soju last night. It wasn't too bad. Then I ended up at the Beer Hunt for a few hours with the usual gang. We almost feel stranded here at the resort now and the Beer Hunt is one of our few escapes. Most people are getting anxious to leave by now and check out Seoul and their apartments. I am one of them.

Last night I was out my balcony and the resort was putting off some type of function for one of the cell phone companies here. I went to get a closer look and just about every man there was totally wasted. They played a version of pass the parcel (well, they used a balloon) and the person with the balloon had to go to the stage. They had a group game of paper-scissors-rock and if you were eliminated, you had to give the MC money. The final person on the stage got to keep the money. It was over $100.

They also had sexy dancers, a DJ, and a one-man band.

We are now sharing the resort with the Samsung Lions, a professional baseball team. They won the Korean championship in 2002. One of the players is from the US and he walked into the Beer Hunt and saw all of us Westerners. He sat down and was so excited to be able to talk English with some people and have a few beers. He has a translator who shadows him and it must've been nice to have a conversation without having it go through another person.

The PC Bang is crazy today. There are about 50-60 computers here and at least 80% of them are filled with people playing Starcraft. I thought it sounded like a war zone before, but today it's almost deafening. On our TV there is a channel that shows professional gamers playing it all day long. Strange.

Well, I'm outta here to go do some more Patty Cakes.
Hurray!!//.... . . . . . .