As a rule, I’m done with work when I leave the door. Last night the director offered to treat the entire school staff to dinner at the local Wolnamsam restaurant. This was the first time I was able to go out to eat with everyone in the evening. Several of my coworkers said that I simply had to meet them for dinner because I always skip out on the late night dinners. I told them I’d make an effort to arrive as soon as possible. I arrived only slightly late with some of the other staff and was seated with the men who were of the beer drinking/lots of pork variety.
My wife and I handle dinner at a pork restaurant by cutting off excessive fat, cleaning the cooking surfaces to remove buildup of burned detritus and generally not eating till we explode. These guys took the free meal to the extreme.They kept ordering round after round of meat. They kept the fat on, and as the cooking surface approached a darked state of charcoal, they kept piling the meat on. There is a lot of peer pressure to keep up with everyone at the table, so I couldn’t really object to “yet another round” when they would order. There also was no way I could go down to the other table and eat with people more health-friendly because all the chairs were full.
The people at the table were surprised I could follow the entire strain of conversation in both English and Korean, so they said they felt nervous around me. I’ve been pulling this stunt for years now, and I can’t believe people still get surprised by it. If you feel nervous around someone that understands you, perhaps you aren’t saying something appropriate in the first place? It’s not like they were talking about anything shocking in either language.
Two large bottles of beer, and countless rounds of duck and pork later, I was feeling a little tipsy but good.
A few of the ladies left to meet dates or to avoid being dragged around town all night, but the party ended up at a singing room nearby that was of the “less sleazy” variety. We had to search for one that wasn’t also a front for prostitution in some way or another. After the third or fourth place we found one suitable for the female coworkers, and even then some of the hostesses looked a little dodgy… The catalog had enough songs to keep everyone interested at least.
I had to get the party going with a couple of terrible renditions of songs to lower the bar. One of the most enthusiastic people that got everyone to go singing didn’t even crack open a book for the first thirty minutes. Everyone relaxed when they saw I was willing to sing horribly off key just to make sure somebody was using the time in the room. Eventually a few other people joined in. I got to hear my foreign coworker sing a song entirely in Japanese, and one of my Korean coworkers accompanied him! Polyglot workplace, rock on! One of the school “Captains” and a teacher even did some Korean punk rock and a few death metal songs! Fantastic and way out of character! It was fun to see some of my coworkers out of their comfort zone. It’s also a very good thing that no one has to pretend to be a Kindergarten teacher and sing for students. No one would pass that interview.
I ended up blowing out my voice and required large amounts of water to even speak in appropriate tones. I’ve also been suffering from the oil in the meal last night, and the first bit of alcohol I’ve drank in months. I wasn’t out extremely late, but I did have a fun night. It’s good timing to have a late night on a Tuesday because on Wednesday everyone’s class load is extra light.
