Lolling on a Liver

So... today was rather interesting.

I went to school in the morning, knowing full well that I had no classes. I spent the morning planning my Turkey-Syria-Jordan vacation - and hoping that it will work out.

In the afternoon, I went for a hike with all the teachers at the school. I didn't know that we were in for a death march going mostly up a slippery, rocky path. And going down was actually worse because it was misty and raining and slick as all hell. Actually, I kept pace with the leaders, even if I sweated way more than everyone else. At one point, we were at the top of a mountain, standing on different granite towers. Quite exciting. It was a great hike, although the humidity and general moistness of the air (and the fact that Foreigners sweat and Koreans merely glow) resulted in me being pretty much sopping wet by the end. One highlight was when I started stretching my over abused and cramped muscles and everyone was like, "Baginia, stretching!" and they all joined in.

Following the hike, we went out to eat (and drink!). It was quite the feast... sam gyeup sal for the carnivores.. and enough veggies to keep me satisfied. At one point, Mrs Myeong pointed at the meat that was cooking at our table and said what sounded like "dog", but I can neither confirm nor deny that. During the whole supper, people were getting up to serve each other drinks of soju or beer, according to Korean etiquette, meaning that most of the time there were 10 people standing, trying to get 10 other people to drink. Oh, and if you didn't have an empty glass? No problem... just grab the glass closest to you - no matter how clean, who was drinking from it or whatever. I got up a few times to serve my Principal, VP and Head Teacher, just for politeness sake.

Mr Pak, the 3rd grade teacher, kept asking me if I knew such-and-such a band... "Do you know CCR?" and I would sing a few bars of one of their songs. This continued for The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Frank Sinatra, Tom Jones.... but I really impressed him when I was able to sing "Proud Mary". Mr Pak also tried to marry me off to Mr Lee, the new office guy. I christened him (Mr Pak) with the nickname "Joker" because he was also keeping himself amused by speaking English to everyone - including the restaurant staff.

At about 7:30, everyone was hammered, and I decided to try to make a graceful exit. My Principal literally ordered me to sit back down ("Anjeu!") and they told me that I had to come to the Norae Bang (singing room) for "one song".

We got to the Norae Bang and everyone immediately started programming songs in. I got Mr Lee to find "Proud Mary" for me and Mr Pak to sing.... but it was like, the 7th song in. *sigh*

It was rather surreal. Imagine, if you will, the worst staff party where everyone would be embarrassed to see each other the next day because they are all drunk and dancing around with toilet paper wrapped around their necks... and that's pretty much the scene in the Norae Bang. I may never ever forget the vision of my Principal dirty dancing with the old 2nd grade teacher. Anyway....

"Proud Mary" came on and Mr Pak and I finally got to sing "...lolling, lolling, lolling on a liver...", which you all don't care about, except that a year and a half ago, Katrina told me that her father had to sing it when he was in Korea back in the day. So, she cares. I hope.

I'm assuming that I have school tomorrow, and I am also assuming that everyone (except me, because I left at 9:00) will be wickedly hungover. It should make for an interesting day.