Noriba

chi.
So that whole thing about climbing a mountain today... yeah...
This killer headache aside let me just lay down my great excuse. Last night I went out with six other teachers and my two bosses for dinner at this great restaurant just north of the Han river. Had pork and duck for a main course, and the thing I'm really getting to love about Korean restaurants is the cook the meat yourself business. Basically there is a hole in the middle of the table and a basin filled with hot coals is brought out and put in there. Then they toss a grill on top and you arrange the meat and cook it to your liking. Last night we cooked the meat, wrapped it up in some kimchi leaves with pickled peppers, cooked onion and roasted garlic. Extra delicious. Had a few cocktails at dinner as well, soju cider and beer, which sounds terrible but were actually quite good. My favorite part was at the end when the coal basins were taken away, they pulled a bunch of foil wrapped objects out, which I had not noticed before. These were sweet potatoes which had been cooking all meal. So very good.

When we all finished we walked out back where there was this amazing backyard area, multiple bonfires and fountain pools and nice little gazebo huts to relax around in the beautiful night with paths and trees and a really great view of the Han river with Hanam all lit up on the other side and big mountains just faintly illuminated behind that. Beautiful. Finally around midnight we all went back to the cars to head back to Hanam. And the night really began.

Our boss Sun dropped Sarah Song Yun and me off in downtown Hanam outside this really cool bar called Masigo where I was introduced to another few cocktails. Koreans love to drink beer and soju in pretty much all combinations with all sorts of alcoholic or non-alcoholic mixers, which is probably a big reason for this headache right now. After an hour or so Sarah convinced her 'Hanam friends' to come down, which was awesome. About eight guys and three girls showed up, and they all spoke english! It was a mix of people from the states, Canada, England and Australia, all English teachers in Hanam. I got on really well with Andy and Terrance, two guys from Texas and with Bo, yes Bo from Kentucky. What are the freaking odds right? Twoish more hours pass and then a smaller group of us breaks off to head across the street to the noriba.

Ah, the noriba. Karaoke but asain style, in a private room with just your buds. There were eight or ten of us, something like that, and it was brilliant. We were brought a tray full of beers and a plate of snacks and the debauchery really took off. There were like four tambourines in the room and two mics with gnarly reverb on them which made everything just that much better. The song list was a little wanting, but does it really matter at four or five in the morning? Lots of Beatles and CCR and strange Kpop(Korean pop) songs sung in awfully wasted voices. Finally everyone seemed to reach their breaking point at about the same time, so we all stumbled outside to find the sky much much bluer than I thought it would be, with a beautiful pink streak across the morning clouds from the rising sun. I tried not to really think about this though as I got into a taxi with Andy and Terrance, who both live across the street from me. We shared some fish noodles and broth on the street just below my building which were lifesaving. Excellent and salty and satisfying for about thirty cents. And of course, available twenty four hours a day.

Well that's about all from me for now. Tomorrow weather permitting Sarah and I might go into Seoul and see the old temples and shrines, but if it's raining too much we'll probably hit up an aquarium here in town. Keep it real everyone!