My Birthday In Korea

Ok, where were we? Day two of Karl's trip to Korea, right.

Day two was supposed to be the day Karl got to meet all the teachers at my school and we'd all celebrate my birthday together.

Karl arrived on the last day of school at Shinjin, but the principal planned a faculty trip to a nearby island the next day. On this island we would all do some hiking, eating, drinking, and bathing...real Korean style. I thought it would be a great experience for Karl, and a good chance for him to get exposed to what and who I've been living with this past year. However, since this was a school function, I made sure to ask months in advance if it would be ok for Karl to join us, and they assured me that he was welcome with open arms. Well apparently the open arms closed the day before the trip. Some of the faculty had a problem with a "non-teacher" joining our little trip. So at the last minute I had to pull out and instead of meeting my teachers, Karl had to settle for kicking a few back with Kim Jong Il in the picture above. By the way Karl, I think Kimmy was a little uncomfortable with how close you got in that shot.

*As a side note: Mr. Heller came down with the flu and couldn't go on the trip either, and since Heller and I pulled out, so did Rachel, meaning there were no white teachers on the teachers trip. I thought that was unfortunate.*

So with the surprise free day we had to come up with something new to do on the fly. I showed Karl the neighborhood, Emart, and some more local cuisine before we got back on the fun track.

At night some of the locals bought me a surprise birthday cake, and we played some "Apples to Apples" which is a very fun game, if you like to argue (thank you very much). After we finished our cake, and the furious game, we hit up a Korean foreigner right of passage, "Club Night". Club Night is held on the last Friday of every month in Hongdae, the downtown area around Hongik University. It costs $20 or 20,000 won to get a bracelet that gains you entrance to every club in town. I've been hearing about Club Night since the week I got to Korea, but I hadn't made it there yet myself. I'm not that big of a "club guy", that is, unless it's my birthday apparently.

Hahah, check out the pictures, and I'll continue the whirlwind tail of Karl in Korea again tomorrow.