Am I Really in Korea?

I still find myself asking this question:

"Wait..I'm in Korea..?"

I know that I'm in a completely new environment because there is a pretty high level of discomfort, but at the same time I almost feel like I never left home. Many many times I can't differentiate my surroundings with Koreatown in Los Angeles, but there are definitely reminders that I am definitely no longer in America.

Well..apart from that, let me tell you about my first night out in Korea.

The night began at around 11pm, after we left the hakwon and arrived in the downtown area of Ilsan, the city I live in. It's not a long distance at all nor did we end work that late, but you have to consider the time of decision-making on where to eat and all that.

Our first stop was a barbecue place where we were able to enjoy some bomb grilled pork belly with the works (lettuce wraps, grilled kimchi, rice cake sheets, shredded green onion salad, BEER+SOJU, etc.), which was paid for by our head teacher.

Our next stop, a pretty Westernized bar that consisted of hard liquor (bourbon whiskey), dart games, drinking games, and loud loud music. This was paid for by a former head teacher who moved to headquarters.

The last stop, karaokeing. What's great about karaoke in Korea is that they continuously added 10 free minutes on top of our said one hour, which ended up to be almost an hour of free karaoke adding up to two hours.
This was also paid by the former head teacher.

It was long and tiring, but it was hard to keep track of time because 1. I was having fun and 2. I don't have any means of keeping track of time. At all.

I hope there will be more of these...LOL. Free food and free other things. But more than anything, occasions to get to know my co-teachers better.

Tomorrow, I will sleep in, replace some wacked out lightbulbs in my apartment, rearrange some furniture, and look for some good deals on couches. That is all for tonight.



{eSeul}