Tuesday (May 1) was a holiday to celebrate May Day (equivalent of Labor Day). Therefore, it meant Monday night was an office outing for BBQ infidel pork bellies and karaoke. As the alcohol was flowing freely, no one was lacking in conversation or story-telling. The pork bellies were half an inch thick, fatty, and soooooo delicious with makgoli (cloudy rice wine) and soju. Some of the co-workers were bold enough to ask me for English lessons every week, which I happily obliged.
Embarassingly, I don't know anyone's first name because like the military, everyone goes by their title and last name (i.e., Section Chief Han) in the office. Well, except for me, cuz I'm egalitarian and everyone just calls me Jae-shi-ka. Yeah, I know I should be ashamed since I've been here for almost a month, but in my defense, I've been having a hard time to get them to talk during lunch. They were trying to tell me what their first names were over soju, but it's really difficult to learn anything when inebriated, so I just started giving everyone an "American" name. I am now KakaoTalk buddies with most of my co-workers.
After dinner, we practiced safe drinking by hiring designated drivers. You call a number and a designated driver arrives within 10 minutes, who you pay $13 to drive your car. Pretty awesome indeed. The designated driver took us to the Mapo neighborhood where we sent the rest of the evening karaokeing at a noraebang (literally means 'singing room.') and I impressed the hell out of everyone with old school H.O.T. and Eminem.
The bonding experience on Monday was so effective that this is what happened when we went to a food court for lunch today.
Co-worker A: What are you going to get?
Me: Curry tonkatsu. How about you?
Co-worker A: Yeah, me too.
Co-worker B: That sounds pretty good.
Co-worker C: I haven't had that in a while. I think I'm going to get that too.
Will the Real Slim Shady please stand up? Guess who's the head lemming now! It's about time, since I have to stay in Seoul for another month.
Embarassingly, I don't know anyone's first name because like the military, everyone goes by their title and last name (i.e., Section Chief Han) in the office. Well, except for me, cuz I'm egalitarian and everyone just calls me Jae-shi-ka. Yeah, I know I should be ashamed since I've been here for almost a month, but in my defense, I've been having a hard time to get them to talk during lunch. They were trying to tell me what their first names were over soju, but it's really difficult to learn anything when inebriated, so I just started giving everyone an "American" name. I am now KakaoTalk buddies with most of my co-workers.
After dinner, we practiced safe drinking by hiring designated drivers. You call a number and a designated driver arrives within 10 minutes, who you pay $13 to drive your car. Pretty awesome indeed. The designated driver took us to the Mapo neighborhood where we sent the rest of the evening karaokeing at a noraebang (literally means 'singing room.') and I impressed the hell out of everyone with old school H.O.T. and Eminem.
The bonding experience on Monday was so effective that this is what happened when we went to a food court for lunch today.
Co-worker A: What are you going to get?
Me: Curry tonkatsu. How about you?
Co-worker A: Yeah, me too.
Co-worker B: That sounds pretty good.
Co-worker C: I haven't had that in a while. I think I'm going to get that too.
Will the Real Slim Shady please stand up? Guess who's the head lemming now! It's about time, since I have to stay in Seoul for another month.
HAHA, how did you decide on their American names?
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