It's Monday evening here in the sunny mountains of the Korean Penninsula and I have recently become aware of the travesty that was the first Yankee-Sox series. While the effects are mildly dulled by the distance as well as the recent 10-2 conquest of my Tigers over the Samsung Lions, I remain considerably dismayed. I thought the amount of money spent on pitching alone would be enough to have immediate results. Still, the season is young and my optimism will prevail.

As luck would have it, today was the day that my night shifts we replaced by the more traditional 9:30 to 6 shift. Unfortunately, I was unaware. The day began with the laundry process. Because I have a washer but not a dryer, I decided I was going to take my work clothes to the dry cleaner for their first cleaning, just to make sure they looked good after being washed. I have an iron, but I bought it for 11,000 won so it's reliability and effectiveness leaves much to be desired. It didn't occur to me until recently that it would actually make more sense to wash the clothes in the washer but still go to the laundromat for the dryer. That way, even if I do have some ironing to do, it will be a lot easier to deal with than if my shirts and pants were dried by hanging them in random places in the apartment. Either way, as the process began and I had one load down at the laundromat with another load in the washer I was met with the unhappy arrival of the director himself at my door. When I learned that my shift was, in fact, the morning one I offered profuse apologies and told him I would be at the school as soon as possible. This meant rushing down to the laundromat to pull the mostly dried first load while leaving the other load to sit in the washer (where it still remains at the time of this entry's publication). As the plans of men are want to do, my agenda took a rapid change and I was off to school with what dry work clothes I still had.

When I got to work I was somewhat concerned about the repercussions of this error. However, when I entered the classroom I was meant to be teaching I found the director's wife, who is also a kind of director in her own right, the apologies were coming from the other end. She felt badly that I was not informed more concretely about what I was doing and allowed me to take over the class with no difficulties. The exchange ended with both of us apologizing to each other and neither of us much worse off for the wear. The remainder of the day went rather well and I am now officially part of the typical daily grind.

As of Sunday, I have officially been in Korea for a month and it has been an interesting experience this far. The most recent week left me with little say about anything interesting with the exception that I have seen the movie Speed on television far too many times and can't imagine why anyone would have such willingness to air it on a regular basis. I have also gotten a healthy dose of Hugh Jackman, compliments of the recent unveiling of the new Wolverine movie. The weekend, on the other hand, started a little earlier for me. As I mentioned in the previous post, we now have a colonial cousin in our midst from across the pond (although, neither of us are even remotely near that pond right now). It will now be his obligation to assume to nocturnal duties that I so recently had. As it was, for the short spell of two days we shared the same shift while he observed my classes. The benefit of course being that we both had schedules that got out a little bit later but also began much later the next day. The inevitable result was a Yankee and a Brit out on the town of Gwangju. Actually, Thursday night was rather tame if not somewhat lengthy, but it held promise for Friday night when we would again share the late exit from the office.

The next night started with a trip downtown. Both of us being without cell phones and with everyone else already out, we were forced to venture out on our own. We began with a cab downtown and grabbed some food at what is called a Playboy bar but I assure everyone back home, with every ounce of my moral fiber, that it is not at ALL what it sounds like. It's actually just a Korean bar with Americanized decor. We had a couple of beers and some food before we were back on the road. Unfortunately, downtown is a series of brightly lit streets that look all the same and I, being at the helm of the venture, led us back and forth without finding a single familiar bar. The combination of my poor sense of direction, the fact that I've only been in Korea for a month and the nature of Gwangju being a city where people only speak Korean made me a very poor choice to lead, though still the more able of the two. Eventually we ran into one of the other teachers with her boyfriend who was able to direct us in the proper direction.

It was probably around 1 o' clock before our night really got a chance to get started and it began at Song's German bar where one can find a few beers with a bit of western flavor. It being the prime time for bar activity downtown, we had difficulty finding a corner to establish ourselves but eventually Terry the Brit and I were able to squeeze into a table between a group of foreigners and a group of Korean girls. It didn't take long for the four Korean girls to our one side to involve us in one of their toasts and shortly after, our twosome became a party of six. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that all four of them were proficient enough to communicate with us in English, two of them having a rather impressive handle of the language. The company was good and the obligatory round that Terry and I each had to buy wasn't all that bad to the wallet. There was discussion of venturing over to a Nae-rae Bang, which is a Korean karaoke room, but one of the girls' desire for a gin and tonic (of all drinks) brought us next door to the quintessential foreigner bar, Speakeasy. My feelings were mixed as I hoped to stay away from singing but was equally interested in seeing one of these places for myself. The rest of the night was spent here with more conversation and, though I staunchly opposed it, some dancing. I think the theory may be right that what translates into awful and erratic movements in the Statts could actually be construed as good dancing here in Korea. It seemed to work this time anyway.

Saturday night began with dinner at a new Korean barbecue place featuring the likes of Terry and myself. Afterward, we went back to see if we couldn't get Chris to join the fray before we headed back downtown. When we met him at his door he seemed in bad shape and explained promptly after that he was still recovering from the night before. Although we had a good evening ourselves, it appeared that our friend here had enjoyed himself as well during those very same hours. Though he initially showed a hesitance to come out with us, a little coaxing and cajoling managed to bump our numbers to three. From there we headed downtown and headed to Soul Train. While we were there we played some pool and met up with another teacher and two of his friends, one of which being a graduate of Michigan State who came over here and was looking to play some soccer. I told him of my similar ambitions and am hoping to see it through in the future. While we were there, Terry insisted on rounds of tequila shots as a way to assimilate better to the Korean culture. We also got to see a show involving the bartenders tossing flaming bottles, strobe lights and techno music. Apparently, this is a common occurrence though I have never been there long enough to see it before. Much later in the evening/morning, we made it to another bar where I found myself, not altogether willingly, engaged in conversation with a middle aged mailman as he showed me some of his English poetry written on a bar napkin. Unfortunately, his English poetry meant, in no way, that he was a capable English speaker and the conversation was considerably strained by a barrier that was made up of equal parts language difference and beer.

With a Friday and Saturday night well spent, the weekend was a success and we have recently been informed that a four day weekend awaits us on the other end of this week. Not entirely sure why we have Monday off, but we have Tuesday off for Children's Day which is a national holiday. I am not one to complain so I won't.

I now have my "green card" so I can get the internet which hopefully means I can get posts in more frequently. That could also mean more Skype-age so be ready America.

This is Liam Thomas signing out.