A Job and Birthday Celebration All in One Week

June 7-13, 2010

Well this week started better than last. On Monday morning, I got a phone call from one of my new recruiters about an interview that afternoon with a school in Beongchon. Beongchon is a subway stop in the city, in a much closer area to where Blake lives now and where he lived his first year, and to where a good percentage of my other friends live. I had my interview at 2pm, and things at this school seemed to be better on first impression, and I agreed to let them know by Thursday since I did have a couple other scheduled interviews.
As it turned out, those interviews didn't happen. One was because the school was looking for a female teacher, and another was just slow processing by the recruiter. So on Thursday I notified the first school that I was interested, and signed a contract that afternoon. My new school is JLS, which also employs a few friends of mine from last year, who I talked with and got some good reviews.
Outside of my interviews, I spent a good part of the week just killing time in my apartment, packing my things and staying out of the heat. On Friday, I came into town to have some dinner with Blake and Danielle in Gangnam, then we went to a pub called The King's Tap to watch the opening games of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. I took off at midnight to catch the last subway home, and get some rest for Korea's first game and subsequent party on Saturday.
The entire city was in party mode, and large screens were set up in all the major outdoor city areas so that everyone could gather to watch the games together. However, it decided to rain on Saturday, forcing most of the crowds indoors. This created a huge dilemma trying to find a place to watch the game, and in the end we ended up in Gangnam at King's Tap, in a corner where they were able to fit in a single table that hadn't yet been reserved. Blake, Nathan, Danielle, Emily and I all squeezed in and watch the Korea vs. Greece game with a ton of Koreans, and other foreigners. Luckily, Korea won and the party was on. Rain or not, the party spilled out into the streets, and we headed to Gold Bar.
At Gold Bar, it was the regulars bringing the regular party. Then, since it was going to be my birthday on the coming Tuesday, Emily and Danielle decided to buy me a birthday cake. This was a super nice thing to do, but at the same time it was a recipe for disaster, because at Gold Bar when it is your birthday, they let the drinks flow freely. The girls brought over my cake while Blake, Dave, and Nathan distracted me by dancing to block my view. The cake was a delicious chocolate mouse cake, and we all enjoyed some of it before I started taking it around the bar, feeding it to our friends. Eventually, some Koreans started asking for some, and when I obliged, they payed back the good nature with shots. It was bad enough that the bar was giving me shots, as well as my friends, but now my new random friends were giving me shots, which lead to a blackout night. From the photos and peoples reports, I became a party animal, dancing and having a great time, and unfortunately going shirts off and falling over a table. In the end, Blake and I ended up at his house, where he punched his mailbox because he thought he had lost his camera, and therefore needed ice to put on it. We don't remember much, but we apparently got some ice from the store, and when we were finished with it, left the bag on the floor to melt all over my camera.
Waking up Sunday, our lives in shambles, we started piecing together our night and trying to dry out my phone, whose screen no longer worked. We had a good laugh and I headed home to get some more rest. I spent most of the day in bed watching T.V. and trying to further dry out my phone, and feeling bad about Emily being angry at me because I had been mean to her while I was drunk. I have a feeling it will pass, besides it was my birthday.

Anyways, things look to be on the up and up again. I will keep you posted.