Officially An Alien

After one month of waiting, I finally received my alien card and bank account on Friday. That means a couple of things.

1. I have identification in the country now. That's not a bad thing at all.
2. Even better, it means I passed my disease test. Whew!!!
3. Having a bank account is necessary because now I can get my first paycheck deposited. I wasn't low on money or anything, but that's always a good thing.

On Wednesday, Chris, Vicky and I went to InHa with Brent, another American at our sister school, to have a few drinks. Brent left on Friday morning, so we just wanted to hang out. I've only met him once before, but it's always good to make friends with a fellow foreigner.

On Thursday, the teachers from both our schools all went out for a going-away dinner for Brent. That means that besides our boss, Mr. No, it was Chris, Brent and me with 14 Korean chicks. I was a little nervous, to say the least.

Also, they thought it would be fun to keep track of my drinking. While we were waiting for our sister school to get to the restaurant, I apparently had six. Thanks Stacy for keeping track.

This is only partially my fault. It's a Korean custom to fill your glass if it's empty. And it's my custom not to leave beer just sitting around. So every time I finished, they filled me back up.

After the restaurant, we all went to a singing room and made fools of ourselves. I sang "Centerfold" with Chris, and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" by myself.

The best part of the night, besides hanging out with everyone outside of work, is that Mr. No paid for the whole thing. We'll most likely have another one soon since Chris, unfortunately, is leaving next week.

Last night, I went to Yeonsu because the foreigners there were having a beer pong tourney. Some things just have to travel around the world. Dan and I didn't do too well, but the party was pretty fun. There were about 20 people packed into one of these tiny apartments.

We originally had big plans for the weekend, but it's basically a fact that no plans ever exist. We were supposed to go into a neighborhood of Seoul tonight for some fun, but now I don't know what is going on. I'm sure there are plenty of options, and resting wouldn't be all bad.

With Brent gone, Chris will be at the Songdo school for all of next week, and we are both getting dumped on with our schedules. So my days are pretty much full all next week. I doubt that will change any time soon. after Chris goes, I might be the only foreign teacher here for a few days. Even so, only one person is coming in. Until we get a third teacher, it could be a sucky teaching schedule.

That's appropriate because teaching really isn't that great anyway. That's probably not true. Teaching American kids might be fun. But teaching Korean kids blows. There is simply no control for the teachers, and the bad kids refuse to listen. On Friday, I had one kid freak out because he threw his sticky toy on the ceiling and I wouldn't let him stand on his desk to get it.

He caused a big scene and knocked his desk over and cried. So much for being a tough guy. The Korean teacher apologized to me and told me that he is sometimes "aggressive." Well, I think there's a difference between being aggressive and being a total jerk.

I guess it's time to find something to do for the day. I hope all is well back home!