"Stayin' Alive" at staff dinner turned drunken karaoke

Like I said in the last post, my first day of teaching was also my principal's first day on the job. It is customary in Korea to go out to a restaurant for a big dinner to celebrate/welcome the new principal. The guests (school staff in this case) bring gifts to cordially welcome him/her to the school. Paul, Ms. Lee, and I arrived a little late because they were helping me move into my new apartment. We had rented our own private room at the kind of place where you take off your shoes and everyone sits cross-legged on cushions at a long, low table. I brought a bag of Ghirardelli chocolates for the new principal, Ms. Kim, and gave it to her upon entering the room. She replied by handing me a shot glass, filling it to the brim with soju, and telling me to "dlink!" Then it was the vice principal's turn. He handed me his shot glass. Sloppily filled it with soju, a Korean rice alcohol similar to vodka, and ordered me to take it. He did this two more times and even graced me with a chicken leg chaser! After I downed the last force-fed shot of soju, I walked (stumbled)  back to my cushion feeling nice and warm inside. The waitresses brought an endless supply of little plates filled with this and that. I could try and impress you by dropping a bunch of pretentious, hard-to-pronounce names of Korean dishes, but I flat out don't really know what I was eating. The fried noodles were fantastic. The seaweed soup was salty. And I couldn't resist the cold jellyfish salad. All in all, pretty delicious. My coworkers, who I perceived to be a mostly professional, shy, and respectable group, were lettin' loose. I'm talkin' your average freshman-year dorm party: starts with awkward shyness and ends with debauchery. About 30 minutes and half a dozen soju shots in to dinner, the room full of mostly middle age teachers was getting rowdy enough that you could tell there's something coming next. That's where the noraebang (no-ree-bong) comes in!

Much to the dismay of my co-teacher (she thought the other teachers would get me too drunk and I would miss work the next day), we headed to a noraebang. For those keeping score at home, a noraebang is a private karaoke room. I don't know if this is standard for all noraebangs, but ours from last night could fit about 15-20 people on 3 couches positioned against 3 walls. The remaining wall was covered in a giant flat screen TV. This was clearly the Cadillac of karaoke. When I walked in to the full room, I received a drunken, mini applause and noticed the table was full with beer, soju, soda, snacks, etc. If noraebangs had a tag line, it would be noraebang: check your dignity at the door. That's exactly what the teachers of Young Sung Middle School that night. Remember the hard-knock discipline guy from the assembly? He was stumbling around, singing songs he had no business attempting, and shakin' his tailfeather like a polaroid picture. The science teacher could hardly stand and was sloppily speaking right in my ear that he was honored to have me at Young Sung. As for me? Let's just say I thoroughly embarrassed myself in front of the principal, vice principal, and many colleages by singing "Stayin' Alive" by The Bee Gees, "Viva la Vida" by Coldplay, "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond (which got prematurely axed by someone), "I Got A Feeling" by Black Eyed Peas, and "Sunday Bloody Sunday" by U2 (also got ended early). Feeling nice and toasty, we all left around 8:30pm. I guess since everyone works early in the morning, we have to start the night early.

The best part of that night was seeing everyone in the morning. No one mentioned anything about the previous rambunctious night. The sloppy science teacher? He gave me a sharp head nod in the morning and moved on. The hard discipline guy that was having the time of his life? He was looking as mean as ever. My wonderful girlfriend Julie described it best, it's either all work or all play. Day never mixes with night. It's something I'll have to get used to I suppose.