When I say 'ping' you say 'pong'....'ping'....'ping'

I'm gonna try something new here and give you a quick update on my life. Today is Friday and I just got done with "work." I say "work" because I got paid to sit around all day. There were graduation photos and a guest speaker so 4 out of my 5 classes got canceled. Yet somehow I didn't have time to blog. Thanks facebook / gchat / blackoutkorea.blogspot.com. But here I am finally getting around to it in the wee hours before a bunch of Badgers arrive in Seongnam. Yesterday was the birthday of one of my friends Zoe and tonight we're heading to Gangnam to celebrate. Julie and I are housing a bunch of our friends tonight so it should be fun playing host. Street meat isn't going to eat itself after all!

So anyways I've had quite the week and need to share it before I forget it all. This week I started teaching my after-school English program called "Sports English." I play sports with kids, teach them some English, and get paid extra. It's a pretty sweet gig. On Monday we played basketball. I showed them some Michael Jordan clips, taught them some b-ball vocab, and headed to the gym to play some 3-on-3. Besides a loose ball almost hitting some adults practicing group drumming and ruining the party for everyone, it was lots of fun.And on Wednesday we played ping pong. I set up a little round robin with the kids and went undefeated (no big deal). During one of the games an older female teacher grabbed the paddle from one of the boys and, very intensely, ordered me to serve. She wanted to brawl! Ping pong-style. Even though I had a commanding lead, I let the game slip out of my hands. There will be revenge lady, there will be revenge.

The other highlights of the week include:

-speaking of ping pong, today after I lunch I played ping pong with the IT guy (lost), the school disciplinarian (barely lost, still bitter), and the school's #1 ranked player (won!). And yes, the students have ping pong rankings at Young Sung.

-being asked to join and resign from the teacher dance team for next week's school festival. Better luck next year I guess...

-a kid asking me what I think of Lady Gaga to which I replied "ohhh very sexy!" (for the record I do not think LG is that attractive). During Wed.'s edition of "Sports English" I witnessed him and 2 friends performing a rendition of Lady Gaga's "Telephone" complete with song AND dance. They are also gearing up for next week's school festival, which will definitely be videotaped.

-inadvertently joining the young(ish) dude teacher lunch table clique. It's the Art teacher, who serenaded an ABBA song to me right before lunch today (I can't make this up people!), the IT guy, who I regularly play ping pong with (and who gave me a paddle today), and the gym teacher, who asked me to help transcribe an "orgasmic birth" youtube video a few weeks back (I think he thought it was appropriate for sex ed. It wasn't.) rocking a table all by ourselves every day. No girls allowed!

-was told  that next week's schedule includes the school festival on Wednesday, Lotte World field trip on Thursday (soooo excited), and the school anniversary on Friday (which means no school). So next week I will only be teaching Monday and Tuesday. I honestly don't think I've taught the Friday kids for at least a month. Not complaining though.

Okay well I think that was a pretty accurate rundown of the week. I'll get back to y'all as soon as I can. I still have lots to say, so stay tuned. Good news, I'll be purchasing a Nikon D3100 with my hard-earned dollars in the next couple of days so I'll finally be posting photos that I actually took. And HD video. Sooooo pumped. And I'm pumped to head into the Seoul's "Beverly Hills" to club with a bunch of Badgers tonight. AND I'm also super pumped for the Ohio State - Badger game this weekend, which we will be watching on Sunday morning at a foreigner bar! My first Badger game of the year! Let's Go Red.

Oh and here's a little preview of what I think my halloween costume will be looking like...