Drunkenness

Oh yes. Very good. Went out with taekwondo students and master to a nearby college that was holding its annual festival (all colleges do this at this time of year -- no idea why), and drank lots of soju, followed up by the required visit to a nearby karaoke place, where I gulped down a couple beers, and had a lovely time singing the Korean songs I learned by studying studiously on bugsmusic.com.

The "rather attractive British man" I mentioned several weeks ago (the one who got married recently to a Korean woman who was his Korean instructor) was also in attendance, and as the two westerners in tow, we had a good time talking about various Korean idiosyncrasies (such as Korean masculinity, which isn't threatened by, say, wearing pink shirts, or hanging large teddy bears from their mobile phones, or perming their hair). Lovely time. Really nice to get trashed with friendly people all round who forgive all rudities (forgive me -- can't think of the word that means socially unacceptable behavior) on account of being foreigners.

Our taekwondo master was much surprised at the British man's having gotten married without telling him. British fellow explained to me that it was because they wanted to keep it as small as possible (even so, 470 people showed up, which was rather inconvenient, as there were 400 place settings). Throughout the evening, our taekwondo master kept referring to the fact that British guy had gotten married, and extracted a promise to invite all of us to British guy's house, where we are to drink lots of soju and beer. And western liquor (which is very expensive in Korea and regarded as rather fancy). He also joked that he would, tomorrow, let down gently the many women who had expressed interest in British man. Heh.

I made tentative plans for language exchange sessions with a 20-year-old guy who is studying to become an entertainer (they call them "talents" here, which means a person who acts, sings, does commercials, game shows, etc.) and a 25-year-old woman who needs to study English to get into military officer training school. I also sang, and drank, and made like I understood what the taekwondo master was saying, which worked about half the time. Did manage to translate successfully for British guy a bit, which made me feel useful.

Lovely, all round. I'm sure it was partly because Julian stayed til the end of the evening. Why is it that I only find Caucasian men attractive? I mean, seriously. What is with that? KB asked me that too, and I could only reply, with a sigh, "I've asked myself that many times, and I still don't know." Growing up in America, which tends to emasculate Asian men? Hm.

Our taekwondo master, as he is wont to do, waxed on about how we should get to know each other outside the classroom in order to grow close to each other, and also in order for the foreigners to have a reason to come back to Korea. From Julian I learned that our master was a Special Forces sort of whiz kid, which I have no problem believing. But he's also a very kind-hearted and generous man, and I'm really grateful to him for creating this sort of occasion. Cause you know, I need new friends. The thing you learn as an expat is that without the people, you're just a tourist.