A pretty good week for a pretty awful teacher

This was a pretty damn good week. First, I put together a few decent lesson plans for the kids. Second, the teachers are so busy putting together the questions for the midterms they didn't even reem me during our weekly Wednesday beating. So, it's been smoooooth sailing all week. Until last night. . . . . .

Friday, October 9th, 2009, the day I got stuck in an elevator for the first time. Yay...!

A group of about 30 native teachers met up at the Arts Center south of Bupyeong. It's a pretty cool place. To give you an idea of what it looks like imagine a big concrete, decorated courtyard surrounded by restaurants, bars, and cool little shops. It's a sweet spot. And a lot of Koreans my age hang out there and eat fried chicken and drink beer. The perfect mix. I think I'll have some myself. :D

After round 1 of Chicken and Beer, we got together in this bar quite a few stories up above the Arts center square. It was a pretty big bar with plenty of seating and quite empty when we got there. We took up 3 separate tables. Ordered beer and soju. Soju Cocktail. Soju and OJ. I'm sippin and telling stories about this and that. We're all crackin jokes and havin' a pretty good time. Next to me Si-Khoa was getting pretty hungry. So, he suggested Fried Chicken and beer ROUND 2. Of course, fried chicken my second ultimate weakness so I had to oblige. (The first weakness is COSTCO!!!! Which I hit up again today. 2000 WON HOT DOGS BABY!)

So, we take the elevator down. And I'm so excited I am jumping up and down. Hawin' and hemmin' about fried chicken. When I jumped into the door and BOOM. We're stopped. You've got to be kidding me. I try the buttons. No way. I'm in complete disbelief. Si-Khoa has to tell me I stopped the elevator. I'm an idiot.

So, What do we do? Well, since I don't know the Korean for 'HELP! GET ME THE HELL OUT OF THIS ELEVATOR!' We start yelling in English! 'HEY!!! SOMEBODY! ANYBODY WHO SPEAKS ENGLISH HELP! WE'RE STUCK!' Thank God Deborah was with our party because she speaks Korean. She got us help. But they couldn't get us out for 2-3 hours. So, what did I do? I slept. I don't know what Si-Khoa did for that time. I think he watched TV on his new phone (the last one went the way of the ocean like mine). I had a pretty good nap though.

When they finally released us from our vertically movement challenged tomb, I wasn't taking the elevator again. I ran down those stairs to the solid ground. I almost kissed that solid ground. Until I remembered every Korean man, woman and child spits whenever, wherever. I'm not saying they are spewing like facets. But they will hock a lugie at any moment.

The other Native Teachers rejoiced at our rebirth. And they bought us two Phoenixes chicken and beer. Hey, anytime I get chicken and beer for free I'm happy. But poor Si-Khoa. I almost positive I am his unlucky charm. For him I am the bringer of bad fortune. I better buy him a rabbit's foot to carry when I'm around.