Happy Year of the Ox.
I finally have both the Internet access and time to post a blog - hurrah! Granted, after this I have two two-hour classes, which is no fun at all, but my good mood can't be fucked with since after today there will be no more of this silly waking up at 7:30 to be at work at 9.
Ahhh, the weekend. It was pretty rockin', I must say. After a Friday night of True Blood (I am quite annoyed that I haven't been able to watch more, what with the Internet being out), I went to bed fairly early. After sleeping until noon, I woke up for coffee and breakfast before scrambling around trying to find some warm clothing because I was off...
... hashing! My coworker Shawn has been inviting me to these things for months and I finally bit the bullet and went to the "Men"stral Run. For anyone unfamiliar with hashing, their tag line is that they are a drinking club with a running problem. The whole experience is what I feel like being in a fraternity or sorority must be like. First, there's the run itself. A few people referred to as Hares set the trail. They pick a starting point and from there mark symbols on the ground with chalk. As you run, you have to figure out the trail. The bonus for those of us who aren't so fast is that you always have time to catch up - the people at the front have chalk of their own, and once they find the trail at any given checkpoint, they will add arrows to the checkpoints to help out those who follow.
In addition to all this, there's lots of singing and drinking. People had a couple of beers and sing a few songs at the beginning and once we hit the mid-point, after running up the side of Namsan to the gondolas, we sang and drank again. There's something just incredibly silly in having Korean tourists there to see Seoul Tower taking photos of a bunch of foreign people singing a song about how much they like fornication...
After taking the gondolas up the last bit of the hill, we then had to run down. The trail led to a house in Haebangchon, where the party really started. This run was hosted by the PMS Hash group, which is an all girl group. Once a month men are invited to come along for the fun - but only in dresses. Hilarious. At one point on the run we bumped into my 15 year old student, who quizzed me as to why I was out on a Saturday hanging around with men in dresses and brightly coloured wigs. A couple of the hashers had made a bunch of food and there was sangria and some sort of run punch. The run started at 3 and it was about 6ish by then - an hour later I was quite intoxicated. There was a whole bunch more singing and silliness, including a competition for Ms. Menstrual Run 2009.
And then we hit the bars. After showering and changing natch. My goal was to meet up with the folks at Brian's birthday party, which never did happen. I was more than a bit drunk and kept ending up everywhere they had been just after they left. I did bump into Melissa and Padraic in Soho, and they took some highly hilarious photos. I haven't a clue at what point I decided I was going home, but it was definitely an incredibly late night. When asked early the next morning if I'd be going hashing again, I was incredulous - my plan was to stay in bed all day. Hashers are troopers.
Sunday night we all gathered for trivia, but sadly it was cancelled. Having already eaten some incredibly good Moroccan food at a place called Andalous, we decided to find a bar with somewhere to sit, which ended up being Reggae Bar - I haven't been there since I went with Kim during my first year in Korea. From there we went to hang with Shawn and some hashers at Scrouge's and after we closed that down, Soho. At Soho there somehow ended up being two dogs. What two dogs were doing in a club on a Sunday night, I don't know, but one of them ate my damn earring! He also drank quite copiously from Martha's spilled beer right before, so perhaps he was just a male dog making his move. They were very friendly dogs - more than one person commented that it was the most action they'd had in some time.
I hung out with my friend Will over the weekend as well. Will's an architect who always has good stories - this time I got to see his pet hedgehog. It was super cute. I had no idea that they made a weird hissing noise when scared. Watching it slowly come out of its ball shape was adorable. Hedgehogs have cute faces. While all this was going on, Martha was having some odd cabbie problems that put any of my experiences to shame.
I went to eat at Zelen's again over the weekend and I have to say, I'm sorry to have realised just how much I love everything on their menu, because this is a love that could prove to be quite pricey. I had never had Bulgarian food before this and it's certainly delicious. After dinner with Liz, Lizzie, Carol, and Melissa, we went back to L-Squared's house and had a games night. That Settlers of Kataan game is pretty addictive, as is the motion of throwing dice by the time that game is won. Martha and I had a much needed chat after that, and that was basically the end of my weekend because I spent all of Tuesday being super lazy. I read Prep, I watched P.S. I Love You, I paged through a couple of old Bitch and Bust Magazines while listening to music. I ate some Mac & Cheese and drank cups of Earl Grey. All in all, the perfect lazy day, with lots of naps thrown in.
It's a two-day plus a meeting work week, and yet somehow I'm still finding it exhausting. Doesn't help that while I missed trivia at Phillie's last night because Annie and I chatted for ages over dinner in Indigo, we ended up at Phillie's, playing Never Have I Ever and doing free shots late into the night. Can't complain too much, though I couldn't bring myself to get out of bed until five to eight this morning, which made it quite a scramble to get to work.
I'm sooooo happy that this "semester" is ending. I've been asked if I'd teach history classes, so I'm curious to see the next schedule. I sincerely hope that there is less Gogo in my future... I'll find out at the meeting tomorrow, I guess.
It's almost the weekend again! Yay!
1 comment:
Very nice blog.
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