Saturday, November 25

Laundry Day!

Many on the previous tenants (and there have been a lot with the high turnover of teachers) have left clothing, broken electronic equipment, shoes and a variety of other items. I decided to wash the miscellaneous clothing items and take give them away. The fourth Sunday of every month IWE has a community closet day where items for the needy are deposited, traded, sold and given away.

My only challenge is to figure out the washing machine. Anyone care to offer some help? See picture. Interestingly enough...Today (December 4) John, a former tenant from two years ago is back in Korea and called wondering if his winter clothes were still here. Were we supposed to just store them on the off chance that someone might return years from now?

Tonight is one of our Korean helper teacher's birthday and she and her husband decided to take all of the teachers out for duck. A week's worth of anticipation led up to this meal and needless to say we were pretty excited. We arrived at a nondescript tent set up in a parking lot. Questioningly, we entered to find large griddles set up on a dirt floor each surrounded by milk crates.

We pulled up a crate and proceeded to get a waffle pattern tattooed on our backsides. We had to fetch our own food and drinks and then we had to cook the duck ourselves (typical of Korean barbeque). The 'waiter's' sole purpose was to bring flaming hot charcoal bricks to heat the griddle.

See the picture of coal bricks and imagine red hot and spurting flames. Also, be sure to keep your knees and toes away as the tend to approach supernova temperatures.

I tasted my first soju and I must say despite the tent, the dirt floor and the self serve meal, it was very good.

We went nore' bonging after dinner. Kareoke is huge in Korea but unlike in America where you can humiliate yourself in front of large audiences, here you have a private room so you only have to humiliate yourself in front of your friends. It is a much better system.