The weekend was fairly dull for me. I essentially goofed off. I did make it to Mr. Kim's 60th/his granddaughter's 1st birthday party. It was very cute and actually very interesting from a cultural standpoint.

Family is VERY important to Koreans. After seeing how the birthdays were celebrated I was surprised we were invited. Everyone in the family spoke(in Korean, I understood more than I thought I would, I even got one of the jokes) and it was very much oriented around Mr. Kim and his granddaughter, more so than most American birthdays that I've been to.

I also picked up a repaired xbox. It works...for now.

The new guy is starting to wear out his welcome. There are things you need to know and things that are nice to know when you first get here. He's more interested in learning the things that are nice to know. For example, he asked me about the AIDS rate here in Korea. Not to downplay the threat of AIDS in Asia, but is this really information that you need to know on your first day in town? He also woke me up at 11 on a Sunday because he was hungry and he borrowed 100,000 won from another teacher that he has known for all of five minutes. It wasn't me. Actually, I took him to CostCo and forgot to bring cash. I had like $20 American in my pockets and Costco doesn't take credit or debit here. I have to go back tomorrow. We'll see about this guy, I guess I can't judge anyone by their first day here. We'll see, but he needs to toughen up. I stopped by his room just to check on him and he was exhausted from observing classes. Dude, if you're tired now, just wait until tomorrow... He claims to get either dizzy or a cramp like every five minutes. I'm three more complaints away from slapping him and telling him to act like a man. I know I didn't complain this much my first week here or my first month or, well, at all. I got pissed, for sure, but there's not a whole lot that complaining will do. Koreans don't understand and I'd be better served just asking my foreign friends for help than bitching and moaning.

I also attempted to reload my phone with minutes. It didn't go well. At the first place I went to I asked(in Korean and English, just in case) for more minutes. The cell phone posse huddled up and told me to go across the street. I did. The second place was slightly more helpful. They said I couldn't get more minutes on a Sunday. Yeah, sure. Completely crushed, I headed back to the apartment to eat pizza and ice cream with my friends. I went back much later with a female teacher and she was able to get minutes. It was from a different store and she knew the people there, but still.

The biggest drama of the weekend was Keddie and Katie hooking up with a Korean Soap Opera star and his posse. They hung out until the wee hours and wound up spending the night at a DVD 방. A visiting former teacher also started a fight at a different bar. I just had dinner with Physics Brian, played a few hours of Starcraft and read. I guess its my turn to be a mutant this weekend...

One of my speech students won first prize in his age group and another won 2nd prize in hers. I'm really proud of both of them. I may have to go up to Seoul for the next contest. Yikes.