two shots of whiskey

that's how my Wednesday evening started, no jokes. After a particularly mundane day at work (no classes, except for one at 3:30...staring at a computer all day) I met up with the ladies from volleyball for a "women's night out". They do it monthly, and this was the first time I was able to join them. I was picked up at my apartment and we went to a restaurant where there were a few bottles of beer on the table as well as one brand new bottle of whiskey. A big one. I've had very few encounters with that stuff. Mostly the smell reminds me of my dad because he enjoys a small glass of it every now and again, but the smell was always strong enough for me avoid drinking it. Then, during one of my more random nights at university I decided, after imbibing a fair amount of beer and/or wine, that an excellent nightcap would be whiskey, straight from the bottle. Hello fun times, hello hangover.

Moving on...all the ladies (and the one man there, the supervisor "GamDokNim") poured a glass and drank 'er down. Oh the burning. The secret to not getting hammered really quickly in Korea is to drink with tiny little sips. According to drinking culture, as soon as your glass is empty, someone will refill it for you. If you odn't want more, don't finish your glass. Unless you're with rowdy ladies and they peer pressure you into drinkin' 'er down. Which they did and subsequently, I did. But it was all good and ridiculously fun. This is the first time I've been out with a group of Adjumas (that means married woman, or old woman)...MAN, they party as much or even more than the men.

Naturally, we did what's called "Sam Cha". Sam means three and Cha means place, I think. The night starts at a restaurant where everyone eats and drinks. Then you move to a NoRaeBang where everyone sings and dances and (YEP!) drinks. Finally, the third place is a Hof (bar) where you sit and talk and...you guessed it!...drink. We did it all baby! and while it was all in Korean, it was hilarious. Those Korean Adjumas are somethin' else. I finally experienced Koreans freely belly laughing and being, well, kinda like me and my friends when we get together. I enjoyed watching.

I must say that without Yeong Min (young girl, 26), I wouldn't have been nearly as comfortable. Her English ability is pretty good and we have a lot of fun together. She understand my silly sense of humour better than many Koreans. Anyway, both of us are much younger than everyone else, so we stay under the radar a bit and just observe the festivities.

The funniest thing? One of the women took the microphone in the NoRaeBang, put it between her legs and proceeded to hump the air and other women in a very comical way. I saw a whole different side of Korea, let me tell you! Demure and subservient, my ass! These women are, no doubt, the kings of their castles.
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Guess who made it onto the Boseong Volleyball Association's webpage? THIS GIRL!!
Check me out!
Don't worry if you can't read anything. Just scroll to the bottom of the page. You can't miss me, I kinda stick out like a sore thumb. The girl right before me is Yeong Min.
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I forgot to tell y'all aboot the first ever Jeollanamdo Book Club Meeting. It was, in a word, ARSOME. I showed up a bit late, but there was still plenty of food and wine to be had. There were about 8 girls (no guys were brave enough...or literate enough?). We just sat around all afternoon and evening chatting about girl things. Some serious, some hilarious. Oh yeah, and we did talk about the book, for at least a half hour :P.

The book was called "The Girls" by Canadian Author Lori Lansens. All in all, I think it's a worthwhile read. It's about a pair of conjoined twins who grew up in a fictional small town in Southwestern Ontario. It was actually kinda fun to read a book where I recognized the area. There was even mention of the Museum of Archeology in London, which was actually pretty close to my apartment there. It's written as a kind of memoir by one of the twins, with the occasional chapter written by the other twin. An interesting concept.

Our next books are "running with scissors" and "prodigal summer" (which I happened to buy in Seoul in what I can only assumed to be a bout of supernatural prescience).
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I've been doing quite a bit of baking recently, preparing for the Christmas festivities. I had kinda forgotten how nice it was to spend some time baking cookies...it's been a while. I think the most satisfying things about it are a) the smell of my apartment and b) watching other people eat my food. Koreans don't really ever eat homemade cookies because they generally don't have ovens. I brought some to school last week and to volleyball today. They either really like them or are good liers :P

Well, it's just about time for another awesome weekend! I hope this episode finds everyone well!