St. Patty's Day Weekend

Well, my old class of Korean age eight (Canadian age 6 or 7) year olds graduated, and now I have a bunch of kids who (to save the Korean age/Canadian age thing) were born in 2002. No shit. They're turning 5 this year.


Someone get me a drink.

Or a place to have a nap.




Last Thursday was Girls' Night with the girls from Ori, and Friday was spent solidly hung over.




We decided to go to a St. Patty's Day festival in Seoul on Saturday, which was awesome! I met Angie, Gina, Jen, and Matt in Ori before noon (morning victory!!!). While walking from the bus stop to the subway station, we took a detour through a narrow twisty market which appeared to sell ONLY strobe lights.
Fun! I also freaked out a cellphone store employee who started yelling "HELP ME! HELP ME!" out the window as soon as I walked into the store to put money on my phone. Oh dear. It was almost as bad as the "free hugs" man who told Gina and I "That's enough." when we were hugging him. Le sigh. There was ALSO a gun shop which had a glassed in area on the sidewalk containing two stuffed baby deer, a stuffed chicken, a stuffed dog, a stuffed peacock, a stuffed gopher, and two conch shells.

Once we got to the park, there was live music, free Guinness, a man on stilts, and 6'3 dancing leprachauns. It was really awesome. There was a Korean rock band, a Korean Irish band, and an Irish (well, most of them were Canadian, but the lead singer was Irish) band who played a Johnny Cash cover song! So great!

























The best part may have been the tiny 60+ year old Korean man who was wearing a black tank top, a looser teal vest, gold pants, giant gold hoops in the TOP of his ears, more earrings in the bottom of his ears, PLUS a gold clip in his beard. Perfect.During ALL of the performances, he was dancing up front in an "I Dream of Jeannie" style. At the end of the Irish(Canadian) band's set, they introduced themselves, and the man in the gold pants jumped up on the stage and started playing the tinwhistle. It was hilarious.






There was also a dog wearing glasses.

I also did quite a bit of Cute Boy Watcing (see: photographer in the lavendar cardigan), but I am much more conspicuous (sp?) since I have broken both pairs of Boywatching glasses.


























After that, we took a cab to Itaewon where we drank green beer and threw peanuts in each other's cups. V. messy. Jill and the other Nobel School foreign teachers were there, so we had a great time.








On Sunday, wonder of wonders, we managed to get up early AGAIN and take the bus/subway to Yeoido Park wo go bike riding! Once we got there, the lure of the swan paddle boats was more than I could handle, so we all went paddle boating instead. It was SUCH a great time! I love the swan paddle boats!!!!!!

Then we went for dinner in the 63 building where I spotted a Korean chick trying to subtly take our photo while we were eating. I waved. She was mortified. Ha. We ALSO saw "Mysteries of the Nile" at the IMAX , smelled everything in Lush, and then waited forever to take a bus that we'd never taken before. Oh red busses.


That was my weekend.

P.S. The picture thing on here is wonky, so go to http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1331&l=246e4&id=502104826 for some more drinking, Swan Boat, and 63 Building photos.