The fightin'est bar in all Beommul

Its practically summer like now. More than 30 degrees for the first time. I've started squash. I'm no natural but I am slowly improving I think. Eunji is taking classes with me, but she missed the last two classes, so I had a couple of classes entirely to myself, One of the classes she missed because of drinking for John's birthday on Monday night.

Again we had gone to Dong dong ju, and again there was a bit of a run in. Marcus, from NZ, apparently took excpetion to some comments from a neighbouring table, to do with the mixed dating, and promptly whipped out his own Dong. This caused quite a stir, and much angst from the Koreans. It looked pretty rough for a minute, but soon both sides cleared out their combatants and the evening pretty much came to an end. God, they always think that we're Japanese nationalists or something, and that we want to fight about Dokdo, even though no one gives a rat's ass. Marcus did run with it a bit, just to piss them off. He knows a bit of Korean, and how to annoy them. Anyway, it was far more intense than usual. We might have to steer clear of dong dong ju for a while. (The guy from last time also made a brief appearance, much to our dismay.)

Arbour Day

Arbour Day went over really well. They said it was 21 degrees, but it felt like more. It truly was summer. We went for a barbeque at Kate’s which was nice and relaxed. I really like the flat roofs here that are excellent for relaxing on.

Last night we went to dong dong ju, even though I felt pretty sick. (I didn’t drink much). The Koreans were very sociable though, and we dealt with a number of old soju men who were serioused doused. Fun to begin with, but they get a bit old after a while. Especially when they get aggressive. After much contemplation, I think it was a mistake for the group to bring up Japan-Korea! Its rife for a possible misunderstanding. Fortunately another, moderately English speaking man, along with their embarassed wives, eventually evacuated them to a taxi. They came back several times, gave us their business cards and seemed intent on forming a norabong party! It was good to have a break today to give my never ending Korean cold a bit of a rest.

Korean Girls

An interesting phenomenon, often commented on, is the attraction of Asian women to western (mostly white) men. This is a pronounced phenomenon here in Korea, but even more so in Thaiand. I didn't see it in China, but we didn't see much there. Even the oldest grottiest guys seem to be perfectly capable of getting hot dates. So, young guys have it pretty easy. Being attached here, this doesn't affect me very much, but its a bit of an eye opener. John, our fellow teacher, has multiple dates a weekend. Almost any single guy here doesn't seem to stay it for very long if he doesn't want to. Anway, its a bit embarassing for me, mostly because I'm not used to it, but the Korean school girls can be quite forward. This is a bit strange since Korean women and society are usually very modest and conservative. But, it doesn't seem to have been bred into the teen just yet. The other day we went out on the lake, and I had to outpaddle a group of crazed schoolgirls. They were the most brazen I've ever encountered, Corie and I were actually quite worried by them, but I've encountered less extreme versions before. The older girls are less forward about it, but they still giggle and stare. Not that this is really a bad thing, its obviously flattering, but, like I said, its a bit embarassing. The same does not seem to hold for western women. Why this is, I'm not exactly sure. Something about social standing no doubt.