It's Sort Of Beginning To Feel A Lot Like Christmas...

Last week was a pretty chill week. I went to baseball four nights last week and came straight home afterward. This is a huge improvement from the two weeks prior to that when I went out for a drink after every training session. I've decided to allow myself to drink two nights a week, so that is pretty much Friday night and Saturday night. It will keep me from being out late on school nights and make my baseball training worthwhile. Thursday night Nicole, Mike and I skipped baseball training, so we could check out quiz night at G7. I went straight to Bupyeong from school because I wanted to do some Christmas shopping and I was meeting a new girl for dinner. I didn't end up getting any shopping done because I decided to get my eyebrows waxed instead. When I met up with Karen we headed to eat some dukgalbi and get to know each other a bit. After dinner we had time to kill before quiz night, so we wandered the underground, but we only made it to one store. It was a GIANT stationary store full of Christmas cards, so we browsed for some cards to give to our co-teachers, friends and family. Then we headed to G7, but we were the first ones there, so we played a game of pool while we waited for everyone else to get there. My Korean friend Sehun who goes to school in the States, just got back to Korea permanently, so Thursday night was my first night seeing him since August. It was great and I was glad he came to quiz night. Tracy and Holly won the previous week, so they were hosting it. Their questions were quite difficult, but my team did manage to get a few points. My team was Nicole, Sehun, Mike and myself. We called ourselves, 'Team Yellow Fever." Well, Nicole and I were clearly the ring leaders on that team name. Our team ended up finishing second last, but not bad for quiz night virgins. After quiz night ended Nicole and I headed home on the bus together. Friday is always a good day for foreign teachers in Korea, because it means the weekend is here and we don't have to teach. After baseball training on Friday Nicole and I decided we wanted to go out, so we each went home and got ready and then I met her at her place and we cabbed to Guwol-dong. We were hoping to meet up with the baseball coaches and some of the players, but they never ended up getting back to us. Instead, we headed to Rio's and had three beers each. As we were getting on the elevator to leave and get some food, four random Koreans got off. One of them started talking to us and asking us where we were going. We told him we were heading for some food and more drinking and he asked if we wanted to get food with him. We were a bit hesitant at first, but then out of nowhere he grabs my arm and drags me off the elevator, so Nicole followed. We hung out outside of Rio's talking for a good 10-15 minutes, where we were joined by his friends. One friend had already paid for noraebang, but Bruce, that is his English name really wanted to hang with Nicole and I and he kept telling us he would pay for everything. Since we had stood there talking to them for so long we decided we needed to hang out with them. The one friend got his noraebang money back, so we headed to eat together. They took us to this restaurant that served really spicy food, but it was delicious nonetheless. We chatted for a bit while drinking soju and then we played some drinking games. Once we had enough of the restaurant we headed to a noraebang across the street and hung out there singing and dancing for a couple of hours. Nicole was starting to fall asleep, so when the time ran out at noraebang we all left and one of the Korean guys we were with walked Nicole and I to a cab and put us in it. By the time I got home it was near 8 in the morning, so bed was calling me. I slept until 6:30 p.m. Saturday before I realized I needed to get up and get ready for Lindsay's Christmas party at her house. I was in charge of Jell-O shooter, so I had to get those made, so they would set before I headed to her place. Nicole met me at my apartment around 8:45 p.m. and we bussed to Lindsay's place together. Lindsay made a shit load of food for everyone and it was so delicious. I overindulged on eating, but it was worth it because I hadn't eaten all day and the food was just that good.

Tracy, Nicole (hiding behind Tracy) and I chilling at the Christmas party. Tracy and I both went for festive colors. I painted my nails red and green, wore Christmas earrings and socks and my red scarf. This is the hostess with the mostest, Lindsay. She was very accomodating and hosted a great party.

It was just a really chill party surrounded by good friends, good food and good times. Lindsay even had her apartment decorated for Christmas, which gave it a far more Christmasy feel than it has been feeling in Korea lately. I didn't stay to late because I was still exhausted from Friday night, so Nicole and I left around 2:00 - 2:30 a.m. I got an early start to Sunday because I had a shopping date with Carolina, but then she bailed on me, so I found Joanne to go with instead. We met for coffee at the Duncan Donuts in Bupyeong station and then we headed into the underground for some shopping. I went there buying Christmas presents for friends and family and ended up buying myself two pairs of winter boots and a Christmas sweater. Not exactly the most successful Christmas gift shopping day, but it will get done. I usually do better shopping when it's not planned and I just come across stuff randomly. After we had enough of the underground Joanne wanted to go to the foreigners market, but it ended up being closed. I was meeting Nicole and Sehun for dinner, so Joanne and I parted ways I headed to Songnae. Sehun, Nicole, Damien and I had some kamjatang and beers for dinner and then Damien headed home, but Nicole, Sehun and I headed to Indis for some more drinks. Around 10:30 p.m. Nicole and I hopped on a bus home.