A Triumphant Week

This past week was by far the longest and most interesting week I have spent in Korea. It started off with a really hectic first couple of days back at the office. You see we started a new semester at the school, which meant we had a whole new crop of students. This new crop meant new classes and a myriad of tests to see which classes each of these students fit into to. This led to hours of giving tests, marking tests, and trying to figure out a level of English comprehension for each student. It was all for naught in my opinion as the directors just ended up putting the kids in classes arranged by age and whether or not they knew other kids in said class.

Also, we received 2 new foreign teachers. Derek and Alix are from Vancouver and they are a married couple. As it were, it was a very challenging time for them as they had to both adjust to Korean life and a new job that demanded a lot of energy. We also had to teach them how the scheduling works, how the classes are best taught, and we had to give them tips on how to manage their classrooms. All in all, the work part of my week was challenging and draining!

Enter the social aspect of my week; one of the best I have had since coming to Korea. On Wednesday I not only won the Masters Pool Final, but I dominated! I won the Quarterfinal match against Jackie 2-0, I won the Semifinal against Suki 3-0, and I won the Final against Alan (who I would consider the 2nd best player in Cheonan) 4-1. So I ended up celebrating that night until about 7am. I got a call 5 minutes after I was supposed to start work asking why I wasn't there yet. Let's just say that Thursday at work was exceptionally long.

On Friday, we had our usual poker night. Wouldn't you know it, I won poker night too! It's the first time since I have been in Cheonan that someone has won pool night and poker night in the same week. The winnings were especially nice since my very good friend Alan had decided he wanted to go to the race track in Seoul for his going away party. So I used my poker winnings to supplement my gambling at the race track, which by the way is both massive and very beautiful.

So the race track we enjoyed on Saturday afternoon, and on Saturday night we went for ribs and steak at Outback Steakhouse, followed by some whiskeys at WaBar, followed by some NoreyBang (Karaoke). Let me tell you that we had an amazing time getting drunk together and then singing like a bunch of monkeys all night. Alan, Scott, Suki and I finished off the night playing some hard core pool until 8am Sunday morning. Let me tell you that I finally got a proper sleep at 4pm Sunday afternoon. It is now 6am Monday morning and I just woke up. All in all, it was a great week and an even greater weekend. But I'll tell you: I hope this week is not as interesting as last week. I don't think I could handle it!