Last night our director took us out for the second time. MAN. We've had our complaints about our director before, but you have to hand it to the guy. He knows how to have a good time, and he's pretty outrageously generous when it comes to food and drink.
So.
It was kind of stressful at first. We finished our last class, and as we were wrapping up the day in the office, Dennis walks in and says, "OKyouguyswanttogooutokaywe'releavinginfive minutes." We began the night at a samgyeopsal restaurant in the Incheon Terminal area, which is way more happening and alive than our ghost town. And it was the best samgyeopsal we've ever had.
Oh. Samgyeopsal is probably our favorite food in Korea. It's kind of barbecue-y. You get a bunch of raw pork, onions, garlic and other Korean fixins. Grill the meat, make yourself a little sandwich by wrapping it and whatever else you want in a lettuce leaf. So fresh and good.
Stephen and I usually get like 2 or 3 plates of meat for the two of us. And we leave feeling....satisfied. Never super full, but always happy.
Keep in mind that today was field trip day. (We got to show our kids around a bunch of animal cages and just have fun. Awesome. Pictures to come.) And our students' parents prepared lunch for us. We got so many sandwiches, snacks, yatta yatta, that I thought I wouldn't be that hungry. But I think Andrea and I ate more than anyone. Our boss also bought us all coffee, so this was the first time in awhile that we had "real" espresso. (Korean espresso is not quite as strong.) And among the snacks that we were brought were a few Starbucks packaged latte things. So we were totally ready to have a long nigh after a long and tiring day.
Good Lord, last night the plates of meat just kept on coming. Agghhh and it tasted incredible. And my glass was always full of soju. He never hesitated, he just kept ordering. And we just kept eating. We left that restaurant so full and giddy.
Last night they also had pig skin which I tried for the first time, I'm not sure if Andrea had it. She's kind of a wuss when it comes to weird food. :) Anyway, at one point I was about to try one and Dennis, our director, was telling me how you want it to get a little burnt before it's done and the damn thing pops and just hops right off the grill at me. We were like, well I guess it's done. HA! You know how fatty meat shrinks as it cooks, and so the side that's cooking shrinks and the other doesn't making the meat curl up, (wow that was unnecessary) well the pig skin does it in "bounds" sometimes. (Or out of bounds! (What?)) Anyway, the next time this happens, the fool thing jumps like 18 inches in the air, no joke, and lands in Alice's lap. Alice is a Korean coworker of ours who made a pretty good scream when this happened.
There were five of us for dinner. We met up with a few more coworkers at a bar afterwards, and I could not believe our director ordered more food after our hugely indulgent meal. Pitchers and pitchers of beer, bottle after bottle of soju. You just have to keep drinking. Oh my God, the food. There was this dish that can only really be described as squid jerkey. I have no idea how it's prepared, but when they bring it to you the squid is intact, which is pretty cool. then you just kind of shred it and eat! Tried soju bombs. Not what I'd call exquisite, but fun in a fratty Korean sort of way.
Okay, yadda yadda, that was fun. I think most of you already know about the noraebang. It's like karaoke, but you get your own little room and you can eat and drink. If you think it sounds like fun, then you're right, but you don't really understand. There's just something about singing songs into a high-quality microphone in front of people that you either know well or sort of know or work for that is out-of-this-world-crazy-fun. There's this kind of outspoken, staunch Republican kind of guy we work with...He and our Canadian-Korean boss kind of butt heads a lot, but all was well when they sang "Endless Love" together. There's this moment last night that's sort of frozen in my memory. We had been there for 15 or 20 minutes and everyone was drinking coffee. -- The coffee was in a can! Warm coffee in a can is so silly!-- So I sort of had this feeling that we were going to cool it with the drinking. I was sitting down, kind of checking everything out, and then the door opened and in came a cart full of liquor bottles, pitchers of beer, and plates and plates of food. Fresh fruit, fried chicken, friggin french fries! Agh!
Okay, I don't think I'm good at describing events. It's more fun to go out than it is to read about people going out. But Stephen and I didn't drop a dime last night (er, 10 won?) and we are trying to figure out who we are and how we got here, that we're living like kings.
Note: This is from Friday. I forgot to push "publish post." :/
-Andrea
you just made me so hungry! miss you so.
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