A beautiful sight for very sore eyes.

So, the staff party I previously mentioned was on a Thursday night. Which meant that the next day was a WORKDAY. However, unlike normal workdays where I get to stew my ass at home until noon, I had to be in at 9:30 to partake in a mandatory staff, encouragement, skill promoting, exercise?

...

OK I'll be honest here and say I was definitely still drunk when I went in so I have no idea what it even was. There. I wouldn't do that if I had to teach children, but as I sipped soju till the wee hours of the morning with my Korean colleagues, I figured that any resulting misery would have nothing but company. Well I have no idea how these women pull themselves together so well, or at least how they hide it so well.

It wasn't that bad really, just a blotty mess that came and went with a grueling air of necessity.

Afterwards, rather than head home and collect myself and, oh I dunno, shower, I headed to Youido with my coworkers to check out the cherry blossoms before they wilted away for the year. I'm glad I went, however, I was expecting something akin to the Japanese hanami, where everyone sets up a blanket and just hangs out under the blossoms. This was actually something of a hike around almost the entire perimeter of the island. However, the entire hike was under the canopy of thousands of cherry blossom trees in full bloom. It was a labourious albeit beautiful experience.

It was a perfect day for couples to go out and flaunt their couple-ness. Unique to Korea are couple shirts, usually sold in pairs, with a male size and a female size. These two were one of many couples out on the promenade in fully synchronized regalia.

The next day, I made sure I was well-rested, as my Saturdays have lately become rather jam-packed events. This one was no different. It started with the usual morning visit to the hospital (no progress), followed by some necessary housework and a nap. That evening I met up with my bandmate Min to see his other band perform at Club Ssam. Once again, I was humbled by how incredibly talented some people are, especially the woman who sang and played contemporary jazz on a traditional Korean instrument. Look:



I could barely read the flyer, but I think her name was Seong Min Ah.

Here's Min's band. Min is the second from the left.

Backstage pass! (I also didn't have to pay the 20,000 won cover)

Anyways, Min bought me a hops drink (not code for a beer, an actual hops drink), and we met up with Gord for some samgyeopsal. It was cheap and delicious and oh so sinfully bad for me I'm sure.

Min dishing it out. I will miss these meals back in Canada.

The evening led Gord and I to Mixtape in Hongdae. The website looked promising so we went. It was pretty fun, albeit a pretty huge meat market. The music ranged from awesome (new Animal Collective!) to laughably bad (Smashing Pumpkins remix!!) and the atmosphere was a little cramped. Kind of weak, but somewhat of an oasis in the desert if you want to dance in Seoul and are not into throbbing techno or hip hop. We ran into another guy from Ottawa who looked like he was in utter rapture. When we asked him about Ottawa he replied "Man f***† Ottawa!" and I remember thinking at the time, "my god, I have definitely been to much better nights in Ottawa than THIS".

Sure enough Gord and I caught the very first subway home again in a greasy-haired, shambling state of disarray. Accomplished.

Weekend over!

† I'd like to keep this blog relatively profanity free out of respect for a few of my relatives and friends of my parents. Curiously, details of my unhealthy weekend lifestyle will remain faithfully intact.