my friday and saturday adventures

the russian dancers (explanation to follow)
the fireworks (explanation to follow)
view from the boat (explanation to follow)
the russian dancers posing with the birthday boy, Gary
esther (joseph's daughter) and teacher, chris
joseph's kids, esther and joshua waiting to eat on the boat
the boat
Mom's Touch fried chicken (above)

there had been some mention of going to see a movie in seoul by one of the mothers at church/school. i had assumed that if it was happened, i would be told, so when friday night came, i was lounging around my apartment and got a knock on the door at 10pm. it was the mother. apparently the movie outing was still on and happening immediately. i changed out of my pajamas and joined the entourage of mothers and set out to see a 11:30pm movie in Seoul. It was "My Blueberry Nights" with Jude Law and Norah Jones which comes out in the states next month. (ps: it was little disappointing in my opinion...but still worth seeing). So, at 1:45 am when the movie finished we then set out to find a cafe to hang out in. i'm thinking, goodness, these mothers have an impressive amount of social ambition for 2am.
finding a place to hang out at 2 am is similar to the frustration you find in america when you want to find a place that is open all night. it's either closed or frightening. so, we stopped at some places, but ended up finding nothing that satisfied. however, as the sole english speaker, a lot of the explanation about what we were doing remained unknown to me. so, i just followed the socially ambitious nocturnal mothers around and did what they said.

regardless, i arrived back back to my apartment at 3 am. call me old, but staying awake till 3 am seemed ridiculously challenging.

then, saturday, joseph (my boss, the headmaster) took me to what i thought was a youth outreach in Seoul. but, in typical fashion, it was more of a "how to learn english" seminar for college age students.
i must confess, it was horribly boring (especially with my lack of sleep from the wild night before) but, the rather lengthy day in Seoul proved worth it.
before the seminar, we met up with some of joseph's relatives to celebrate a cousin's 13th birthday.

we ate a place called "Mom's Touch" but, the two others teachers with me (Chris and David) and i couldn't resist calling it "Mama's Touch" or, my favorite, "Mom's in Touch". It was a fried chicken and hamburger fast food restaurant.

Then, after the seminar, we went to the 2nd part of the birthday celebration, a two hour dinner boat cruise. this was a "surprise" for chris, david and I...and let's just say that when I set out at 11 am to go to a "youth outreach" i didn't think i'd be ending that evening with an extravagant dinner cruise. there were even fireworks shot out of the boat. it was, to say the least, an exciting night.

the cruise included, but was not limited to, the following:
fireworks
buffet of ridiculously expensive food
russian dancers
wine
chinese traditional dancers.

and we were the guests of the birthday party, meaning, it was all free. :)

the only sad thing was that my camera battery died about 30 minutes before the cruise was over. too bad. so, when i tell you there chinese traditional dancers, you'll just have to take my word for it. :)

and though it was fun, it was entirely more than i had signed up for and i felt completely drained when i got home around midnight saturday night. i was exhausted.

but hey, there were russian dancers, so i really can't complain.