Soju and Dduk Festival

These are the fireworks they shot off last night at the soju festival. Apparently every year Gyeongju holds a festival to honor traditional Korean drinks and rice cakes (dduk). I met up with Maria and some of the other Dongguk teachers to enjoy a little soju and beer. I got a lot of video, and when I get some free time, I'll edit it and post it at the LiveVideo site. Both these photos are captures from the video.

This is me in some bar wearing Chris' glasses. He's from Manchester and bears the scars of many spills on his motorcycle! I think his glasses look cool on me, but Maria thought otherwise. Todd had his crew there: Patrick, a couple Chrises, Adam (who's going back to Canada shortly for a holiday), Todd's Korean wife, and some Korean guys, too. Sarah and Sherwin also went. Maria and a Korean gal named Jinny (Jenny?) kind of compelled me to go to this bar even though I wanted to go home to bed.

Since I didn't drink much, I had a fantastic Sunday today! In the morning, I went to HomePlus for a fluorescent lamp to help my plants. This apartment is rather dark, so my little green friends aren't too healthy. Saw a couple dirt bike riders there getting ready for a day out in the... dirt... I guess. If I were just 30 years younger! Dirt biking must be fun. This afternoon I worked on the midterm tests I have to give this coming week. It's going to be an easier week than usual, but giving oral tests can be fairly boring.

Had a minor run-in with a guy in the next building. He was sitting in his car with his girl and letting the engine run. My windows are right there practically on their parking slab, so I went out and told him to turn off the car. He did, but when he got out, he had a couple choice words. I had a couple words for him, too, but I said them in English so that I would get the benefit of saying them without the negative response an English speaker would have returned! Sometimes it's good to live where nobody speaks English. Koreans often seem to lack the ability to empathize with other people unless they are told to, so they come across as terribly inconsiderate.