Alex Day in Korea - Birthtacular Edition

On September 9th, I celebrated my 23rd birthday. Truth be told, from the very beginning of the day, I started feeling very far away. It's my first Birthday away from Ottawa, so I did miss the people who I usually see 'round this time of year.

Still though, that didn't keep me from having fun. In the morning, after I had done teaching my Adult class, one of the teachers (who knew it was my birthday) caught up with my students and told them 'You know this man? It's his birthday today!', to which I heard many 'Ahhhh', 'ohhhhh', and 'Happy Birthdays'.. Followed by an invitation by all of the students to have lunch with them. Since i'd already made plans with the other teachers to go have lunch, and since many of them would be missing on Wednesday, we scheduled a lunch on Thursday.

In the evening, about 10 people came out for a birthday supper, which consisted of Korean Barbecue (Pork, this time around), followed by some good 'ol-fashioned Karaoke. As I said before, the Karaoke here (noraebang) consists of private singing rooms, so you get to sing/dance quite a bit (and if I remember my science classes, this promotes the Drinking process.) I had the chance to sing things ranging from My Way (Frank Sinatra) to Under the Sea (The Little Mermaid!), with some Weezer and Radiohead songs in between (Buddy Holly and Fake Plastic Trees - ahh). My voice was a bit exhausted come morning time, but at least the extra sleep - and recovery time - is one of the bonuses of starting work at 11am.

The following day, my adults asked me if tomorrow (Thursday) we could start class half an hour early, so that we'd have more time for lunch. I figured that was a good idea, so I agreed. Along with the quadrillion late Birthday wishes from Facebook (It was still the 9th in Ottawa, i'll admit), I got a really awesome birthday package from my mom. It included some nice clothes, a tie, socks, and a great birthday card that had recorded most of my family singing happy birthday to me. It really made me smile (thanks again!).

Thursday came along, and my students took me out to a chinese restaurant - they'd even made a reservation for all of us (9 altogether). But hey, surprise! Not only did they buy me Lunch, they also bought me some gifts - a very nice Pastel painting, an awesome birthday cake (remnants pictured above), and some 'Green-tea Aroma' socks - for man 'luxary'! The food was great, and it felt pretty cool to be appreciated like that by people who you've barely known for three weeks.

So at this point, i'm already having a pretty awesome day. Then, after a meeting (which was right after lunch), i'm asked by Kay, the HR manager, if i'd be interested in working in a couple of weeks during a weekend again. They're opening a new GEC in a town called Busan, in southern Korea. Now, Busan is (from what I hear) a very beautiful town - a place that i'll want to go visit anyway. So for Promotion purposes, they want to send me down with another teacher - they'll essentially pay for our flight, our accomodations, and we'll get paid. Coooooooool.

Speaking of promotions, those who've tuned in lately to Hot 89.9 (In Ottawa) will hear a new promotion: Listen More, Win More, Give More. This promotion was developped by yours truly, along with three team members, as part of a Promotional Planning Practicum class at the University of Ottawa. NewCap essentially sponsored the class/competition, and in return, they got a load of Promotional ideas from fourth-year Marketing students. While we didn't win the competition, our Promotion appears to be the first that is used by the station.

Anyway, today marks the beginning of a long-weekend for me (we have Monday off) - it's the Korean Thanksgiving, Chuseok. They let us go at 2pm, instead of 6:30, gave us our pay for August, and gave all of us Chuseok Gifts: some kind of Jelly that comes from roots. I was told by another foreign teacher that it's to make you 'Randy', but, er. I haven't felt it yet. I'll keep you updated on that, though, have no fears.

Cheers!