The Neverending Celebration of Me

My 3rd (and most likely final) birthday party celebration happened tonight, as expected. This was the GEC-staff celebration of all the staff birthdays occuring this month. You'd really think that in a place of 35+ people, I wouldn't be the only September baby.

Ah well.

We went to a Galbi (Korean BBQ) restaurant, and about 20 people came out... half of whom had already celebrated my birthday in one way or another. Galbi, of course, is where they give you the raw meat - pork, in this case - and the grill is inside your table. Add a little garlic, some light-tasting soya sauce, and mmm.. that's good. The correct way (or one of many correct ways) of eating it is to wrap it in a lettuce leaf, and add whatever other add-ons you want. I'm starting to be a big fan of Kimchi, so I made sure to add adequate portions of it.

Following the meal, Abigail (the Korean head teacher) had me pick five pieces of paper from a box. On each one, people had pledged 'Gifts' that I could use, should I pick their paper. The first two happened to be 'You get to (take me for a walk/have a conversation with me) after buying me (coffee/dinner)'! haha. Another was a coupon to 'Crush my hopes and dreams at ever winning at Mario Kart again', which of course is a damn lie - I don't lose. The last two were actual nice acts, such as buying me coffee, and giving me a ride from the school to Won Dong, our immediately-close neighbourhood.

Afterwards, I cut the cake we got at Paris Baguette, the local bakery. It was pretty great. Finally, the owner of the Galbi restaurant brought over two bottles of Bamboo Soju (that's what I heard it was, anyway).. Regular Soju is a really, really potent vodka-type of drink. This Soju actually had a decent smell - pears. I'd like to say it tasted like Pears too, but hey, Soju ain't a cooler.

With all of that said, it's been a good week. The last adult class of the month was today - they're off next week. My adults, the same ones that took me out for my birthday, bought yet another lunch yesterday. They ordered Pizza and Kimbap so that we could eat it after class, and converse a bit more. While these guys are just an Intro-leveled class, I really really enjoy teaching them four days a week. They've all made some great progress so far - they were barely at 'Hello' when they started.

The way Adult classes work, they register per-month, so I had to hand out a survey to my adult classes asking if they'd be re-registering next month. I went 9 for 9 for that class, so that's a good sign. With my second adult class, which occurs tuesdays and thursday nights, I went 3 for 4 - and that 4th guy never came after the first class anyway. If there's such a thing as a re-register-batting-average, hopefully i'm in the top-tier.

It's a bit past midnight, and we have Kindies once again tomorrow morning, so I need my rest. Hope everyone's doing well - and thanks to all of those who've taken the time to contact me. It's sincerely appreciated.