i believe i can fly. also, it snowed today. hooray.

so i have some things to talk about. nothing too exciting, but notable as actual qualitative events have recently dotted the otherwise bland horizon of my life. always good to start melodramatically...i'll attribute any forthcoming wordiness to the caffeine. i've noticed that i tend to be a lot happier in general whilst highly caffeinated. that's the nature of addiction, i suppose. yes, my bout of insomnia ended a while ago, so i'm back on the juice. which is why i'm awake right now.

last weekend was a crazy one, at least seen/felt through the eyes and insanely dancing limbs of this not quite old person. firday night i did the usual round of teaching and wanting to pull my chalk-laden hair out by the end of it all (yes, we have ACTUAL chalkboards, which i thoroughly enjoy. something about a whiteboard makes the whole teaching experience less authentic. but yeah, chalk + long hair + light facial perspiration don't mix).

it's been really hard for me these past few weeks to adjust to 4 days of a light work schedule and then teaching 6 hours in a row (out of a book whose vagaries don't really inspire too much confidence) on fridays. i love all my elementary school students, but it requires an energy that i'm not really required to muster too much the rest of the week. yes, i'm complaining about having to actually apply myself. sometimes i'm just not in the mood, particularly when autopilot mode for the middle schoolers is so, well, automatic.

anyway, back to weekend shenanigans. i really should find another word for "shenanigans". i've become too attached...

saturday afternoon after teaching, decided to meet up with a friend for some culture. because cultural things totally fucking rule. first things first when planning any sort of outing: afternoon beers to motivate and mentally prepare oneself for the sensory experience of said culture. after liquid motivation, made our way to the van gogh exhibit. i've mused before on the spectacle that is an art museum in korea (monet and what appeared to be a play date organized by all the mothers of seoul). van gogh wasn't really too different. super crowded, people using their purses and children to nudge others out of the way. and just so those guilty parties know, there's nothing discreet about your maneuvering. i'm privy to your methods.

post van gogh, went to a hookah bar in hongdae. we were the first people there. i guess 8ish isn't universal hookah hour. i don't know what or when the hip kids do [things] these days. still learning...

after hookah went foraging for food. my friend who is a smoker informed me that our chosen order of events was faulty. apparently, eat first, then hookah. next time. we eventually ended up at a chinese place. it was a good way to test my korean skills when the server brought out a dish that i didn't order. a dish that made my face feel like it was melting off. i like spicy food, but for fuck's sake! this is a point where i should edit myself. does anyone really care what i ate for dinner last saturday night? if you do, please let me know. i'm genuinely curious...

after that i assumed the night would end at a drinking establishment of some sort. after an adventurous taxi ride in which we foreigners were fucked over to the tune of 10 bones, met up with my friend clayton (who likes it when i actually use his name when i reference him). drank more beer and ate fondu-ish fruits. i've found that fondu is a good side when drinking copious amounts of alcohol. actually, that makes it sound like i've ever eaten fondu prior to this occassion. i'm a liar. clayton thought a club might be a good idea. fudge a dudge.

so we ended up in gangnam outside "club mass." i had a phase in college where i enjoyed going to these kind of clubs and listening to house music and jungle music and other music that usually really annoys the shit out of me now. i also wore extremely baggy pants with lots o' zippers and made many a bad decision that it's best to only vaguely reference at this point. i'd like to think i'm good at that (vague references).

so we end up at club mass. i walk in and am instantly greeted by the bowel-shaking beats of some long-haired white dj. it was at this point that i said to myself "fuck, what the fuck am i fucking doing here?" so maybe those weren't the exact words, but you get the idea. i'm not really a dancer, but at a place like this you can't just stand there. so i bit the bullet and danced my arse off. to the tune of really regretting it later. hindsight embarassment is 20/20? i guess i didn't really do anything too laughable besides dance in the first place. and i think it's true that there always is someone worse at something than i am. middle of the road is precisely where i best function.

so we were ultimately at the club for about 6 hours. it goes without saying that sleep was in order. so i slept until 5 pm the next day. shitballs, i haven't done that in a long time. tried to salvage the evening, so went and saw "michael clayton", but not before barfing in a random bathroom in the coex mall. classy lassy, all the way.

so that was the good weekend. i believe i'm set for some sort of repeat tomorrow night. going back to the same club to see basement jaxx. that sure takes me back to the raver days of yore. once again, those baggy pants and questionable activities...ahhh, good times.

in other news, i would be remiss not to mention the highlight of my day on wednesday. these days at work i have this special 2 hour speaking class that i really really hate. sometimes 6 kids will show up. sometimes 2. and in my all too real nightmares...1 student. this was a 2 student day. and i decided that "special speaking class" really means twister and teaching my kids how to play spoons. so i brought in twister and played with these elementary school girls. as the younger of the two kids was flailing helplessly on the floor, she started singing, ever so earnestly, "i believe i can fly" at the top of her lungs. and that, in all its innocence, was the highlight of my day. shit, maybe even the highlight of the week. tomorrow something amazing has to happen to top it.