Update

Hello Everyone-I am a couple of days late on the update, but here is my update for the last week.

Things are still going well in Incheon, time is flying by and I am getting settled into life as a teacher. The week was eneventful, teaching during the week and then I had an eventful weekend. It started going out to a "singing bar," which I thought meant going to a bar with a stage for singing Karaoke, with 3 of my co-workers. I was quite surprised when we walked into an upscale place with roughly 25 different rooms. We were escorted into our room which consisted of a couch, a huge flat screen tv, tamborines, maraccas, and a little light show type machine on the ceiling. We sat down and were brought a plate of dried squid, seaweed covered pretzels and some other food that I had no idea what it was. We sat down the other teachers started to belt out Korean folk songs and some other songs that I recognized. The other teachers were very good singers, and I do not know if you know about the Van Popering family singing ability, but I am not anything close to a good singer. It took me awhile to sing, but eveventually I got the courage to attempt John Denver's "I'm leaving on a jet plane," and unfortunately no one has ever heard the song. I sang alone with the other 3 ladies watching and reading the lyrics. I have never sang karaoke before, and there is a reason for this. I began to sweat profusely and when I finished the girls commented on how the the song was so sad. I was thoroughly embarassed and I took some time off from singing and then I got the bright idea of singing my next song and getting it on video. I am hoping that I will be able to put my second musical performance on the blog soon, it is Rod Steward's "Have I told you lately that I love you." I have not dared to watch the video but I am sure it is horendous. The whole experience was surreal, and especially with the other girls singing and playing the tamborines and maraccas along with their songs and actually sounding good. It was a fun night, but I am not sure that we will be doing it again. We were there for about an hour and then the time ran out and it was time to go home. I was almost home and a guy on the street said hello and tried to strike up a conversation. I heard "You are a very handsome boy" repeatedly and I had my first hand-holding with a man experience while he walked me all the way to my apartment. In Korea it is common for same sex people to hold hands in public, but I am not sure I will ever adopt this custom. This man walked me home and I think he wanted me to visit his house and teach his children English. All in all, it was quite an interesting night and I think that it will be difficult to top.

On Saturday I went out with my new friends, there is a group of about 15-20 other English teachers and also some Korean locals. Before meeting everyone, my neighbor Jeff and I saw a festival. There were tons of dancers with what looked like traditional dresses and things on and also many other side shops. I had some type of meat on a stick that was very good and we also bought coconuts that had holes in them with straws to drink the milk. I have never had coconut milk, it was not bad but it reminded me of sun tan lotion. It was a girl's birthday so we met up at her apartment and had hung out for awhile. I saw my first Korean birthday cake, which included full pieces of fruit on the top and also the side. We then went to the same 'foreigner bar' as last week and saw a Battle of the Bands competition. There were two very good bands and I met several new people, some from Korea and others from the U.S. and Canada. We ended up going from that bar to another place to get some food, we had a group of about 20ish people, this was also a very good time.

Upon leaving work today (Tuesday) my boss asked if I would stay away from other foreign teachers for a few days because of the swine flu. I am currently sequestered in my apartment and he asked if I would stay away for a couple of days. It kind of made me laugh, but he said that many parents were wondering about the new foreign teacher because I guess many new teachers have been sick and they are trying to be cautious. My Hogwan (school) is a private institution and I guess that the private institutions are doing the same thing just to be safe.
Anyways, I am going to go and watch TV and head to bed, so thanks for reading and I will upload some pictures and hopefully one video of my pathetic singing soon,

Kevin