Sunday, June 06, 2004

10: Creeping Death (aka Soju)

Friday was a good day. I listened to the Flames win in overtime then had a great day teaching despite a last minute change thrown at me. One of the Korean teachers couldn't come in, so I had to teach full classes instead of splitting them like we usually do. It went remarkably well. I taught the class of one boy to play Go Fish using flashcards and spent the hour with the other kids class playing with paper, scissors, glue and ribbons. It was fun. My evening class was pretty good, too. I wrote up some conversational scenarios with grammatical errors and got them to read them and fix the mistakes. A good day altogether.
Early Saturday was mostly uneventful. I was woken up again by city wide announcements, which I found out later were inducements to get people to vote in a local election (thus the politician in an earlier update. It's all coming together...). Then I sat at the computer for a while, attempted to go for a walk but it was just way too hot.
Edward came by later and we wandered around, then stopped at a place for Korean BBQ (or Bulgogi as it's called in Korean). It was so good. I think I want all my food cooked on a grill in the middle of the table and wrapped in a leaf. One leaf tasted a lot like mint. I was told it was called Getnib (or something similar). I found that intriguing as it sounded a lot like catnip, which is a kind of mint. Edward assured me it wasn't catnip. It was so tasty. While eating, we had some beer. Then shared a bottle of soju, which is a powerful little rice beverage, but acts all innocent. It tasted pretty good. We drank it fairly quickly. Then we had more beer. We finished dinner, and I was feeling a bit tipsy, but less so than I expected. We decided to go for more beer. We went back to "Loss Time" and had said beer. It had been a good 30-45 minutes since the food and soju, so I figured any effects would already be evident. I was wrong. Like a wave, drunkenness washed over me in an instant. I couldn't keep my head up. I couldn't make myself understood. I don't remember much after that.
I woke up this morning lying face down on top of the covers of my bed, still fully clothed, including shoes. I felt awful. I went to get some water and discovered a trail of bread crusts around my rooms. The rest of the loaf of bread was on a chair and very squished. I have no idea how this happened.
It's now a quarter to four, and I'm feeling much better, despite having listened to the Flames lose in overtime and hearing what sounded like a bomb alert siren. I still don't know what that was about.
In conclusion, I recommend extreme caution when drinking soju. It's insidious.
Until next time,
Steve

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Man...i laughed for like 10 mins after reading that. i hate to say i told you so...but DUDE....i SO told you so. you were sufficiently warned. funny though...it sounds a lot like the first time that i got 'serious' with soju. it was a long and sorted affair. it's good to hear you're starting so early. HINT - only soju or only beer...the mixing makes it hurt more. anyway...that's all my wisdom for now. i promise to share more 'i told you so's later...and here's to waking-up-in-your-clothes-face-down-on-your-bed-without-the-slightest-recollection-as-to-how-you-got-there(your first night on soju in korea - probably free cause you went our with a korean. leaving yourself a bread crumb trail...priceless!)

-bif
































-bif

Anonymous said...

The Flames... Man that was annoying. I thought they'd have it in Calgary. There will be controversy over that 'lost' goal for years I'm sure. Now onto Game 7.

Soju, catnip and beer chased by a mysterious loaf of bread -- interesting! Hope the sirens don't give you a headache.