Cooking with Karaoke

This week was really busy for me. I worked 4 days, school, cooking class, and worked on an extra curricular activity. It makes me really appreciate the days off that I have. The busier I get, the more I realize how awesome Sundays really are. As a kid, they didn't really mean much to me, but now I really cherish them.

On Tuesday, I have what would literally translate to "Song Competition" but I like to just refer to it as "that thing we have to do." OK, I lie. I'm actually really looking forward to it. Any chance I can get to perform! My whole class is memorizing a Korean song and will perform it Karaoke style in front of all of the other classes in level 2 (probably around 200 people). Needless to say, I have been listening to/singing this song pretty much every day this week. We purposefully picked a more ridiculous song so that WHEN it fails, it at least looked on purpose. Personally, I just see it as an opportunity to act ridiculous in front of everyone. I'm going to have one of my friends film it so that when this launches my career as a professional singer, I can sell the original for millions. Based on my history from last year, I usually have great success when performing in front of people.

Here's the music video. It was made a few years ago for Korea's SNL equivalent.... People don't actually dress like this lest you get the wrong impression.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N8c1t1QTDI

On Wednesday last week, my school offered a cooking class for $5. I figured why not learn something I'll never do anyway. So me and a Russian girl from my class signed up together. We actually had a lot of fun. After donning the apron that was "2 sizes too small" they brought in an actual chef to teach us (which means that she was speaking way too quickly for any of us to understand anyway). Luckily, we had a visual demonstration as well. After "listening" to the history/reasoning behind the different ingredients, we watched the demonstration and then went to making it for ourselves.

After we finished, I moved over to do the dishes while my partner was finishing up the last touches on the meal. However, I guess it's taboo for a man to do the dishes in Russia. (In the best Moose and Squirrel accent you can muster) "Joe, you know, I think dishes is for woman. You no do." To say that I argued would be a lie. The head chef ended up coming around and complimented us on our work. She said it was art (and something else neither of us understood). I'm gonna just go with something positive.

Our school had a big festival this week. For 3 straight days, there was a huge party on campus. I went after the cooking class to check it out. It was a lot of fun. They had a lot of student bands try to sing, and a few that actually did. At the end, they had an actual professional come and sing. Instead of pay for the tickets, my friends and I just sat outside the "designated area" which ended up being fine anyway. We just didn't get to mosh with everyone else :(

I did meet a Japanese guy from my language school though. He's actually going to be the MC for the "Song Competition." He spoke absolutely no English, which was actually nice for a change. Since all of my classmates speak English, that's what we speak to each other purely out of convenience/laziness/inability to speak Korean. However, speaking to Koreans can be really intimidating because they speak very quickly, use vocabulary and grammar we haven't studied, and slur their words together. So, when I meet someone who doesn't speak English, but is also learning Korean, I really enjoy talking with them. We both sound like idiots, but it's OK.

Other than that, all I've been doing this week is work and study. I had my last day teaching at a certain academy this week. One of my students wrote this on a card to me for my going away present. Really sweet. B for effort.