Fun-filled-weekend

Picture One: Kids Herald School kids working their magic on stage.

It all started off with our very large Christmas show. I had to work on Saturday. It was the schools annual show. I had been nominated at the last moment to be the MC. At first I was a little stressed at the thought of having to present the show in front of hundreds of eagerly waiting Korean parents, but I settled into a fit of excitement about it and took it as yet another experience to tick off my list.
So Saturday morning arrived and soon passed without too many hitches. The show went smoothly as can be imagined. We were then invited to a teachers meal at a very nice, and expensive, Chinese restaurant. Dinner started at around 5pm. Everyone was there. The owners of the schools, the buildings, chairmen, executives, the lot. Speeches were made and thanks were given. Then it was my turn to speak, again without much notice, I was thrust up to the plinth and was asked to serenade an onlooking crowd of largely non-English speaking Koreans. I opened with a light hearted joke - "Only about 10% of you will understand what I'm going to say, so would everyone else please just smile and nod when I do" this of course wasn't understood by the 90%, which is what made it funny. Kind of. Anyway my speech ended and then I was asked to walked around the head table and offer them a shot of this vile Chinese spirit. It was vile beyond all vileness. It was a thick transparent liquid that tasted like moldy cheese, onions and a twist of earth. I was challenged by one old Korean man to drink a shot with our arms linked. He then proceeded to put my, what I thought was empty, glass on my head. The remaining dribble of vile substance then worked its way through my hair, down my forehead and into my nervously waiting right eye. The sting was reminiscent of when I got champagne in my eye at my Mothers wedding. Although this time I had around 30 people (Korean) starring at me. However, they were all smiling and nodding so my communication was clearly effective. I made my way, embarrassingly, to the restroom and bathed my eye in purified water.
Sunday arrived and Giovanna and I took ourselves to Insadong for some Christmas shopping. A nice chilly day in a very culture packed area of town north of Han River.

Picture Two - I kindly received three flower gifts from kids parents. How Nice!!!

Pictures Three, Four and Five - Shots from Insadong.