Starting off six weeks of vacation in a grand fashion.

Last night was the start of six weeks (or so) vacation. I finished my camp in Bucheon with a stunning round of interviews.
I had to do interviews with the students as part of their final evaluation. For many of them, it was the first time I had heard them speak in two weeks! Then I found out why.
The interviews were only supposed to be three minutes or so long, but because I hadn't heard them speak before, I just let them go once they hit their stride. As a result, it took me almost three hours to finish their interviews! But some of them were so interesting, and I just wanted to learn about these faces I had been seeing for two weeks. Some were disappointing, especially one of the best participators in class, who in one-to-one conversation relied on charades and waiting for me to fill in the blanks for him.
There was this woman at the camp, she was an art teacher, I think. She was so cool! On top of being stunning (and one of the few women here who do not cake on make-up and wears her freckles proudly) she was a traveller, and had taken time off to go to film school. She definitely stood out in the crowd of other Koreans I have met, because she had "independent thought". Last night, while out with Steve and Crystal's friends Ryan and Kristin, Ryan said that his coteacher had once said to her class that one of the worst things (or downsides) to living in the city of Seoul (she had to help because the kids could only come up with pollution) was the amount of independent thought. Shocking!
Anyways, there were a lot of pretty cool teachers, and a few that I am hoping to stay in touch with. There were a few in the advanced class that I hope write to me, and a few in the general classes, especially a guitar player in the general class. I was trying to hammer home the idea that the English on their t-shirts is sometiems nonsense, and in some cases things that can be offensive to them or the people who see it. It seemed really strange to me that a teache, who had some English knowledge could buy a t-shirt with English on it and be totally unconcerned with what it said. I tried to emphasize the idea that the words are ideas, and that they should try to figure out what they are saying to people by wearing those ideas. The advanced and older general class got it, but the younger class really didn't care. How can they not care?! How are they not even curious about what they are saying to people? I actually get a little angry about it.
Anyway, the guitar player was wearing a Slayer t-shirt, so I asked him is he liked slayer, and it turned into a huge conversation yesterday about different guitar players yesterday, which made a bunch of the other teachers chuckle, because the guy's pronunciation is so bad and we were doing impressions of different songs and such... it was funny. anyway...
Once the interviews were over, I had to slot everyone into this ridiculous belled marking scheme where the lowest mark possible was a 24/30, and I was marking them on fluency, accuracy, pronunciation, vocabulary and understanding of the questions. No-one deserved perfects across the board, but the lowest mark I was able to give for some was a three out of five on one factor just to make it fit. Same with participation, no-one was allowed to get a mark lower than five out of ten. So people who never ever spoke got fives, and deserved zeros. brutal!
Once the work was over, we headed back to the goshiwon and into the PC bang. I wond up taking a nap, because I was a little exhausted. Aziz came to pay us at around 7:30, which made for a tight trip tot he train station for Rodrigo to catch his 8:25 train. Mr Lee, the organizer/recruiter for the camp wanted to take us out for dinner, but didn't tell us that he wanted it to be after seven, so we backed out, because Rodrigo wanted to go home, and I had to "get ready for Mongolia". wink wink.
I actually went to Hongik (a university/bar area in Seoul) to meet with Steve and Crystal and their friends. What a night! On several occasions we laughed until we cried, it was awesome. We went to "U2 Bar", which a fabulous little place, and where I had my first tequila, ever. It's good! It makes me pretty rowdy though.
After that we headed to a bongo bar where they usually have music, and everyone sits around on the floor and plays the bongos along to the music. But last ngiht they had really slow music with a guy singing along to a tape, so we left early, because it was not so fun. Great to chill out, but not very fun.
We ended at a hookah bar, another first for me. That was so relaxing. And it's not harsh, like other smokeables. We just sat around and laughed and talked and drank expensive drinks. The hookah was on me, because I made $2000 extra this month! woohoo! It was so nice, and it made your head swim just enough to make it unnecessary to buy a ton of really expensive drinks.
Well, it was a great start to my longest vacation yet. In life!
Have a good one everybody! I'm off to Mongolia in five hours!!!