A Night Out with the Co-Workers

On Tuesday I was informed that a few teachers from my office were going out to dinner and they wanted me to join. According to my co-teacher, Mr. Lee, the dinner was a end-of-term celebration of sorts. I eagerly accepted the invitation, knowing full well that 'going out to dinner' to a Korean means a small dinner followed by massive amounts of booze and, most likely a trip to the Noraebang (Karaoke Room). The night started out as I had expected. We had dinner in a small restaurant, and I was actually told by one of my co-workers to save some room for beer. After dinner, Mr. Oh told us that he wanted to take us to a famous Korean microbrewery and treat us all to some beer because his son had just gotten into a prestigious science high school in Seoul. This was music to my ears seeing as how, besides two Sam Adams Lagers at Thanksgiving, I have been drinking nothing but Korean Busch Lite for four months. 

When we arrive, I quickly realize that this is like no Microbrewery I had ever seen. The set-up was more akin to a nightclub. A large stage in one corner was showing a live concert of Beyonce on a 20x20 projection screen. Blue Christmas lights hung along all of the walls. Waiters walked around with in-ear pieces and walkie talkies attached to their belts. Every seat in the room had at least three 50-inch flat screen televisions within their line of sight, all of which were showing the Beyonce concert. Beyonce was on mute however, and the speakers blasted today's K-Pop favorites instead.

So we take our seats, get a few samplers of beer to decide which one we want to dive into, and then order. Two minutes later, the waiter brings out this giant tube of beer with its own tap. The tube held exactly ten pint glasses worth of beer. Mr. Oh wasted no time in slamming his first glass. By the time he was halfway through number two, his face was starting to turn red, a sure-fire sign that a Korean is well on his way to getting drunk. Meanwhile, Ms. Lee and I discussed some of her favorite bands: Skid Row, the Clash, Nirvana, and some Japanese speed metal band that I had never heard of. What made this conversation so awesome was the fact that Ms. Lee is a very quiet, unassuming, middle-aged Korean woman. She is quite possibly the last person in the world who I can picture rocking out to Japanese speed metal in her spare time. 

Right as I was finishing my second glass of Pilsner, a group of Filipinos walked on to the stage, all clad in matching Santa Claus outfits, all except for the female lead singer, who was wearing some sort of Santa/dress combo. Their set opened with a bland instrumental cover of Jingle Bells, followed by a few other Christmas tunes played with almost no emotion. Needless to say, I was unimpressed, though very attracted to the lead singer. Here is the band during the second or third song of the set:

After about twenty minutes, the band leaves the stage...set break. Ten minutes later they return, and immediately shift gears. The set opens with a funky take on Sade's "Smooth Operator" followed by a rousing performance of "Killing Me Softly." At this point, the female singer removes her Mrs. Clause sweater, a sign of things to come. The band then drops into "Shake Your Booty." The singer starts dancing around the stage as the guitarist and keyboarder trade solos before the band segues flawlessly into Kool & the Gang's "Get Down On It." This song really gets the crowd going, and Koreans start dancing all over the place. I have never seen anything quite like it. "Get Down On It" flows right into "Celebration," another 70s funk classic before things start to inevitably slow back down. 

To be honest, I don't remember what they played after this. I was too busy getting hassled by my co-workers for "not drinking enough beer." I do remember that they were playing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer as I walked out. I turned around to glimpse the stage for one last time and noticed that the singer had put her Mrs. Clause sweater back on. I guess the funk was short-lived.

Luckily the night ended there. No Noraebang this time. Maybe my co-teachers had heard about my provocative performance of "Like a Virgin" back in November....

Anyway, here's a great shot of two of my co-teachers, Mr. Lee and Ms. Choi, getting a little loose, as I like to say.