Christmas Party

I went to a Christmas party for foreigners this past Saturday. Nicole, Nicole's friend Tara, the new British teacher at Tara's school (Michelle) and I all went together.

I never realized how much of a racist I was until I came to Korea. I almost didn't bring my camera to the party, because I knew the room was going to be full of white people. I trust people about as far as I can throw them, and Koreans are so tiny I can toss them quite a distance.

There were way more girls there than guys. I guess most foreign guys are out with their Korean girlfriends on Saturdays. A lot of the men there were very gay, too, so the lack of available men upset the three girls I was with. Check out the guy in this picture with the choker. He's also wearing a one of those things girls wear in their hair to separate the bangs from the rest of the hair. And to top it off he's wearing a dress. I wanted to get a picture of his dress but I would have felt bad taking it. I felt sorry for the girls I was with about the lack of men. Nicole really wants a Korean boyfriend because she thinks it will expose her to a culture she cannot see without one. There was a man on the kitchen staff that she said was handsome, so I took it upon myself to be the matchmaker. After our dinner of salmon slathered in mayonaise, I barged my way into the kitchen. It was supposed to be off-limits to the foreigners so I think I gave the crew a pretty good shock. I started pointing to the guy and saying my friend liked him, and she wanted to know if he was single. The panicked Koreans said he was and that he would visit our table when he was done washing dishes. A little later a member of the crew came to our table to tell us that the man had a wife. I didn't like this, so I stormed back into the kitchen and demanded an explanation. I talked to the woman in charge to get the full story, and she told me that the man was no longer married and she would make sure he visited Nicole. I was quite pleased with myself. Below is a picture of Nicole and the Korean man. They exchanged phone numbers. The man's sister was also on the crew and she was furious. It seemed that she had a lot of influence over her brother, because when he found out his sister was mad he said he had to go. I did my best.
Here is a picture of Nicole and me.

Here is a picture of Tara on the left and the Brit, Michelle, on the right.

Towards the end of the night a highly intoxicated man stood up and started banging two wine bottles together. The music faded into silence and he announced that he had a little speech. Here it is verbatum: "I want to thank you all for coming out (note: he had nothing to do with this party being put together). I just want to say that this is Christmas. This is really Christmas. Take a look around you. This is it. I love you. (pause) I wasn't going to get religious but..." The music was cranked up at this point. I wish it wouldn't have been because I could have posted more of his insightful comments on the dynamics of Christmas.