Noraeboooooonnngggg!!!!!!

Translation: Aweseome Korean Karaoke Fun Time!

This past Friday, the majority of the staff and I left school early, boarded a bus, and headed off to....somewhere. My co-teachers had told me the name of the place numerous times, but as most Korean words still sound like gibberish to me and all kind of sound the same, I tend to forget things really quickly. And for whatever reason, none of my co-teachers could tell me what exactly the itinerary was for the weekend. I figured they'd know how to show me a good time, though. And man, was I right!

We said our goodbyes to the teachers who weren't coming along, and boarded the bus at 2:30. The one co-teacher of mine who was coming told me that we had a good five hour drive ahead of us, which I was grateful for, because in typical Uri, I had gotten very little sleep the previous night and had been up since 2:30 in the morning. That bus would become my new best friend for the next 24+ hours. At one point, I woke up with a trail of drool trickling down my shirt, and it felt damn good.

I was awakened about three hours later, and it was suddenly night. It was dinner time. We all sat on the floor along two long rows of tables and listened to a speech by the Principal before feasting on chicken, kimchi, raw fish, and--wait for it--octopus! I assume his speech went something along the lines of, "I couldn't ask for a better staff. You guys are awesome, especially our superstar Canadian teacher, who continues to blow me away with his radioactive level of awesomeness. Here's to all of you, now let's get our eat on." A rough translation, but you get the picture.

I never thought I'd see the day where I chowed down on octopus--the thought of eating those wriggly little buggers just sent a shiver up my spine--but it was delicious dipped in soy sauce! They were cut into little circle slices, and I must've eaten half a dozen pieces all by myself.

I sat in between two teachers I'd never spoken to before, since neither of them sit at the staff table in the cafeteria. (Homeroom teachers have to eat with their students.) To my pleasant surprise, they both spoke exceptional English. The girl to my right was a first-year teacher straight out of university, while the one to my left was ten years my senior, and would eventually become my luna--my big sister.

After a while, the Principal came around with a single shot glass and a bottle of whiskey. He poured a shot for one person, watched them down it, and then poured a shot for the next person in line. I have to say that receiving a shot from that man felt like being given a gift by the Don himself; it was an honour. The man has a certain presence about him. He rarely cracks a smile, and the fact that we don't speak the same language makes him that much more mysterious to me. I drank that sucker down and felt like I had just been formally welcomed into the family.

Once we got back onto the bus, we were off to our hotel. I was pretty impressed with the place upon arrival. I couldn't help but ask myself, "How is this built into the school budget?!"

As I admired the lobby, I casually asked Rose in passing what the plan was for the rest of the evening, and she informed me that we were hitting up a noraebong. That was pretty much the best answer she could've given me. My friends and I had been aching to check out a noraebong for a while, and I couldn't remember the last time I had a karaoke night, even though I live for the stage.

Mr. Kim, the head teacher and I went up to our room to get settled in before the big show. The room had a fully equipped kitchen, a couch, a balcony with a view of some mountains, and a bedroom with a king-sized bed. As the young'n, I assumed I would be crashing on the couch, but Mr. Kim explained to me that Koreans typically just sleep on the heated floors anyway, so the bed was mine for the taking. It also turned out we were sharing the room with the only other two male teachers along on the trip, and they, too, were crashing on the floor. I wasn't about to argue; the bed looked divine.

While we waited for the rest of the party to come by and collect us, we sat on the couch and had a nice little chat about soju. A couple fun facts I learned that night: 1) Soju is made from sweet potatoes, and 2) the best soju is made in Andong and is twice as strong. You're welcome.

Now I thought we were going to have to leave the hotel to find a noraebong, but it turned out they had several in the basement. Essentially, a noraebong is your own personal karaoke room for your whole party. There are tables, couches, several mikes, and of course, the screen.

As I walked towards our room with Mr. Kim, I couldn't hide my smile when I saw one of the teachers carrying in grocery bags full of two-litre bottles of beer and several bottles of soju. There were also treats of all sorts already scattered across the table.

The thought of seeing my co-teachers drunk made me laugh because, while many of my friends have already seen their colleagues at their worst, I've repeatedly said that I couldn't see any of the staff at my school doing that sort of thing. Everybody is very professional at our school. In fact, when the Admin offered to take us out for a night of dinner and drinks last month, the teachers actually told them not to worry about it. So the thought of them singing their drunken hearts out at the top of my lungs was something I was dying to see.

The room looked pretty sleek--red and black walls, giant comfy couches along the side, and a nice big dance floor up front. As the lights went out and the strobe light came on, Mr. Kim and I raised our beer glasses and said, "Gombay," the Korean word for cheers.

Most of the songs people were singing seemed to be traditional Korean songs, though the younger crowd definitely threw in a couple of K-pop songs that I recognized. I liked that there's more group participation in noraebongs. Because there's so much room, it's basically just a giant dance party, while one fool bears their soul at the front of the room. People were even clapping along and rocking the tambourines.

The guys were definitely out-drinking the ladies, with the exception of the Principal, who was too busy pouring whiskey shots and enjoying the show. Though he did belt out a couple numbers, and this one old lady kept pulling him back out on to the dance floor. They cut quite the rug, those two. It was like being back home and watching Richard and Hripsik, my previous Principal and Vice-Principal, in action.

After a while, I figured it was time to show these Korean folks how North American rock the karaoke mic, so I came out with guns a-blazing with "Livin' on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi--the ultimate karaoke song, as far as I'm concerned. Like me, they had no idea what was going on, but they humoured me and clapped along. I hammed it up, running and jumping around the room in an emotional fit, then sliding onto my knees to play the air solo of a lifetime.

Standing ovation.

The guys got rowdier and rowdier as the night progressed. At one point, one dude sang what I'm pretty sure was a Korean cover of "Respect" by Aretha Franklin. He had to stop and compose himself at one point because he was testing his limits with his vocals; you could see his face turn six different shades of red. I was so impressed with his performance that I had to pour him a shot of soju as soon as he was finished.

For my second number, I chose to stick with the 80's because, really, that entire decade was made for karaoke. And so, I pulled out another favourite: "Sweet Child o' Mine" by Guns 'n' Roses.

Now as you know, towards the end of the song, Axl gets into his sexy serious voice and starts asking, "Where do we go now? Where do we go?" over and over again. At this point, I was stumbling around the room, looking into each person's eyes for dramatic effect as I sang the lines. I came to my soju brother, Mr. Kim, who had shared numerous shots with me throughout the night, grabbed him by the shoulder, locked eyes with him, and repeated the line yet again. And then he tried to sing along with me! That had to of been the highlight of the night for me. We had a moment, man!

For my final performance, I decided to go in a completely different direction and went with "Pardon Me" by Incubus. I figured I'd expand their horizons. As the song's slow intro kicked in, I slowly raised the mic to my mouth and said, "I chose this song because it's one of my very favourite songs. I love this song--just like I love all of you." And then I burst into laughter while they all looked at me like I was an idiot.

I proceeded to rock out like I was back in high school listening to this song for the first time, while the crowd tried awkwardly to figure out how to clap along to the tune. They were so confused. In the end, though, I scored the only 100 of the evening. No big deal. Another standing ovation burst out, and the Vice Principal stuck a 10, 000 won bill to the screen to honour my accomplishment, as is custom whenever somebody gets a perfect score. (Though sadly, you don't get to keep the money.)

The other highlight for me came at the very end of our noraebong session. When the last song of the night came on, everybody came together in a giant circle, arms wrapped around each other, and we all swayed back and forth, as if we were singing "We are the World" or something. The Vice-Principal got in the middle of the circle, holding the mic, and walked from person to person, letting everybody sing a part of the song. It was a beautiful sight. Of course, when she came to me, I just opened my mouth to let some sort of sound come out, and she immediately moved on to the next person. At least I tried.

The whole scene just blew my mind, though. Never had I experienced such a beautiful and cohesive moment at a workplace before. Several times during the scene, I just burst out laughing in disbelief. I grabbed the mic at the end of the festivities because I just had to share my sentiments with everybody, even if half the room didn't understand a lick of what I said. I was truly touched by what I'd just seen.

My Malvern peeps, if you're reading this, you had better believe there will be a karaoke night in our future.

Afterwards, I thought we were all just going to head off to our respective rooms to call it a night, but to my surprise, our room became the after-party room. The four gents were joined by the Principal, Vice-Principal, and a handful of others. The older folk broke into a serious card game, while two teachers in my age bracket tried in vain to teach me the same game. With beer, soju, and whiskey in my system, though, and being as tired as I was, there was no way in hell I was going to learn a damn thing.

I did learn one thing that night, though: I love noraebongs.