Nori-bang
So last night was one of those nights that the mere thought of brings a huge smile to my face. Let me paint the picture...friday nights we meet with all the foreigners in the area at a local bar, Indian Camp. It varies between out of control and my grandmother's friday nights. Last night was rather tame, a product of a rather tired group. I was on my way home when a friend suggested the infamous nori-bang.

Oh, nori-bang. This word gets brought up weekly, ususally by the most intoxicated person, to which the rest of the group moans in rejection. What is this nori-bang? Korean word for nori is singing, bang is room, yes, singing room. Now myself being a humongous fan of anything involving singing 80's songs in front of large groups of people, usually cheers in support, to ususally get shot down by the anti-Bon Jovi majority. But on this particular night we had a handful of willing participants.

To Koreans, nori-bang is a part of social culture...they go regularly after school, work, etc. It's a place consisting of a bunch of smaller rooms. Inside the rooms is a wall of tvs on one end and a u-shaped couch on the opposite side. This being my second experience, I had some frame of reference. My first mistake. My last time didn't involve any Koreans; it was everything I expected it to be: aerosmith, jay-z, and openly consenting to making complete fools of ourselves to eachother.

So there you are. In a 6x9 room with your soon-to-be closest friends, beer, 2 microphones and oh yes, tamborines. We were, 2 Koreans, 2 Americans and a Canadian on top. Immediately Korean John gets to the song book only to produce a heart-wrenching version of Titanic's "My Heart Will Go On." He sang like I've never seen anyone sing before. The rest of us sat awkwardly on the couch, not really knowing how to deal with what was going on. The next several songs ranged from Phil Collins to Aladdin's "A Whole New World." These songs have indefinately emblazened with these memories. All we could do was sit in amazement and laugh heartily. Soon speechlessness turned to enthusasium...and we were one in karaoke.

As our timidness wore off we Westerners stepped up to the plate and produced the classics, because thats just the way karaoke needs to be. It was a karaoke tug-o-war with every adult contemporary love song battling against every classic modern rock song; it was beautiful. And so each culture gave in to the others, we joined the other side. At one point it involved all of us singing "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" and the top of our lungs. Followed by my signature "Livin on a Prayer" by Bon J. We extended our hour once, and then some more...because it was just that good. Our evening ended appropriately with "Hey Jude" in a swaying group hug...it was epic. This is why I am here.

english joys.
oh the joys of the english language. i slave long hours to teach this wretched language; which includes countless idioms, synonyms, and adjectives that have no logical meaning, but yet exist to be taught. apparently we have not done our job well enough; we run into bad printed english every day. example: the cake box from a recent birthday. and i quote..."the most gentel, fluid delicate of fabrice, lace enjoys a romantic repufation." (joe said he was a little turned on...) also including..."being fresh is everything to nice cake, however fresh taste and scent are easily affected." atleast they're trying right? atleast they HAVE something printed in english, right? i vote to pay me 5 bucks and get a little more respect from the western world. the best one i've heard? peanut butter involved with jelly. hey, its amusing to say the least.