Dec 19, 2008

It's all in the family


(... ho old me closa tiny dansuh!)
There's a shitty bar in Ulsan called Benchwarmers, but its the defacto haunt for most of us native teachers. The real jewels of Benchwarmers are the brave Koreans who imbibe freely and try their hand at drunken, English conversations. These people purposely remove themselves from the majority to join our seedy underbelly, and for that I give them my sincerest admiration.

Hazel and Ryan own "Bench," as we like to call it. She's a Brit, who I just discovered has a wonderful butt, and he's a Korean, who probably has a nice butt too. They're both more or less local celebrities with the Ulsan bar crowd. They're both young, attractive, charming, and ambitious enough to warrant some serious suitors. Anyway, my mention of them at this point is only necessary in framing the following events.

One month I ago I played an open mic at bench, and received some wonderful dancing accompaniment from the gent pictured above. He ripped the floor apart continuously for the last two songs of my set, and then pretty much shimmied his way out the door. Fast forward to last night. I walk into the bar and there he is at the exact same perch, completely drunk once again. We share a warm embrace, he kisses my cheek, and we exchange salutations that neither of us understand. About one hour later he drags the microphone out of the corner and tinkers with the PA in a failed attempt to address the masses. Ryan comes over I guess to gently put the man back in his seat and restore peace. But being this man's friend, and a bit drunk, I intercede. I tell Ryan that this man is my friend, and that we will sing a song together, if that's ok of course. Ryan laughs hard and says this...

"(laughing) no it's ok. This man is my father. He is very drunk and needs to go home now."

Here's what I want to know; what needs to happen in order for my son to open a bar where I can go get safely trashed on the weekends?

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